How to quit smoking, in 13 psychological keys

Tobacco is one of the most widely used legal psychoactive substances (technically drugs), along with alcohol, worldwide. However, smoking has been shown to be harmful to human health, causing different alterations and facilitating the appearance of serious problems such as pulmonary emphysema and lung cancer or generating possible alterations in fetuses.

For this and for many other reasons many people decide to quit smoking, but they find that it is not as easy as not to take a cigarette, since they must cope with the anxiety that will generate not having access to a substance to which they have a certain dependence and that they have integrated into their day. How to stop smoking? In this article we leave you with 13 psychological keys to take into account to do so.

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Thirteen keys to quit smoking

Quitting smoking is not easy. Most of the people who do it begin to do so in adolescence and acquire the habit of smoking in very different situations and contexts. It is therefore a habit that is very well established in the majority of smokers.

There are many programs and strategies to quit smoking, some more successful than others. However, most of them share a series of keys or steps, some of the most notable being those that we will see below.

1. Analyze your consumption habits

One of the first steps to quit smoking is knowing how to recognize the extent to which we are dependent on tobacco. In this sense, the first thing we have to know is how much we smoke. You can make a simple self-registration to fill in on a daily basis, and assess after a week how many cigarettes are smoked.

Likewise, it may be useful to reflect if there are situations that trigger this consumption and to reflect on why they do so.

2. Decisional balance

Whether a person stops smoking depends largely on the willingness of the person to do so. In other words, we are not going to quit smoking if we do not want to. A good way to motivate yourself to do it is consider the pros and cons of smoking or quitting, in a realistic way.

Consider what smoking brings and what implications it has in the short and long term (both for oneself and for the environment) and contrast it With the advantages of quitting this habit or replacing it with other alternative activities, it is an interesting step to motivate ourselves to change. Aspects that are usually valued is the increase in health, the lower probability of suffering from cancer or respiratory problems, the lack of poisoning of loved ones, the risks to the fetus in case of pregnancy or the financial outlay that would no longer be used in the purchase tobacco.

Yes indeed, This strategy by itself does not guarantee anything; must be combined with other. After all, addictions are not a purely rational phenomenon.

3. Set goals and plan

We have finally ruled that we want to quit smoking and we are motivated to do so. It is a process that can be very short or very long depending on the person, their characteristics and the type of consumption habit they have. In any case it is advisable to plan the steps to follow and establish short and medium-term objectives that can lead to meeting the final objective: stop smoking.

4. Consider the use of elements to help the cessation

While they are not really necessary, many people find it helpful to use methods that reduce nicotine withdrawal. Examples of this are nicotine gum and patches. However, it must be taken into account that these mechanisms are fundamentally for physical abstinence, having few effects on the psychological one.

• You may be interested: "Habituation: a key process in pre-associative learning"

5. Start by reducing the amount

Deciding, for example, that starting tomorrow we are going to quit smoking when we have been smoking four packs a day for twenty years is not impossible, but for most people it is not feasible. We are facing a habit that has been established throughout life, and changing habits usually requires a process of progressive adaptation.

For this reason, it is recommended that rather than stop smoking suddenly, you start by reducing the daily amount of cigarettes, in a gradual and tolerable way for the subject. This can be combined with the progressive change of brand to others that contain less nicotine. Make a record of the maximum number of cigarettes that you are going to allow yourself per day and comply with that limit, being advisable to ration them. The reduction has to be real and significant: that is, if you smoke 50 a week, do not go to 48, but for example to 35.

And these cigarettes are the totals: they count both their own and those that other people can offer you. In fact, it is recommended not to accept other people's cigarettes, since it makes it easier for the quantities to get out of control and it can also set a precedent for accepting them in the future.

6. Inform your surroundings

Quitting smoking is difficult for many people. Communicating the decision to quit smoking to the immediate environment is a good way to make it easier for them to be aware of and understand the smoker's situation, as well as the likely increase in irritability. The support of this environment can help and reinforce quitting smoking.

7. Evaluate behaviors and alternative behaviors

We must be aware that as we reduce the amount or stop smoking, we will have to face moments when it will be difficult to hold the urge. Usually those who start to quit smoking tend to be more nervous and tense, as well as irritable. It is necessary and very useful to consider alternative behaviors to smoking, and especially if they are incompatible.

For example, some people decide to take a shower, chew gum or eat (the latter is the reason why some people tend to gain weight after quitting) to resist the discomfort and desire to consume that causes the absence of cigarette.

8. do exercise

Physical exercise is a very stimulating activity that is beneficial and very useful for almost all people in general, and that can also help us to stop smoking. It is likely that exercising initially will be difficult for the person who is quitting smoking, since practicing sports is a greater need for oxygenation and smokers (taking into account that smoking damages and blocks the airways) will tend to get tired before.

But this is also a source of motivation to stay abstinent from tobacco: over time the respiratory capacity will increase And, along with the habit of exercising and the endorphins and relaxation that it generates, the need and desire to consume tobacco will decrease. It is also a behavior that is partly incompatible with smoking (as it makes it difficult to do intense exercise correctly).

• You may be interested: "The 10 psychological benefits of practicing physical exercise"

9. Strengthen yourself

Quitting smoking, as we have already said on several occasions, is hard. That is why it is convenient reinforce oneself as we manage to complete our objectives. This reinforcement must be some pleasant activity that we do not usually do, and it can be reflected in a therapeutic contract that the person makes with himself. It can go from going out to dinner or to the movies to taking a little trip or getaway.

10. Ask for professional help

Treating addictions such as smoking is complex, and many people cannot quit on their own. Go to a professional who indicates more specific guidelines it can be helpful and can also be a source of support and motivation to quit.

11. Control exposure to places associated with smoking

Quitting smoking can be more difficult to achieve if we are surrounded by stimuli that continually remind us of this habit. For example, being around people who smoke or breathing in other people's smoke can trigger the urge to smoke. Although exposure to certain stimulations may be unavoidable, we must try limit our exposure to them.

12. Be aware of the risk of relapse

We are at a point where we may have stopped smoking. Good, but we also have to take into account that there is a probability of relapse. In fact, the first weeks without consumption can be tough, but the highest risk of relapse is generally after three months without using. Also, events such as weddings and parties, or stress-generating situations, can generate an increase in the desire to consume. These factors must be taken into account and it may be useful to consider ways of reacting if the urge to smoke appears.

13. eye! To fall is not to relapse

Once we have stopped smoking, this last key is essential to keep in mind (and it is applicable both when quitting smoking and when quitting other drugs). And it is possible that on some occasion there is a specific consumption, a fall. After that, many people consider that the attempt to quit smoking has been a failure. But This need not be so: We will only talk about a relapse if the habit of consumption is reinstated. It is not about minimizing the importance or indulging in a cigar from time to time, being something of should be avoided, but not criminalize and consider lost all the progress made up to then.

Bibliographic references

• Batra, A. (2011). Treatment of Tobacco Dependence. Deutsches Arzteblatt, consulted in http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3167938/ Spanish Association Against Cancer (2014). Guide to quit smoking. AEC, Madrid.