Support: the key to stopping smoking permanently
The trick to giving up smoking is to find strategies to battle through the hard times. Phoning somebody, going for a jog, baking some cookies… This is behavioural dependence.
Marie-Françoise Legillon can also tell us about her experience of giving up cigarettes: “I had stopped for about 7 or 8 months. There were almost no more cravings. There was just this one red light, every day. It was the first cigarette I would light up on my way home after work. So I changed my route home.”
What lessons can we learn from our addictions doctor? The important thing is to understand the origin of these cravings. By noticing these clues and discussing them in your chats with the your doctors, you should be able to identify the high-risk moments and try and avoid them.
These 3 aspects, physical, psychological and behavioural, are essential for sopping smoking effectively.
There are a number of objectives of this preparation and support: knowing what to expect and telling yourself you are not alone. You must also not lose sight of another essential aspect: motivation!
Knowing why you are giving up smoking and finding a meaning to it all may appear basic, but is absolutely crucial:
“it is a challenge which calls for proper preparation. And, sometimes, it may just not be the right moment. If you are already going through a hard time, piling on more stress is a bad idea… and is likely to lead to failure, which is rarely beneficial when considering another attempt.”