The Importance of a Quit Smoking Buddy

One of the most important things you can do to help with quitting smoking is to find a quit smoking buddy. This is someone you can turn to when the road gets a bit rough, and someone you can share your achievement with as well.

What's Important To Look For?
They must be a non-smoker. When you're around them, you shouldn't have any urge to smoke whatsoever. They should be genuinely interested in your health and well-being, and available on a fairly regular basis. This doesn't mean that you're going to eat up all of their time, just that they shouldn't be someone who you have to send an email and wait for a return phone call or anything ridiculous like that. If necessary, you'll need to be able to reach them rather quickly.

They should also be someone that you trust, obviously. When you end up needing them, you don't want to feel like you're bothering them or pressing the limits of your trust with someone. A non-smoking significant other, sibling, or parent would be an ideal candidate for this. Someone who has quit smoking (some time ago) would also work, but it's easier to go with a non-smoker.

While it may seem like a good idea at first, probably the worst person to choose would be someone who is quitting smoking with you. At first, you might help each other with quitting, but over time the two of you will both end up smoking again, rationalizing it the same way as a solitary smoker would: "Hey, we deserve a reward for not smoking this week," etc.

Why?
In your mind, cigarettes have become a friend, of sorts. They're always there for you (granted, for a price), and won't turn you down. They're there when you need a few minutes to take a break, or if you're having a bad day, or even if the whole world seems like its against you. While this isn't actually the case, it's what you believe. You need to replace cigarettes with a person that you trust in order to wean yourself from the habit.

There are a few times that you should call your quit smoking buddy. In particular, you should call if you feel intense cravings. Those cravings only last for five to ten minutes, but it's during those few short minutes that people crack and relapse into smoking. Spending a few minutes on the phone will take your mind off smoking (even if, at first, talking on the phone makes you want to smoke) and will get you past those cravings.

You should also call if you've had a particularly bad or good day. These are two main occasions under which people tend to want to smoke, and having an actual person to share the day's experience with will dissuade you from smoking.

Most importantly, remember that even if you do relapse, it's important to tell your quit smoking buddy, and not be overly down on yourself. Quitting smoking can be difficult, but persistence is critical and soon you'll be free from the habit!