The best quit smoking support you can provide is to offer patience, understanding and love and make the smoker’s life easier in the first few days. So you will find some advices about how you can support a smoker who wants to quit.
Understand
Because of giving up cigarettes the smoker may have severe emotional outbursts, be depressed, irritable, and even irrational. It is crucial with your quit smoking support that you do not encourage the smoker to take a cigarette rather than act like that (this is the worst thing you can do, because they’ll do just that). You must understand that smoking is not a simple little annoyance, but a powerful and deadly addiction. They are confronting with a physiological need as well as an ingrained psychological dependence. So you must encourage the smoker as you know better and try to tolerate their temporary emotional outbursts.
You will have a great satisfaction when they will return to normal and you will know you helped them over a great challenge of their lives.
Why do people smoke?
You must understand that the reason people smoke is not because they are stupid or mean or obnoxious or they wish to hurt their friend and families, but because they are human and they make mistakes. Smokers can be found guilty of experimentation with a highly dangerous and addictive drug – nicotine. You have to understand this point when you are trying to help with your quit smoking support, most people began smoking before they knew the risks and when they realized the dangers they tried to quit.
Ex-smokers’ support
An ex-smoker may offer more than understanding, patience and love he can be a credible source and highly supportive with the individual who is trying to quit smoking. He/ she know what smoking it was like and how much better the life as an ex-smoker is and can share the knowledge.
If you are an ex-smoker and you are offering quit smoking support don’t be afraid to share your thoughts with the “quitters”. If you still think of smoking a cigarette tell them, but explain them what the thoughts are like. They occur quite infrequently and when they do they last only seconds; are passing desire rather than painful episode like those encountered during initial cessation.
Deal with new situations
People who give up cigarettes want to know the natural evolutionary process from smoker to ex-smoker. After the first two weeks the urges they encounter are no longer physical withdrawal effects, but rather they are reacting to a psychological trigger. For the first time they are experiencing a new situation without a cigarette, but after the urge will pass they will know how to face all future experiences with no discomfort.
Every smoker who is trying to quit need some support so even if you are not an ex-smoker and you cannot totally understand what the smoker is going through patience and understanding can help.