I had a look at the website www.statistics.gov.uk to try and discover who it is in society that’s most likely to smoke. I wanted to do this because I think sometimes we’re a given a false impression (through the media and Hollywood etc) of who it is that really smokes in society.

Some of the results I’ve discovered may surprise you.

I chose the UK for this question because I thought that it would be a good gauge on Western society as a whole. Below are some findings from the General Household Survey, National Statistics Omnibus Survey, UK.

Men vs. Women: In 2006, 23% of men smoked cigarettes compared to 21% of women. Men smoked an average of 15 cigarettes a day while women smoked an average of 13 cigarettes a day.

Girls vs. Boys: In 2004, it was found that out of the children aged 11-15 (aged over 16’s counted as adults for these statistics) that Girls (10%) were more likely to smoke than boys (7%).

Marriage: People who are married are far less likely to smoke than those who are not. Of those aged 25-34, 34% of singles smoked and 35% of those living with their partner smoked. This is a vast jump when compared to those who smoke when married which only equates to 21%

Ages:
- The age group that is most likely to smoke = 20-24 year olds.
- The age group least likely to smoke = Over 60’s.
- The age group who smokes the most cigarettes = 35-59 year olds
(same for both men (16 cigarettes)
and women (14-15 cigarettes) )
- The age group most likely to have given up = Over 60’s

Socio-economic: In 2001. 33% of men and 30% of women from manual working households smoked cigarettes compared to 22% of men and 20% of women in non-manual working households.

An interesting conclusion that I discovered in the survey was that most people who smoke actually want to quit (68%). Nine out of ten people sited their health or the health of others around them (especially children) as the main reason.

If you have tried to quit smoking at any time, you would more than likely have used the phrase ‘I am giving up smoking.’

I would like to introduce to you the fact this phrase may be doing more harm than good.

If you don’t get what I mean, you may be sabotaging your quit atempts from the very beginning. In this article you will learnt his phrase actually carries negative connotations and can subliminally hinder your quit attempts when repeated over and over to yourself. At the conclusion of this article you will see the more you tell yourself you are ‘giving up,’ the less likely it is you will have success with stopping smoking.

“I am giving up smoking”, it’s a common saying that we have all heard at one time or another. It is so common in fact, that I don’t think we even realise what it actually means or implies. When you are trying to stop smoking one of the worst things you can say, or even think, is the term “giving up.”

‘Giving up’ something implies loss. You ‘give up’ things you care about and cherish. Like you would ‘give up’ your nightly bath to save power. You would ‘give up’ your morning coffee at a cafe to save money.

The term “giving up” has a strong negative connotation, that implies you are stopping something that is a great thing in your life. It does not enforce that you want to quit, it actually does the opposite. You may not even realise this is happening, but every time you say or think you are “giving up” you are inviting in negative thoughts and feelings.

When you stop smoking, it is a positive experience. You are not giving up anything, on the contrary, the benefits are endless. You get healthier, you save money, you don’t stink of smoke any more, etc etc.

Now I can imagine some people out there are reading this and thinking “Smoking is a great thing in my life and I enjoy doing it.”

Well, I can sympathise with that because I used to think exactly the same way. This didn’t stop me from wanting to quit though, because the thought of dying young just wasn’t very appealing to me.

The first few times I tried to quit, I went into it thinking “I am giving up.” I felt like I was losing something dear to me. Well guess what, I couldn’t quit. It wasn’t until I changed my way of thinking and stopped using the term “giving up” that I ironically “gave up”.

Instead of thinking I enjoyed cigarettes and the positives it brought into my life, I turned it around 180 degrees and concetrated on the positives. I no longer thought I was “giving up cigarettes” but that I was gaining life, I was gaining freedom, I was gaining good health, I was gaining more money.

I kept on reinforcing these thoughts and before long I was no longer thinking or feeling like I enjoyed cigarettes, I actually I hated them.

It wasn’t until I had been free from smoking for about two months that I realised that I never in fact enjoyed the act of smoking, what I actually enjoyed was relieving my nicotine craving. My craving was at such a level that it had fooled my brain into thinking that I actually enjoyed the bad taste, the bad smell, the having to go outside every half an hour etc.

I never enjoyed any of those things but it took to thinking of it as not “giving up smoking” but instead “what am I gaining from not smoking” to realise this.

When it comes to stopping smoking, every smoker will experience their own set of benefits. These benefits will be determined by a number of factors, such as the how long they have smoked, how much they smoked a day, their lifestyle etc.

The benefits I experienced from stopping (and are still experiencing today), may be a lot different to yours. I would like to tell you about the four main benefits I experienced, some of them may relate to you.

I smoked a pouch of tobacco a week for about 6 years and have a very active lifestyle.

My health has markedly improved.

A few years into my habit, I picked up quite a nasty smokers cough. This cough was particularly bad in the mornings. I would be the first to get up for work and would then proceed to wake everyone up with a cough that would shake the whole house. Within weeks of me stopping smoking this cough had disappeared.

While I was smoking I also had plenty of days off work because I was always picking up whatever bug was going around. I guess my immune system had been weakened from the smoking. Since I stopped I’ve hardly has a sick day at all.

I am no longer embarrassed around my friends and family.

I was always embarrassed by my smoking habit as most of my friends and family don’t smoke. It took me a long time to admit to my family I smoked, and I never felt comfortable smoking around them, or my non-smoking friends. I know they all wondered why I was doing it and they were worried for me.

I no longer have worry about being embarrassed, stinking of cigarette smoke around them or endangering their health with my second hand smoke.

My sport and fitness has improved.

I have always played a lot of sport and my performance suffered while I was smoking. I would get breathless very easily and my fitness was lacking. Worst of all I would lose focus while I was playing because the nicotine craving would hit me and all I wanted to do was get off the field as quickly as possible and have a cigarette.

Now that never happens, all my focus is on the game at hand. My breathlessness is also gone and fitness levels have improved drastically, improving my overall performance.

No more yellow teeth and fingers.

I think we can all relate to this one. Boy I used to be embarrassed by these. I had a terrible case of yellow teeth and I also had these brown marks but I could never figure out what caused them. I now know they were from the smoking because they went away after I stopped. I used to use the expensive tooth whitening toothpastes but they never worked to remove either the yellow tinge or brown markings because I just kept on smoking.

As for the yellow nicotine fingers, gee they used to frustrate me. You could see them from a mile away, and I could never get rid of the stains not matter what I used or how hard I scrubbed. After I stopped smoking they just went away naturally over a few weeks. I am so glad to finally be rid of the nicotine fingers because I hated being constantly reminded of how bad they looked every time I looked down at my hands.

Those are the four main benefits I experienced once I stopped smoking. Yours may be similar or they could be totally different. If you are having a bit of trouble stopping smoking or keeping stopped then write down all the benefits that you think you are likely to get from stopping.

Keep this list with you at all times and whenever you feel the need to smoke take that list out and read it. It may be that extra bit of motivation you need not to light up.

Cutting down on cigarettes, it’s a technique that most of us will use when trying to give up smoking. It’s a good theory isn’t it, “I am preparing my mind and body for quitting cigarettes, by reducing the amount I smoke each day”. Seems to make sense, but the problem with theories is that they don’t always work when put into practice. Most of us will try this technique (including me) but I bet for 99.9% of us it didn’t lead to quitting.

Here are some reasons why.

The idea behind cutting down is to give you some control over your cravings for cigarettes.

Unfortunately when you do this, the exact opposite happens: You just give the cigarette more control than it has ever had before.

This is how it will work.

Say you usually have a cigarette every hour or so. You decide to cut it back to one every two hours, essentially halving the number of cigarettes you smoke each day.

By the time an hour is up you will want to smoke. This is the time you usually have one, but you think: “I will wait another hour.”

In stead of thinking: “Boy, aren’t I being good, I’m not smoking for another hour.” You will instead be thinking: “Boy I want a cigarette, how long to go; I need one now, cigarette, cigarette, cigarette”.

I know what it’s like when the need to have a ciggie hits you, all you can think about is lighting up. It won’t go away until you have that first puff. It is very hard to concentrate on anything else.

In this extra hour of waiting the quality and quantity of work or play may have suffered because your concentration is fixed on smoking. All you have achieved is kept smoking on the brain for a longer period.

The worst thing of all, is you have put the cigarette on a big, giant, golden pedestal.

Now, once the two hour period is up, the next cigarette you smoke is going to be one of the best you have ever smoked. You have waited and suffered, now you get your reward.

The last thing you want to do when quitting smoking is make a cigarette into a reward, but that’s what cutting down does. It makes having a cigarette a rewarding experience.

Sooner or later you will end up smoking as much as you did before you started this charade. Sure you may be strong for a few days, or maybe even a few weeks, but by keeping smoking on the brain you are sure to fail.

Because you still smoke, you have them on you at all times, temptation in your pocket. When you get stressed, or you desperately need a cigarette, are you just going to keep saying no when temptation is an arm length away? Of course not! One day you will give in, and you will tell yourself just this once. But once will turn into twice, twice into three times and before you know your back to square one.

Cutting down will never lead to quitting because even though you are waiting to have a cigarette, you still end up having a cigarette. Turning a cigarette into a reward will never lead to stopping. The only true way to quit is to not smoke, period.

We live in a day and age where everybody wants something now, and also, they want it now. With the advancement of medicine, many expect there to be a miracle drug that will cure their problems, whether it be quit smoking, weight loss or even just something to make us happier.

I’m sorry to tell you this, but there is no such thing as a miracle drug to help you quit smoking. I’m not going sit here and say that there never will be one, but are you going to wait for that day to arrive and then quit. It may never come in your (potentially shortened) lifetime.

Yes you can have a good look through the internet and you will find some sites that claim to have the miracle drug that will get you to quit. The fact of the matter is, they are lying to you, plain and simple. If they did work, don’t you think it would be worldwide news, and that product would be selling off the shelves?

Wouldn’t they put their effort into marketing this product, than peddling an eBook online?

We are constantly bombarded with advertising that is promising a quick fix to our problems. If something is being advertised as a miracle or a quick fix, 99% of the time it will be a scam.

Just today I saw a television ad trying to sell a miracle weight loss product which was obviously a scam. During the ad they showed three slim women, one was eating some pizza, one was eating a chocolate bar and another was drinking an alcoholic drink. Now we all know that no-one is going to lose weight by eating these things. The ad never said anything about being able to eat these foods and still lose weight but they are subtly trying to make us think we can, even though we know better.

Why would they try and pull such a stunt if their product actually worked? Let me answer this one, um, because their product doesn’t work and it is a scam.

Even if someone was to actually invent a product that was a miracle cure for smoking, I really believe they would struggle to get it into the market. This may sound a bit like a conspiracy theory but there would be billions in lost revenue for both governments (in the form of tobacco tax) and the tobacco companies themselves. Both of these have a lot of power and expendable cash and they would do their best to ensure such a product was to never reach the shelf.

What some people need to realise is we don’t need a miracle drug to get us to quit smoking. Falling for slick advertising and buzz words will only end up in you wasting your money on a product that doesn’t work and may even be potentially harmful.

Yes you may require some outside help in order to achieve your goals but the main product you require, is yourself. There are people out there who genuinely want to help you to quit smoking. They may not offer a miracle or quick fix to your smoking problem, what they do offer is a genuine solution.

I am an ex-smoker who is 100% sure I will never smoke another cigarette again, even when drinking. Back when I was smoking I used to love sitting back with a drink in one hand and cigarette in the other. I felt the two complimented each other so well and it just didnt feel right if I was drinking without a cigarette.

So when I finally decided to quit I found that I was at my weakest when I was drinking. The alcohol would take over and a little devil would sit on my shoulder and whisper “Go on, you know you want one, just a couple of puffs, it won’t do you any harm”.

Well that little devil would always win. Once I had that first cigarette it would always lead to more, lots more. I would wake up the next morning with that awful taste in my mouth, feeling gutted that I had been so weak. I hated having to start the whole quitting process over again. Even worse was the fact that my hangover would be 100 times worse than normal because I hadnt smoked for a while. My body couldnt handle being dehydrated by both alcohol and cigarettes and it would let me know with the mother of all headaches.

The silly thing was I sometimes went weeks without smoking but as soon as alcohol was in my system that all went out the window. I knew that I couldn’t just say “Well, I will just smoke when Im drinking then”, because to me that wasn’t quitting. I knew that this would eventually led to me smoking full time again. I had to come up with ideas to solve this problem.

At first I decided to totally avoid my smoking friends. I soon realised that this wasn’t going to work, because I missed hanging out with them. So I decided to avoid them only when they were smoking. Some of my friends never smoke so I would talk and hang with them in the mean time. When at clubs and bars the smoking areas became off limits to me to avoid being surrounded by temptation. One thing I was constantly doing was reminding myself of my goals and as to why I wanted to quit. By doing this it kept me focused and gave me encouragement. This time I had a little angel on my shoulder whispering in my ear instead of a little devil.

There were times when either I was stressed or just in a wrong frame of mind and I knew that I if I drank I would also smoke. To combat this I would make up an excuse not to drink. I hated lying to my friends but it was for the greater good. I used the classics like I had work the next morning or I had some family function to go to. Sometimes I offered to be the sober driver for the night, there wasn’t many complaints from friends about that one. I eventually go sick of making excuses and just told my friends the truth as to why I didnt want to drink.

The majority were very understanding, but of course some of my smoker friends would give me a bit of stick. I knew they just really wanted to be where I was, as deep down, every smoker wishes they could quit.

I now go out and drink without having the slightest itch to have a cigarette, and boy, does that feel good. I sometimes wonder whatever happened to that little devil that used to sit on my shoulder. He is probably sitting on my friends who still smoke shoulders whispering “Go on, have another one, you know you want to”. Well, they can keep him.

Hi everyone,

My name is Todd Williams and I along with my partner, author and founder Lesley Huntley, are the admistrators here at Successfully Stop.

As former smokers we know what its like when the nicotine addiction takes control.  Also like you we know how frustrating it can be to quit, only to find yourself smoking again. All the methods we tried never worked, that was until Lesley came up with the Successfully Stop System. This system actually made quitting easy and we have now been smoke free for over 2 years.

We thought that if the system worked for us then surely it would work for others. We put the system out there and yes, it did in fact work for others. We have now made it our mission to help get as many people to quit smoking as possible (that includes you) for good. Not just for a few days, not for a few weeks, but for the rest of your life.

I will be frequently adding a whole range of blogs to this page. These blogs will be informative and will help give you tips and ideas on how to stay on track to reaching your quit smoking goals.

Good luck to you all!