How to Quit Smoking Naturally Part III: Identify & Prepare for Your Triggers

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“He who fails to plan, plans to fail” – Proverbs

Now you are ready to move on to the next action item in the process of quitting smoking: Create a list of strategies to beat the cravings. You must prepare for the obstacles. There are two types of addiction that you must cater for: the biological addiction to nicotine and the behavioral addiction to smoking.

The biological addiction

The biological addiction to nicotine usually lasts about a week. Your body has become accustomed to getting a nicotine fix at specific time intervals – for me it was every half hour. It expects this fix and will start to react strangely when it does not get it. You will start experiencing withdrawal symptoms. These may include light-headedness, shaking, sweating, nervousness, anxiety and irritability.

There are however things you can do to help reduce both the cravings that result from this biological need, and the severity of the withdrawal symptoms. Firstly, drink lots of water, and if you can tolerate it, cranberry juice. I believe this helps to flush the existing nicotine from your system. It works. I would sip a demi-tasse of cranberry juice every time a craving hit during that first week after I quit (often known as Hell Week ). After this week passes, the body pretty much stops having biological cravings.

Another strategy which helps flush the nicotine from the system is daily aerobic exercise – walking, running, biking, doing aerobics tapes – whichever you prefer or even all of the above. Resist inertia and be as active as possible – take the stairs instead of the elevator, walk the two blocks instead of taking a bus, take a walk after dinner instead of settling down in front the tele. The more active you are, the faster your blood circulates, the more breaths you take into your lungs and thus the faster the nicotine is cleared from your system.

The behavioral addiction

The behavioral addiction has two parts to it: smoking as a coping mechanism and smoking as part of your regular routine. While you are preparing to quit, I suggest you keep a log of the times at which you smoke – and particularly note what event precipitates your lighting up.

Smoking as part of your regular routine

Smoking often becomes a regular part of several routines and you need to identify these carefully. For example, I signaled the end of every meal with a cigarette. I used to drink coffee in those days and I had to have a cigarette with my coffee. I also smoked first thing in the morning and last thing before I went to bed at night.

Merely identifying these occasions helps you to be prepared for the craving when it comes. What you also need to do is plan a new habit to replace the old one. For me cranberry juice was my favoured replacement. Because it is a bit bitter, it has to be sipped and I took about as long to drink a demi-tasse as I did to smoke a whole cigarette. The cigarette that I usually smoked with my coffee was replaced with a belly rub for the doggy – so that became her playtime. Always be sure to replace the smoking activity with a positive habit. I replaced the first cigarette in the morning by chewing a straw while I contemplated on my list of reasons to remain smoke free.

Smoking as a coping mechanism

Very often smoking becomes a way to process emotions. As you pay attention to your log, you will notice that you reach for a cigarette when you are angry, stressed, happy, relaxed, tired, or sad. Most smokers use smoking as a way to cope with stress. It is important that you look through your log and identify when smoking is associated with an emotional reaction or a stressful situation.

You will need to identify and learn new coping mechanisms. This will not be easy because it is at times when you are stressed or emotional that you will feel least in control. And the very act of quitting smoking can make you feel stressed. But do not use this as an excuse, practice saying to yourself, “Smoking a cigarette now will not make this situation go away nor will it make me feel better. I need to find a more constructive way to deal with this situation”. Because the truth of the matter is that cigarettes do not help resolve a situation or a feeling. You need to try other mechanisms. And the good news is that once you start using a new coping mechanism it soon becomes well entrenched and you soon stop ‘reaching for’ the cigarette under those circumstances.

Replacement coping mechanisms

Suggestions include going for a walk, drinking some water, climbing the stairs, writing out your feelings, pounding on a punching bag, screaming (this is not advised at work – depending on where you work ), talking to a friend about how you feel, chewing on a straw, and logging on to an online quit smoking chat room. Try any positive alternatives that you can think of. I even know of a lady who would sew a button onto a bean bag every time she got angry and wanted something to do other than smoke. It was a but eccentric but it worked (and she ended up quite skilled at sewing buttons ).

So your first task for today is to make out your motivation list of reasons why you really want to quit smoking and live a smoke free life. Your second task for today is to identify all the occasions when you routinely smoke, and think up good habits to use at those times.

Look out for the next article in this How to Quit Smoking Series: Part IV: Quit Smoking Strategies

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Related Articles:

• How to Quit Smoking Part I
• How to Quit Smoking Part II: Preparation
• How to Quit Smoking Part IV: Quit Smoking Strategies
• How to Quit Smoking Part V: The Time to Quit is Now!
• How to Fight Depression Naturally
• How to become an Optimist – Part I
• Coping with Stress – Part I

Posted in A New Start, Choices, Goals, Self Discipline |   4 Comments »

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