Staying Stopped
Many people think that stopping smoking is hard, staying stopped is harder. That was the case up until fairly recently. Fortunately todays society is a far more supportive environment in which people can stop smoking. For example, there is an abundance of help and support that is funded by the NHS for people to access, specific stop smoking treatments are available that have been clinically proven to work, England is now Smokefree (July 1st 2007) so there is less temptation to smoke when you go out for a meal or a drink and it is far more difficult to smoke at work now.
If you, or someone you know is struggling with staying stopped, try to remember that stopping smoking is a huge behaviour change and it can take several attempts to master correctly; most smokers have several attempts at stopping smoking before eventually getting it right. If you don't stop the first time you try, don't worry. Sometimes a good thing to do is take time out, recharge your batteries and plan to try and stop again.
How do you stop for good?
Once you've stopped smoking you'll want to stay stopped for good. Stopping smoking is a 'learning curve', you need to learn to resist the urge to smoke and to get through situations where you would normally smoke and it will soon become second nature. Take one day at a time and learn from your 'no smoking' experiences.
How long does it take to become a non-smoker?
During the early stages of stopping smoking, people are often very reluctant to think of themselves as a 'non-smoker'. Someone who is trying to stop smoking may find that in certain situations (i.e. stressful situations) their automatic reaction is to think about smoking. Time and experience changes this. For most smokers the worst is over by three months.
To a smoker, smoking is a natural behaviour to perform - most smokers have lots of smoking experience (quite often more life experience as a smoker than as a non-smoker). In the early stages of stopping smoking, not smoking is an unnatural behaviour to perform, but it is important to remember that you are not born a smoker you learn to smoke but it's addictive properties mean that you quickly get hooked.
