4 Ways to Obtain Social Support when Quitting Smoking

Studies show that people who participate in quit smoking programs that provided high levels of social support throughout the quit process are twice more likely to succeed than those who didn’t get support. What’s more, 95 percent of smokers why try to quit on their own fail. While professional support helps, even just the support coming from your spouse, friends and relatives can greatly increase your chances of quitting smoking for good. What’s important is that you are able to get someone who could go through the whole bigstock-People-Hands-1759919experience with you.

What if you can’t get support at home? Here are some other forms of social support that you can consider:

Online Support

Search “quit smoking” on Google and you are going to find 49,800,000 results. The internet is full of resources in various forms – blogs, forums, chat rooms, and quit smoking organizations where you can get information, help and support throughout your quit smoking journey. Some quit smoking websites have interactive features, downloadable applications, and other online tools that you will find very useful.

Individual Counseling

There are professional therapists that are trained to provide counseling service for people who are trying to quit smoking. Through counseling, you can learn new ways to cope with stress, combat nicotine cravings, and develop strategies to avoid smoking relapse. There are therapists and health practitioners who specialize in smoking cessation.

Quit Smoking Groups

Search online, scan your phone directory, contact local hospitals and clinics, or ask your doctor to find quit smoking support groups. Some support groups offer free services to smokers. When choosing a support group however, be aware that although most of them may appear similar on the surface, they are different as day and night. Some groups have a unified cessation philosophy and structured education program, while others don’t.

Telephone Counseling

Check your health plan if quit smoking help is available. A healthcare professional will call you to give you a personalized quit plan. He or she will reinforce your personal reasons for quitting, review your plan to stay on track, and give you helpful feedback.

It is also important that you avoid, whenever possible, socializing with people who smoke. If someone in your family smokes, encourage him or her to quit as well or ask them to avoid smoking when they are with you (at least during the first weeks of your quit smoking journey). Spend more time hanging out with people who don’t smoke. Furthermore, get away from emotions, places, events or situations that trigger you to smoke. It’s necessary to lower your chances of relapse.

When quitting smoking, you will largely benefit from the support other people could provide. Social support can be obtained online, through individual counseling, quit smoking group, and even telephone counseling. But before choosing one, check which form is most suitable to your needs.

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2 Responses

  1. Social support can give a big contribution to a person to quit his habit of smoking. Joining support groups would help a lot, because you are quitting the habit together with other individuals who are also struggling to quit.

  2. One of the hardest things for people to do is Quit Smoking….. However, I have discovered a very simple,
    yet very effective way to help them quit without Will-Power or without going through Withdrawals !!

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