Quitting a bad habit

[Ella]

So in my journey to better health and well being, I decided I want to quit smoking. I stopped drinking years ago and I think it is time for me to give up another bad habit of mine. I am just not sure where to begin. I have cut back over the last year or so. I smoke maybe 8 a day. I think I should just continue to reduce it and once I am used to only having maybe 2 a day, then quit or try smoking every other day or something. I want to do it slow because I don't want to feel like I need to go back to it for any reason.

How do you go about giving up a bad habit? Have you personally stopped something yourself?

[James]

Giving up addictions is hard. You have to really really want it. 

Let me start with I am a nicotine addict. I gave up smoking traditional cigarettes about 11 years ago now and started vaping. That transition was rough. I still love nicotine and it is not a drug I want to give up which is why I have not quit yet. 

So let's move on to giving up bad habits / addictions... You have to really really really want to make the change. 

The best way to do this is stepping yourself down slowly. Build a plan. For smoking cigarettes a plan could look like this:

Week 1: 8 cigarettes a day
Week 2: 7 cigarettes a day
Week 3: 6 cigarettes a day
Week 4: 5 cigarettes a day
Week 5: 4 cigarettes a day
Week 6: 3 cigarettes a day
Week 7: 2 cigarettes a day
Week 8: 1 cigarette a day

Congrats! After two months you are cigarette free. Try replacing the movements with a pen to chew on and chew a lot of gum to keep your mouth occupied. Remember WHY you want to quit any time you think about veering away from the plan. 

Execute on the plan and remember why and you will be able to accomplish anything you set out to do. 

[Mila]

My boyfriend used vaping as means to quit smoking. It took 3 or so months but once he was vaping, he stuck that out for awhile at a higher nicotine level. He slowly reduced it until he was vaping 0% nicotine. This took maybe another year, so it is a process but one I believe works for a lot of people. 

[Yonder]

I guess there are three main approaches

* All at once
* Little by little (As mentioned by james)
* Substitution (As mentioned by Mila)

All are quite effective depending on the type of person you are.

[Scarlett]

Find something that works. If you can't quit in moderation, then go cold turkey. I think it is always better to cut back slowly so you avoid withdrawal and cravings. You have to be in completely control of that though and to me, it seems like you are!

[CyberTron]

Stopping a  bad habit is way much harder than starting a completely new "good habit". But it all starts with your mind. You must first conceive the idea of stopping in your mind. Then next, develop a  system that will help you avoid the bad habit. For example, if you are trying to stop smoking, if someone offers your a cigarrete, you should say "I am not a smoker" instead of saying "I can't smoke, am trying to quit". The latter is weak. 

Once you mind is clear about the goal of stopping the bad habit, you can build a system, by combining your daily activities /good habits to "avoiding the bad habits". For example, when you feel like doing the bad habit e.g. smoking, your can choose to walk the dog instead (something that you enjoy doing). 

[Xavier MG]

On 6/14/2021 at 1:20 AM, Ella said:

So in my journey to better health and well being, I decided I want to quit smoking. I stopped drinking years ago and I think it is time for me to give up another bad habit of mine. I am just not sure where to begin. I have cut back over the last year or so. I smoke maybe 8 a day. I think I should just continue to reduce it and once I am used to only having maybe 2 a day, then quit or try smoking every other day or something. I want to do it slow because I don't want to feel like I need to go back to it for any reason.

How do you go about giving up a bad habit? Have you personally stopped something yourself?

Just like learning a new skill, we should do it in small bits. Bad habits are usually easy to choose or to fall for when you don't have an equally engaging or fun thing to do. So you should slowly replace the bad habit by combining it with something that you do easily. Then reducing the bad habit slowly as you increase the time on what you love. By associating the two, the good habit will slowly override the bad habit. 

[Ella]

20 hours ago, Xavier MG said:

Just like learning a new skill, we should do it in small bits. Bad habits are usually easy to choose or to fall for when you don't have an equally engaging or fun thing to do. So you should slowly replace the bad habit by combining it with something that you do easily. Then reducing the bad habit slowly as you increase the time on what you love. By associating the two, the good habit will slowly override the bad habit. 

It is funny that you mention this. My mother smoked in her 20's and into her 30's. When she had one of my brothers, he was born with medical issues and was kept in the hospital for 3 months. In those 3 months, because she spent so much time in and out of the hospital, she cut back drastically. By the time she brought him home, she didn't have enough time to smoke and realized she had quit without even trying to. I guess making yourself busy is a good tip and one that I didn't even think about until now.