FAQs

Before stopping, it’s a good idea to discuss with your Healthcare Professional when you normally like to smoke and how this fits into your daily routine.

For instance, you may be used to having a cigarette in the morning with a tea or coffee, or after a meal, or when driving. Being aware of your routines and habits can help you to stop reaching instinctively for a cigarette, and changing some daily routines can reduce your chances of reaching for a cigarette as a matter of habit.

On the one hand, you’ll feel proud to have taken such an important decision for your own health and the health of everyone around you.

On the other hand, because cigarette smoking is an addiction, you will probably miss cigarettes for some time , and at times you will have cravings to smoke.

Particularly during the first 2 - 3 weeks, you may also experience withdrawal symptoms including difficulty in concentrating, irritation and restlessness, headaches, dizziness, tiredness, constipation, insomnia and depression.

These symptoms will gradually decrease, but your Healthcare Professional will be able to help you predict and work out the best strategies for coping with them. These strategies can range from going for a walk, drinking a glass of water, or talking to a friend, to nicotine replacement therapies or other medicines.

When you’re trying to give up smoking, it’s a good idea to tell all your family and friends so they can support you – and that goes for family and friends who are still smokers too. 

Deep down, they may even be envious of your will power in giving up smoking.  So it’s perfectly OK for you to ask them to smoke outside or in another room, and not to leave cigarettes lying around where they might tempt you to slip back.

There are many forms of support to help you resist the urge to smoke.

Your Healthcare Professional should be able to advise what’s right for you, but always remember: any cravings you feel are a sign that your body is beginning to free itself from its nicotine addiction, and these feelings will pass in time. 

Smoking is highly addictive, so you shouldn’t blame yourself if you’ve tried to quit before and failed. In fact, many smokers need to make several attempts to give up before they finally succeed. If you’ve failed on several occasions, you may need to go back to basics. Ask yourself honestly why you smoke, when you like to smoke, and what specific feelings and situations have prevented you from giving up in the past.

Before you try to quit again, you should make a fresh plan of action which anticipates all the difficulties you’re likely to face.  Your doctor is the ideal person to help you do this: your next quit attempt is more than twice as likely to succeed if you plan it with your Healthcare Professional first.

No – cigars contain even higher concentrations of toxins and irritants than regular cigarettes, because of the long aging and fermentation process.

“Light” cigarettes have different filters from regular cigarettes, but just as much tar and nicotine in the rod of the cigarette. Research shows that smokers tend to compensate for the reduction in nicotine getting through the filter by increasing the number of inhalations or inhaling more deeply.

The best way to stop smoking is to make a plan of action with your Healthcare Professional, and set a specific date for quitting. 

Discussing why you want to give up smoking will help your Healthcare Professional to help you with advice, nicotine replacement therapies and prescription-only medicines. Research shows that just talking to your Healthcare Professional about quitting can more than double your chances of giving up smoking.

Cigarettes can suppress appetite in some people, and when they quit smoking their appetite increases. As a result, some people eat more and put on weight after stopping smoking.

If you’re worried about putting on weight, and find that your appetite increases after quitting smoking, talk to your doctor. Remember that stopping smoking can also give you an opportunity to take charge of your overall health and fitness, which you can start by adopting a more active lifestyle and eating healthily.

Doctors and other medical professionals can help you to quit by discussing the process of quitting, help you to understand and anticipate likely difficulties, and work out a specific plan of action to suit you as an individual.

In many cases, Healthcare Professionals can prescribe a helpful range of medicines to support you while you’re quitting smoking.  They can also put you in touch with other local medical services and support groups to increase your chances of successfully quitting smoking.

Some people feel cigarette smoking helps them to cope better with stress and some people may feel stress as part of the withdrawal from nicotine addiction.

If you instinctively reach for a cigarette when you’re stressed, or stress is a problem from time to time in your life, there are many possible ways of helping you reduce these feelings, for example, taking time out to relax, or talking problems over with someone you trust. Talk to your Healthcare Professional about simple ways of coping with stressful moments.