Smoking kills around 106,000 people in the UK each year. Smoking-related deaths are mainly due to cancers, COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) and heart disease. This is why we at Pharmacy First have put together our 10 top tips for quitting smoking.
1. Set a Date
Select a day that is convenient for you to quit and stick to it. Make sure it is a normal day that will not make it harder in any way to quit smoking.
2. Get a “Quitting Buddy”
It can be a lot harder to quit smoking on your own. Qutting at the same trime as a friend will make things easier as they will know exactly what you are going through. Ex-smokers will say it is easy to quit and non-smokers will never understand just how difficult it can be to quit.
3. Save Your Money
On average smokers spend £5 a day on cigarettes. If you put all the monmey that you would normally spend on cigarettes in a jar you have the incentive of watching the money stack up. After a year you could have about £1800 saved up to spend on yourself!
4. Get Rid of Everything
To help you get into the mind set of being a non-smoker, get rid of everything related to smoking. This includes all cigarettes, lighters, ashtrays and matches. This removes all reminder and will remove the temptation to have “just one last cigarette”.
5. One Day at a Time
On the selected “Quitting Day” just think to yourself that you will not smoke just for that day. Then you are taking away the pressure of making the huge leap of quitting for ever. Just concentrate on one day. Then the next day do the same. Taking things one day at a time will make quitting smoking a lot easier. If you have to go to bed earlier to make it easier in the evenings then so be it. It is going to be worth it in the long run!
6. Nicotine Replacement
There are a wide range of nicotine replacement products available today that will help you to stop smoking. These include nicotine gum, patches, lozenges, nasal sprays, inhalators, micro-tabs and electric cigarettes. Most of these work in steps. There are stronger pack to start with and you can gradually lower the strengths of the prodcuts as you become less addicted to the nicotine, until you no longer need any support.
7. Get a Hobby
Find something thgat takes your mind off smoking. Playing computer games, drawing, painting, reading. Anything that stops you from thinking about smoking. If at any point you do find yourself craving a cigarette then close your eyes and take long breaths in and out, perhaps even visualising smoking, until the cravings pass.
8. Keep an Eye on your Weight
Cigarettes are an appetite suppresant, so a lot of people put on weight once they quit smoking. Try to eat healthily and take care of your body. This has the added benefit of amking you feel better sooner too which works as an added incentive to carry on quitting!
9. Say “I don’t smoke!”
If someone offers you a cigarette say that you do not smoke and try to change to topic of conversation. Telling people, especially other smokers, that you are qutting will often lead to a converstaion about how difficult it must be and may even lead to you having “Just the One”. This can often lead to you abandoning quitting as you start to slide down the slippery slope once again. Start to think of yourself as a non-smoker and not someone who is quitting.
10. Try, Try Again
If you do not succeed and you do start smoking again, keep trying. Lots of people take a few attempts to finally quit. Just think of the benfits of quitting and give it another go.