Steps to Quit Smoking

By David Radtke 

First, here's what I learned from a number of Japanese sources (doctors, articles, and such) about quitting smoking.  These directions refer to ONLY TO QUITTING COLD TURKEY.  I describe the steps or phases your body and your psyche goes through after you stop.

To begin, smoking is a physical habit ( addicted to the drug, nicotine ) and a psychological or "life-style" habit (you are used to smoking before, during, or after doing certain activities such as smoking before you do something that makes you tense, while you drink alcohol, or after you eat a meal, ).  When you quit, your whole world, both physical and psychological, is turned upside down.  Here are the stages you go through and the approximate duration of each phase.  Assume that you just had your "last" cigarette.

Phase I: "It's not as hard as I thought."
You will feel this phase begin the very next time your body needs the nicotine (physical habit) OR when you do something that you always begin, continue, or end with a cigarette (psychological habit).  This phase could start anywhere from a few minutes after you quit to a few hours.  It lasts about one or two days.  Here is the first hump to quitting.  At this beginning point, the cravings for nicotine are not as strong as the psychological cravings.  You "think" that you want a cigarette more than you body actually "needs" the nicotine to feed the addiction.

Phase II:  "Hell"
Around the second day your body really NEEDS the nicotine more than your body needs to fulfill the psychological cravings (even though those are still as strong as usual).  You can expect headaches, irritability, increase in temper, inability to think clearly, lack of patience, and a whole parade of withdrawal symptoms.  Depending on the person, you may feel so bad that you don't even want to smoke (you're mad at cigarettes for making you this way) or all you can think about is smoking to rid you of this pain.  You might think "just one cigarette and all this pain will go away."  Resist. This stage lasts anywhere from a few days to more than a week depending on how much and for how long you smoked.

Phase III: "Eye of the storm"
If you make it through the first week to week and a half of quitting by now most of the nicotine should be out of your system and the majority of the withdrawal symptoms have gone away.  By now you should be feeling pretty confident that you can actually quit - completely.  This is a time to "regroup" and prepare for the next battle.  Your body has actually already entered phase IV - but you don't feel it yet because you are so relieved that the withdrawal symptoms have ceased.  This time of "peace" lasts only a day or two.

Phase IV:  "I don't know why, but I really want to smoke."
At this point your body's natural defenses are getting in the way of you actually quitting.  In order eliminate nicotine from your body, your body produces higher amounts of certain chemicals and hormones.  This hyper-active production has been going on in your body ever since you first started smoking.  So, even though you've quit, your body hasn't quite gotten the idea that it should stop over-producing these chemicals and hormones.  Your body needs nicotine just to keep its self in balance by lowering the amount of extra chemicals in your system.  You feel like having a cigarette - but you're not sure why.  The good part is that there are no withdrawal symptoms and that this phase is the easiest phase to get through.  This phase lasts about a week or two.

Phase V:  "You can never have just one."
The Frito-Lays potato chip commercial slogan, "You can never have just one." sums up the last phase to quitting smoking.  By now all the physical cravings are gone and (assuming you've worked on changing your life-style) the psychological cravings are a mere tick in the back of your mind.  THIS IS THE MOST DANGEROUS TIME OF QUITTING.  I'll say it again.  THIS IS THE MOST DANGEROUS TIME OF QUITTING.  Why?  At some point you may find yourself in a situation where others around you are smoking, or that little tick in the back of your mind is talking louder than usual and you think or say to yourself "Aw, just one cigarette won't hurt."  But that one, could lead to one more later that day or the next.  You just keep thinking "Only one."  But the "only ones" will add up and get your body back on the physical addiction faster than when you started smoking the first time.  The way to survive is this phase is simple, DON'T SMOKE EVEN ONE CIGARETTE.  This phase starts about a month to a month and a half after you quit smoking and ends, well, no one knows.  Because you were addicted once already, your body will always be weak to nicotine and can get you addicted much faster if you start smoking again.  Here the most important thing is to just not smoke EVER AGAIN.
 

Well, these are the 5 phases they teach over here.  I'm currently in the beginning phase IV and it feels very strange.  No withdrawal symptoms and no pain but I just feel like smoking.  Anyway, it's been almost 3 weeks and I'm still smoke free.  I'll write about what I've been doing to survive each phase in another email.  I've been doing some things that are quitting techniques and some that work well for me.

Take care and enjoy the fresh air,

David Radtke

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...One year later

May I add something that I feel is kind of an update?  I wrote that article last year in March right when I was in phase 2 or 3.  About 2 weeks later in phase 4, I had that "one" cigarette and started smoking again.  It took me a few months to get my courage up and try quitting one more time.  I quit again, and it has been almost 3 months without a cigarette.  I cannot emphasize how important it is to NEVER have "just one".  My mother mentioned how my grandmother used to be quite a heavy smoker (I think it was for about 30 years) and she quit cold turkey.  But now, many, many, many years later, she still sometimes thinks about having a cigarette - but doesn't.

Personally, I think that smoking is far more of a lifestyle or "image" habit than a physical addition. The hardest thing for me now is filling up the time I spent smoking with some other activity.  I've become bored.  Now that I don't smoke, what do I do when I drive?  Or when I have a few minutes before a class starts (I'm a teacher).  Or when I have a lot of stress and I go out for a walk to release it?  There are so many "this is smoking time" situations that I've had to work hard on filling the time up with new and healthier habits.

Lastly, I once read that smokers actually have to "practice" quitting.  It's like learning to ride a bicycle - it's hard at first, sometimes you fall off and get hurt.  But you get back on and try again.  You keep practicing until you can finally ride without falling.  Children who fall off their bicycle while trying to learn usually don't give up - they keep trying.  And - most importantly -the parents NEVER say, "Aw, it's just too hard for you.  Maybe you should just give up trying to ride a bicycle." (i.e. smokers who fail when quitting don't need negative comments - they need positive ones.)

 Anyway, just thought this extra information might be of some use to you and your patients.

Take care and sit up straight :-)

David

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