Proper Procedures for quitting cigarettes

My dad is addicted to smoking since last 20 years, earlier it didn’t had much effect but now when he is 50+ his cough level has considerably increased. He is also willing to quit smoking, but he always ended up smoking again. Can anyone help me find a proper guide or procedure to quit smoking permanently? Thanks in advance

Addiction to nicotine is very hard to break.  Someone will only do it when they're truly ready and willing to do it.  I quit 8 years ago after 20 years of smoking.  I did it cold turkey and it was the hardest thing I've ever done in my life.  I'm not sure there is a 'proper procedure'.  Everyone is different.  I've heard people quit cold turkey or by using a patch or by using a prescription drug.  I wish your father the best of luck.  I'm sure your support will help him. 

www.quitsmokingonline.com

It's a free guide and method.   The knowledge and information it provided did help me in my goal to quit smoking.  I had tried a few times in the past seventeen years as a smoker and it was hell.   This time I am certain I will never smoke again, and it was easier than I ever thought it could be.

Also, try Alan Carr's Book "The Easy way to Quit Smoking" 

Both the website and the book are similar in approach.  Cold Turkey, no nictotine replacement, educate the mind and the heart will follow...

I have smoked for 25 years.  I did not find any method easier than another. 

The prescriptions were great, but they both had intolerable side effects.  And worked until the side effects got the best of me and I started smoking again.

Cold turkey was great - until I started smoking again.

The patch was sucessful too - until I started smoking again.

My point is that NOTHING about quiting smoking is easy.  No one method has a 100% quit rate.  The only method that has a 100% quit rate is commitment.  The kind of commitment you make to God.  If he does not have 100%, no excuses commitment, he will not quit for long.  He will start again no matter what method he tries.  No method can give him that commitment.  That all comes from himself alone. 

This isn't a guide-line but it's my personal experience, and the guide-line that I did read expressed many of the experiences I'm about to describe. (a handy little quit smoking pocket book)

I found that I became really quite good at quitting because it was something I had to do over and over and over again. The thing is usually a person has to try and quit a hundred thousand times before they actually get it right. You have to have a strong desire to do it. Something has to be reminding you of why it has to be done. A lot of people have trouble really confronting what it is doing to their bodies, and I think many people believe that it is already too late for them. He needs to know that no matter how long you've been doing it, it is never too late. Make sure he understands all of the long term and short term positives about quitting smoking, you can see great benefits even if you stop smoking for two days. Every little bit of fresh air counts.

What I found was that there were certain situations that I would be in that would prompt me to smoke. What I had to do was completely dissociate myself from those scenarios (or people) where I would be tempted to smoke. I had to avoid being near or around it, I couldn't even smell it without wanting to do it. (for some people it's coffee, or after a meal) For me it was drinking. I had to remove any reminders of it from my personal space. I did this many many many times. Slowly once you wean yourself off the nicotine for the first several days your body will adapt back to the low levels of the addictive substance and your brain won't constantly be hounding you to feed it.

Once your brain stops prompting you to do it on it's own you have to be very very cautious of triggers. Smelling it, seeing it, even seeing the anti-smoking comercials on tv will make you want to do it (ironically). I had to quit drinking because that was easily the largest contributing factor. If I drank I smoked. So in the process I was really ridding myself of two bad habits.

I didn't use any aides myself I don't really think that my habit was at a level that required it, I wasn't a pack a day. Maybe 4 at most on a bad day, 1 or none on a good one.

Maybe try posting a list on the fridge of all the benefits of not smoking as a healthy reminder. Giving moral support to him, tell him to come to you if he is having a craving and trying to talk to him, get his mind off it. Or just letting him know that you care about him and how scary the thought of possibly not having him around might be. Sometimes love is the best medicine. Even going from 20 a day to 10 is an improvement. Slowly winding down to less and less until you reach your quit day.

I didn't want to be a slave, to anything or anyone. I felt like it was a weakness especially since smoking is such an unnecessary and pointless activity where you have virtually nothing to gain and everything to lose. People like to convince themselves that just one smoke is benign, or that one more can't possibly do any more harm.

Just because you give in sometimes, doesn't mean you should stop trying. It's like being on a good diet and then binging. Get over it. Start a new day and try it again. Eventually if he keeps at it he will be able to do it. He's not the first person to go through it and he won't be the last to succeed either.

on a side note: What a twisted world we live in where such a blatant malicious killer is still sold in stores. I really do believe that it shouldn't be so readily available. Unlike illegal narcotics whose criminalization does nothing to eliminate the use of the substances, I think most people would grow weary of tobacco if it wasn't so easily accesible. 

There is no surefire way to quit.  What works for one person won't work at all for the next.

I never could've quit cold turkey or with 'coping' techniques.

I used Chantix and it worked perfect for me.  The benefits of me not smoking outweighed the side effects by far.  I only took it for 2 months and I was DONE!

Haven't had a craving or thought of ever smoking since.  Actually, it is 2 years the 20th of this month.

It is definitely tough.  Best decision I ever made, to quit.  I smoked for over 12 years and was a heavy smoker for at least 10 of those years.  It worked perfect.

It's definitely a personal journey.  And it has to be the person's decision to quit. 

I tried several times, and never fully suceded(sp?) until I had a medical scare. 

The pills (wellbutrin, or zyban I think -- the anti-depressants -- had bad side effects for me. 

When I finally quit I used the patches, but it was really the scare that did it.  The patches helped but I was VERY determined.  My husband also quit with me which helped a LOT.   (He's a wonderful husband!!)

Edit:  Wanted to add we both smoked for 30ish years.  We've been quit for almost 2 years.  March 28, 2007 was my first smoke free day.

I'm so glad you care enough about your dad to ask for ways to help him. Remember it is his addiction and all you can do is be supportive.

I found that I never craved cigarettes (or very little) when they weren't available. So I set my quit date for the day of a big camping trip where I couldn't smoke and didn't have access to cigaretts. It was an easy few days. The return to reality was harder, but I used Chantix for one month and focused on not buying cigaretts (if you don't have them, you can't smoke them). It was easier b/c there were only a few times a day when I could get to buy some, so I only had to fight the urge those times. I also got into and stayed in my jammies when I was home, so going out to do anything would be a pain, having to get dressed and all. I put huge barriers in my access to cigarettes. That really made it easier.

Chantix is expensive  but if it works, it pays for itself quickly. Urge him to talk to his doctor and make the other changes necessary.  If you can get your dad to exercise, too, that might add some incentive, but he needs a physical first, at his age. Then make sure you accompany him to workouts for a few months so he doesn't have to worry about stopping and buying cigs b/c he's out and about!

Whatever works!

Best of luck to  you and your dad.

Nicotine addiction is very hard to quit. I quit smoking 7 years ago and used over the counter generic patches. Once the first 3 days are past it is a mental addiction, the actual drug addiction is physically gone. Your dad has to really want to quit for himself, forever and really make it a life choice. I wish him the best of luck.