How long does it take to quit smoking?

Just a quick one today - do you know how long it takes to quit smoking?

I bumped into a friend today who started smoking again after five months off - this was her fourth failed attempt to stop smoking. She started again due to a bit of weight gain and stress.

Unfortunately she didn't realise that weight gain can be prevented and stress an be relived by other means, and that smoking doesn't reduce stress (see blog below) it actually increases it.

I didn't want to go into much detail about the stress but I did give her some info on preventing weight gain.

The thing is though, that most smoker will take seven attempts before they can manage to stop smoking permanently! And even then they struggle to stop thinking about cigarettes at parties, in the pub / bar etc.

But if you realise that your will power has no influence on your ability to stop smoking, that you can prevent weight gain and withdrawal symptoms and that you really need to find something to take your mind off cigarettes - you are going to find it much easier and you will stop, much much quicker.