I gave up in April 2007 before the smoking ban came into affect, having smoked more than 20 per day (10 packets a week if out on the tiles) for 15 years.
I found that there are 3 main reasons that aim to give you the motivation to stop smoking:
• Health reasons - either because you've developed some smoking related heath problems or are fearful for getting them. Maybe you have a family member or close friend that is ill or has passed away through smoking.
When I tired to use this myself I'd not had any family members or friends to use as examples and due to my age I was no-where near the age where illnesses become more apparent. In my mind I had 40 years before I'd see any smoking related health issues.
• Financial reasons - How much is a packet of fags today? £8? £9? £10? I honestly could not afford to smoke like I did ten years ago. I'd be spending £100/week, which is £400/month and nearly £5k per year. It's always helpful to look at what you could use that money for instead of cigs and in most cases, it's a mortgage or a least a new car or family holiday. I stopped smoking once because I bought a new car and I honestly didn't think I could afford the repayments AND still smoke. After a few months I realised I could afford both so I ended up smoking again.
• Family pressure - Are your kids begging you stop? What about an ageing parent that's asking you learn by their mistakes? Maybe your partner is pleading with you? All this is pressure from family members and in all honest, it's whether you value their needs greater than your own. When I tried to stop smoking I didn't have kids or a partner so that didn't help motivate me. My Mum had smoked for years and successfully stopped first when she had my sister, then she smoked for the following 3 years until she had me. Then that was it, her children ended up being her prime motivator to stop smoking. She pleaded with me countless times to stop and my response was always that I'd try for her but I never did.
I tried all of the above and I always found a way around it resulting in me continuing to smoke. There was no motivator big enough for me that outweighed my attitude towards smoking,
So how did I stop?
Well I did it cold turkey with no help from patches or nicotine gum or cigarette replacements. What did it from me was that the Government were to pass a law telling me where and when I could smoke and I was so enraged by that control being taken away from I decided to stick two fingers up to the establishment and show them that they couldn't tell me when and where I could smoke - so I stopped just to spite them.
Mental or what?
Funny story - I lived in Ireland for a while working as musician and so I was always in pubs and clubs, full of smoking. When they introduced the smoking ban, almost overnight the pubs we played in absolutely reeked from people farting! You'd walk into a place and all you could smell was other people's farts! I'd rather be breathing in cigarette smoke than other people's poo particles!
I will admit, it was hard to start with but I found it easier if I removed myself from people and places where I knew smokers were. I caved twice whilst trying to stop and that was going halves on a packet of 20 on a stag night out - p***ed out my head of course. The second was new years eve 2007 where me and a mate bought a packet each and sat on his house step and smoked them one after another - again p***ed up. I was so disappointed with myself the next day - I felt terrible, my throat was knackered and I'd failed in front of my wife. That was the last packet of cigs I actually smoked. In fact, I've still got a few places around the house where I'll find a half pack of cigs that I'd forgot about. It feels totally alien to hold a cig in my fingers now and even more putting one in-between my lips. You think that you'll never get over it but one day I got up, went about my day and then later that night I thought to myself, 'Huh, I haven't thought about cigarettes today - weird'. Today I don't think about them at all. No interest, zero, nada, zilch.
My final advice is to pick a date in the future that you are going to use as the day you become a non-smoker. Build up to it. Tell family and friends about it. Then on that day you tell yourself that you are a non-smoker. You NEVER say that you're TRYING to stop smoking. You ALWAYS say that you are a non-smoker. If someone offers you a fag you say, 'No thank you, I DONT SMOKE'. You don't say, 'No thank you, I'm trying to stop' NEVER EVER!
When you are trying to stop and other smokers know that then they WILL try and derail your attempts by offering you one - 'Go on, one won't hurt'. But ONE does hurt. There is a definite line between a smoker and a non-smoker and there is no in-between. You are either a smoker or a non-smoker - it's that simple! So which one will you be? It's your choice. Even having 1 cig makes you a smoker.
There was always that question of when you had your first cigarette and if you could go back to that point would you say no rather than yes? Most smokers do actually say that they would say no instead of yes. So when that happens you have that same choice again. Do you want to say yes and become a smoker or say NO and continue to be a non-smoker.
It's f*****g hard mate - don't doubt it - but the rewards are huge!
I forget if it's your heart or lungs that repair themselves to that of a non-smoker after 10 years of stopping. If it's your lungs then the opposite, so your heart, is repaired after just 5 years of being a non-smoker. My heart and lungs today are that of a non-smoker and have fully repaired themselves as if I never had a cig in my life.
So, crack on with it and good luck!
