After 15 years of smoking, Adrian Diaz Bribasa decided it was time to quit. „I wanted a baby and didn't want my future baby's health to be affected by my choices,“ he says.
But quitting was difficult.
Brivasa, a London resident and editor-in-chief of the website bestformyfeet.com, loved smoking and the culture surrounding it. He liked to go to restaurants with his friends and family, sit on the terrace and have a cocktail or coffee with a few cigarettes.
Just telling myself to quit didn't work. He needed to figure out when, where and why he smoked. He soon realized that most of the time he smoked, it wasn't because he was craving nicotine. „It was because of the smoking habit I had developed over the years,“ he says.
You may feel the urge to smoke in certain places or situations. You may reach for a cigarette when you're out with friends, after dinner, or when you're feeling stressed.
These are called triggers. Knowing what your triggers are will help you manage them better.
„A big part of quitting smoking is changing habits and habits,“ says Alma E. Anderson, MA, assistant director of the Arizona Smoking Cessation Center. Knowing your triggers can help you stop habits that increase your urges or strengthen new ones to help you quit, she says.
Your trigger may be related to your feelings. We may reach for a cigarette when we feel anxious, stressed, bored, happy, lonely, sad, or content.
Some triggers have to do with things you do on a regular basis. These are called pattern triggers. For example, when drinking alcohol or coffee, watching TV, driving a car, finishing a meal, taking a break from work, going to bed, having sex, etc. You may feel like smoking.
Social triggers have to do with being close to other people. When you go to a restaurant, party, concert, or big event, you may be tempted. Seeing someone smoking or being around someone who smokes is a common trigger.
Other triggers have to do with the body's craving for nicotine. When you smell, taste, or touch cigarettes, you may feel the urge to smoke. When you feel restless or have an urge to do something with your hands or mouth, you may feel the urge to suck.
„You can identify your triggers by looking back at your day and seeing what reminds you of smoking,“ Anderson says. If you think about how you feel and what you're doing, you'll begin to understand what triggers your urge to smoke.
Brivasa knew that to quit smoking, she needed to identify her triggers and break the patterns tied to each trigger. He took a closer look at his habits and found that restaurants, food, coffee, alcohol, and sex were the culprits.
“The day I decided to quit smoking, I stopped going to restaurants and bars,” he says. He liked to drink cortado coffee and smoke cigarettes during his work breaks, so he tried not to walk near smoking areas during his breaks.
„The other thing I ended up doing in the first year was giving up coffee and alcohol completely, because those were the things that triggered me to smoke,“ he says.
He wasn't ready to stop having sex, so he found another way to manage his post-sex cravings. „I keep my cigarettes out of reach, like in the kitchen,“ he says. It helped that he couldn't see Puck right next to his bed.
Brivasa also had emotional triggers. He smoked when he felt good after finishing his work, when he felt pressured, and when he was bored.
To control these emotional triggers, he would distract himself with alternative activities such as playing games on his phone or eating handfuls of popcorn or sunflower seeds. “As soon as I saw the trigger coming, I knew for about five to 10 minutes that I had to do something fast,” he says. Then, within a few hours, his desire disappeared.
Anderson suggests following the four D's to manage your smoking triggers.
- delay
- please do something else
- Drink water
- deep breath
To address situational and social factors, avoid places and situations that make you want to smoke. To stimulate your emotions, try talking about your feelings, listening to relaxing music, slow breathing, and exercise. If you find yourself triggering a pattern, try changing up your routine by trying substitutes or physical activity. Distractions can trigger withdrawal.
Brivasa didn't manage all the triggers overnight. It took me about a year to change my habits and gradually quit. He went from smoking 30 cigarettes a day to 20, then 10, then one, then none at all.
Over time, Brivasa no longer needed triggers and therefore used fewer strategies to manage them. „I became stronger and stronger, and the desire to smoke was not so strong anymore,“ he says.
It's been 8 years since he stopped smoking. „He knew that if he managed every day or week and smoked less than he did the day before or the week before, he could win the battle,“ he says.