Beginner's Guide to Smoking Cessation

So, you're considering hypnosis, huh? Hypnosis tends to be for those smokers who think that they can find an easy fix to smoking; smokers hope that hypnosis will be their magic bullet. Does it work? You've probably heard a lot of tales about the success of hypnosis on smokers, and sure ... it might work. But there is one thing you'll always here about the effectiveness of hypnosis: You have to want to quit for it to work. Well, actually, if you want to quit enough, that's probably the reason that hypnosis works, and it probably has less to do with some trance a so-called professional put you in. Hypnosis, in that way, is a powerful placebo; if you really want to quit and you succeed, then you attribute your success to the hypnosis, when chances are, it was just your own will and determination. A lot of folks use hypnosis in conjunction with Nicotine Replacement or Zyban, and then attribute the success to the hypnosis, but medical studies haven't really supported the effectiveness of hypnosis. But, if it helps you quit, or at least helps you believe you can quit, then there's little harm in trying.

Of course, if you'd like to save a lot of money and get equal or better results, then self-hypnosis, or meditation, may be the answer for you. You don't have to engage in formal meditation, but to help calm yourself and relieve the stress of nicotine withdrawal, put yourself in a trance, listen to yourself breathe, and all that jazz. Meditation/hypnosis, obviously, is not my thing - there are plenty of other websites/books on it, and if that's your bag, you should definitely check them out. Obviously, when it comes to dropping cigarettes from my life, I'm old school. From what I understand, however, you can achieve a similar state of mind through meditation that you can achieve by lighting up and staring forlornly into space while you take a drag on a cigarette.

Hmmm ... maybe I should look into meditation.

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Though I haven't actually tried it, I do hear great things about Zyban, brand name: Wellbutrin. Originally prescribed for depression, smokers who took Wellbutrin started noticing that they have fewer nicotine cravings and less intense withdrawal symptoms. And the cool thing about Wellbutrin is that, even if you don't have depression, Wellbutrin still works on nicotine cravings (and it doesn't alter your mood if you're not depressed). Why? Because, as chance would have it, people who are depressed and people who quit smoking have many of the same side effects, including irritability, fatigue, anxiety, and shifting energy levels. So, the drug works on those symptoms, making it easier to cope with nicotine withdrawal.

Studies have actually shown that 25-35 people who use Zyban or nicotine replacement therapy actually stay smoke-free for six months; compare that to the 10 percent of successful quitters who go cold turkey. And many professionals suggest that Zyban, in combination with NRTs, is probably your best bet for remaining smoke free. The nag about Wellbutrin, however, is that - like the nicotine spray and the nicotine inhaler -- you need a doctor's prescription.

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In my opinion, the best way to quit smoking is to replace one habit with another. Most smokers are probably creatures of habit, and if we have one habit, we're not likely to give it up without another. And while there are a number of substitution possibilities, ranging from toothpicks, to lollipops, to sunflower seeds, the most popular and the most effective are Nicotine Replacement Therapies, which I talk about at length here.

If nicotine replacement therapy is not your thing, I can offer some substitution ideas. I've tried sunflower seeds, which are generally quite effective, unless you plan on meeting someone during the day, because after 12 - 16 hours of chewing on sunflower seeds, the salt (which helps curb cravings) tends to dry up your mouth, and by the end of the day (not to mince words here) but your mouth smells rotten, your teeth hurt, and you've probably put on half a pound in sunflower seeds. Lollipops (or dum dums) are also fine choices in the short term, but after a few days, those will also begin to hurt your teeth, and the sugar content can get a little sickly - and you may find that lollipops are a lot easier to quit than cigarettes.

While regular toothpicks help to relieve your need to do something with your hands and have something in your mouth, they don't offer much of a reward. However, I do find that toothpicks made from tea-tree extract do actually help curb the actual nicotine cravings (or at least it feels like it), and cinnamon toothpicks also help to some extent, so if you're not going to use NRTs, those would be my recommendation, though they are also good supplements to NRTs.

Many other people simply switch to regular gum, which also helps considerably with the need to have something in your mouth and can offer the feeling of receiving a small reward, but it doesn't really curb your physical withdrawal symptoms.

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Some professionals also, inexplicably, suggest that you try to vary the times when you smoke, as a means to breaking the addiction. For instance, if you smoke a cigarette right after a meal, stop doing so; smoke your cigarette a little while later. Likewise, if you smoke first thing in the morning, try to wait an hour before you have your first cigarette.

While I can sort of see the reasoning behind this approach -- it allows you to get out of your rut, and break a lifelong habit of smoking a cigarette at a certain time of the day -- it doesn't really seem to make sense in the long run. Rather, it seems like your just trading one time of the day for another, and before you know it, you've created yourself another habit. Varying nicotine intake, however, might work in conjunction with some of the other methods discussed.

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Another popular method for quitting is the gradual route, which actually works rather decently if you have the will power to stick to the plan and not cheat. Cutting back gradually, also known as the taper method, is pretty easy: You start with a set number of cigarettes per day, and your word your way down. If you smoke a pack a day, then you start with 18 cigarettes the next week, 16 the next, and so on. It's great, in many respects, because it offers an easy way to ease the withdrawal symptoms, and if you stick to the plan, you probably won't even want to smoke anymore by the time you get down to two cigarettes a day.

I'll admit to trying this method on several occasions, but I've found that it is way too easy to cheat. If you cut down 2 cigarettes a week, and you start at 20 cigarettes a day, it'll take nearly three months to quit, and it's very difficult to stick to a schedule over a three-month period. That's 90 days, each of which offers you a means to slipping -- smoking one more than planned just the once leads to "just a second time," which leads you back to square one. Plus, the entire time you're on the taper method, your brain is basically pleading with you to smoke more. It's certainly less painful than the cold turkey method, but it takes nearly just as much will power to master it.

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Probably one of the most popular, and arguably least effective means for giving up cigarettes is simply to go cold turkey. I've known literary scores of people who have gone cold turkey, but I can't say that I've known a single one of them that has done it successfully for the long haul. Why? Because going cold turkey means withdrawal symptoms that can do a number on even the strongest person. I've known people who have nic fits - shake violently; and I know others who simply can't bear it. It's not really pain, per se. But it is painful. Your concentration is lost; you can't focus on anything; your irritable as hell; you're short fused; sometimes you can't sleep and sometimes you can't stop sleeping; you feel empty; and worst of all, people who go cold turkey tend to spend much of their time imagining what a cigarette might taste like. It's hard to keep your mind off of smoking.

But, I do know that cold turkey does work for some people. I am reminded, in fact, of a scene in the John Updike Rabbit, Run series, in which the lead character (a long-time smoker) simply decides one day, before playing a game of basketball, to chuck his cigarettes into the trash can and give it up forever. It makes a great story, for sure; but it's rare. However, cold turkey seems to work best when you've got a powerful incentive to quit; whether it's your health (and it often takes a major scare to get people to quit) or an ultimatum from a loved one, or an just a really powerful resolve. Folks who don't have this kind of resolve, however, shouldn't be embarrassed or ashamed. Hardly anyone does. And the best way to avoid relapsing is simply to admit it to yourself and try a method where the withdrawal symptoms are not so intense.

The great thing about going cold turkey, however, is that it's free!

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So, you've decided that your lungs have had enough; you wake each morning with a cigarette hangover, you haven't found any actual enjoyment in smoking a cigarette in years, and the pressure your friends and significant others are applying is getting kind of ridiculous, and you've run out of witty retorts to, "Smoking will kill you, ya know." At this point, you're just sick of it. Sick of the cigarettes. Sick of the smell. Sick of buying the bloody things. Sick of hearing other people criticize your habit. And most of all, you're sick of the fact that someone else - a huge corporation - is taking your money and giving you nothing but a slow death in return.

So, where to start? Before you even figure out your method of smokus interruptus, you need to pick a date. In a way, I think, the date picking is sort of liberating, plus it gives you something to tell the folks who keep kvetching at you for smoking ("Don't worry; I'm quitting on the 1st. Really.) Here's a little advice, though; give yourself a few days or weeks. You need to have a little time to get used to the idea of quitting. If you tell yourself that you're quitting tomorrow, you may never get the closure you need. Smoking, in a way, is just like a long-term relationship -- you need an adjustment period and you need some time to properly say goodbye. Spend sometime with a pack of smokes to reflect on the reasons why you've decided to quit, and to prepare yourself for the long, uphill battle to the end of your smoking life. If you force yourself to quit tomorrow, you won't have enough time to adjust yourself to the loss, and I suspect that a relapse will be more common.

On the other hand, there's not much sense in picking a date way off in the future - six months or a year from now. Picking a date that far away doesn't really show you're serious, and chances are, by the time the date arrives, you will have pushed it ahead another few weeks or months.

Personally, I picked a date three weeks into the future, which gave me plenty of time to think about what I needed to do to quit, the stuff I need to get together, and how I needed to adjust my mind to like after cigarettes. Invariably, as the date grew closer, I thought of all sorts of reasons not to stick to my quit-on date, but once you've set the date, you need to stick with it -- and making up all sorts of excuses not to suggest that, if you don't do it now, you never will. There will always be a reason not to give up smoking; a simple justification for pushing off your quit date one more day or one more week. So, just pick a date and stick to it.

I'd also suggest picking a date that's easy to remember -- the first day of the month or something like that. Personally, I wouldn't pick a birthday or a holiday to decide to quit smoking - those are the times you want to smoke the most because smoking is often associated with celebration in your mind, and there is no sense in making it that much harder on yourself. A lot of people choose New Year's Day to give it up, and I've never thought that was a particularly good idea - the beginning of the year is often a stressful time, and do you really want to lump yourselves with everyone else quitting? Try to make a stand on your own.

Finally, if you have a friend or a family member who is also quitting, try to pick the same date. There is a lot to be said for solidarity -- plus, you can keep each other's back during the very difficult time ... and there is a lot to be said for competition among friends for driving your need to quit.

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Before you can really get going with your quit-smoking campaign, aside from marking a date on your calendar to quit, the next most important step is to find a method to stop your madness. There are a number of routes you can go, and obviously, different strokes for different folks.

In the Getting Started section, we'll discuss the different methods you might try to get your quit on. Certainly, the sooner the better, but in our "Pick a Date" section, we also discuss why you need to give yourself a little time to adjust. I would not recommend waking up one morning and simply deciding that, "Today's the Day," because more often than not, without some preplanning, "Today" will be the day you quit, at least until tomorrow.

Keep in mind that, inasmuch as this Beginner's Guide is concerned, I'm not going to sugarcoat it; I'm not going to consistently remind you that quitting smoking is "the greatest gift you can give yourself," because, for a lot of people who are going to be awfully cranky, sleepy, angry, and short-fused for the first few days or weeks, the last thing we want to hear is some self-help platitude that just makes you want to wring someone's neck. Certainly, for some people, platitudes work. But, I plan on being brutally honest - it may be a great gift for yourself, but the day you quit is not a "Great!" day. It's going to be a hard one, a difficult one, and for a few weeks at least, you're probably not going to think it's worth it, and you're probably going to bargain with yourself a lot, by, for instance, telling yourself if you go an entire day without smoking, you can treat yourself to one cigarette before bed.

Don't do that. It doesn't work. One cigarette will lead to two, and before you know it, you're smoking again.

In the meantime, try not to yell at anyone.

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