Need Hints on how to quit smoking with Negative stimulation or assocation??!
Question:
Need Hints on how to quit smoking with Negative stimulation or assocation??
I need ideas on how to quit smoking by trying to associate a negative or unpleasant feeling with each time I get the urge. I believe it's been done in various studies with trying to break a bad habit. For example, electroshock... but I don't want to go that extreme...lol Any hints or ideas??? Would appreciate them.
Answers:
My partner and I quit 9 years ago. For me, it was easy to go cold turkey. I guess I wasn't addicted; just a social thing, cos I never smoked alone, and always smoked a BUNCH when out with friends at coffee or having a drink.
For my partner it was quite difficult. Not so much the addiction, but the HABIT. Everytime the phone would ring, she'd reach for the smokes. Everytime she got in the car, she'd reach for the smokes.
So, we made rules: no smoking in the house or car. Period. Clean both real good. I mean, wash the brown smoke stains off your walls and windows. Clean the carpets and upholstery in both house and car; make it CLEAN and smelling good.
When the phone would ring, she'd still reach for the pack of smokes, but with the rule, she had to not smoke or go into the garage. 2 feet of snow outside and an unheated garage are not conducive to keeping the habit! The rules about the car and house cut her habit in half!
Then she never carried them with her, so when she wanted a smoke, she had to go GET them. Then had to decide if she really wanted one badly enough to go all the way to where they were from where she was....get it? Make it inconvenient to smoke.
You'll notice when it's inconvenient to smoke, that you will smoke less. This may take a few weeks, but I bet you that at the end of a month, you'll be at half what you used to smoke. Once you get it to half, make new rules. And remember to make it very inconvemient!
After we'd been quit for about 3 months we were standing in a theater line with friends. One left to have a smoke and when she came back, the smell was ghastly! I asked the group if WE used to smell like that and they said 'Yes". I was so embarrased!