Even if you have been through it yourself, it’s important to know that each person handles the situation differently. Smoking for them may mean something different than it did for them or they may need a different approach to be able to stop.
To know how to help someone quit smoking will require some research on your own. It’s important to be compassionate and understanding but also to realize that you can never fully understand 100% what the other person is going through. Don’t try to tell them that you know what they’re going through. This will only make the person irritated.
Here are some tips to help someone quit smoking:
- Don’t expect them to be able to quit all at once
- Provide encouragement even when they cut back
- Boost confidence and show you have faith in them
- Sit in non-smoking sections if you go out
- Help them form an exercise regime- exercise together
- Offer small rewards to show you recognize their efforts to stop
- Avoid telling them you know how it feels
- Be there if they need to talk
- Offer distractions to fill empty time when they made be encouraged to smoke
- Ask them for ways you can help support them
When a person is trying to quit smoking, it can be discouraging and frustrating. Your motivation and support can be the one thing they need to help them get through this very difficult and trying time.
If you want to help someone you know or care about quit smoking, this is a very important thing to do. We all know about the serious health risks of smoking and how difficult it can be to stop on your own.
You may be the one thing this person needed to help them get through this experience and become smoke-free once and for all.
