Common reasons for quitting

Common Reasons For Quitting: Below are some of the most common reasons ex smokers give for quitting. Apply these to your individual circumstances, try to picture how they affect you and those around you and personalise them. You may find hidden, constructive and real reasons to stop.

• I want to stop feeling ashamed. My clothes, car and house smell because of it. The ceilings in my house need repainting and my curtains look grimy. Even my fingernails and teeth are stained.
• I want to improve my health. Stopping reduces the risk of serious illness such as heart disease and lung cancer. My family will suffer and their feelings will be hurt if I get ill.
• I can’t afford it. The money I spend on cigarettes could buy a nice used family car every few years. When I don’t have enough money I think about how much I’m wasting.
• I don’t want to smoke around my non-smoking family and friends. It’s unfair. They don’t smoke but face increased risk of ill health because of my smoking.

Understand Why You Smoke:

Identifying the reasons you smoke helps you to form an action plan for combating these issues while quitting. The most common reasons smokers give for smoking are:

• Pleasure: ‘I enjoy smoking’, ‘Relaxation’
• For a boost: Mental or physical
• Habit: Being used to doing things while smoking
• Addiction: To satisfy nicotine cravings
• Peer/Social: Pressure or to feel part of the crowd
• Emotion: Feelings such as stress, anger, upset, anxiety etc.

Beginning Your Personal Quitting Plan:

To get a good idea of what makes you smoke, think about the reasons above every time you light a cigarette for the next couple of days. It is also useful to rate how much you need each of them e.g. 1.I don’t really need it 2.I need it 3.I have to have one. Keep records in a notebook and tally how many cigarettes you could have gone without and how many you really needed to smoke. You will begin to see which cigarettes you are likely to miss the most. With just a little perseverance the cigarettes you rated with a “1” should be quite easy to eliminate. Most likely the cigarettes rated “2” and “3” will also be the ones that will tempt you back to smoking once you have stopped.

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