Smoking Elicitors – Ways of Spotting Enervation

Being able to recognise the triggering factors in smoking is the principal means to avoiding potholes in the path to smoke cessation.

The prevalent activating factors identified herewith include:

• Being stressed out, emotional turmoil –mostly downbeat, however occasionally even constructive emotions could spark off the craving to fag.
• Another widespread pitfall in the road to staying sober is being exposed to cigarette smoke or some aspect associated to it, for instance being in the companionship of those who indulge in smoking.
• Condition or environment-related triggering factors, reminiscent of the past when one engaged in smoking and behavioural patterns that one has been habituated to linked with fagging. These educing factors have the maximum ensnaring power just subsequent to quitting smoking and could fade over periods of time.

Facing the demons of Smoking and overcoming hurdles

Despite the resoluteness on quitting smoking there are bound to be times and situations that would simply push one to the brink of letting go of one’s pledge. Here some guidance on how to steer clear from such stumbling blocks.

• In case one senses the urge to fag whilst driving in one’s vehicle, try making it as inhospitable an environment for smoking as possible. Cleaning it, emptying and scrubbing the ash storage compartments and the gloves sections. Especially doing away with the ‘what in case – emergency cigarette packet’. It is better to get the seating and fittings inside the vehicle cleared out of any cigarette traces. Keeping items like gums or lozenge or candies in the gloves section for safe options to pop into the mouth when going out on a drive.
• In case one has pals that are into smoking and being around them is a known triggering factor, then speaking to pals that smoke and requesting them for assistance in quitting smoking when in their company as much as doable, for lowering the likelihood of reverting to old ways. In case one finds buddies outside catching up on smoking, it is best to not join them and be indoors; pat yourself on the back for not having to be outdoors in the nippy conditions or not skipping out on the live game going on just for the reason that one was outdoors having a fag.
• A number of people feel the urge to smoke a cigarette soon after a meal. If that is the case then getting occupied physically and mentally like getting up, clearing the dining table, washing the utensils and packing the remaining food as all good ways to distract the mind.

It is mostly the initial couple of minutes following a trigger that incites the craving to fag. Hence, simply delaying that longing – tiding over that crucial time, one would uncover that those thoughts have disappeared.