GIVING UP SMOKING: DAY YOU STOP SMOKING

The big day comes. How do you feel? You may feel in a bad mood, nausea and stomach upsets may plague you, perhaps you will find yourself coughing more than usual as your lungs begin to function without toxic smoke swirling around deep inside them. One thing you must not do is just sit there feeling miserable. Practice what psychologists call a 'displacement activity'. Take the morning off if you can, and do something quite out of the normal routine. In fact, try to make sure you avoid routine altogether. If you look back over your diary you will see how your smoking habits are very closely linked to routine, so break the mould. Do not lie in bed twitching for a cigarette, but get up early and wash the car or clean a few pairs of shoes. Keep a bunch of keys or a string of beads by the bed where the packet used to be and fiddle with those instead. Remember that a lot of the oral pleasure of smoking can be derived instead from drinking a glass of orange juice or sucking a mint. Try it.

Actually, many ex-smokers, when questioned, say that they experienced hardly any ill-effects at all: it amazed them how easy it was.

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