Quitting Smoking Without Drugs
Filed Under: Do It Yourself on November 10, 2009
A friend of mine called me the other day and we talked about his smoking habit and how I’d quit smoking several years ago. His name is Bill and he’s been a friend of mine for five or six years now. He’s smoked for as long as I’ve known him and he now wants to quit.
In our conversation, he said he’d talked to his doctor about it, but all his doc could recommend were pills. Bill isn’t sold on that idea, though he is still considering it since he’s tried the nicotine gum and 12-step AA-style methods. Both failed. He’s tried quitting a dozen times in as many years. I can sympathize with that.
When I quit, which was about ten years ago, it was my third attempt. My first try was two years before that when I tried quitting cold turkey. What I managed to do was to go from studs (unfiltered) cigarettes to filtered smokes. My number of cigarettes per day stayed about the same, though. The next try moved me from filtered to “lights” and reduced my smoking habit by almost half.
At that point, I had figured out that I wasn’t going to be quitting by just throwing the cigarettes away. I kept going back to them. So I started a regimen of lowering my smoking habit. I stopped smoking in my apartment, stopped smoking at work except at designated breaks, etc. Basically, I started making rules for myself about when and where I could and couldn’t smoke. Eventually, I got down to half a pack a day.
It was around that time I met Kathy, who is now my wife. She doesn’t smoke and never has. She jogs, hikes, and was generally everything I wasn’t when it came to physical fitness. After a few months of dating, we were ready to make it a more permanent arrangement. This meant that I had to clean up my act. She would not live with a smoker.
So my choice was pretty simple: stop smoking or become single again. I chose Kathy over the cigarettes, dumped the habit entirely, and toughed it out. Since I’d gone through the regimen of lowering my habit and since I had nothing but incentive to quit, it was relatively easy. Especially compared to my earlier, failed attempts.
Now, back to Bill and his quitting.
I asked him if he’d looked at any of the self-help stuff for getting mentally prepared for quitting. He hadn’t, of course, since that’s not really his style. His mom had bought one a few months ago and was doing well, though (she’s not had a cigarette in 3 months now). So he found out which one that was and sent it to me.
When I first saw the sales page for it, I was pretty dubious. It’s a pitch page like most of these types of things are: full of hype, promises, and whatever else. That’s become standard fare for any kind of online, electronic product like this, I guess. I find it annoying.
Nevertheless, the product itself consists of a large audio file (MP3 format) and a short booklet. I fired up the audio and started reading the booklet.
The stuff is not really what I expected. I admit that I skimmed and ignored most of the sales page or I would otherwise have known what was coming. The audio is about 40 minutes long and is mostly affirmations and simple phrase associations. Basically, it’s all about changing your subconscious, but it’s not like the suggestive stuff you listen to while sleeping. It’s more straight-forward about it.
The author calls this Neuro-Linguistic Programming, which I’ve heard about only vaguely, but understand to be a part of psychotherapy where they use a sort of verbal hypnosis via voice tone and cadence while inserting the message they wish to deliver into their speech.
So Bill started using this as soon as he got it, which was about four days ago. So far, he’s smoke-free. I don’t see why this wouldn’t work for most people, really. I think if I’d have tried this when I quit the first time, I may have had a much easier time of it. My only incentive at that time was a vague “I need to be healthier” thing, which when you’re in your early and mid-20s doesn’t really connect much.
The price tag isn’t bad, though, so I guess I have no problem recommending this as an option for those who want to quit. I now know of two people whom it’s helped so far (one 3 months, one 4 days). I know the first month is the worst, so in at least one of those cases, it seems to have worked.
Good luck, Bill!
Note: all of the links in this article are affiliate links. I was not compensated to write this review and am only paid if someone purchases the product through the affiliate link.
