From the moment you quit smoking, you’ll begin a new stage. In this chapter we present a series of strategies that will help you along that path.
One of the most useful strategies is to avoid high-risk situations. For this reason, we suggest some risk factors that may predispose you to smoke, so you can decide whether you want to avoid them:
Risk factors
- Times of day when you used to smoke: after meals, when leaving work, during breaks, etc.
- Places: bars, outdoor terraces, etc.
- Types of food: heavy meals, alcohol, coffee, etc.
- People who smoke.
- Difficult experiences: problems, boredom, stress, crises.
As for positive strategies, we also suggest a list:
Useful strategies to fight the urge to smoke
- Exercise.
- Mindful, steady breathing.
- Talking with someone, avoiding making tobacco the topic of conversation.
- Distraction: going for a walk, turning music up loud to take the foreground of your attention, reading, etc.
- Wetting your hands, mouth, or your whole body with cold water (or hot water if you feel anxious).
Be careful with strategies that are useful, but not positive! For example, eating a lot of sugar, switching to another drug, or engaging in risky behaviors (driving fast, doing extreme sports, etc.) may help you think less about smoking, but these activities can create other drawbacks.
There is no magic formula. There are different tips and strategies that can be helpful, but there are no miracle remedies. You have to keep assessing which ones work for you.
In that sense, we ask you: What is your ideal way of quitting smoking? How do you think you should quit smoking? It’s possible that you have built, more or less consciously, the idea that there is a specific or correct way to quit smoking. For example: without help, or without making changes to your routine, or without giving up contexts where there is smoke.
All processes are valid, whether more resources are needed or not. Asking for help is not a sign of weakness, and there is nothing wrong with finding a way to make withdrawal as easy and comfortable as possible.
Letting yourself be helped is an indicator of strength because it means being vulnerable and accepting your own difficulties. Having external resources makes you stronger.
We also explain in a summarized way what types of medications exist for the treatment of nicotine addiction:
Medication
- Nicotine replacement, in the form of patches, gum, or lozenges: no prescription is needed. They are less effective than other medications. In fact, it should be considered that they consist of taking nicotine through routes other than smoke. This avoids harmful effects on the respiratory tract, and psychologically the process of breaking the habit of smoking continues, but the dependence on the drug continues to be reinforced. If you don’t feel very strong urges to smoke, it’s better to avoid it. In no case are vapes or electronic cigarettes recommended, since either they contain nicotine, or if they don’t, they can cause respiratory diseases due to combustion and the smoke that is inhaled.
- Partial agonists of nicotinic receptors. These are medications that stimulate the receptors that usually receive nicotine from tobacco, but they do so more weakly than tobacco. They reduce the urge to smoke and ease withdrawal symptoms:
- Varenicline: a prescription is required. The active ingredient of the medication has this name, although the brand name of the drug may be different.
- Cytisine or cytisinicline: a prescription is required. The active ingredient of the medication has this name, although the brand name of the drug may be different. It was already used in Eastern Europe in the 1960s. Now it is being used more and more and is replacing varenicline, since it has similar effectiveness but fewer side effects. It is a molecule similar to nicotine that comes from the plant called broom. During World War II, soldiers chewed on it and realized it calmed their urge to smoke.
- The nicotinic receptor antagonist called bupropion: a prescription is required. This drug blocks nicotine receptors by binding to them, but without generating any biological effect of its own. It is also used as an antidepressant and therefore is contraindicated with other psychotropic medications.
Any medication can have different effects depending on the person, and all medications can have side effects.
Medications cannot replace personal motivation and the decision to change. A medication taken without truly wanting to quit smoking will probably fail. In fact, in many public health systems the requirement to prescribe these medications is that the person wants to quit smoking, and if not, it should not be prescribed.
It is an add-on, and it can help you feel fewer urges to smoke, but it cannot generate the necessary motivation in you. At this point, we remind you of the first section where we explained that in order to move forward it is necessary to see yourself as an active part of the change and not as a mere passive patient who takes medications.
Because it is an add-on, we say that treatments should be comprehensive. This means they should address all spheres of the phenomenon: psychological, biological, and social.