It’s often recommended to quit smoking cold turkey, without reductions that drag on for too long. Even so, some preparation can be useful if you haven’t quit as an immediate reaction—for example, to the diagnosis of an illness—or as a result of a crisis or a spur-of-the-moment decision.
If you feel you need a few days of preparation, it’s important to set a date to begin abstinence. As with schedules, routines, and habits in general, predefining that you’re going to do something on a specific day at a specific time saves you the mental energy of having to convince yourself to start this or that activity at some unfixed time, since the decision has already been made in advance.
Setting a date also helps give the start of the process a sense of solemnity, strengthens your commitment to the plan, and leaves less room for doubts or procrastination.
The pre-phase should last at most about 2 weeks. It’s not advisable for it to last longer, because goals that keep being postponed or that are set for a future that’s too far away can demotivate and frustrate you.
Likewise, if prior planning is accompanied by a reduction in cigarettes, it means that you will be trying to regulate consumption during that phase—that is, smoke less than usual and restrict it to certain moments.
If there is an addiction, smoking in a controlled or regulated way (“once in a while,” “only when I feel like it,” “when the occasion is worth it,” “only so many a day”) usually takes more effort than abstinence. When the substance is still present in your life and inside your body, the effort to keep it under control will be much greater than if it is eliminated and detoxification is completed. In fact, trying to control a substance that is highly addictive is a contradiction in itself—that is, one whose use by definition tends to lead the person to a loss of control.
In addition, there is a risk of returning to the previous pattern of use, given that if there is an intention to regulate consumption, there is often an internal debate about whether to smoke or not, depending on whether the occasion is worth it or not, or depending on how many cigarettes have already been smoked throughout the day. When abstinence begins, that internal debate gradually loses strength.
So, if you decide to reduce, it can last between 1 and 2 weeks, and depending on your level of use and the timeframe you have set, you can reduce by 2 cigarettes per day, for example.
During those days, we suggest you create a consumption log. Once you quit, QuitNow will be the one keeping track. The log is a calendar where you write down every day the cigarettes you smoke. It’s a way to bring awareness to the progress you’re making, and to have the first experiences of success, graphically confirming that you’re gaining a certain degree of control over tobacco. Likewise, in the log we suggest that you mark with asterisks all cigarettes smoked according to whether they are:
*dispensable**avoidable with difficulty***unavoidable
You can even write down the function each cigarette serves, e.g.: physical need, break, switching off, reward, socializing, etc.
For the cigarettes marked with * or **, we suggest you write down an alternative that fulfills that function. E.g.: For switching off, music. As a reward, a self-gift. To socialize, call a non-smoker.
They are only examples; the functions and their alternatives will be more powerful if they are yours.
If you can’t keep the log with you, another option is to fill it out at night, in a calm moment.
In the first days and weeks of abstinence, motivation can increase if you keep filling in the log calendar, writing down each day the amount of 0 cigarettes or using a green color for that day. Success is not about never smoking again, but rather that each day without tobacco is a confirming experience that can satisfy and reinforce you.
We add some strategies to help you prepare mentally for change during that pre-phase, and through which smoking becomes less comfortable, something that feels out of place. In some way, we aim to start isolating smoking from your day-to-day life and to problematize the act of smoking:
Strategies to make smoking "uncomfortable" during the pre-phase
- Choose 2 circumstances or places where you used to smoke, but where you will not smoke again (in the bedroom, in the car, in the living room, etc.).
- Switch tobacco brands.
- Smoke with the other hand.
- Smoke only the first half of the cigarette.
- Delay the first cigarette of the day by 10 minutes.
- Wait a few minutes before lighting a cigarette that you feel you’re going to mark as
*or**. Think about whether you want to smoke it. - Start using a relaxation or distraction strategy (more information in the chapter "Quit Day").
- Do an experiment: while smoking several cigarettes, focus, notice, and pay close attention to all aspects around smoking, such as: smells, sensations in the mouth and throat, the color of your fingers, flavors, or the physical appearance of the cigarette, the ash, the butt, and the ashtray. If possible, write down your observations. Many smokers drink water after smoking, cough, clear their throats, or wash their hands. They also smoke outside their homes to avoid the smell or to avoid harming their loved ones. Probably not many would light a cigarette in their homes and let it smolder like incense to perfume the room. It may be that when you observe the process, you come to the conclusion that, although it may also bring you relief, smoking may not be so nice and pleasurable, or that part of the act of smoking and its sensations and residues may even be unpleasant. We don’t expect anything; any conclusion is valid. If you conclude that, without qualifications, you love the smoke, the taste, the look, the ashtray, the sensation in your mouth, on your tongue, in your throat, that’s fine. We don’t want to falsify the result of the experiment. You can repeat the experiment if it helps you demystify the enjoyment associated with tobacco.
Family and social environment
Finally, regarding the family and social environment: If you tell your people about your intention to quit smoking long before the date, you will get social reinforcement before the achievement. That way, you will have received the gift ahead of time, and your purpose may lose motivational weight.
One of the biggest rewards you receive when you quit smoking is that appreciative look from others, the congratulations, the positive reception your goal gets, the pride you generate in others. If you receive that reward by announcing the plan before carrying it out, you will be receiving reinforcement without having started, and that can hold you back.
Therefore, we recommend that you don’t announce your goal to all your contacts in advance, although it’s also understandable that you might want to talk about it with those closest to you.
However, it’s important to tell friends, coworkers, and family when the process begins, and it’s advisable to ask smokers around you not to offer you tobacco. You will also likely gain support. Normally, the more eyes that see a situation, the more real it becomes, and the more firmness it gives to the commitment to yourself.
If the process is shared, and other people around you quit with you, it will be a process with more support—not because of others’ monitoring or control, but because of shared strength, and because it’s no longer just an individual path. Knowing that the goal is supported by a network will make it harder to drop out of the process, and will keep relapses at bay.
If the process is secret, or hidden, it will be harder to sustain, and it will be easier to return to use. The people around you, especially those who smoke, need your notice to get used to treating you like a non-smoker. It’s also understandable that at the beginning of abstinence you decide to spend less time with people who smoke or in places where people smoke. You can maintain contact through remote means and resume it later, or meet your acquaintances in smoke-free places.