QUIT---TODAY. Review on How to Quit Smoking - Tips and Tricks

I started smoking in 1970.  Smoked like a chimney for 22 long years. Quit in 1992.

Guess this qualifies me to give this advice on how one can quit smoking.

I started by trying to reduce the number of cigarettes per day.  Brought it down from 10 cigarettes a day to about 5 cigarettes a day.  But alas! This worked only for a few days.  The craving increased, and within a couple of weeks, I was smoking 12 to 15 a day, (more than the what I was before I started trying to quit).  So trying to reduce the number of cigarettes a day DOES  NOT  work.

Then I tried remaining without cigarettes for a few days, and then smoking for a few days. I started with smoking on alternate days, and remaining without cigarettes on other days. I slowly went upto 3 days of “allowing myself”  (that’s how I though about it those days) to smoke and 3 days of staying without it.  What really happened was that I could remain without smoking for 3 days at stretch, but ended up smoking 20 cigarettes a day on the other three days.  I got stuck to it…slowly  the “fasting” days vanished and ended up smoking 20 cigarettes a day, EVERYDAY.  This plan does not work either.

I met a doc who taught me how to quit.  He said “ Treat this habit as if it’s a demon in your body.  If you cut his nails off, the new ones that grow will be sharper, if you cut his hand off, TWO hands will grow in its place. The only way you can kill it, is by holding it by its neck and twisting his head off”   Simply put, JUST STOP SMOKING. Make up your mind that you are just not going smoke at all and tell your near and dear ones to bear with you for just a few days and not allow you to smoke.  This CERTAINLY works. It worked for me.  I was very irritable for about 5 to 6 days.  We were on a holiday then. I must thank my wife, my friend and his wife(they were touring with us) for being patient and putting up with my anger and irritability, during those first few days.  To my own surprise this state of irritability lasted only for about 5 to 6 days. After this initial period, I myself was much calmer and feeling much happier that I had in fact managed to kick the habit or atleast I was on my way to doing it.  And,  this you may find hard to believe, but all these days, and during the rest of our trip, I had kept the half-finished pack of cigarettes and the lighter in my pocket. I was carrying it all the while. Even after reaching home I kept the pack in my cupboard in such a place, that it would be the first thing I would see, in the morning.

So, . harsh as it may seem. BUT this, I believe is the best way you can quit….and quit permanently.

Remember:

An apple a day…….

keeps the doctor away

BUT

A cigarette and hour…….

DOES NOT keep the doctor far.

cough…cough….cough