How To Quit Smoking: Simple Tips To Kick the Habit For Good

When you quit smoking, your health starts to improve almost immediately. It's never too late to stop, and getting the right support can make quitting easier.

Key Takeaways

Quitting smoking improves your health quickly:

When you stop smoking, your body starts to heal almost immediately, with benefits like better heart rate, oxygen levels, and energy within days.

Nicotine makes quitting tough:

Nicotine is highly addictive, causing cravings and withdrawal symptoms like irritability and anxiety, making it hard to quit.

Support helps you quit:

Using nicotine replacements, medications like Champix or Zyban, and behavioral therapy can greatly increase your chances of successfully quitting smoking.

Why do I find it hard to quit smoking?

You’ll already know that smoking is bad for both your health and your wallet. But if smoking is bad for you, why can’t you just give it up? The answer is nicotine.

Nicotine Withdrawal

Nicotine is an addictive substance that causes you to crave another cigarette, despite any sensible thoughts that you might have about quitting, making you feel irritable, hungry, anxious, restless and/or depressed (Cancer Research UK, 2023). 

Because of cigarettes’ addictive nature, making the decision to stop smoking may not come easily. However, the benefits of quitting are far-reaching both immediately after quitting and for the long term:

• 20 minutes after you decide to quit, your heart rate will return to normal (British Heart Foundation, 2023)

• Within 8 hours the oxygen levels in your blood will return to normal (Asthma and Lung UK, 2024)

• In 72 hours, you will have more energy and your breathing will feel easier (WebMD, 2023)

• In the first few weeks, your blood circulation will improve making it easier to walk or exercise (NHS Better Health, 2024)

• In a year, your risk of having a heart attack is half that of a smoker (NHS Better Health, 2024)

Simple Tips To Help You Quit Smoking

If you want to experience the benefits of being a non-smoker and are ready to quit, you will need plenty of willpower. However, some changes to your habits and certain medications can greatly improve your chances of succeeding.

Set a date to quit within the next 2 weeks

It is best to quit smoking when you feel ready and are prepared. Quitting on a whim may make it more difficult to resist a cigarette.

Choose a date when you want to stop but commit to a date within the next two weeks (NHS Inform, 2024), and then make the necessary preparations to give up. This might include removing all cigarettes, ashtrays and lighters from the house, car and office, so that you are less tempted to give in to your cravings. 

Going 'cold turkey'

Trying to stop smoking without medications or emotional support is possible, but it can be very difficult. Going ‘cold turkey’ requires plenty of willpower, as nicotine is a very addictive substance.

It's important to remember that you can put yourself at risk of experiencing background cravings and sudden cravings for nicotine (Nicorette UK, 2024). You should always consult with your doctor when quitting smoking to ensure that the method you are choosing is safe and sustainable for you, in order to increase the chances of kicking the habit for good.

If you have already tried to give up cigarettes by going cold turkey, but gave in to strong cravings, you may now be looking for a way to try again with some additional support in the form of nicotine replacement therapy.

Nicotine Replacement

Nicotine replacement therapies are one of the most commonly recognised ways to stop smoking. Available as gum, patches, mouth sprays, nasal sprays, inhalators or lozenges, nicotine replacement products give your body the nicotine you need to satisfy a craving. This may help to reduce any anxiety, restlessness or irritability you feel at trying to quit smoking. 

Crucially, these products don’t contain the nasty chemicals that cigarettes do. This allows you to replace the nicotine when you need to, before gradually reducing the replacement product until you no longer need it. The current evidence suggests that all forms of nicotine replacement increase your chances of successfully stopping smoking.

Some forms of nicotine replacement are designed to be started before your quit date. Pre-Quit NiQuitin is designed to be used for 2 to 4 weeks before you quit for good. This may make it feel easier to stick to your stop date, increasing your chance of success.

Champix

When you smoke, nicotine binds to receptors in the brain to give you a pleasurable, relaxing feeling. Champix contains the medication varenicline which mimics nicotine. It stimulates the same receptors that nicotine would normally bind to, helping you to avoid cravings and feelings of withdrawal. Champix also works to reduce the pleasure that you get from smoking, making it feel easier to resist a cigarette.

Champix is a treatment that you should begin taking one week before your quit date. This allows it to get to work on the receptors in your brain, so that when you do stop smoking, it doesn’t feel like such a shock. To aid success, you should take Champix for around three months.

Zyban

Zyban is a medication that helps to reduce withdrawal, irritability and anxiety associated with stopping smoking. It contains the drug bupropion which encourages the release of neurotransmitters in the brain to help you feel more relaxed about not having a cigarette.

Like Champix, you begin taking Zyban before your quit date, and then continue taking it for several weeks to give yourself the best chance of quitting. Will power and determination are still required to successfully quit smoking.

Behavioural Changes

If you don’t want to go cold turkey, but would rather not go it alone, you could consider having behavioural therapy or hypnotherapy.

Behavioural Therapy

Behavioural therapy can help to make quitting smoking more effective, alongside medical treatment (NIHR, 2019).

You can make changes to your smoking behaviours with the support of family, friends or a counsellor. This often involves learning what your triggers for smoking are, such as:

• Stress or anxiety

• Social events

• Chatting on the phone

• Driving

• Drinking coffee or alcohol

• After eating

• Watching TV

If you can identify your triggers, you can take steps to avoid them or do something rather than smoke (Mental Health Foundation, 2021). For example, when chatting on the phone you could distract yourself by doing a puzzle or another creative activity. Rather than smoking after a meal, you could go for a walk.

Behavioural therapy can also be used in conjunction with nicotine replacement or smoking cessation treatments to aid success.

Hypnotherapy

Hypnotherapy aims to convince you to stop smoking. Hypnotherapy techniques may rely on trying to convince you that smoking is poisoning your body, or prompting you to imagine that smoking will leave your mouth completely dry. You may become convinced that cigarette smoke smells like a car exhaust. Using off-putting imagery is thought to reduce the urge to smoke. 

There is limited evidence to suggest that hypnotherapy can offer success in helping you to quit smoking (WebMD, 2023). However, if you feel that meeting a hypnotherapist or using a hypnotherapy podcast or online tool will help, then this positive mental attitude may boost your drive to quit for good. 

Speak to your Doctor

Many smokers want to quit, but the addictive nature of nicotine can make this challenging. Most people require a combination of behavioural modifications alongside smoking cessation treatments to break the habit. Consulting your doctor for advice on how to quit smoking is the best way to kick the habit for good. They can help you to develop a plan to quit smoking that is sustainable for the long term and safe for you.

If your doctor recommends a specific treatment, UK Meds’ range of medications and smoking cessation could help you to quit smoking for good.

Sources

Quit Smoking - Better Health - NHS