As with any addiction, stopping smoking will be hard. There will be days when you feel like smoking, particularly at the start of your smoke free journey.
The good news is that once you’ve stopped smoking for 28 days, you’re 5 times more likely to stop for good!
To help you reach 28 days and beyond smoke free, we’ve put together some helpful tips.
Managing your triggers
No matter how long it’s been since your last cigarette, you may feel an urge to smoke. When you know your triggers, you can avoid these situations.
Common triggers can include taking a break at work, feeling stressed or under pressure, being around others who smoke, driving or walking somewhere, drinking alcohol, or socialising with friends or family.
Once you learn your triggers, you can start planning how to deal with them. Having a strategy is key.
This could be a change in habits, such as swapping coffee for juice, reducing alcohol intake, or avoiding places and people that trigger smoking, particularly in the early days. Instead of smoking after a meal, try chewing minty gum or brushing your teeth.
It is also a good idea to plan for potential tricky situations. If someone offers you a cigarette, have a practiced and ready response like “No thanks, I’ve quit”. If you usually take smoke breaks at work, plan to go for a walk instead.
Don’t take risks
Once you have successfully stopped, you might fall into the trap of thinking that “just one can’t hurt”. Remember, even one cigarette can put you right back to the beginning of your journey! It can open you up to those nicotine withdrawal cravings that you did so well to overcome in the initial days following stopping smoking.
When these arise, challenge these thoughts and reflect on all the hard work you have done so far.
Getting back on track after a smoking relapse
If you do relapse, recognise this as a setback that many people face on their journey to being smoke free. Don’t be too hard on yourself, it is just important that you don’t give up on giving up, and keep trying to stop.
Learn from the experience. Think about what made you want to smoke and write it down. Place it somewhere visible to remind you what your smoking triggers are. Understanding these will help you to manage them better the next time you are tempted.
If you have started smoking regularly again, set a new date to stop smoking for good, within the next two weeks. This will give you more time to plan and prepare to be smoke free in the long term. Remind yourself of the coping techniques that work for you and implement them in your daily life.
Remember – it can often take a number of attempts for people to stop smoking. The more times you try, the better your chances of success. It is important to not give up in the face of a relapse. If you’ve tried stopping in the past, you’ve learned some valuable lessons to boost your chance of success this time. You can do it!
