13 tips to help you quit smoking | News

Is 2023 the year you give you the ciggies? Quitting smoking is one of the best things you can do to improve not just your physical health but your mental wellbeing too.

Glynis John, Clinical Nurse Specialist from Royal Surrey’s Smoking Cessation Team, has provided some tips to help you quit:

• List your reasons to quit.
• Tell people you're quitting.
• If you have tried to quit before, remember what worked.
• Use stop smoking aids – nicotine replacement therapy.
• Have a plan if you are tempted to smoke.
• List your smoking triggers and how to avoid them by developing strategies.
• Keep cravings at bay by keeping busy.
• Exercise away the urge.
• Join the NHS Facebook group for support and advice.
• Remember: not one puff!
• Vaping is less harmful than smoking and can be an effective prop to help you quit. E-liquids come in different nicotine strengths so you can control how much nicotine you need to help deal with cravings.
• You are up to three times more likely to stop smoking with the combined help of a stop smoking treatment and support from an NHS Stop Smoking Service.
• Good luck. Throw away all your cigarettes before you start. Remember, there is never ‘just one cigarette’. You can do it!

The Royal Surrey Smoking Cessation Team supports our staff and patients to give up smoking.