How to Help Someone Quit Smoking

Non-smokers often have a hard time understanding the trials and tribulations their smoking friends go through as they attempt to ditch their habit. This is especially true if they have never dealt with an addiction of their own before. After all, how difficult can it be to simply stop doing something, right? 

If you’re an ex-smoker, or know someone who has successfully left their cigarette habit behind, then you know how silly that last sentence really is. Nicotine addiction is not to be trifled with. The support of loved ones can truly make a difference in the result of a person’s quitting journey. There are many ways in which you can support your friend to make this ordeal more bearable, and we’ll go over some of the best ones in this article. 

Why Is Quitting Smoking So Difficult? 

Understanding cigarette addiction and its underlying mechanics is imperative to becoming able to really help someone who is attempting to quit. Without it, you might be able to do more harm than good. 

Most non-smokers have good intentions when it comes to pushing their friends or family to kick their habits. However, without the knowledge of why quitting is so hard, their attempts to help often end up becoming just another source of frustration and a major trigger for the smokers in their lives. 

On the chemical level, ingesting nicotine into your system releases a surge of dopamine, simply making the smoker feel good. As they continue to reach for more and more cigarettes throughout the day, they become reliant on the substance and start craving more of it to get back into that pleasant headspace. 

What complicates things even further is nicotine’s interaction with our brains’ adrenal glands. It releases adrenaline into the brain, boosting the smoker’s focus and energy levels. In a similar vein to the dopamine release discussed above, habitual smokers become dependent on nicotine to retain high productivity levels. This is why smoking is common among individuals working in mentally or physically demanding professions. 

Nicotine Withdrawals and the Quitting Process 

The above is just a surface level summary of why people become addicted to cigarettes in the first place. Once they realise they have a problem and try to rid themselves of this dependence, smokers have to face a host of withdrawal symptoms on a daily basis, especially in the weeks that follow their last cigarette. These include: 

• Overwhelming feelings of anxiety, depression, and sadness 
• Sleep difficulties 
• Restlessness
• Irritability 
• Weight gain and frequent feelings of hunger 
• Intense cravings and urges to smoke 

People who’ve never been addicted to nicotine have a hard time understanding these withdrawal symptoms. Understandably, they may even get frustrated or angry with the quitter for slipping up. It’s extremely important to remember that due to the chemical interactions of nicotine with the brain, and the heavy dependence it can cause, smokers don’t feel entirely in control of their impulses when it comes to smoking. 

If you truly want to help your loved one quit, proper communication, emotional support, and empathy are crucial, especially in the early stages. They need to know that you’re on their side, supporting them in something they want to do for themselves, not because they’ve been pushed to quit by yourself or someone else. 

How to Help Someone Quit Smoking: Useful Communication Tips 

When talking to a person who’s quitting smoking, you may not always know what to say in certain situations, how to convince them that this struggle is actually worth it, or find the best ways to positively reinforce their efforts. In this section, we’ll go over four basic strategies you can use to effectively communicate with your friend who’s trying to quit. 

Discuss the Immediate Benefits of Quitting 

Instead of focusing on all of the negatives of smoking, shift your approach and start mentioning more of the positive aspects of being smoke-free. Even after as little as three or four days without a cigarette, the benefits of quitting can become apparent, especially if you point them out beforehand. Here are some talking points you can use to reassure your friend that they’re on the right path: 

• Within minutes of finishing the last cigarette, your heart rate drops to a healthier level.
• After 24 hours without smoking, the nicotine level in your blood falls down to zero.
• Within a few days of quitting, the carbon monoxide in your blood drops to a non-smoker’s levels. 
• It takes only a few weeks to a month of not smoking for food to start tasting better, endurance to return to non-smoking levels, and the smoker’s cough to dissipate. 
• After a month, your lung capacity will increase. 

Be Cautious When Talking About Health Concerns 

It’s easy to come off as judgmental when talking about the smoking-related health risks with a smoker. After all, they’re well-aware of these dangers, and know that they’ve brought them upon themselves by taking up the habit. Even though you mean well, you may still come off as overbearing and “pushy” when starting off the conversation with lung cancer statistics or heart attack concerns. 

This point is especially important if the person close to you hasn’t committed to quitting yet. In these situations, you run the risk of alienating your friend who simply doesn’t want to hear your lectures. Keep in mind the mechanisms of nicotine addiction we discussed above, and understand that in the end, the decision to quit has to be made by the smoker, not forced upon them by a third party. 

Celebrate Milestones and Small Victories Together 

Every day of the quitting journey is a difficult one, full of potential relapse triggers and withdrawal symptoms that are tough to overcome. It may seem trivial and unnecessary to you, but celebrating even the tiniest of victories can bring about a positive change of attitude for someone struggling with addiction. 

Take them out to celebrate the last cigarette, the first week without a smoke, first month, etc. Engage in activities that they enjoy on those occasions, creating an association between refusing to smoke and enjoyable pastimes. If you live far away from them, be sure to keep track of your friend’s progress and give them a call on the milestone dates. 

Patience Is Key 

Don’t react negatively to slip-ups and relapses. They’re a normal part of the quitting process, and can happen to even the most motivated individuals. Besides, they’ve already judged and criticised themselves for lighting up before you even had the chance to, so there is no need to add fuel to that fire. 

Be patient. Try to understand why they slipped up. Instead of scolding them for this failure, discuss this as a learning experience that can potentially give them the strength to do better next time. 

Tobacco-Free Alternatives to Ease the Struggle 

Quitting is difficult enough as it is. There is no need to force anyone to undergo this process cold turkey, especially in this day and age, with all of the available quitting aids that can make the freshly-baked ex-smoker’s life easier. 

When it’s time to put off that last cigarette and face the inevitable triggers and withdrawals, you can support your friend by giving them something that will ease some of the most distressing symptoms. 

For many smokers, the chemical interactions behind nicotine addiction are only part of the reason why they engaged in the habit. The ritual of the much-anticipated smoke break, having a cigarette with a beer on the occasional night out, celebrating successes and overcoming losses by lighting up, all of these things are smoking-related pleasantries that are incredibly hard to leave behind. 

What if you could present them with something that allows them to retain these moments, without any tobacco or nicotine involved? That’s exactly what NEAFS is for. Our tea-based cigarette sticks, delivered via the TEO device that utilises heated tobacco technology are the perfect reduced-harm alternative for smokers.

If you know someone who wants to break free from nicotine and tobacco, but they aren’t quite ready to give up the rituals that come along with these substances, NEAFS may just be what they need to transition away from traditional cigarettes once and for all. 

Final Thoughts 

Helping someone quit smoking is challenging. You don’t want to come off as pushy or judgmental, and as a non-smoker yourself, it can be difficult to empathise with a smoker’s struggles. It’s not impossible, though. Take some time to put yourself in their shoes and truly understand their situation. By coming from a place of love and understanding, you can assist them as they break free from the chains of addiction and come out a healthier, happier person on the other end.