How to Stop Smoking

First of all, a smoker must really want to stop. He needs strong motivation. Jacquelyn Rogers, the founder of Smokenders, an organization to help smokers to quit, says that she is in the motivation business. “We make people believe they can stop,” she says. Many smokers fail to quit because of doubt​—they doubt their ability to succeed.

Can the various antismoking programs and chemical preparations aid in quitting? Evidently they have helped some. “I couldn’t have stopped without help,” said one heavy smoker. But as Dr. Neil Solomon, who gave this smoker injections of vitamins, minerals and novocaine, acknowledged regarding the treatment: “There’s nothing magical about it. If you don’t want to stop, it won’t work.”

THE WILL TO STOP

Yes, success depends almost wholly on the smoker’s determination and will to stop. Without this determination, no antismoking remedy will succeed. But with it, a person can quit without paying for some expensive antismoking remedy. Ninety percent of ex-smokers quit without any of such aids. As World Health magazine said: “The major element in success or failure is and will always be the smoker’s willpower. The rest is just trimming.” But how can a person obtain the will to stop?

For many, constantly reminding themselves that smoking is deadly has provided them the will. As a south Miami physician, who admits she liked to smoke, said: “Fear is the only reason I don’t smoke.” Some antismoking programs cultivate this fear, emphasizing the terrible damage smoking does to the body. Psychologist David M. Fineman described the process of negative imagery that helped him, as well as others, to quit: “I used to inhale a cigarette and picture the instant damage it was doing to my body. I consciously tried to summon up these images.”

Such an approach, however, does not provide sufficient motivation for some to stop. As a New York housewife explained: “If I had gone to a doctor and he told me that I would die from cancer unless I gave up smoking I would not have quit. Smoking was the main thing in my life, more important to me than food. I smoked almost constantly. I would even walk around the house with an ashtray in my hand.” What stronger motivation can help severely addicted smokers to quit?

This New York housewife started to study the Bible with Jehovah’s Witnesses. Yet learning that smoking was against God’s law did not, in itself, provide her sufficient determination to stop. “I wanted to stop,” she said, “but I was so addicted. I just did not have the strength to do so.”

She explained what eventually made her determined to stop. “My husband accepted the Bible truths he was learning, quit smoking and was baptized. I was so grateful! I did not want to do anything to hinder our serving Jehovah God acceptably and gaining life in his new system of things, so I determined to stop also.” And she did!

AIDS IN QUITTING

There are aids available to bolster your will to quit. Most important is the aid that God can give. The New York housewife mentioned earlier explained: “I prayed to Jehovah incessantly and with his help held to my resolve never to smoke again.” Yet some pray but still cannot stop. What is the problem?

It could be the timing of their prayers. One smoker prayed in the morning and at night for strength, and, after weakening and taking a smoke, he would pray to Jehovah in order to tell Him that he was sorry for what he had done. A Christian friend asked him: “Isn’t the time that you really need God’s help the moment that you are reaching for a smoke?” When the man began praying at that moment, he gained the help to stop smoking!

Supportive friends, especially ones who themselves have conquered the smoking habit and can therefore affirm that it can be done, are valuable aids. So seek out such friends. Let them know of your decision to stop smoking, and ask for their support.

What is the best way to stop? Is it by reducing the number of cigarettes consumed each day, thereby gradually quitting? Or is it by setting a day and stopping abruptly on that day?

Contrary to what many think, a comprehensive study of ex-smokers showed that smokers are better able to overcome withdrawal symptoms by stopping suddenly. Researchers Saul M. Shiffman and Murray E. Jarvik of the University of California at Los Angeles explain that cutting down slowly may actually “prolong their [the smokers’] agony by intermittently reinforcing their symptoms and smoking behavior. Typically, this chronic state of withdrawal will lead to relapse and return to baseline rates of smoking.”

The first few days after quitting may be the most difficult. So, as an aid, think about the benefits of not smoking. One is the money saved. It can amount to quite a lot! “I’ve now been putting $2 a day into a coffee can​—the money I would have previously spent on cigarets,” wrote one man. “I figure in the next 12 months it should add up to more than $700, enough to buy my wife a fur coat or something.”

With strong determination, many smokers have quit for a week or so, enduring the initial agony of withdrawal. But, as World Health observes, “a difficult phase begins, usually starting between the first and the third week. The first backslidings occur then.” So the battle needs to continue!

Whenever you feel a need for a cigarette, breathe deeply two or three times. Keep oral substitutes handy. Pop into your mouth things like raisins, nuts and sunflower seeds, or eat carrot and celery sticks, or chew gum. Drink more fluids​—wholesome drinks such as fruit or vegetable juices or just plain water. Also, arrange for a more balanced diet.

Getting more exercise can be a real aid. Perhaps try activities such as jogging, tennis, cycling or swimming. Stretch a lot. Get plenty of rest. Go to bed early so as to avoid nervous fatigue. Concentrate on learning to relax. If you really want to, you can stop smoking!

WHY STOPPING IS WORTH THE EFFORT

The benefits from stopping are many. They include improved health and longer life prospects, but there are many more. One ex-smoker noted: “I have discovered again all the natural and simple pleasures that exist, that of taste, for instance. Walking in the woods, I realize the odours no longer smell all the same​—there’s a whole variety of them; it’s like entering a brand new environment.”

The greatest benefit, however, is in the realization that by quitting you are ridding yourself of a habit that displeases God, as well as many of your neighbors. If you want help to stop smoking because you desire the favor of Jehovah God, write to the publishers of The Watchtower. They will be pleased to send to your home a qualified minister who will be happy to provide you with further Scriptural information and moral support to help you to quit.