	How to Quit Smoking, Long Term. Updated January 30, 2008 I have to start by stating that I have no experience with the modern day methods of stopping smoking such as the nicotine patch method. What alarms me is that I hear no mention of the problem of quitting the nicotine habit .....LONG TERM, and I see no way the patch method can help .......LONG TERM. In fact, I am rather pessimistic about any method or commercial product that claims to be effort free, no work, easy, for I have found that quitting smoking requires mental work. It seems more likely a company would claim ease just to increase profit and sales of their technique, therefore I am pessimistic about commercial methods in general. I hope for the benefit of those who use such products that I am wrong and that they indeed work. In any case, I would recommend that a person check with the American Cancer Society, Lung Society or other such authority before using a particular commercial product. I have stopped smoking at the present time of this writing...23 years. Before that, I had stopped for a 6 year period, before resuming the habit. At one time before I knew what it took to quit, I thought it was impossible to stop for half a day, let alone for a year. So if I can quit, so can you. Many people go about breaking a habit the wrong way. They think to themselves, if I don't succeed, I have just put myself through a lot of pain and suffering for nothing, so why not just save myself all the pain and suffering and live with the habit. Whereas, what they should be thinking is that I just have to take it one day at a time, for everyday I don't smoke my lungs clear out and my health improves, and that is one more day of good health in my life so it is worth it. You have to think positive. I will show you how to stretch those days into a lifetime of being smoke free. First thing, YOU HAVE TO WANT TO QUIT. This is all important, because if you do not want to quit then you are not going to quit. There has been a debate going on whether smoking is a physical or psychological addiction. I am here to tell you that it is both. If you have smoked for any length of time you will feel the effects of quitting smoking. My lungs itched so bad that I wanted to get inside them and scratch but I realized that the cleaning process had begun to rid my lungs of the tar captured from the years of smoking. The body craves nicotine so therefore it is a physical addiction in that the body uses the nicotine chemically (Or why would the body crave it?). It is a psychological addiction because the craving occurs in the brain. So the distinction is not important, you just have to realize that to rid yourself of this habit, it is going to require WORK in the way of mental preparation. The first time I quit for six years, the initial three week beginning period was very, very easy to get through. How is that for encouragement? I was shocked at how easy it actually was to stop smoking when before I thought it was impossible. What I did was to prepare myself very well mentally to stop smoking. I prepared myself in advance so well that it was surprisingly easy. Now, let me tell you about that same three week period that started my current 23 year period of being smoke free. I thought I was going to die, it was very difficult. I had thought that since I did it before, that I could do it again without having to prepare mentally. I was lucky to have made it , it was so difficult. So here is the lesson about losing a habit. You have to want to quit and then you have to work to prepare yourself mentally to quit. (If you do, then you are rewarded with an easy start, but it is ONLY a start.) The above illustrates a hard fact....same person..two seperate times stopping long term.....one easy the other hard...only difference was mental preparation. In fact, beating the nicotine habit is indeed mental, I will explain precisely as I go along. After wanting to stop, you must set a date in the future to stop smoking. The initial three week period is the first hurdle to get over on the path to being smoke free so if possible arrange for this three week period to be as stress free as possible so that you can concentrate on quitting smoking. You will need all of your mental faculties during this time to stop. Perhaps, you could take vacation time from your job, but try to arrange for a stress free period of three weeks in your life. Set the date far enough in advance so that you can prepare properly, but not too far so that you lose your enthusiasm. You want to quit so you have reasons to quit the smoking habit (or for that matter, any habit). Write those reasons down on a three by five card. This is your single most important tool in beating the habit. With those reasons on that card you will prepare yourself mentally to stop smoking. Using that card, you will perform the mental work necessary to BEGIN removing the addiction from you. Before the starting date, think about the reasons on that card and stopping smoking. Get emotional about it. My favorite reason was the thought of not having to inhale into my lungs the pesticides and other additives in tobacco products. Give yourself enough time to prepare yourself well before the starting date. A good week of intense thought, think of little else. DON'T UNDERESTIMATE THE POWER OF THIS HABIT. When the starting date arrives you will find out how well you have prepared. If you have prepared well then there is a good chance that all will go easy BUT YOU CAN NOT COUNT ON THIS. Be prepared for a tough battle. I do not know how all people act toward an addiction. The single greatest threat to your success is underestimating the power of this habit. Let us assume the worst case. The starting date has arrived, you have put forth a good week of intense mental effort to prepare yourself to stop and you get a craving to smoke. Get your list out, and and go over the reasons why you are quitting knowing that the urge will pass shortly. You might also have an aid to help you such as gum, sunflower seeds, lemon drops (what I used) to help get you by the trying times. If you are firm in your resolve then the urge to smoke is small in both intensity and duration, in fact the more resolved you are, the smaller the urge to smoke in both duration and intensity. But suppose you have not prepared well enough and the urge to smoke is strong. If you waiver then the following will happen. You will get urges to smoke that are stronger and they will last longer causing you to waiver even more, which in turn brings on even stronger urges of longer duration until you have started smoking again. You must be aware of what can happen and get to work reading your list when those urges to smoke first start. Keep in mind that three weeks is really not such a long time and after the 5th day those urges should start to subside in both frequency and intensity. Promise yourself a reward for completing the three week period successfully and think about that reward. Suppose you start smoking, now you are really in trouble, but there is still a chance. Get that list out and really go to work....state to yourself that you will not smoke again, in no uncertain terms, and mean it. Get really emotional about it and set a firm resolve in your mind not to smoke. If you now can remain smoke free then the breaking of the habit can resume as if you had not given in. Remember your body gives you credit for the time you have not smoked. But there is no sugar coating this turn of events, you may resume smoking and have to try again, at a later time, with even more mental effort up front. You either do it or you don't, get emotional and do it. If the worst happens then still think positively. Your body will give you credit for time spent not smoking plus you have gained knowledge in that you know to work harder next time. Don't say you can not do it for you must do it or you will die young. Don't give up thinking it is impossible. It just requires more work. So the three weeks are up and you have stopped and treated yourself to the reward you promised yourself. Many people can quit SHORT TERM just to start smoking again at a later date, usually within a year. There is a method to remain smoke free .....LONG TERM. The key to remaining smoke free long term is actually the same as quitting, you must always have your mind made up to deal with urges to smoke effectively. As long as the urges occur, you must be ready to deal with them decisively. I have had urges to smoke every year for the past 23 smoke free years. I am beginning to believe that a person will never be free from these urges but fortunately they diminish in number, duration, frequency, and intensity as the years roll by. As the body's memory fades as to the effect of nicotine on your system, the urges fade. But one thing doesn't change, if you give in or wonder how good a smoke might be then the urges fire up and become stronger in intensity and the number of urges increase until you could start smoking again. That is the LONG TERM DANGER , in that the RESOLVE MAY WEAKEN PAST THE LEVEL OF BODY HEALING to fight the urges to smoke, so keep your mind made up and keep your resolve through the years...........and here is how. This begins the second stage. After the initial three week period has ended, you have just begun. The next year is critical. NEVER UNDERESTIMATE THE POWER OF THIS HABIT. Get a calendar and mark every week on the calendar with the note , "consult list". When you see this, consult the list of the reasons of why you have stopped smoking and REAFFIRM YOUR RESOLVE. On the calendar, last week of December, make the entry to get another calendar and mark each week of the next year again to consult the list. Then on the third year calendar switch to once a month. For three years make a regular point to reaffirm your resolve to stay smoke free. Over the years, there are going to be rough spots in your life. Life is not always a bed of roses, so be aware that they are coming and that the urge to smoke may arise during these periods. When you go over your list think that they will come but I will not smoke, no matter what life may bring. No matter what happens to you, your life will be worse if you resume smoking. To start smoking again would just compound your misery during these trying times. It helps to deal with this problem in advance, when you review your list. Keep your list of reasons handy for at least six years.....keep the list in your wallet or purse. At times, for at least six years, you can get surprisingly strong urges to start smoking again, but if you have kept your resolve, you should be able to fight them successfully. After you have dealt with such an urge, give the list a little extra work out for a week or two. After you have dealt with a few of these urges you will gain confidence and realize that indeed it may have just been possible to have beaten this habit for good. That is basically it....KEEP THE MIND AHEAD OF THE HABIT.... MAINTAIN A FIRM RESOLVE NOT TO SMOKE. They say after 8 years, it is as if you have never smoked. I don't think this is true, the habit will always be in the background, however in a highly diminished state. Please feel free to contact me by e-mail below. Lawrence J. Gier, Ph.D. ljgier@kdsi.net

How to Quit Smoking, Long Term.

Updated January 30, 2008

I have to start by stating that I have no experience with the modern day methods of stopping smoking such as the nicotine patch method. What alarms me is that I hear no mention of the problem of quitting the nicotine habit .....LONG TERM, and I see no way the patch method can help .......LONG TERM. In fact, I am rather pessimistic about any method or commercial product that claims to be effort free, no work, easy, for I have found that quitting smoking requires mental work. It seems more likely a company would claim ease just to increase profit and sales of their technique, therefore I am pessimistic about commercial methods in general. I hope for the benefit of those who use such products that I am wrong and that they indeed work. In any case, I would recommend that a person check with the American Cancer Society, Lung Society or other such authority before using a particular commercial product.

I have stopped smoking at the present time of this writing...23 years. Before that, I had stopped for a 6 year period, before resuming the habit. At one time before I knew what it took to quit, I thought it was impossible to stop for half a day, let alone for a year. So if I can quit, so can you.

Many people go about breaking a habit the wrong way. They think to themselves, if I don't succeed, I have just put myself through a lot of pain and suffering for nothing, so why not just save myself all the pain and suffering and live with the habit. Whereas, what they should be thinking is that I just have to take it one day at a time, for everyday I don't smoke my lungs clear out and my health improves, and that is one more day of good health in my life so it is worth it. You have to think positive. I will show you how to stretch those days into a lifetime of being smoke free.

First thing, YOU HAVE TO WANT TO QUIT. This is all important, because if you do not want to quit then you are not going to quit. There has been a debate going on whether smoking is a physical or psychological addiction. I am here to tell you that it is both. If you have smoked for any length of time you will feel the effects of quitting smoking. My lungs itched so bad that I wanted to get inside them and scratch but I realized that the cleaning process had begun to rid my lungs of the tar captured from the years of smoking. The body craves nicotine so therefore it is a physical addiction in that the body uses the nicotine chemically (Or why would the body crave it?). It is a psychological addiction because the craving occurs in the brain. So the distinction is not important, you just have to realize that to rid yourself of this habit, it is going to require WORK in the way of mental preparation.

The first time I quit for six years, the initial three week beginning period was very, very easy to get through. How is that for encouragement? I was shocked at how easy it actually was to stop smoking when before I thought it was impossible. What I did was to prepare myself very well mentally to stop smoking. I prepared myself in advance so well that it was surprisingly easy. Now, let me tell you about that same three week period that started my current 23 year period of being smoke free. I thought I was going to die, it was very difficult. I had thought that since I did it before, that I could do it again without having to prepare mentally. I was lucky to have made it , it was so difficult. So here is the lesson about losing a habit. You have to want to quit and then you have to work to prepare yourself mentally to quit. (If you do, then you are rewarded with an easy start, but it is ONLY a start.)

The above illustrates a hard fact....same person..two seperate times stopping long term.....one easy the other hard...only difference was mental preparation. In fact, beating the nicotine habit is indeed mental, I will explain precisely as I go along.

After wanting to stop, you must set a date in the future to stop smoking. The initial three week period is the first hurdle to get over on the path to being smoke free so if possible arrange for this three week period to be as stress free as possible so that you can concentrate on quitting smoking. You will need all of your mental faculties during this time to stop. Perhaps, you could take vacation time from your job, but try to arrange for a stress free period of three weeks in your life. Set the date far enough in advance so that you can prepare properly, but not too far so that you lose your enthusiasm.

You want to quit so you have reasons to quit the smoking habit (or for that matter, any habit). Write those reasons down on a three by five card. This is your single most important tool in beating the habit. With those reasons on that card you will prepare yourself mentally to stop smoking. Using that card, you will perform the mental work necessary to BEGIN removing the addiction from you. Before the starting date, think about the reasons on that card and stopping smoking. Get emotional about it. My favorite reason was the thought of not having to inhale into my lungs the pesticides and other additives in tobacco products.

Give yourself enough time to prepare yourself well before the starting date. A good week of intense thought, think of little else. DON'T UNDERESTIMATE THE POWER OF THIS HABIT.

When the starting date arrives you will find out how well you have prepared. If you have prepared well then there is a good chance that all will go easy BUT YOU CAN NOT COUNT ON THIS. Be prepared for a tough battle. I do not know how all people act toward an addiction. The single greatest threat to your success is underestimating the power of this habit.

Let us assume the worst case. The starting date has arrived, you have put forth a good week of intense mental effort to prepare yourself to stop and you get a craving to smoke. Get your list out, and and go over the reasons why you are quitting knowing that the urge will pass shortly. You might also have an aid to help you such as gum, sunflower seeds, lemon drops (what I used) to help get you by the trying times. If you are firm in your resolve then the urge to smoke is small in both intensity and duration, in fact the more resolved you are, the smaller the urge to smoke in both duration and intensity. But suppose you have not prepared well enough and the urge to smoke is strong. If you waiver then the following will happen. You will get urges to smoke that are stronger and they will last longer causing you to waiver even more, which in turn brings on even stronger urges of longer duration until you have started smoking again.

You must be aware of what can happen and get to work reading your list when those urges to smoke first start. Keep in mind that three weeks is really not such a long time and after the 5th day those urges should start to subside in both frequency and intensity. Promise yourself a reward for completing the three week period successfully and think about that reward.

Suppose you start smoking, now you are really in trouble, but there is still a chance. Get that list out and really go to work....state to yourself that you will not smoke again, in no uncertain terms, and mean it. Get really emotional about it and set a firm resolve in your mind not to smoke. If you now can remain smoke free then the breaking of the habit can resume as if you had not given in. Remember your body gives you credit for the time you have not smoked. But there is no sugar coating this turn of events, you may resume smoking and have to try again, at a later time, with even more mental effort up front. You either do it or you don't, get emotional and do it.

If the worst happens then still think positively. Your body will give you credit for time spent not smoking plus you have gained knowledge in that you know to work harder next time. Don't say you can not do it for you must do it or you will die young. Don't give up thinking it is impossible. It just requires more work.

So the three weeks are up and you have stopped and treated yourself to the reward you promised yourself. Many people can quit SHORT TERM just to start smoking again at a later date, usually within a year. There is a method to remain smoke free .....LONG TERM. The key to remaining smoke free long term is actually the same as quitting, you must always have your mind made up to deal with urges to smoke effectively. As long as the urges occur, you must be ready to deal with them decisively.

I have had urges to smoke every year for the past 23 smoke free years. I am beginning to believe that a person will never be free from these urges but fortunately they diminish in number, duration, frequency, and intensity as the years roll by. As the body's memory fades as to the effect of nicotine on your system, the urges fade. But one thing doesn't change, if you give in or wonder how good a smoke might be then the urges fire up and become stronger in intensity and the number of urges increase until you could start smoking again. That is the LONG TERM DANGER , in that the RESOLVE MAY WEAKEN PAST THE LEVEL OF BODY HEALING to fight the urges to smoke, so keep your mind made up and keep your resolve through the years...........and here is how.

This begins the second stage. After the initial three week period has ended, you have just begun. The next year is critical. NEVER UNDERESTIMATE THE POWER OF THIS HABIT. Get a calendar and mark every week on the calendar with the note , "consult list". When you see this, consult the list of the reasons of why you have stopped smoking and REAFFIRM YOUR RESOLVE. On the calendar, last week of December, make the entry to get another calendar and mark each week of the next year again to consult the list. Then on the third year calendar switch to once a month. For three years make a regular point to reaffirm your resolve to stay smoke free.

Over the years, there are going to be rough spots in your life. Life is not always a bed of roses, so be aware that they are coming and that the urge to smoke may arise during these periods. When you go over your list think that they will come but I will not smoke, no matter what life may bring. No matter what happens to you, your life will be worse if you resume smoking. To start smoking again would just compound your misery during these trying times. It helps to deal with this problem in advance, when you review your list.

Keep your list of reasons handy for at least six years.....keep the list in your wallet or purse. At times, for at least six years, you can get surprisingly strong urges to start smoking again, but if you have kept your resolve, you should be able to fight them successfully. After you have dealt with such an urge, give the list a little extra work out for a week or two. After you have dealt with a few of these urges you will gain confidence and realize that indeed it may have just been possible to have beaten this habit for good.

That is basically it....KEEP THE MIND AHEAD OF THE HABIT.... MAINTAIN A FIRM RESOLVE NOT TO SMOKE. They say after 8 years, it is as if you have never smoked. I don't think this is true, the habit will always be in the background, however in a highly diminished state.

Please feel free to contact me by e-mail below.

Lawrence J. Gier, Ph.D.
ljgier@kdsi.net