Before we begin, let's get a few things out of the way:

First, this is based only on my personal experience of quitting, and what worked for me. This is not medical advice and should not be treated as such. If you need help to quit smoking, please consult your GP or licenced pharmacist first.

Second, Vapoureyes is a supplier of personal lifestyle products. It does not promote, endorse, stock or supply therapeutic nicotine or smoking cessation aids. E-cigarettes, advanced personal vapourisers and e-liquids are not, and are not intended to be, quit-smoking tools. If you are looking for smoking cessation aids or therapeutic nicotine, please consult your GP or licenced pharmacist regarding the options available.

Lastly, the below is anecdotal, and is intended to be helpful, friendly advice from someone who has successfully quit smoking. This advice is not based on medical research or evidence and may or may not be helpful to you. Please take it for what it is, and consult your GP or licenced pharmacist if you are having trouble quitting.

You may be browsing the Vapoureyes store because you want to quit smoking and have heard vaping is a good way to do it.

Vaping products are not recognised by the Therapeutic Goods Administration as smoking cessation devices, and as such cannot be sold or marketed as quit-smoking aids.

That being said, the reality is that many people have successfully quit smoking by switching to vaping, including yours truly.

Quitting smoking is hard. Many people struggle with it for years, and some never successfully do it. And whilst vaping is part of my quitting success story, it was not the only factor and it was still hard work.

In this blog post, I will share what I learned when I quit smoking. This is not medical advice, but it's based on my own experience along with countless conversations I've had with other successful quitters, with the recurring themes distilled and laid out for you. Because at the end of the day, to quit smoking is one of the hardest things you will ever do, and you will need all the help you can get.

So, in no particular order, here are the most important things I learned when I quit smoking:

The Cravings

This is the first thing you encounter. Your lungs feel funny, like they're yelling at you. Your mouth goes dry, your sinuses hurt, you get a headache. You become irritable and stressed. The world seems to stare menacingly at you and you feel like jumping out of your skin.

The bad news

Your cravings will never go away. They get less intense and occur less frequently, but they will always be there.

The good news

Your cravings will never go away. They get less intense and occur less frequently, but they will always be there.

Huh? How the heck is that good news? I'm glad you asked.

If you think that one day you will be free of cravings, you will fail in your attempt to quit smoking. Why? Because one month, or three months, or one year or more down the track, you will get hit with a craving out of the blue, get depressed and ticked off, feel like you've failed as a non-smoker and probably end up lighting a ciggie because to hell with the world.

You need to accept that cravings were always a part of your life as a smoker, and they will always be a part of your life as a non-smoker. You can't run away from them, so why try? Instead, remember:

1. They only ever last a few minutes. Distract yourself until you're strong enough to just ignore them for a few minutes. You don't need tobacco to kill a craving.

2. Treat cravings as your friend. Yes, really! See them as a sign that you are taking back control of your body and your health, and your body is repairing the damage done by smoking.

3. Tell someone when you're struggling. Don't bottle it all up inside, get help from the people around you to distract you and to help you focus on the positive thing you are doing.

The Habit

Humans are funny creatures. We have this inbuilt tendency to run on auto-pilot. Like when you're driving home from your friend's house and can't remember the last ten minutes of the journey and hope you didn't run any red lights.

The nature of addiction means that an addictive habit embeds itself and sends tendrils out into every facet of your life. Smoking becomes part of your wake-up routine, your commute to work, your morning coffee break, your lunch break, your 3 o'clockitis, your social life, your family life, your leisure time and your partying. Breaking this habit is a major part of the battle.

The best way to break a habit is replacing it with a new habit, and this is where we come back to our old friend Mr Cravings.

If you break it down, the habit of smoking tobacco is simply the habit of giving in to cravings. SO - replace the habit of giving in to cravings with the habit of resisting cravings.

For me personally, I liked to have a little brain sub-routine I ran every time I hit a craving, like a little speech I rehearsed that was a counter-argument to why I should give in.

"No, I do not need tobacco. Yes, it would be really nice to submit, but I am thinking of my whole life and not just the next minute. No, I cannot have 'just one', and no I am not a social pariah for quitting. Have a nice day". This becomes a habit, in the same way giving in was a habit. And, thanks to the good old lazy human brain, the more you do it, the more you run on autopilot until it just becomes part of the background noise of your life.

The Manipulative Voice

This is the part that weirded me out the most.

You see, gentle reader - your brain is a d******bag.

And tobacco is a drug that alters certain neurons, programming them to scream at you when it's time for a fix. Yes, tobacco actually commandeers part of your brain and turns it against you.

This little part of your brain doesn't care about your health, or your future, or your family, or your bank balance; it only cares about getting nicotine, and when it wants it, it wants it NOW.

And the weird part is, this little part of your brain manifests itself as that manipulative voice in your ear:

"Aw, come on! Just have one, it won't hurt!"

"You're feeling really down, you should have just one cigarette to cheer yourself up!"

"You're feeling really happy, you should have just one cigarette to celebrate!"

"See? All the people who know you're a smoker think you're weird for giving up. They're sick of your grouchiness! Just have one already and give them a break!"

It's so subtle you don't notice it. And - it's you. It's your own voice, making logical arguments for why you should have a cigarette, which is why it's so hard to argue with.

The best defence is to remind yourself of this. It's not reason, it's not logic, it's not even common sense - it's just a little piece of your brain throwing a temper tantrum. Remind yourself that you know better than to be manipulated by your own brain, give it a smack and send it to its room without any dinner. It will get the idea eventually.

The Three Threes

My fourth little tidbit ties the first three together.

As you go along your quitting journey, remember the three threes:

The first three days

It takes three days for the physical withdrawals to stop. After three days, your body is no longer chemically dependent on tobacco to function. Headaches, dry mouth, dizziness and nausea should all be over.

The first three weeks

It takes three weeks to break the habit of putting a cigarette in your mouth, lighting it and sucking on it. The best strategy to tackle this is to replace this with another habit, such as eating a carrot stick, or going for a run, or doing some other task that takes your attention away from smoking.

The first three months

It takes three months to break your psychological dependence on tobacco. This is the time you will do battle with that rogue part of your brain. This is the period in which you will eventually look at the clock and see "10.30am" instead of "ciggie o'clock", and in which you will one day realise you don't have to restrain yourself from reaching for a cancer stick as soon as you pull out of the driveway.

Now don't get me wrong - it's not like you pass some magical invisible barrier at three months and one day since you quit and suddenly it's no longer an issue. But if you can make it past the first three months, you've won the majority of the battle.

Pro tips for younger players

Go easy on yourself. Smoking tobacco is one of the worst things you can consciously do to yourself, and quitting is one of the hardest things you can consciously attempt. It's tough! So you yelled at the kids or kicked the cat. Don't beat yourself up. So you binged on an entire box of Krispy Kremes or drank a whole 2-litre bottle of soft drink in one go. Don't let it get you down. Obviously these are non-ideal behaviours, but you're a human being doing something incredibly difficult. Chalk it up to experience and move on.

If you cave in and have a smoke, don't give up on giving up. So you gave in and had a ciggie, and now you feel like the world's biggest failure and hell you may as well go and buy two 50-packs and smoke yourself silly. Well, you're not, and no you may as well not. Just because you had a cigarette doesn't mean you failed at quitting. You fell off the horse. Stand up, dust yourself off, get back on and keep going. Resisting one craving is an achievement and going without for one day is a milestone. Cut yourself some slack.

If you have to use something else to quit smoking - do it! The first time I quit I went cold turkey. The second time I replaced smoking tobacco with - something else (totally not recommended). The third time I used patches. Now, the fourth time, I used e-cigarettes. Plus there's champix, gum, lozenges, meditation, hypnotherapy, exercise, having kids, etc etc etc. Some solutions are good, some - not so much (I'll let you decide, I'm not endorsing anything here). But if it works for you, do it! There is no "right" and "wrong" way to quit. There is only going from being a smoker to being a non-smoker, and however you need to get there is OK.

The good news is that it IS possible to quit smoking FOR GOOD. There is no more shame in seeking help than there is in needing it, so don't try to go it alone. If your friends aren't supportive of your efforts to quit, they aren't your friends, so forget them and hang with the people who will encourage and help you. Go to the doctor or the pharmacy first, call the quitline if you're struggling, and if you choose to make vaping a part of your arsenal, you'll have a whole community around you only too happy to help you succeed.

Good luck! 

Sam Lloyd - Ineffable Words