Effective Strategies to Quit Smoking for Good
- Rita Pais
- Dec 21, 2025
- 6 min read
Smoking and vaping are often used as a way to cope with stress, anxiety or habit — but they come with real health, emotional and financial costs. If you’ve been thinking about quitting but haven’t yet succeeded, you’re not alone — and you’re in the right place.
Why Quitting Matters — Real Risks Behind Smoking & Vaping
Cigarette smoking remains one of the biggest preventable causes of disease and premature death worldwide. It significantly increases your risk of lung cancer, heart disease, stroke, respiratory illness, many other cancers, and complications during pregnancy. It also worsens mental wellbeing, and smokers score worse on mental health measures compared to non-smokers.
Vaping isn’t risk-free
While e-cigarettes may expose users to fewer harmful chemicals than smoked tobacco, they are not harmless. They may still contribute to cardiovascular issues, lung damage, and other health concerns — and long-term risks remain unclear.
Second-hand smoke exposure
Importantly, smoking and nicotine addiction also affect the people around you — especially children — through second-hand smoke exposure, which increases respiratory problems and other health risks for loved ones.
Motivations to Quit — It’s More Than Just Health
People choose to stop smoking or vaping for many reasons. Often, it’s not just about avoiding illness — it’s about how they want to live, feel, and show up in the world.
Quitting reduces your risk of heart disease, stroke, cancer, and many other conditions. It also improves respiratory function, energy levels, and overall quality of life.
Even if you don't smoke, breathing in someone else's smoke can be deadly too. Second-hand smoke causes over 10,000 deaths from lung cancer and tens of thousands of deaths from heart disease to non-smoking adults in the world each year.
Millions of children are breathing in second-hand smoke in their own homes. Second-hand smoke can be especially harmful to your children's health because their lungs still are developing. If you smoke around your children or they are exposed to second-hand smoke in other places, they may be in more danger than you realise. Children whose parents smoke only outside are still exposed to the chemicals in second-hand smoke. The best way to eliminate this exposure is to quit.
3. Money Saved
Smoking and vaping are expensive habits. Quitting can save hundreds or even thousands of pounds each year, money you can invest in your health, hobbies, or experiences.
You can check out how much you are spending here:
4. Self-Esteem & Control
Each cigarette can quietly reinforce the belief of being “stuck” or “out of control.” Quitting does the opposite. It strengthens self-trust, confidence, and identity. Many clients report feeling prouder, more capable, and more aligned with who they want to be.
Every step toward quitting builds confidence and self-efficacy. Quitting isn’t just about stopping a habit — it’s about proving to yourself you can take control of your life.
Cigarettes and vapes are often used to cope with stress or emotions. However, the calm they provide is short-lived and driven by nicotine withdrawal relief.
Learning healthier regulation strategies — such as breathing, grounding, and cognitive tools — creates genuine, lasting calm.
6. Social Freedom & Connection
Smoking can feel socially limiting:
Stepping outside during gatherings
Avoiding certain places or events
Feeling self-conscious about smell or breath
Quitting allows you to feel more present, confident, and relaxed in social situations — without planning your next cigarette.
7. Appearance, Skin & Overall Vitality
Smoking and vaping affect appearance more than many people realise:
Premature skin ageing and dull complexion
Yellowing of teeth and nails
Persistent odour on clothes, hair, and breath
After quitting, circulation improves, skin tone often brightens, teeth and breath feel fresher, and many people report looking healthier and more energised.
Cigarettes are one of the most commonly littered items worldwide. Cigarette butts contain plastic filters and toxic chemicals that contaminate soil, waterways, and marine life. Disposable vapes also contribute to electronic waste and environmental pollution.
For many people, quitting aligns with caring for the environment and reducing unnecessary waste — a choice that supports not just personal health, but the health of the planet too.
9. Freedom from the Habit Itself
Perhaps the most important reason: freedom.
Freedom from planning your day around nicotine, from cravings, from the internal tug-of-war. Quitting means reclaiming time, mental space, and control.
How I Can Help
As a Cognitive Behavioural Hypnotherapist I combine evidence-based cognitive and behavioural skills with tailored hypnotherapeutic methods to support motivation, reduce cravings, reshape thought patterns around smoking, and create new, empowering habits.
What the Evidence Says
Research suggests combined approaches — including behavioural strategies plus hypnotherapy — may improve outcomes compared with behavioural support alone.
Some studies also indicate that hypnotherapy can improve smoking cessation rates compared with nicotine replacement therapy.
CBH enriches your quitting plan by directly addressing the psychological and behavioural drivers that keep you smoking — not just the nicotine dependence.
What to Expect from My Smoking Cessation Programme
Quitting smoking isn’t about willpower alone. It’s about understanding your patterns, strengthening motivation, and learning healthier ways to regulate stress and emotion. My Cognitive Behavioural Hypnotherapy (CBH) smoking cessation programme is structured, collaborative, and tailored to you.
Here’s how the process works:
1. A Clear, Collaborative Partnership
From the start, we work as a team.
My role is to guide, educate, support, and equip you with evidence-based tools.
Your role is to engage openly, practise the strategies, and commit to the change you want.
There is no judgement, pressure, or blame — only support, clarity, and practical change.
2. Personalised Assessment
We begin by exploring:
Your smoking or vaping history
Triggers, routines, and emotional patterns
Previous quit attempts and what helped or hindered
Your personal motivations for stopping
This allows the programme to be tailored to you, not a one-size-fits-all approach.
3. Psychoeducation & Strengthening Motivation
Understanding why you smoke is key to stopping.
We look at:
The nicotine–stress cycle and why smoking feels calming (but isn’t)
How nicotine withdrawal creates tension that cigarettes temporarily relieve
How this cycle maintains dependence and stress over time
We also strengthen your personal motivation, linking quitting to your values — health, family, finances, confidence, appearance, freedom, and environmental impact.
4. Breaking the Nicotine–Stress Cycle
You’ll learn practical tools to replace cigarettes and vapes as coping strategies, including:
Tension-release breathing to calm the nervous system
Cue-controlled breathing for cravings and habit moments
Mindfulness skills to observe urges without acting on them
Simple grounding techniques for emotional regulation
These tools create real calm — without reliance on nicotine.
5. Cognitive & Behavioural CBH Tools
We then address the mental habits that keep smoking going:
Identifying and challenging unhelpful thoughts
Thought-stopping techniques for craving loops
Behavioural strategies to change routines and cues
Where appropriate, aversion-based techniques to reduce desire for cigarettes or vapes
All strategies are chosen carefully and collaboratively, based on what suits you best.
6. Hypnotherapy as Part of the CBH Approach
Hypnotherapy is used as a supportive tool within the CBH framework to:
Reinforce motivation and commitment
Strengthen new non-smoker behaviours
Support emotional regulation and confidence
This is a focused, evidence-informed process designed to support change — not loss of control.
7. Your Quit Point & Quit Ceremony
We clearly define your quit point and mark it intentionally.
Many clients find a quit ceremony helpful — a symbolic but meaningful moment that reinforces the transition from smoker to non-smoker, strengthening identity and commitment.
8. Review, Relapse Prevention & Practical Tips
Before finishing, we:
Review your key tools and strategies
Plan for high-risk situations
Create a clear relapse-prevention plan
Discuss lifestyle adjustments that support long-term success
You leave knowing exactly what to do when challenges arise.
9. Ongoing Support & Optional Booster Session
For those who want extra reassurance, an optional booster session is available to:
Reinforce skills
Address any emerging challenges
Strengthen confidence and consistency
Support doesn’t end when the session ends.
Programme Options
One-session intensive programme (2 hours) — ideal if you’re ready to quit now
Two-session programme — offers added reinforcement and consolidation
Both options are structured, personalised, and evidence-based.
A Final Word
Quitting smoking isn’t about fighting yourself. It’s about understanding your mind, your habits, and your nervous system — and learning how to support them differently.
With the right tools, motivation, and guidance, lasting change is absolutely possible.
Ready to Start?
If you’re serious about quitting and want compassionate, evidence-informed support that gets results, I’d love to help.
Book your free consultation today and discover your best quit strategy.
