New Year’s resolutions: "quit smoking" is back on the list.

Tips on how to face the challenge of quitting smoking as a New Year's resolution.

We all start the new year with a lot of illusion to achieve certain challenges and many of these we drag year after year in the "pending" list. Many of these we drag them year after year in the list of "pending", such as "Quit smoking"..

It is a great goal that we usually venture without preparation and we are often surprised by difficulties that make us decline in the attempt once again. This year do something different, plan and prepare well, know what you have to do.

How to approach the challenge of quitting smoking

There is no single advice to quit smoking that is valid for everyone, but there is a planning of steps and aids that you can adapt to you, you just have to know them. Let's go through 3 steps to plan, create, and implement your own method of quitting smoking..

Step 1: Motivation

Motivation is the starting engine and is generated by those reasons that each of us find to do something, our reasons.

Quitting smoking is a great effort that starts from a very personal decision, even if everyone encourages you or even pressures you, you have to be very clear about your reasons for quitting smoking.. Make a list, and of course you can rely on many reasons that are popularly offered, get to know them better, debunk myths, and take advantage of those that can be your motivators. The most frequently taken into account, and their peculiarities are:

Health

The incidence of tobacco in cancer in general and more specifically in lung cancer is more than well known and studied, but it is common to hear people say that "everything causes cancer".. This is a false consolation, a mistake, because the truth is that if we did not smoke, lung cancer would become very rare, infrequent, like nose cancer, but the reality is that tobacco is currently responsible for 80% of lung cancers.

But in addition to this serious problem, there are many other complications to be taken into account, such as COPD, bronchitis... and the damage produced in other organs, since tobacco affects all of them negatively, heart, liver, skin, etc.

With the list of health complications we could extend to write several articles and sometimes more than motivate generates anxiety, which is often confused with the desire to smoke, what a paradox! So if health is a big motivation for you, research and learn more, and if it is not, do not completely ignore the importance of health because when you quit, you will surely feel relieved.

Perhaps a more positive health-centered formula might be to think about what you gain as you stay abstinent. think about what is gained as abstinence is maintained.. The positive health effects can begin to be measured as soon as 24 hours after quitting, Blood monoxide levels drop to near normal levels, and if you stay quit, the benefits increase: 3 days later nicotine is eliminated from the body, at 12 weeks the lungs recover much of their functionality, at 9 months respiratory complications and cough disappear, at one year the risk of heart disease is reduced by half, at 5 years many cancers reduce their risk significantly (mouth, larynx, etc.) and at 10 years lung cancer is equal to the risk of a non smoker. ) and at 10 years lung cancer is equal to the risk of a non-smoker.

The money

The expense of money is considerable, we cannot ignore it and it can be a motivation.. If, for example, we have an average consumption of a pack a day for an average price of 4 euros, we have a total of 1,460 € per year, have you really thought how many things you can buy?

Throughout this time without smoking, giving yourself some of those little treats that you usually save can be a good reinforcer, it will always be a much better investment than burning it.

Freedom

The lack of freedom when you have an addiction is very obvious.. You feel it when you can't leave your cigarettes at home, when you go downstairs late at night to get cigarettes because you have run out, when you enter a place or situation that limits consumption and automatically your head calculates time, possibilities to go out, to leave everything even if it's cold outside and go out.

On the contrary, the sense of freedom when overcoming dependence is great, the feelings of pride are great too, and appreciating this freedom will often keep you steadfast in your purpose.

Step 2: Time and date

Let's pick a time and set a date. The truth is that there is no ideal time to quit smokingAlthough there may be less ideal ones. If you are in a particularly unusual stage of your life in terms of stress or problems, it is better to postpone this decision until you get back to your routine, but do not look for no work stress, no problems as an ideal time because this is not a realistic vision.

The sooner you see yourself overcoming negative situations in which tobacco no longer mediates, the sooner you will gain confidence and recognize yourself as a different person, one free of the false help of tobacco.one free from the false support of tobacco.

Another smoker's myth is to think that tobacco helps him to relax in the face of problems; it is not true at all. Nicotine is not a relaxing substance, it is a stimulant like caffeine, but the feeling of relaxation comes because the withdrawal syndrome that reminds every smoker that the next dose is necessary disappears.

So, really freeing yourself from your addiction is what will be most effective so that in general you will be calmer when faced with the problematic situations of everyday life.There will be no extra nerves (abstinence) when the problems occur, but it takes time and patience for your body to stop feeling that abstinence.

It is important that you choose a day, set a special date (for example the last day of the year) that will determine one of the most important moments that you will remember for the rest of your life, and celebrate it. In addition, setting a day helps you to prepare mentally, to decide, to plan these needs you are assessing and to conclude with a farewell.

Step 3: Let yourself be helped

The most important part of your purpose is to achieve it, and to do so, you must it is necessary that you value the need to have an extra help.. It can be in pharmacological form with nicotine substitutes that help you to alleviate the physical effects, or with professional help that also gives you psychological and strategic support.

In pharmacies there are many substitutes that your pharmacist can discuss with you, the most common are in the form of patches, chewing gum, inhalers... that reduce the intensity of abstinence.

This compensatory effect should not be idealized because they simply help to regulate the sensations. Before relying on drugs in an unrealistic way, it is necessary to accept that overcoming an addiction inevitably entails certain negative effects, the important thing is to know and trust that no negative effect is impossible to manage.

Along with drugs, other good aids to consider are the alternatives that you can give to the act of smoking in the form of: sport or light physical activity if you are not used to it, drinking water, eating fruit, family support, leisure activities that concentrate you a lot such as painting and cooking, etc. are good battle companions.

Professional help can come from specialized nurses or psychologists, they can expand your plan of action.They can expand your plan of action and resources by seeing with you what your needs are, what your difficulties are, and help you generate alternative solutions. The important thing is not how you do it, but how you do it, so take heart in this 2021 without smoke.

Author: Laura Merino Gómez, General Health Psychologist and member of Centro TAP.