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" Giving up smoking is a long process and on average it takes a smoker four or five attempts to quit smoking for good. Typically you go through several phases during this time, each of which plays a decisive role in the long-term success of the quit. Each phase brings different issues, so the help and advice you receive will need to change, depending on which stage you&amp;#039;re at. One day, you will start looking upon yourself as a non-smoker who couldn&amp;#039;t imagine starting again, rather than an ex-smoker. The seven phases of quitting 1. Pre-contemplation: smoking isn&amp;#039;t a problem  In this phase, you&amp;#039;re not thinking about giving up smoking. You don&amp;#039;t feel smoking is a problem and you have no desire to stop. The negative effects of smoking are rationalised or denied in favour of benefits such as enjoyment, pleasure and a way to relax. You&amp;#039;re also at this stage if you think you &amp;#039;can&amp;#039;t&amp;#039; give up because you haven&amp;#039;t the willpower or you&amp;#039;re worried about effects such as weight gain. 2. Contemplation: smoking has disadvantages, but I&amp;#039;m not yet ready to quit  In this phase you are aware of the pros and cons of smoking, but aren&amp;#039;t yet ready to do anything about them.  For some smokers, these contradictory feelings about smoking stop them from moving on to the next phase where they prepare to quit. Usually, though, a smoker will make an attempt to give up smoking within the next six months.  Unfortunately only half the smokers in this phase succeed in quitting for longer than 24 hours in the course of a year. One thing that appears to motivate smokers at this stage is the raised awareness of smoking - you become aware of information about dependency and the effects of smoking, as well as the different ways of stopping.  Advice from your GP about the benefits of giving up can push a smoker from contemplation into the preparation phase. 3. Preparation: you want to quit and you prepare to quit A smoker in the preparation stage sees smoking as a problem that needs tackling. The intention to change behaviour in the near future is clear, often within a month. You will start to read about the different ways to stop smoking and draw up a list of ideas to help. These preparations may include setting a date for quitting, and establishing what kind of help you think will support your decision, eg talking to a doctor, enrolling in a stop-smoking clinic, using NRT or acupuncture.  4. Action: you stop smoking The action phase starts on the day you quit smoking. This phase lasts until not smoking has become second nature - this can be as soon as four weeks, although on average it takes six months. During the action phase, help should be as concrete as possible, eg strategies for dealing with withdrawal symptoms, correct use of nicotine replacement therapy, exercise and nutritional tips, etc.  5. Maintenance: you are more comfortable as a non-smoker  In this phase, your newly achieved smoke-free lifestyle is better rehearsed. You have experience of handling cravings, and the intervals between risky and difficult situations increase. Unfortunately because the worst is over, you can drop your guard and forget how difficult it was to give up smoking in the first place. The temptation is to have &amp;#039;just one&amp;#039; or become a social smoker. This way of thinking will stop you moving into the next phase: sucess.  6. Termination: you are a non-smoker  You have mastered your addiction and put an end to your reliance on cigarettes. You are fully aware of what triggers your need for a cigarette and can comfortably handle situations without tobacco.   At this stage, cigarettes are no longer part of your life and you give little thought to smoking - you are a non-smoker. But remember, once a smoker, always a smoker. Even years after giving up, 90 per cent of ex-smokers who are tempted to have one puff return to their old levels of smoking. 7. Relapse  Setbacks are a natural part of quitting. It usually takes four or five attempts before a smoker quits for good. While this means relapse is part of the quit process, there&amp;#039;s no getting away from the disappointment you&amp;#039;ll feel if it happens.  If you start to smoke again in any of the phases from four to six, you&amp;#039;re back to the ambivalence of the contemplation phase (2). This is because, though you may want to stop smoking, you have in effect chosen to start again. Although an attempt has failed, it doesn&amp;#039;t mean you can&amp;#039;t or will never give up. The important thing is not to feel overwhelmed by negative emotions or believe you&amp;#039;re helpless in the face of your addiction. Instead, you need to look at what worked and what didn&amp;#039;t and use it to prepare for your next attempt.  References Prochaska James O, Norcross John C, DiClemente Carlo C. Changing for Good. Avon Books, 1995.  Siedman Daniel F., Covey Lirio S. Helping the hard-core smoker. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1999.   Tulinius Charlotte, Damkj\u00E6r Henning, Schi\u00F8ler Dorte. Smoking - a way out of the smog? M\u00E5nedsskrift for Praktisk L\u00E6gegerning, May 1999.  Damkj\u00E6r Henning. Psychological methods of talking to patients about their smoking habits. M\u00E5nedsskrift for Praktisk L\u00E6gegerning, July 1999. Str\u00F8mming Merete. Why we smoke. PsykologNyt, year 54, issue 20, 2000.  Dalum Peter, Sonne Torsten. Talking about change. Danish Council on Smoking and Health, 2000. Dalum Peter, Sonne Torsten. How can we talk about lifestyle? Danish Council on Smoking and Health, 2000.   Based on a text by Torsten Sonne, BSc Psych auth  Last updated 14.08.2012 "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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