Ross A. Laird

This morning, on Citytv’s Breakfast Television, I spoke with Shane Foxman, host and aspirant non-smoker, about strategies for understanding and dealing with nicotine addiction. We talked about four basic strategies:

• Find support: someone to talk to, a group of like-minded quitters, friends or family who are capable of empathy, patience, and kindness. Support is the only recovery strategy consistently correlated with success.

• Understand the emotional function of the addiction. What role does it play in your life? How does it fulfill a particular need (stress management, relaxation, a social lubricant), and how can you satisfy that same need in other ways?

• Find a substitute addiction, one that’s healthier. I’ve spoken about this elsewhere on my website. Successfully recovered addicts find new obsessions: spirituality or exercise or meditation or kayaking or whatever. Find something to love that gives you the same hit as smoking. Eventually it will give you a better hit. You’ll find it, if only you give yourself the chance.

• Accept that relapse may be part of your process. Most people relapse multiple times (as many as 10, 12 or more), and it’s healthier to acknowledge the role of relapse than to berate yourself for being weak. Recovery is not about will power but readiness, and sometimes that readiness takes a while to develop. If you’re not quite there, don’t worry about it. Just keep trying. Eventually the momentum of your desire to quit will overcome the inertia of the addiction.

And finally, stay connected. Isolation is the sure route to failure. Shane is organizing a collaborative quitting circle: consider getting involved (send an email to the show if you want to join the group or offer your feedback).