What are good ways to help friends quit smoking?!
Question:
What are good ways to help friends quit smoking?
When someone wants to quit smoking, what would you reccommend they do? Maybe start out by cutting back or something else? (I'm curious, because my boyfriend says he wants to quit, but that he thinks it's best he slowly cuts back on cigarettes per day.)
Answers:
Nah, scaling back never works.
He's got to quit cold-turkey, with or without any of the various aids. He needs to get rid of cigarettes, lighters, ashtrays. Not put away, but get them out of the house.
Have lots of stuff for his mouth to do--hard candy, mints, gum, etc. Later he'll have to wean himself off those, too.
Tell him how proud you are of him. Tell him how nice it is to kiss him now. Tell him how much better the apartment smells. Tell him you know this will help him live longer, look and feel better, and free him from an addictive need that can take a person outside in the dead of a winter night or in a thunderstorm. ("OMG, I'm out of cigarettes!")
Help him by taking him to places where he won't smell others smoking. Ask his friends not to smoke around him for a while, until he's more firmly quit.
And forgive him if he backslides--but encourage him to get right up and try again.