How long does it take to quit smoking?

Have you ever thought about how long it does or should take you to stop smoking completely?

Surprisingly I've found that most of my clients and smokers in general do not know or have an idea as to how long it will take. But the thing that I find most worrying is that a majority of smokers expect to stop smoking instantly!

I suppose that can be expected in today's society where we have fast food, fast internet connections and fast cars! We naturally expect things to get done quickly or instantly, and we as a whole are very impatient.

But I try to help smokers understand that stopping smoking is not one of those things that is going to happen quickly, in a couple of hours or over night. Just think about how long you've been smoking. It's probably been years!

So to expect to completely remove something from your life that is a major part of everything you do is pretty unreasonable! Just think about the cigarettes you've had today. If you decide to stop right now, what will hapen tomorrow?

You're still going to want a cigarette first thin when you wake up, on your way to work, with your coffee, in the car, during your break, after your meals etc.

So if you think you can stop smoking and be done with it in an hour or with a 'magic pill' for lack of a better phrase, then you are in for one major surprise!

You see, smoking plays a major part in your everyday life, a lot of your routines revolve around, being with or end with a cigarette. And this has nothing to do with nicotine addiction. And I've got to admit that it is a major struggle to get smokers to see this!

Most smokers want to stop smoking immediately, but they don't think about every other part of smoking aside from addiction. It is not just addiction that makes you smoke. That is the main reason why nicotine patches, gums, lozenges and the latest pharmaceutical pills dont' work. They cannot help you with your other reasons for smoking.

And what are your other reasons for smoking?

Well let's see, your psychological reliance to deal with stess and problems by smoking, curing boredom, as a way to relax, cigarettes are a part of your wake up / bed time routine, you smoke when you drink alcohol and for social reasons, you smoke when you need to concentrate and cigarettes are your friend!

Patches and pills cannot help you with thes problems and issues! They only have a 16% success rate!

Anyway back to how long it should take you to stop smoking. People who use will power alone usually need seven attempts on average! That's years of failure and stress.

A nicotine replacement therapy course (patches, gums etc.) takes anywhere from two months to a year.

Cognitive behavioural therapies and other such methods can take up to three months.

Hypnotherapy is one of the best methods around with an average 33% success rate - more thn twice anything else, and it usually takes two to three sessions lasting a few hours each.

So there are different timescales for different methods.

The method I use with my clients takes 3 - 4 weeks. And it is the most thorough method I know of, (sorry if I sound like I'm blowing my own trumpet!)

I personally believe that you absolutely must plan and prepare on how to stop smoking and then stay stopped, an idea not many smokers or experts are open to or are a ware of.

That's why I think three weeks is the righ time scale. Like any idea, you need to plan beforehand. You need to see the plan through the any possible problem times and you need to make sure it works by keeping at it - especiallly after the big day.


So to answer your question: How long does it take to stop smoking? I think to successfully stop, deal with all aspects of smoking and then ensure that relapse is totally prevented, you are loking at three weeks.

One and half to two weeks preparation, one day to stop smoking and another week and a half to ensure that you do not ever relapse.