How I Quit Smoking (for Good and Forever)
Copyright 2010 Garrett Buhl Robinson
Smashwords Edition
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Table of Contents
You can quit smoking.
This is the most important statement I can make in this letter, so I will say it again.
You can quit smoking!
“Yea right,” you might say. Perhaps you’ve never tried quitting before. Perhaps you’ve tried quitting a million times. Whether you place yourself more in the former or the latter, I will say it again, You can quit smoking.
It is easy to think how smoking dominates your life, how elaborately it is imbedded in your routine, how it defines every increment of your day. People often say smoking punctuates their life, that it provides a period, a full stop, a conclusion for the completion of every accomplishment. It was similar for me too, but even more so. If smoking was my punctuation marks in life, it was far more than a period at the end of every statement, it was commas, quotation marks, semicolons, expletives and something just an “uh” while I tried to think of something to say. Smoking became more than my life’s punctuation, it was my life’s sentence and that sentence was an incarceration of self-incineration.
Now forget how it may dominate your life and think of going through your entire day without the thought of smoking. Think of taking a break in your day by actually relaxing instead of hectically rushing around trying to squeeze a smoke into an ever diminishing smoking area that continues to be pushed closer to the curb till you teeter alongside the exhaust pipes of passing traffic.
You can set tobacco down and walk away and never look back and the further you distance yourself from the insidious addiction to nicotine, the more cleansed every breath you will take, the more vigor you will regain in your life, the more self-control you will claim and the more liberation you will gain.
Your life is your own. We all give portions of our existence to our involvements, whether in our love of family, the necessity of jobs, the enjoyment of individual interests, the relaxation of leisure, etc. Don’t surrender your life to a completely unnecessary and self-destructive habit. You can quit smoking!
The most important and absolutely essential tool for quitting smoking is your will. You must not only have the desire to quit, but also the will to quit. I assure you that you have this will. Quitting smoking is a struggle but much of this difficulty is simply the cunning tricks of the addiction. As you learn to recognize the addiction’s insidious schemes and address them, you will be astonished that quitting is far easier than you may have expected.
The psychological barrier is the challenge you must overcome. At first, the barrier may appear insurmountable. In reality though, it is composed of nothing more than a sinister whisper that mindlessly repeats that you cannot live a fulfilling life without cigarettes, that you need a smoke to complete every meal, that you need a smoke after dropping the kids off at school, that you need a smoke after your meeting with your boss, etc. This “need” you feel is simply a ruse of the addiction. After you quit, this false need will be forgotten and the use of tobacco will leave your thoughts as it leaves your life.
Although smoking may have become a large part of your daily routine, it is not a natural part of your life. By removing the deceptions of the addiction you will realize that you are not forcing yourself to quit, you are allowing yourself to quit.
Yours Truly,
Garrett Buhl Robinson
When I decided to quit I was immediately stricken with a sense of fear and anxiety. I felt I was departing from a long time friend and reliable associate. Smoking was a companion. It was something with which I could share my time. It was my accompaniment through life that applauded my every accomplishment. It worked with me as I struggled through various jobs and tasks. It was my comforter when I was lonely. I even felt it was conducive for contemplation when I drifted into moods of meditative consideration.
I feared that by departing from this relationship I would leave myself vulnerable and exposed. Smoking gave me a sense of camaraderie with other smokers. It was a shield behind which I could easily retreat. It gave me a sense of security. It was a means of escape from the threats, boredom and tedium of life. Anytime I felt unsatisfied or distressed, in fact, any time I felt anything at all, I could whisk myself away on a wisp of smoke and drift into the stable arrangement of a familiar habit. In reality though, I learned that cigarettes were not protecting me; they were withholding me from enjoying life to the fullest.
As we both know, this sense of security smoking gives is a deception. As soon as I lit a cigarette, it seemed I was mashing and extinguishing its smoldering tip in a dirty ashtray. I might wonder: “Where did that cigarette go?” but I knew, that cigarette was burnt to ashes and the smoke became the muck I coughed up from my lungs. Then all those issues and problems I had tried to escape resurfaced. Worse still, the delays in addressing them by smoking had resulted in those meddlesome issues accumulating more complications. So what would I do? I would simply light another cigarette. Smoking was not a shield, it was a retreat into which I would cower.
Eventually not a moment would pass in my wakeful day without tobacco calling for my attention, demanding I divert the course of my life to incinerate another cigarette as I incinerated myself. Through this, I realized tobacco was dominating my life. What I had thought many times to be my comforter and protector, actually had cunningly ensnared and enslaved me.
Before I stopped smoking, I truly could not imagine my life without cigarettes. I couldn't imagine waking up in the morning without immediately having my first cigarette of the day. I couldn’t imagine how I could possibly enjoy a cup of coffee if I didn’t have a cigarette to go along with it. In any event or engagement, one of my first thoughts was making sure I had my cigarettes with me and had figured some escape plan so I could slip away for a smoke.
I began using tobacco when I was 10 years old. In many ways, I grew up using tobacco. It was part of my development. As an adult, whether I acknowledged it or not, cigarettes were the biggest priority of my life. After using tobacco for 28 years, the activity had become so interwoven into my life, I had become completely deluded into believing that smoking was essential to my very existence and I smoked like a factory. I was identified as a smoker. People expected me to smoke and I did smoke, as often as I possibly could.
When I quit smoking, it was not my first attempt. Recalling my previous attempts, I found a great deal of insight into some of the problems which arose and compelled me to revert back to the habit and addiction. If you have attempted to quit before, it is important to remember the situations which caused previous slips. From these previous experiences, you will be able to anticipate the temptations and through mentally preparing yourself, you will find yourself standing on firm footing and avoiding those pitfalls in which we have all slipped before. One key for me was realizing and reminding myself that those situations would pass and most importantly, the cravings that would accompany them would also pass. Then by resisting those cravings and allowing them to pass, I would find that I remained, as well as my intact dignity, self-assurance and most importantly, the good health I was regaining.
When I craved a cigarette, (and I do say this in the past tense because I no longer crave cigarettes) it was easy for me to remember what I liked about smoking. However, what disgusted me about smoking doesn’t immediately come to mind. It was very important for me to remind myself consciously, even if I had to speak to myself out loud, all the reasons I had decided to stop smoking. Then reminding myself of the reasons for my resolve, the notion to smoke would fade and I would turn my attention back toward the positive direction of liberation I had chosen.
Quitting smoking is one of the most rewarding choices I have made in my life. I realized that I was constantly choosing while I smoked, but every time I smoked, I was making the choice to surrender my life. When I chose to smoke, I was choosing to die.
Realizing this, I decided to set a date to quit. When that day arrived, I decided that I would make a different choice, I had decided that from that day onward I would choose to live.
Before I begin to describe some of the methods I utilized to quit smoking, I strongly recommend that you inquire about techniques in acupuncture and/or hypnosis. I did not utilize these myself, but I know a number of people who found them immensely helpful. Several of these people even said that the techniques had completely removed their urge and cravings to smoke.
When you decide to quit smoking, the cravings are definitely the greatest challenge, as you are fully aware. After all, if we didn’t have a compulsion to return to smoking after we decide to quit, it certainly would be much easier to walk away from tobacco. What you must keep in mind is that you can overcome the cravings. They are a challenge, but every time you resist the craving, you strengthen your will and bolster your resolve. More than refusing to smoke, you are accepting an improvement of your health, you are providing yourself with the ability and opportunity to enjoy more of life and more of your family and friends.
When I decided to quit, I formulated a plan. Quitting smoking might appear to many people as simply flipping a light switch and perhaps it is. However, I wanted to make sure that the switch was never flipped on again. I wanted to unscrew the flickering bulb from the socket. I wanted to cut the power from the circuit completely. I wanted to pull the wires and patch the walls so the switch was not only absent, it was completely forgotten.
I was determined that when I flipped this switch off, I would never smoke another cigarette again. And this is how it must be. I was not pausing from my habit. I was not trying to fool myself into believing that I could cut back, that there was a safer way to smoke. I was going to stop smoking completely and I did not want to smoke another cigarette for the rest of my life. I was going to quit for good, for my own good and this is what I have done and this is what you can do too.
To begin, I divided smoking into two parts –
The chemical addiction to nicotine
The mechanical/repetitive activity of the habit
From this, I decided to quit smoking by employing the classic “divide and conquer” strategy. I decided to eliminate the first part by abruptly stopping any nicotine from entering my system. I would even hold my breath when I walked through areas where other’s smoked. Then I would maintain some semblance of the second part, that is the mechanical/repetitive habit.
Of note, this is the opposite to how many people attempt quitting. Most of the aids to quitting smoking administer nicotine into the body through a means other than smoking, for example the nicotine patch and nicotine gum. Thus the chemical addiction is maintained with hopes of disengaging a person from the habitual and repetitive activity of smoking.
My reason for inverting the typical strategy seemed most suitable for me. Although I felt the addiction, it was something within me, it was embedded in the bewildering distance of molecular biology. The habit, however, was something very tangible; the habit was a engagement of my life that I experienced every day and that I found comforting.
The means by which I maintained the repetitive actions of the habit are very simple. Smoking is a hand to mouth mechanical movement. This is a repetitive activity that had become engrained in my thought process. It had become as regular as my breathing and my heart beat. I learned that I could satisfy this physical function by converting it into something healthy and enjoyable. I began eating carrots, pistachios and licorice. These activities provided a soothing distraction from the shock of the chemical withdrawal. Munching upon these treats allowed me to maintain this repetitive action which was essentially the habit of smoking, but while not smoking.
I cannot remember specifically how many days in advance I had set the date when I decided I would quit. It couldn’t have been more than a couple of weeks though. I definitely do remember selecting July 1 because it is an easy date to remember and thus through time it was an easy reference to remind myself of the length of time I had exercised the resolve to liberate my life.
When I set the date to stop smoking, I also decided to tell a few people my intention of quitting. I saw these people on a daily basis and I knew they would take note of my intent. This gave me an additional incentive to quit smoking by preserving my pride. I anticipated a sense of shame and humiliation if they saw me smoking again. Of course I recognized this as a psychological ploy I was utilizing to trick myself into quitting, but this can also be used in a different way. These people can also serve as an invaluable support group. This is something anyone quitting smoking should consider. There are many distresses that can erupt in one’s life, especially when quitting smoking, and in these moments, instead of turning back to cigarettes, it is much better to turn to a friend.
Also, the night before I quit, I made sure I had smoked all the cigarettes in the pack. If I threw the pack away without smoking all the cigarettes, I might have a lingering sense of incompleteness or wastefulness. Instead, while smoking the last cigarette in the pack I consciously acknowledged that I was in fact smoking my last cigarette for the rest of my life. I even allowed myself to enjoy it while keeping in mind that those enjoyable qualities were far outweighed by the detriments.
I had made a firm decision that I would no longer pollute my life with tobacco. The opportunity to regain control of my life and regain my health and well being were prizes that awaited my resolve and they were prizes I had decided I would no longer deprive myself. With that, I took pleasure tossing the crumpled and emptied pack into the garbage, wheeled the trash can to the curb, turned away and left that nasty addiction behind me as I walked back into my home.
I will tell you that after I did this, I hadn’t even returned to the door of the house before I thought of smoking again. But when I felt this first craving, I told myself that this craving would pass and I would remain.
After doing this, I retired to my bed to sleep. I found a definite advantage to smoking my last cigarette just before my regular time when I would settle to sleep for the night: it gave me an eight hour lead without a cigarette. I had found through my previous experiences that the first 48 hours without a cigarette are unquestionably the most difficult. I would often feel cravings to smoke almost constantly during these first two days. I also knew that when I made it through the first 48 hours, the cravings would begin diminishing. At the time, my immediate challenge was making it through those first 48 hours.
I had no problem sleeping through as much of these first two days as possible. I consider myself fortunate that I was able to sleep because one symptom of nicotine withdrawal is insomnia. This can be difficult, but it too does pass. As I remember from previous attempts at quitting, as I awaited to slip into the refreshment of sleep I would find myself thinking about the worst possible thing - smoking. I did not know how to avoid the problem of insomnia, but what I used to handle it was simply to count the numerous benefits that I would gain by not smoking. I would add up the amount of money I would save. I would think of the health benefits I would enjoy, such as walking up steps without losing my breath and avoiding the stale smell of smoke permeating my clothes and my life. In these contemplative moments I was always struck with the astonishing insight that there really is not one single rational reason to smoke. On the other hand, the reasons for not smoking are as countless as the breaths you take through your entire life.
As mentioned before, I realized from my previous experiences that there is a noticeable difference between the first 48 hours of not having a cigarette and all the time following.
The first 48 hours were very intense for me. What I noticed though, the physical cravings only last a few seconds. I could psychologically prolong them, but if I let them pass they would. When I felt my life lurch and even lunge for another cigarette, I maintained my composure and reminded myself the cravings would pass and they did.
Also, I found myself experiencing a heightened sense of irritability. There are always the typical frustrations of day to day life, but during this time, they were particularly aggravating. The key was not allowing myself to use them as an excuse. I continued reminding myself that those nagging, prickling, prodding, insistent and even agonizing urges to smoke would pass and they did.
You may find the first two days as difficult as I did. If you do, remind yourself that every time you refuse the cravings, they are weakened and your will is strengthened. Every time you choose not to smoke, it becomes easier. When those cravings erupt in your mind, remind yourself that they will pass. Don’t dwell upon them, let them pass, and they will.
After the first 48 hours, I noticed a significant drop in the intensity and frequency of the cravings. This was a definite relief. I no longer found myself regularly grappling with the thought of smoking and resisting the urge as I broke the routine and addiction that had entrenched itself in my life. Instead, I was forgetting about smoking. As the nicotine left my body, smoking left my thoughts. The smoke was literally being cleared from my mind.
Although I am sure you too will greet this as a welcome relief, you must be very precautious too. Although the cravings will be less frequent and less intense, they will still arise at times and don’t let them surprise you and catch you off guard. Remind yourself that those cravings will pass and your cleansed life will graciously remain.
I certainly hope you will find this helpful. The key point is that you must realize that you can quit. I have done it and I have witnessed numerous others do it too. Plus, not only is it possible, you will find it to be one of the most rewarding and gratifying accomplishments of your life.
They will pass - The cravings are very brief. Generally the physical cravings will only last a few seconds. Do not psychologically prolong them. Allow them to pass and they will and when they pass, you and your resolve will remain.
Keep Busy - the more you think about other matters, the less you will think about smoking. Busy work, like cleaning the house, is a great mental diversion, while also serving as a symbolic act of cleansing your life.
Smoking is absurdly illogical - Smoking is a distraction of your focus from positive pursuits of your life. Smoking damages your health. Don’t allow cigarettes destroy you. Allow yourself to live.
Remind yourself that you truly do not want to smoke - It is easy to think about why you want to smoke, but instead of this, make a conscious effort to remind yourself why you don’t want to smoke. Allow the craving to dissolve in your dismissal of them through your affirmation of yourself and your health.
Rely on your friends - Form a support group of non-smokers. There are many distressing instances that can erupt in one’s life, especially when quitting smoking. In these moments, instead of turning back to cigarettes, turn to a friend. Your friends want to help you and they will be overjoyed at the opportunity to help you.
You are stronger than cigarettes - Your life does not depend upon cigarettes. However, cigarettes depend upon you. Without smoking, tobacco would simply be a uncultivated plant. The cravings are not from you needing a cigarette. The cravings are from the cigarettes needing you. The dependency is theirs. The dependency is not yours. You are stronger than cigarettes.