The way I began smoking is a story heard so often that it's almost cliché. I was 19, in my first year at university, and living away from home for the first time. Like many students moving into a dorm, my roommates were my group of friends; we travelled as a group, we went to bars together, and the majority of the group smoked together. Being around smokers on such a regular basis quickly made me indifferent to the secondhand smoke — it was all outside, anyway — and before long I found myself joining them on the smoking patios at the bars, cigarette in hand.

I went through an odd mental dilemma when I first began smoking; I had grown up in the '90s, when a hostess still asked “smoking or non-smoking?” every time you went out for dinner, but saw the dawn of a generation of entertainment where smoking was rarely seen and never glorified, so I was fully aware of the health risks and social stigmas that accompanied smoking.

Despite my education to the contrary, I enjoyed smoking quite a bit, pushing what I knew about the health risks to the back of my mind in order to rationalize the fact that the smoking patio at the bar was proving to be a fruitful place to pick up girls. Before I knew it, I had stopped smoking exclusively in social settings, and had begun to crave cigarettes every few hours. The progression to full-on smoker was complete.

This continued for a year and a half, a time during which I attempted to quit smoking twice, only to have the efforts derailed due to a drunken night or a particularly stressful day and have the cycle repeat itself all over again. After some time, I was finally able to quit smoking for the long term. I've been smoke-free for over a year now and it was one of the hardest things I have accomplished. I have often been asked how I managed to pull it off, especially considering that I was able to do it without the use of nicotine replacement therapies such as the patch or gum, so here are my strategies for smoke-free success.

Do It For You
I attempted to quit once or twice, always at the behest of my parents or friends who hated the fact that I smoked, but I never was able to stop for more than a week or two. Smokers feel immense pressure when trying to quit, and having someone watching over my shoulder making sure that I was 100 per cent committed did not make it any easier. The third time I attempted to quit, I was doing it because I didn't want to be a smoker anymore, not because someone else was opposed to it, which I believe finally gave me the extra drive to accomplish it.

Baby Steps
When I finally decided to quit smoking, the first step I made was to cut the number of cigarettes I was smoking per day in half, bringing my smoking down from over 10 cigarettes a day to just around five within a week. There is no tried and true method to getting through this stage of quitting, as everyone has a different set of smoking habits to break, different reasons to be smoking, as a different personality when dealing with adversity.

I chose to find a substitution for the cigarette, a commonly used method among people who are not using a nicotine replacement product such as the patch, which serves to break the physical routine of having a cigarette, I used gum, but I have known people to drink water, have a coffee or even eat carrots in an effort to fill the routine.

Regardless of the chosen substitution, a smoker will have a very difficult time quitting if they cannot fill the time that they used to spend smoking with something else, even if it only manages to occupy the minute or two that would be spent on the cigarette in the first place.

You Don't Have To Do It Alone
This shouldn't be confused with what was said earlier regarding quitting for someone else; having a friend who knows what it is you are trying to do and is willing to help you along can be a tremendous asset. In my case, I had both a roommate and a girlfriend who were on my side and were able to help me out whenever I needed a conversation or a distraction from a serious craving. The biggest difference between this brand of support and having family members harping on me to quit is that my friends displayed understanding and patience toward the quitting process. Nearly everyone on earth can relate to having parents stressing them out, and mine were particularly impatient toward the quitting process, expecting almost immediate smoke free results and giving the “disappointed parent” lecture that we have all heard so many times if they ever caught so much as a whiff of cigarette smoke. Needless to say, the stress that this added for me was not in any way helpful in my attempts to stop, in fact the time that I spent at home became the times where I would slip and step outside for a smoke or three.

Give Yourself Time
I never would have believed just how long it would actually take in order to purge the addiction from not only my body, but my mind as well. Smoking, for me and many people I know, was such a habitual aspect of my social interactions that missing it felt like the equivalent of my best friend being absent from the group. It was weeks before I was able to even consider quitting cold turkey, and even longer before I was able to put together multiple smoke-free days with any sort of success. Once I was able to go three or four days without cigarettes, things became easier, but during that time I probably would have sold my mother for a smoke and I bounced around within every negative emotion you can imagine.

Keep in mind that this is a personal account; there is no single method to quitting smoking that will guarantee any sort of results. You have to find your own methods — these are just some examples of what worked for me.

Quitting smoking is one of the hardest things I accomplished in my entire life, but also one of the most rewarding. Going smoke-free is going to take all the self-control you possess, and probably a little extra on top of that, but some strong will and good support will see you through. Good luck!

While quitting cold turkey is a viable option for some, many others require a stop smoking aid of some kind to help them along their way. Over the years, Nicotine Replacement Therapies (NRTs) have taken many different forms, including the nicotine patch, gum, inhalers, and fake cigarettes to help people satisfy their cravings satisfied without breaking a non-smoking routine.

In addition to NRTs, there has been a recent upswing in alternative methods of quitting smoking, namely through hypnotherapy and laser treatments, which are designed to help people quit in a healthier way. Deb Johnson, a laser therapist in London, says that her program has an 85 per cent success rate when helping people to quit. This is accomplished through the stimulation of acupuncture points with lasers, designed to help your body relax and cope without its usual dose of nicotine.