C H A P T E R

T W E L V E

Stop Smoking
We are all aware of the dangers of smoking ... and how difficult it can be to stop. You
want to quit, but youve tried before and failed. Now you fear that this habit is stronger
than you are. It frequently seems that this addiction is overpoweringdominating your
thoughts, sapping your willpower, and affecting your health. You feel the negative effect
smoking has on your body; the wheezing in your lungs when you walk up a flight of
stairs; the tiny lines that appear on your upper lip and around your mouth; your lack of
energy.
Smoking is a psychological and physiological addiction that ruins the quality of your
life while cutting it short. Its dangerous, expensive, turns off friends and strangers alike,
and threatens not only your own life, but the health of those around you. You are well
aware that you must stop, but how?

1. If at first you dont succeed, try, try again.

Most smokers, when deciding to quit, do not give much thought as to how to
accomplish it. Consequently, most try to quit with overly simplistic approaches. When
they fail, due to an inadequate plan, they heap guilt and shame upon themselves. But
dont be discouraged by previous failures to quit. The more times you begin the quitting
process, the more energy you put toward the goal of becoming a nonsmoker and the
more likely you are to eventually achieve that goal. If a person really wants to stop, he or
she will usually succeed sooner or later; if not this time, then the next time or the next
after that.

2. Choose the right method.

Though there are many different approaches to quitting, well cover the two basic
methodscold turkey and gradual withdrawal. The others are merely variations of
these two. Read each one carefully and decide which one will work best for you. Each
method has its pros and cons but the one you select can be a determining factor in your
success.

Cold Turkey Method

The cold turkey method requires you to simply stop smoking. You choose which
cigarette will be your last, and then follow through, no matter how uncomfortable it
gets.
Advantages: The sooner you quit, the sooner the cravings for a cigarette go away.
Instead of giving your body continued doses of nicotine, you force it to begin healing
right away. The psychological need for cigarettes goes away quickly because nicotine is
completely eliminated from the body within a few days and most of the craving will be
gone within a few weeks. The cold turkey method allows you to experience immediate
physical and psychological rewards. Its an easy method to implement because you

simply stopcompletely and at once. It reduces the opportunity for excuses by

eliminating the physiological need as quickly as possible, while the rapid removal of the
conflict provides less time to escape. In other words, you can no longer justify your
smoking today by telling yourself that you will quit, someday. You just dont ever allow
yourself another cigaretteEVER!
Disadvantages: The main advantage, its suddenness, can also be a disadvantage. Its
greater visibility puts everyones eye on you. Your colleagues at work who smoke notice
instantly that youve quit. They bring attention to it and then you begin to focus on your
cravings and discomfort from withdrawal as well. High levels of discomfort can
undermine your resolve, while the all-or-nothing nature of the cold turkey method
means that a single cigarette can ruin the entire effort.
Who should use the cold turkey method?: If you suffer from extreme withdrawal
symptoms, such as irritability, impatience, tension, and insomnia; if your mind works
overtime coming up with rationales to continue smoking; if you procrastinate, tend to
avoid problems, or have difficulty controlling your behavior without a direct challenge
or explicit command, you would benefit most from the cold turkey method.

The Gradual Withdrawal Method

The gradual withdrawal method calls for regulated and decreased nicotine
consumption over a specific period of time. You slowly decrease the amount of
cigarettes you smoke and eventually, you stop.
Advantages: It avoids the abruptness of the cold turkey method and the possibly
severe withdrawal symptoms accompanying it. Less social pressure is involved as
others wont be as aware of a cutback as they would of a cutoff. A slip wont destroy
your entire quitting effort; it will only make the process longer. It minimizes the
withdrawal symptoms because it still provides a small amount of nicotine. It also
lessons the motivation to generate excusesthe quitter is more likely to continue the
effort and less likely to engage in escapist behaviors.
Disadvantages: It demands more time, effort and commitment than cold turkey.
Taking longer to eliminate the nicotine from your system delays the physical and
psychological rewards of not smoking. Drawing out the process may make it more
difficult to maintain your resolution to quit.
Who should use gradual withdrawal?: If you suffer from extreme anxiety, feel stressed
out and overwhelmed at the thought of quitting; if conflict or motives exist, such as
health versus personal appearance because you fear gaining weight; if you believe that
pressure from others is responsible for you beginning or continuing smoking; if you
rationalize your smoking or engage in wishful thinking, denial or take a fatalistic
attitude toward smoking, you would benefit most from the gradual withdrawal method.

3. Choose the right starting time.

Smokers usually quit when they feel like it, but poor preparation and haphazard
timing can otherwise ruin a well-motivated effort. Improve your chances by
thoughtfully selecting a starting time that can help you avoid or reduce potential
barriers, particularly during the crucial early days. There are three types of starting
times: 1) extended breaks; 2) special events; and 3) specific target dates.

An extended break, such as a vacation, a long weekend or holiday is an extremely

good time to begin. The extended break assists you to establish a number of nonsmoking days and to get past the worst part of withdrawal while in a non-stressful
atmosphere. The social pressure to smoke and the sights and smells of others smoking
are temporarily gone. Having committed yourself to quit during this break,
procrastination and other escapist behavior become much more difficult to rationalize.
A special event, such as graduation from school, marriage, birth of a child, job
promotion or retirement, can provide you with enough extra motivation to sustain the
desire to quit over the desire to smoke.
Specific target dates such as birthdays, New Years or another holiday, or any other
specific date, help increase motivation, filter out excuses and control escapist behavior.

4. Be prepared for the tough stuff

the pleasure/pain cycle, erroneous
rationales, and escapist behavior.
Learn to recognize the three key factors that make quitting harder and you may be
able to avoid a relapse.

The pleasure/pain cycle

Take a look at the benefits and pleasure you believe you get from smoking. In
virtually every case, the perceived pleasure or benefit derives primarily from relieving
and reducing your acquired physiological need for nicotine. In other words, you smoke
the cigarette to relieve the discomfort caused by your addiction to cigarettes. You smoke
the cigarette to fix what the cigarette has caused. It is important to break this cycle.
Smoking is a very real and treacherous addictionit is critically important to recognize
and acknowledge this. Enduring the short-term discomfort of quitting is far better than
prolonging the constant pleasure/pain cycle of nicotine addiction.

Erroneous rationales
When caught in the throes of a nicotine craving, it can be very easy to forget why you
wanted to stop in the first place. We must recognize howat those momentswe
ignore certain truths. We easily intellectualize, justify, explain away and make
allowances for behavior that is detrimental to our well-being. It is important to
understand how we rationalize our negative behaviors. Otherwise we continue those
negative behaviors and never change them. Here are the key ways in which we justify
smoking:
A lack of knowledge or misconceptions about smoking, including denying or
diminishing the dangers of smoking
Denying the personal relevance or ability to quit
Denying the necessity of quitting
Philosophizing, intellectualizing, and advancing irrelevant arguments.

Escapist behavior
Escapist behavior encompasses five patterns: procrastination, wishful thinking,
regression, blaming others and repression.
Procrastination is a very effective escape route. A clever smoker can come up with
enough excuses to put off quitting for years, even forever, fooling himself into believing
that he is going to quit ... tomorrow.
Smokers indulging in wishful thinking live in a fantasy world where none of
nicotines adverse effects will happen to them, or if it does, those effects will be minimal
or easily reversed. While thats always possible, its not likely. Wishful thinking is
unrealistic and escapist in nature, like the ostrich refusing to see things as they are by
sticking its head in the sand.
Regression enables the smoker to get around the inconsistency between his
knowledge of the dangers of smoking and his continued smoking by simply refusing to
deal with it. This is accomplished by regression to childish or inappropriate behavior
and attitudes, such as becoming overly emotional, swearing, and screaming at people
who raise the smoking issue.
Blaming others is an avoidance tactic. Many people began smoking not as a result of
an informed decision but as a consequence of interpersonal relationships and peer
pressure. Quitting is frequently made even more difficult because of lack of support
from other people. Blaming others enables the smoker to disclaim responsibility while
clouding the issue of a solution to the problem.
Repression is quite simply not viewing smoking as a problem. This deliberate
behavior enables the smoker to avoid conflict and the necessity of making excuses,
blaming others, or indulging in wishful thinking.

5. Start a smoking log.

Buy a small notebook, approximately the size of a pack of cigarettes. This will be
your daily smoking log. Keep this log with your cigarettes and begin immediately to
keep an accurate record of your smoking behaviorthis means every cigarette you
smoke. Note the time you smoke of each one and the situation. For example, 7AM
cigarette with morning coffee, 7:30 cigarette while getting dressed. And so on. For the
first week, do not change your present smoking behavior; an accurate record will create
awareness about the way you smoke and what each cigarette means to you. Later, the
log will provide feedback about your progress.

6. Use a journal.
In addition to your daily smoking log, buy a larger notebook to use as a journal. This
is a personal record of your goals, rules, accomplishments and observations of events
occurring in your quitting program. Write your reasons for quitting in your journal for
later reference when you have the urge to smoke. If you notice yourself feeling deprived
and becoming angry, blow off steam in the journal, but be sure to work the anger
through and turn it around to positive thought.

7. Identify your conditioned smoking triggers.

Use your daily smoking log to identify your conditioned smoking triggers. Many
people begin smoking again because they succumb to a conditioned trigger that has
caught them unawares, bringing the craving and urge back in full force. This can
happen after months or even years of not smoking if the person has not learned to
identify and eliminate the conditioned triggers from his life. As you break each trigger,
remain at that level for a few days until you have incorporated the new behavior into
your life and feel comfortable with it. You wont feel overwhelming craving and anxiety
because you know youll have a cigarette soon, but dont compensate by smoking an
additional cigarette later. Be careful not to establish new triggers while eliminating the
old ones. Do not avoid the trigger situation; you must encounter the trigger and render
it ineffective by not smoking. Making gradual changes in your behavior and
consolidating them at each step before moving on to another step, can painlessly
eliminate these triggers.

Tips 8 through 13 deal specifically with the

cold turkey method but people who have
chosen the gradual withdrawal program
will find them useful as well.
8. Create contingency plans
dont be caught off guard.
Contingency plans help you deal with the factors that make quitting harder: the
pleasure/pain cycle, erroneous rationales, escapist behavior and conditioned smoking
triggers. Before you quit, know how you will act in certain situations, personal and
social: how you handle obsessive cravings when they strike; what your personal quitting
schedule calls for. Choose those strategies you will integrate with your method and
write them in your journal. Decide to stick to them, and when these difficulties strike,
follow your contingency plan.

9. Educate yourself about the

psychological effects of nicotine.
Educate yourself about the psychological effects of nicotine on the body. The more
familiar you are with what nicotine is and what it does, the better equipped you will be
to withstand its wiles and the better your chance of success. Many public health
organizations, such as the American Heart Association, the American Cancer Society
and the American Lung Association, offer free educational materials. Do some research
at your public library. Ask your doctor for additional information. Talk to friends who
have successfully quit.

10. Begin taking megadoses of vitamin C.

Large amounts of vitamin C will quickly detoxify your body during the nicotine
elimination period. You may prefer to use the crystallized form of vitamin C rather than

swallowing several tablets. Take 4,000mg every two to four hours; do this for at least one
week. If this causes diarrhea, cut dosage in half but continue frequency of doses.

11. Reward your efforts with

positive reinforcement.
Be kind to yourself during the withdrawal process. Do some of the things you have
always wanted to do but never had the time or money for. Youll have more money now
that you dont smoke, and more time at your disposal, so indulge yourself. Cigarettes
cost about $4.50 a pack. If you smoke half a pack a day and you quit, you could save
$821.25 a year. If you smoke one pack a day and quit, you could save $1642.50 a year.
Two packs: $3285. Reward your efforts with positive reinforcement. Get a massage. Go
to the country for the weekend and stay at a bed & breakfast. Purchase that new
compact disk, and run a bubble bath. The possibilities are endless. Put the money you
would have spent on cigarettes into a savings account. Instead of seeing your money go
up in smoke, you will be getting wealthier and enjoying it more while becoming
healthier and wiser.

12. Begin to notice how good you feel.

With each new day you will be feeling better and better. Notice how much easier
breathing has become; smell the scents in the air you couldnt smell before. Visualize
your lungs becoming clearer and pinker each day. Concentrate on the good feelings and
congratulate yourself on your new nonsmoking behavior as you revel in your new
freedom from cigarettes.

13. Develop a support team.

If you know someone who is also in the process of quitting, you can give each other
mutual support. Call this person for support when the urge to smoke seems
overwhelming. Be available for them to call you; assisting someone else to overcome
their craving can help you overcome your own. Explain to those close to you what you
are trying to accomplish; those who care about you will be helpful, supportive and
happy that you are engaged in such a positive endeavor. But not everyone will be
supportive. Nonsmokers who dont understand what you are going through may
wonder why you need extra emotional support. People who have tried to quit and failed
may tell you horror stories about their failures. If possible, try to avoid these people. Be
prepared to encounter them, but do not use them as an excuse for your own actions.

14. Develop alternative behaviors.

When you feel the urge to smoke, try counting down from 100 to 1. Take a shower or
go for a walk. Instead of sitting in your favorite chair where you always smoke while
reading or watching TV, try sitting in a different chair. Or move your chair to a different
location and dont smoke there. Do not use food as an alternative to smoking, however.
Chew some ice; it contains no calories and will keep your mouth busy. Drink a cup of
herbal tea. Keep low-calorie nibbles around, like carrot or celery sticks. Take up a hobby,
such as knittingitll keep your hands busy. Pay more attention to your hands; massage

cream into them and manicure your nails. Or try sketching, doodling or writing in your
journal. Be creative in your alternatives.

15. Learn to relax without a cigarette.

Many smoke for the sake of relaxation but there are several relaxation strategies
available that can relax you without the need of a cigarette. Deep breathing is an easy
one that will both relax you and oxygenate your body and mind at the same time. Yoga,
progressive body relaxation, and massages are also easy and effective relaxation
techniques. Its hard work, but if you can utilize these relaxation techniques when you
feel a craving coming on, it will pass with less discomfort.

16. Exercise!
If you dont already engage in regular daily physical exercise, start now. Its hard to
smoke while youre exercising. Vigorous daily exercise increases levels of the
neurotransmitters as well as endorphins, the bodys natural opiates, and will make it
easier for you to relax more completely. The oxygen flooding through your system will
help detoxify your system more quickly as well. Also, mood swings will stabilize and
you wont feel as depressed. Your self-image and self-esteem will improve and you
wont want to damage your body with cigarettes any longer.

17. Change your eating habits.

Eliminate all sweets from your diet. If you are not accustomed to eating breakfast,
begin doing so now. At the very least, begin your day with a protein drink you can
make in your blender. Regular, balanced meals with lots of complex carbohydrates,
concentrating on whole grains, vegetables and fruits, will level out your blood sugar.
Hunger is accompanied by low blood sugar, and can act as a trigger for a cigarette.
Smoking a cigarette raises your blood sugar, taking away the hunger. This is why many
people gain weight when they quit smoking; they substitute eating, usually sweets, in an
effort to keep their blood sugar levels up. Avoid caffeine and alcohol, which are serious
triggers. Increase your calcium intakeit will act as a natural relaxant. Take a multiple
vitamin and mineral supplement. Increase your water intake; it will help flush the
nicotine from your system. Drink at least 64 ounces of water a day.

18. Develop your spirituality.

Become more aware of your spiritual nature. This is a technique that has proven
very successful in such programs as Alcoholics Anonymous. When your other
techniques seem to be not quite enough, turn to your higher power or your higher self
for assistance.

19. Switch cigarette brand and types.

Change your brand of cigarettes. Decrease the tar and nicotine content by switching
to one with lower contents of these agents, but do not increase your overall cigarette
consumption. If you currently smoke a cigarette very high in tar and nicotine, acclimate
yourself to the next lower level for a few days, then begin eliminating them. Switch
down again until you are smoking the lowest tar and nicotine cigarette available while

continuing to eliminate themcigarette by cigarette, trigger by trigger. If you smoke a

menthol cigarette, switch to non-menthol and vice versa. If you smoke a non-filter,
switch to a filter, but do not switch from a filter to a non-filter. Smoke with the nondominant hand. If you use a lighter, switch to using matches, then keep the cigarette and
matches in separate locations.

20. Condition an aversion to cigarettes.

Each day empty your cigarette butts into a large jar and cover them with water. Do
not throw the jar away when you reach the target date. Instead, when you feel like
lighting a cigarette, open the jar and take a deep sniff.

21. Finally, eliminate cigarettes.

You are now ready to eliminate the last cigarette comfortably. Schedule the
following activities for a time immediately after you quit: Clean your house thoroughly
or have a cleaning crew come in and do it. Smoke lingers in drapes and carpeting, so
have them thoroughly cleaned as well. Clean the inside of your car. Throw away all
smoking paraphernaliamatches, lighters, ashtrays. Make an appointment to visit your
dentist to have your teeth cleaned.

22. Use self-hypnosis

Daily use of self-hypnosis mind programming will support your goal of stopping
smoking. The final chapter tells you how.

Stop Smoking Summary

1. If at first you dont succeed, try, try again.
2. Choose the right method: the cold turkey method or the gradual withdrawal
method.
3. Choose the right starting time: extended breaks, special events or specific target
dates.
4. Be prepared for the tough stuffthe pleasure/pain cycle, erroneous rationales &
escapist behavior.
5. Start a smoking log.
6. Use a journal.
7. Identify your conditioned smoking triggers.
8. Create contingency plansdont be caught off guard.
9. Educate yourself about the psychological effects
of nicotine.
10. Begin taking megadoses of vitamin C.
11. Reward your efforts with positive reinforcement.
12. Begin to notice how good you feel.
13. Develop a support team.

14. Develop alternative behaviors.

15. Learn to relax without a cigarette.
16. Exercise!
17. Change your eating habits.
18. Develop your spirituality.
19. Switch cigarette brand and types.
20. Condition an aversion to cigarettes.
21. Finally, eliminate cigarettes.

Affirmations

The final chapter explains how to use the following affirmations as self-talk and how
to include them in a self-hypnosis format for daily mind programming.
I now set a target date and on that date I will stop smoking forever.
Every day, up to my target date, I smoke fewer and fewer cigarettes.
Cigarettes disgust me. I no longer want to smoke. Every day, I smoke less and less.
I now stop smoking.
By quitting, I feel better mentally and physically.
I successfully focus on overcoming my smoking habit, replacing it with desirable new behavior
patterns.
I have the willpower to do anything I desire to do.
I crave cigarettes less and less. The urge to smoke is leaving me... the urge to smoke is now gone.
I am now a nonsmoker.