Quit by Choice

Blog

  • Will Nicotine Replacement Really Help Me Stop Smoking?

    Well, that’s what the people who sell Nicotine Replacement Therapy (NRT) products would like you to believe, but according to the American Cancer Society, 91.4% of all successful long-term quitters quit “cold turkey”, while only 6.8% used NRT (with or without other drugs or quitting aids)1.

    I will freely admit that math was never my strong suit, but I’m pretty sure that 91.4 times 2 does not equal 6.8. The truth is, you’re 13 times more likely to go back to smoking if you use NRT than you are if you don’t.

    (more…)

  • Getting Honest: You Are An Addict

    If you want to quit, and stay quit long-term, you have to get honest with yourself. As I’ve mentioned before (and will no doubt mention again), one of the things addicts are really good at is denial. In fact, we’re world champs at it. And that’s one of the reasons why it’s so easy to go back to feeding our addictions after we quit; there are so many things that we’ve been in denial about that we just can’t deal with them without the smokescreen in place.

    First of all, you have to get honest about being an addict. It doesn’t help for you to continue to kid yourself about this by saying things like, “it’s just a bad habit,” and, “I can give it up any time I want to.” No it isn’t, and no you can’t. Studies have shown that over 90% of people who smoke regularly do so because they’re addicted. How likely do you think it is that you’re one of the few regular smokers who aren’t addicts?

    (more…)

  • Resistance is Futile

    An oak and a willow stood side by side near the bank of a river. The oak bragged to the willow, “I am the mightiest of the trees. I’m so big and strong that nothing can move me. But you: you’re so light and weak, you bend and sway with the slightest breeze.”

    One day, a terrible storm swept down the river valley, and the oak, who counted on his size and strength to resist the winds, was uprooted and thrown across the river. As he lay there, dying, he noticed the willow still standing peacefully on the other side of the river.

    The oak asked the willow, “You’re so light and weak; how could you possibly have survived the winds that uprooted me and threw me over here?” She replied, “You resisted the wind and it broke you; I accepted the wind and allowed it to blow through me. I bent so I wouldn’t break.”

    (more…)

  • Quitting is Easy

    No, really; it’s the easiest part of this: all you have to do is stop smoking. And you already do that, maybe dozens of times every day. Think about it: every time you put out a cigarette, you just stopped smoking. No big deal, right? No stress, no hassle. You just put the cigarette out, walk away from it, and do whatever you need to do next.

    The challenge is staying quit once you quit. That’s where most of us fail; we quit, but then, a day, or a week, or a month later, we go back to smoking again.

    (more…)

  • Root Out Your Rationalizations

    Addicts like us are great at inventing rationalizations (otherwise, we wouldn’t be able to continue our self-destructive behavior), and a big part of recovery is getting honest with ourselves and rooting out those rationalizations.

    One of our favorite rationalizations is “it’s just a bad habit.” And while it’s true that habit is a big component of smoking, and I don’t think anyone would argue that smoking is a bad habit, it’s much more than that: the primary reason we smoke is because we’re addicted to nicotine.

    (more…)