I’ve gone back onto smoking… What do I do next?

[EmJay]

Okay, so you’ve had a slip up and having that one cigarette has turned into having another

The first one probably wasn’t as nice as you had hoped for; the next may seem to be a bit better – this is only because smoking is beginning to dull your taste buds again

Before you realise what is happening, the next thing you find is that you are nipping out and buying a pack of 10 cigarettes. “At least it’s not 20 though” - you say and lead yourself to believe! Funny what we tell ourselves to lessen any feelings of guilt!

The next decision you make is probably going to be; “once I’ve finished this packet, I’ll stop again” However, most people will find that they’ll turn this decision onto “Oh I’ll just set my quit date for next Monday” and then when Monday comes around you’ll very conveniently have forgotten about it… until the next time!

If you have experienced any of the above, then this is pretty normal. What you need to do is start thinking about how you can get yourself in the right mind set and back on track to stopping smoking again.

Give some thought about;

1 What you enjoyed about smoking?

2 How did it make you feel afterwards?

The next step is deciding what to do next…

Ideally you will just stop smoking and carry on where you left off, learning from what has just happened so you can avoid it, should it happen again.

If you feel that this isn't an option for you at the moment, it may be that you will need to set a new quit date in the very near future, but not too far away.

It may be useful for you to draw up a list of potential trigger points that are likely to push you into taking the decision to actually lighting up a cigarette.

I'm sure you will have learnt quite a lot from each past attempt, especially your most recent attempt.

Common trigger points are;

Stressful events, seeing someone else smoke, having a drink (caffeine or alcohol based), pleasant cigarette smoking memories, having fun, getting drunk, parties and emotional events – such as arguments.

Once you have your list, write down a few ideas of how you can either;

a) avoid these trigger points

or

b) stay strong and wait for the urge to smoke to pass

Think about whether or not you might be better using NRT or another stop smoking therapy. Why not even contact your local stop smoking service and get your products free, or even for the price of your prescription? For contact numbers have a look here;

quitsupport.healthunlocked....

Whilst you are thinking about quitting again, it may be worth having a look at the following blog to get you to understand a little bit about which part of smoking satisfies you;

quitsupport.healthunlocked....

Next steps then is to set a quit date and then you’re ready to roll

Why not keep a blog on your stop smoking journey? By sharing your journey you may be helping others going through the same

Any problems or questions, let us know and we'll do our best to help

Remember that staying positive is the key to succes

[monky Administrator Cake sniffer outer]

Thankyou Emjay, this is very helpfull and i have set my new quit date -- Tuesday 28th August 2012

Not sure about keeping a blog on my stop smoking journey though will have to think about that one.

Thank you again Emjay, your just a sooooper gal