How to Help Someone Quit Smoking

What would you do if a friend or loved one called and said “Can you help me to stop smoking?” Helping someone on their quit journey can be very challenging, but very rewarding. If you’re about to help someone quit smoking, they’ll need all the support they can get. There may be times when they ask for your advice, or just want you to listen. There may be moments of temptation and madness, or when it all just seems too much. It’s times like these that your help will be most appreciated, and you should keep the following ideas in mind.

Be Supportive

To help someone quit smoking, non-judgmental support is absolutely vital. Take the person’s intentions to quit seriously, even if they’ve tried and failed before. Don’t mock the person, and certainly don’t tempt them. Also, self-belief is one of the keys to kicking the habit long-term, and will be made so much easier if the people around them believe they can do it as well. Give advice only when it’s asked for, and be willing and ready to listen if the person needs to offload. More than anything, though, help the person how they want to be helped, not how you think they should be helped.

Avoid Nagging

To help someone quit smoking, try to avoid nagging the person giving up, reminding them to stay off the cigarettes and asking them if they’ve smoked every time you see them. As it is, they’ll likely be dealing with irritability and mood swings as a result of giving up; they may not react well to being reminded not to smoke. Additionally, asking them if they’ve smoked if you haven’t seen them in a while may come across as a lack of trust and belief in them. On top of how difficult it can be to quit smoking, the additional burden of feeling as though they have to prove something may be difficult to bear.

Handling Setbacks

Setbacks are notoriously common when giving up smoking, especially on the first few attempts. In fact, it can take as many as 12 or 13 attempts to give up smoking before the habit is kicked for good. To help someone quit smoking, it’s important not to be judgmental if they have a setback and light up again. Do not give up on the person under any circumstances. If you give up on them, they could easily give up on themselves and on their efforts to quit smoking.

The best way to help someone quit smoking is to just be there for them when they need someone to listen to and offload to. Also, never forget to be unconditionally supportive; giving up smoking is incredibly difficult, but with a bit of help from you and lots of willpower, your loved one will surely have a good chance of success.