What You Need to Do to Quit Smoking

Quitting smoking isn't really that hard. Just the opposite, it's actually quite simple. The problem doesn't lie in quitting smoking, however, as much as people going about it the wrong way.

The way that most people quit smoking doesn't involve a change from smoker to non-smoker. Instead, it involves a change from a smoker to a smoker who isn't smoking at the moment. There's a fundamental difference here, as the latter hasn't actually stopped wanting cigarettes, and will always remain a smoker.

Using terms like "giving up cigarettes" are part of the problem. You aren't giving up something that you like, you're getting rid of something that you don't. If you tell somebody that they have to give up cake, they'll likely want cake even more, even if they don't particularly care for cake normally. The whole idea of giving something up puts it on a pedestal and makes it seem more important, which undermines what you're trying to do with quitting.

Second, and far worse, people try to treat smoking as some kind of disease that can be treated with medication. That medication may come in the form of a nicotine patch, or gum, or quit smoking pill, but it's still trying to treat it as a disease, which it simply isn't.

Smoking is a mental addiction, not a physical one. While it may feel like your body is craving a cigarette, that's not actually the case. If you've ever found yourself distracted and ended up not thinking about cigarettes for a bit of time, there's your proof. On the other hand, if you sit still for long enough, your mind gets bored and looks to what it wants when it's bored: a cigarette.

That's the basic idea behind how you're going to quit cigarettes. You need to figure out all of the various times during the day that you feel the urge to smoke, be it as you get off of work, when you have some free time, or when you get into the car. These events trigger you to want to smoke, not your body. Slapping nicotine patches on to cure smoking would be like taking a bunch of painkillers for a sucking chest wound: sure, you're treating the symptoms, but you aren't exactly solving the problem, are you?

You also need to realize that part of the reason why smoking is considered so difficult is because everybody says it is. You can ask your smoker friends (who may have tried quitting), and they'll say that it's hard, naturally. Ask one of your non-smoking friends, though, and they'll probably tell you the same thing, because everybody is conditioned to believe that smoking is some sort of inescapable habit that nobody can break free from.

Quit dates work in much the same way. When you set a quit date, you're giving smoking more credit than it's due, causing you to dread that quit date and savor the "last cigarette you'll ever have," which will only last a few days until you relapse. Don't set a quit date, just make the jump and kick the habit!