Tried Everything? Quit Smoking Tips for the Desperate

If you’ve been looking around the internet for stop smoking tips, you’ve probably noticed that most of the advice out there seems intended for people who have never tried to quit before. Again and again, you see advice-writers running through the basics for beginners, but what about the rest of us?

When I finally quit, it was only after years of trying pretty much every method there is. And by the time I got to that point, I’d put so much time and energy into quitting that I’d made myself an expert. So I had no use for simple lists of quit smoking tips. I knew them all. That’s why I decided to get creative. Here are some of the new quit smoking tips I’ve come up with.

1. Use technology to broadcast your progress: You’ve probably heard the traditional stop smoking tip about telling your friends and loved ones you’re quitting, and relying upon the threat of public shame to keep you on the right track. With technology, you can elevate this strategy to another level.

Set up a blog with a name along the lines of, “[Your Name]’s Quitting Smoking Journal,” and send out a mass email to everyone you know. Give them the link to your blog, and ask everyone kindly to bookmark it and keep tabs on your progress. Then, write in your blog 3 or 4 times per day. Talk about your misgivings, your cravings, and how you’re dealing with them. No one likes to be seen as self-obsessed, but this is a good time to make an exception.

This way, you’ll get the whole threat of public shame thing, but you’ll also have a journal to help you work through your process.

2. Smoke something else: Okay, so this isn’t the most perfect quit smoking tip in the world, but it can work. Things like nicotine patches and gums have it backwards; they try to help you quit smoking by continuing to dose you with the very chemical you’re trying to stop needing. Basically, what these products do is keep you addicted, so that you’re primed to take up smoking again as soon as you have a moment of weakness. And let’s face it—smoking just feels better than chewing a gum or sticking a patch on your skin.

So, do it the other way around. Rather than cutting out the smoking and sticking with the nicotine, cut out the nicotine and stick with the smoking. This way, every time you have a craving to smoke, smoke! Sure, non-nicotine smoking products have many of the same negative health effects, but most aren’t nearly as addictive, so you can quit them once your nicotine cravings are gone.

3. Hypnosis: If you’ve always thought hypnosis was a little dubious, now’s the time to rethink your prejudice. With free stop smoking hypnosis that’s easy to do at home, you can change your deeply held attitudes about smoking and nicotine. Essentially, hypnosis is all about opening your subconscious mind to suggestion, and filling it with new, healthier patterns of thinking. It brings you to a heightened state of focus (not a trance, contrary to popular belief) and helps you reset the gears of your mind. Try it. It can’t hurt.