- List your own reasons for quitting.
- Choose a "low stress" time to quit. Set a date and stick to it.
- Build a support network around you. Ask for help from your dentist, doctor, family, friends, work colleagues.
- Use medicines that help your body get used to life without nicotine: they can double your chances of quitting for good. Ask your doctor, dentist, pharmacist about them first.
- Seek tobacco-free environments to curb your temptations: eg movies, theatres, libaries, restaurants.
- Plan activities that leave no opportunity for smoking.
- Remove smoking paraphernalia from your home, office and car.
- Anticipate problems and have a realistic plan to deal with challenges (eg if going out with smokers, practise what you are going to say when you refuse a cigarette).
- Exercise: not only can it make you feel better about yourself and your decision to quit, it is hard to smoke when you're cycling, swimming, or jogging.
- Keep your hands occupied. Take up some manual activities: woodworking, gardening, do the housework, keep some needlework or a small book of puzzles or crosswords with you.
- Practise the 4Ds when you feel cravings coming on: Delay (craving will pass in 5 to 10 minutes); Drink water (helps wash toxins from your body, keeps your hands and mouth busy); Distract yourself (keep active, do something else); Deep breathing (inhaling and exhaling deeply is soothing and relaxing).
- Persevere and don't let setbacks get you down. It is like learning to ride a bike: when you fall off, just get back on again and keep trying. There will be bad days, and there will be good days.
Remember, the majority of successful quitters did not stop on their first quit attempt.
