Quitting Smoking & Vaping For Dummies®
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Library of Congress Control Number: 2019954890
ISBN 978-1-119-61691-7 (pbk); ISBN 978-1-119-61692-4 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-119-61695-5 (ebk)
Quitting Smoking & Vaping For Dummies, is a comprehensive toolkit for anyone struggling with an addiction to nicotine. If you or someone you care about wants to give up a habit, this book provides a complete recipe for quitting.
Many stop-smoking books and programs are highly limited in what they recommend. Some give you a long list of tips and not much more. Others promise that you’ll have an absurdly easy time quitting with virtually no effort (that is, if you buy their products).
We aren’t promising you anything magical. And we suggest your efforts to stop smoking or vaping will be difficult. You may not even succeed on the first try. That’s okay — we tell you how to deal with relapses.
You can count on us to give you the straight scoop about the best approaches to quitting smoking, using smokeless tobacco, and/or vaping. Guess what? You probably won’t use them all and that’s why we give you choices. If what you try at first doesn’t work for you, there’s a whole lot more you can try.
Our number-one goal is to help as many people as possible give up the costly, unhealthy habits of nicotine and tobacco consumption. In order to accomplish that goal, we describe the various methods of smoking-cessation strategies. These include medications, rethinking your relationship to urges and smoking, increasing motivation, finding alternatives to fight urges, and more.
Tobacco can be consumed in a variety of ways. In addition, vaping devices are another way of obtaining nicotine. A second goal of this book is to let you know that these different delivery systems all have distinct risks associated with them. We describe those risks and the controversies surrounding each system in some detail. This information is particularly valuable for parents and teachers who may be worried about teens who could be experimenting with or thinking about vaping.
Throughout the book we give you examples to illustrate the points we’re making. These examples are based on real experiences; however, they’re based on composites of several people we’ve known or interviewed. Any resemblance to a specific person is entirely coincidental.
Sidebars in various chapters contain interesting information. However, they are not essential reading to the main goals of this book. Feel free to read them or not. Similarly, anything marked with the Technical Stuff icon can be skipped.
Throughout the book, the strategies we give you can be used for quitting vaping, smoking regular cigarettes, or smokeless tobacco. For simplicity and convenience, we don’t repeat all the tobacco and nicotine forms each time we bring up a quitting strategy. All our suggested techniques can be applied to any form of tobacco or nicotine addiction.
Within this book, you may note that some web addresses break across two lines of text. If you’re reading this book in print and want to visit one of these web pages, simply key in the web address exactly as it’s noted in the text, pretending as though the line break doesn’t exist. If you’re reading this as an e-book, you’ve got it easy — just click the web address to be taken directly to the web page.
We assume that if you’re reading this book, you want to quit smoking or vaping. Or perhaps you know or care about someone who does. Some people may pick this book up because it gives them a lot of information about the new phenomenon of vaping. If you’re one of them, welcome!
Look for the little pictures in the margins. Those are called icons and they’re intended to get your attention in some specific way. We use the following icons:
This book is a reference which means you don’t have to commit it to memory. But sometimes we tell you something so important that you really should remember it. And when that happens, we use the Remember icon.
Whenever we give you a practical idea for quitting smoking or vaping, improving your health, sticking with your program, carrying out suggestions more efficiently, and improving long term gains, we mark it with the Tip icon.
When we alert you to potential risks, things not to do, or other important considerations you don’t want to miss, we use the Warning icon.
As we mention earlier, we use examples based on real people’s stories. When we do, we mark them with the Example icon.
Every once in a while, we dig deeper into more technical information that isn’t essential to your understanding of the subject at hand. When we do that, we use the Technical Stuff icon. If you’re the sort who likes to know everything about a subject, read these paragraphs. If you just want to know what you need to know, you can safely skip these paragraphs.
In addition to the material in the print or e-book you’re reading right now, this product also comes with a free Cheat Sheet available on the web. The Cheat Sheet provides tips for dealing with cravings, affirmations to motivate you, tips on boosting your metabolism, and more. To access the Cheat Sheet, go to www.dummies.com and type Quitting Smoking & Vaping For Dummies Cheat Sheet in the Search box.
You don’t have to read this book from start to finish. Each chapter stands on its own, so you can dip into the book wherever you want. You can use the Table of Contents or Index to find the information you’re most interested in right now.
Not sure where to start? If you’re a parent scared to death about vaping and your teenager, head straight to Chapter 7. If you’re a smoker or vaper, and you just want to get a plan for quitting now, head to Part 4. If you’ve already quit (good for you!), and you’re struggling to stay a nonsmoker, Part 5 is for you.
Part 1
IN THIS PART …
Understand how to quit smoking and vaping.
Dive into tobacco and addiction.
Uncover the health effects of tobacco in its various forms.
Recognize the other costs of smoking for families and communities.
Chapter 1
IN THIS CHAPTER
Winning the war on tobacco
Knowing the enemy: addiction
Accepting yourself
Going for the long game
Imagine taking up a truly enjoyable hobby. It’s a little costly, but it feels good. Unfortunately, there’s a downside: About half of the people who practice this hobby regularly end up dead due to the riskiness of the hobby.
Now, we’re not talking about climbing Mt. Everest or BASE jumping (jumping off cliffs and using a parachute at the last minute). No, those hobbies are relatively “safe” by comparison to what we’re talking about. The hobby of smoking kills about half of long-term enthusiasts.
That fact probably accounts for why most smokers actually want to quit smoking: They know what’s in store for them down the road. Yet, giving up jumping off cliffs as a hobby is easier than giving up smoking. Wanting to quit is a start, but not enough by itself.
However, progress is happening. Today, the combined effects of regulated advertising, greater restrictions on locations that allow smoking, and changes in societal norms have culminated in substantial reductions in overall tobacco use. In 2000, no state in the United States banned smoking in bars, restaurants, or the workplace. By 2018, 38 states had passed at least partial bans on public smoking.
These changes have contributed to a dramatic reduction in overall smoking rates from a high of almost half of all adults to a rate of just under 14 percent today. Some experts have even declared that the war on tobacco has almost been won.
But just before victory could be declared, another formidable threat appeared on the horizon: vaping. Many experts have expressed the opinion that vaping may pose many of the same risks as smoking combustible cigarettes. Surprisingly, other leading authorities contend that vaping nicotine may be a useful tool in finally winning the war on tobacco. The jury is still out on this issue, but we give you the latest analysis in this book.
We contend that smoking, vaping, or chewing tobacco are all basically unhealthy pursuits. So, in this book, we offer you the best, evidence-based methods for quitting smoking, vaping, or using smokeless tobacco. Essentially the same change techniques can be applied to all these related addictions.
It won’t be a cake walk, and you may stumble. But we give you ways to pick yourself up and go at it again. Keep trying and you’re likely to kick the habit for good.
Becoming addicted to nicotine is not something that people choose to do. When people take a few puffs of a cigarette or a vaping device, they don’t intend to become dependent on a drug that costs money and time, while taking a serious toll on their health.
The brain’s wiring makes addiction virtually inevitable for most people when certain substances, such as nicotine, are ingested repeatedly. Over time, the brain powerfully associates good feelings with those substances and unpleasant sensations of cravings when denied them.
An addicted brain offers a seductive promise: Keep supplying the drug and you won’t ever have to deal fully with pain, suffering, or hardship. Unfortunately, it’s a false promise. As addiction takes hold, it enslaves the mind. The addict is almost doomed to a life of finding ways to satisfy never-ending cravings. Luckily, there are ways to beat an addiction, and this book helps you accomplish that goal.
Addiction is not a moral failure, a character flaw, or a sign of weakness. Addiction happens to people. When you’re caught in its grip, fighting off an addiction takes courage, effort, and persistence. Don’t worry — we lead you through the process and hold your hand every step of the way.
If you struggle with smoking, don’t become mired in self-loathing, blame, and shame. You did not choose to become addicted to nicotine. Blaming yourself makes it tougher to move forward. You need all the resolve you’ve got to fight this — don’t add more baggage to your load.
In addition to being vulnerable to addiction, humans have considerable tenacity and resilience. We help you build on your strengths in order to overcome addiction to nicotine.
Almost a half a million people die from smoking-related illnesses each year in the United States alone. Thousands of young people start to smoke or vape every day. Left unchecked, it’s assumed that about 5.6 million of today’s teenagers will die prematurely from smoking.
Smoking costs more than $300 billion a year in both lost productivity and direct healthcare services. Smokers routinely die of lung cancer, cardiac disease, and strokes, among other smoking-related maladies.
We give you these facts not with the purpose of scaring you. You already know smoking causes life-threatening illnesses and wreaks havoc. Just consider using this information to inspire your efforts and realize you’re contributing to a healthier society when you stop smoking. See Chapter 3 for more about tobacco and health.
What could possibly be worth spending one million dollars each and every hour of each and every day? Tobacco companies spend that amount of money on promotion and advertising in order to get your business and pump up their profits. What’s more important to you is what it’s costing you. Above and beyond the “mere” price of cigarettes themselves, smoking costs much more. For example:
Direct comparisons of the cost of vaping with that of smoking regular cigarettes is difficult. That’s because different vaping devices have quite variable costs and e-liquids come in an array of types and container sizes with their own unique costs (see Chapter 5 for descriptions of vaping devices and e-liquids). Nonetheless, if consumers shop carefully, they’re likely to discover that vaping costs considerably less than smoking combustible cigarettes.
The issue of health and life insurance policy costs is completely up in the air. Given that vaping is a relatively new phenomena and few studies have been conducted on its long-term safety, insurance companies have not clarified their rules and fixed different premium prices for vaping versus smoking policyholders.
Some insurance companies require a physical exam before offering a policy. Many health and life insurance companies charge a higher premium to smokers. The way insurance companies test for whether you smoke or not is to check nicotine levels. Because most vaping e-liquids contain nicotine, vapers will test positively for nicotine. Thus, smokers who turn to vaping for their reputedly lower risk profile will still face higher premiums (see Chapter 6 for more information about the risks of vaping and Chapter 12 for information about vaping and harm reduction).
Savings you accrue from not buying endless packs of cigarettes (or other tobacco or nicotine products) mount up rapidly over time — even if you ignore all the considerable funds that aren’t spent on insurance, lost work, and other indirect costs. We strongly recommend that you start putting aside what you would’ve spent on tobacco or nicotine. Watch it grow!
Make a list of spending priorities when it reaches a tidy sum. Post that list in a visible place and look at it often for inspiration. Let’s say that an average cost of a pack of cigarettes in your state runs about $7. If you smoke a pack a day, that comes to about $2,555 per year. The ten-year total accumulates $25,550. You could buy a car with that! There are lots of other things you could do with just one year’s savings, like:
The really great thing about these expenditures is that you can almost think of them as free money. It’s money you absolutely would not have accumulated without quitting. Stop burning your money! Give it back to yourself. You’ve earned the right to splurge a bit!
Some people prefer to invest their smoking savings. You can do that in an ultra-safe savings account or go a little wilder and invest in a specific stock or in a mutual fund. It’s amazing how much more that money can grow to if you put it in and let your gains compound over time. Consider reading Personal Finance For Dummies, 9th Edition, by Eric Tyson (Wiley) for more ideas.
Investing for the long term will only work if you find it highly rewarding to watch those returns grow slowly over time. If you’re someone who prefers more immediate gratification, we recommend that you go ahead and be a bit self-indulgent for the highly worthy goal of quitting smoking or vaping.
Well, not always. If you ever broke up with an abusive partner, then you know that breaking up may feel temporarily tough, but afterward there is a tremendous sense of relief. That’s what breaking up with smoking is like. Smoking is a toxic partner. Walking away from it is hard at first, but soon you’ll find yourself feeling tremendous relief.
Life is full of hard-to-accomplish goals. Think back; ponder what you’ve done in your life that took guts, time, and hard work. Those are the things that you feel incredibly proud of when you look back. Quitting smoking will be an accomplishment you can be proud of. But don’t get discouraged and defeat yourself before you start by thinking it’s too hard.
You’ve faced and conquered a few (or more) grueling challenges in your life. You can get through this too with a little help from this book, support from friends, and the same grit and determination that you’ve mustered in the past!
Many paths lead to a smoke-free life. We cover them in detail in Parts 3 and 4. Before you quit, you may want to consider reading about the techniques offered throughout those chapters. To get a sense of what’s available for your quitting endeavor, here’s a list of most of the techniques we have to offer you:
You can see you have lots of strategies to choose from. Don’t let the length of this list scare you. See Chapter 15 for figuring out how to pick what’s best for you to start with. You won’t have to use all these techniques. And if what you start with doesn’t work, there’s more standing by ready to help.
Most people find that developing a detailed quit plan before quitting will increase the odds of success. Therefore, we suggest that you don’t go cold turkey until you’ve done some preparation. We detail how to make a plan in Chapter 15 and help you get through the first day in Chapter 16.
Chapters 17 and 18 prepare you for dealing with the first month of quitting and throughout the next five months. We tell you how to deal with sleep problems, cravings, and the crabbiness that often accompanies your quitting journey.
Many quitters assume that if they’ve quit for six months or so, their battle has been won. And indeed, they’ve made great, substantial progress! But some vigilance is still advisable.
Let your guard down and nicotine can crawl back through the door unnoticed. So, we recommend you stay on the lookout for high-risk situations such as the following:
Regular smokers are often jealous of so-called casual smokers, those who claim that they can go for months without a cigarette and only smoke occasionally during parties or other social gatherings. Wouldn’t it be nice to be a casual smoker, able to just have one cigarette here and there? Well, for almost all cigarette smokers, there is no casual opportunity. When a smoking habit begins, it quickly escalates into a regular, frequent pattern of smoking.
After quitting, the mind tries to trick former smokers into believing that they can have just one cigarette. But like potato chip advertisers know, one is never enough. A lapse of just one or two cigarettes can quickly morph into a full pack-a-day habit again.
If you do slip, pay attention. Go on high alert. Review your quit plan and get support. People who take lapses like these seriously can often get right back on track. You need to reach out. Consider calling the national quitline at 800-QUIT NOW (800-784-8669). People who “blow off” the importance of a few cigarettes often relapse completely.
For most smokers, when they quit, there should be no puffs, not one. It’s just not worth the risk.
We’re here to support your efforts for the long run. Our ultimate goal for you at the end of the day is that you find a lifestyle as a nonsmoker that gives you more satisfaction than you had as a smoker. That may sound impossible, but it’s not. Assuming that you share the objective of finding a better nonsmoking lifestyle, there are a few things you need to do.
People report greater life satisfaction when they reward themselves with healthy pleasures. But if you’re going to do that, you have to believe you deserve to have more pleasure in your life to begin with.
Let’s face it, you quit smoking. That took a lot of work. You deserve a break! And putting pleasure into your life will help keep you smoke free.
Hey, it’s tough being human. You have huge responsibilities — whether that’s work or family or friends or pets or some combination of these. Along the way, you’re going to make mistakes as everyone does. Start being your own best friend. When you slip up, forgive yourself unconditionally. Be kind to your body and your mind. People who practice self-compassion are happier and have greater life satisfaction. See Chapter 22 for more information about self-compassion.
It takes resilience to make it through today’s challenging world. In order to get up after a fall, it’s important to have strong social connections. Nurture your friendships and spend time with people you care about. Connections provide a buffer from the unanticipated obstacles that come out of the blue. You can also strengthen your inner resources through practicing mindfulness strategies. See Chapter 21 for more information about mindfulness and meditation.