Help from light smokers

[ToniR]

Hi guys, one of my friends from a different country has messaged me to say well done on quitting and asked how I did it, she wants to quit but uses her cigs as a crutch for stress and isn't sure she can give that up. I did of course refer her to here and also the Alan Care book, both things that worked for me. I told her I had loads of things to say about quitting but didn't want to preach, she replied preach away, I'm looking for something to strike a nerve! So I asked her what type of smoker she was, she said daily but light, 4 a day, It's routine, it's habit, it's something to have a quiet moment with. It gets  her going. she smokes more when She drinks - that's where it started.

I'm struggling to help her, all of my reasons for quitting revolved around being a full time, full on addicted smoker. Can anyone who was a very light smoker, potentially just take it or leave it, give me some of the reasons they wanted to quit and then what made them quit? I can help her with advice about how to quit just not the motivations as mine will be very different to hers.

Thanks in advance 😊

[RoisinO1 Administrator 3 Years Smoke Free]

Hey ToniR  , my opinion is that it does not matter if you smoke 1 a day or 40 a day, you are still putting over 4,000 toxic chemicals into your body daily from one cigarette.  It is still doing the exact same damage and can still get the same illnesses, diseases etc....so the motivators should be the same of a heavy smoker to a light smoker.

Overcoming stressful situations without the crutch was my biggest fear but with the right frame of mind I dealt with it and ironically cope alot calmer in stressful / difficult situations since I quit....let her know that the habit will have to broken but should not take more than a month at the most to this....hope this helps

PS Forgot to say, she must be in the correct mindset to quit and really want it...

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That is a hard one really. As I would class her as more of a causal smoker. Saying that, she does smoke daily.

If she wants to quit, regard less of weather she sees it as a crutch, deep down she is still not happy.

Reading Allen Carr certainly could help.

[Empresschocky 2 Years Smoke Free]

I was a 3 roll your own fags a day of which I would have 3 puffs ...so 9 puffs per days BUT that still made me a smoker even though I hated the smell of Taylor mades I still smoked my rollis....No matter how many you smoke a day you still find it just as hard to give up  AND it's even harder as the money saved is not an incentive as my weekly bill worked out at $8 per week max 

[USNx 1000 Days Smoke Free]

How about - smoke die.