At 61, Tracy had been smoking since she was 13 years old, and before she became smoke free would smoke around 10 cigarettes a day, costing her roughly £45 a week.
Rather than genuinely enjoying smoking itself, Tracy felt like she was smoking out of routine rather than pleasure. Tracy said:
“I’ve wanted to give up smoking for years. I just didn’t like it. I must admit, I did enjoy some of the cigarettes I smoked but most of them I didn’t, it was just a habit. I hated what it was doing to my teeth, and it gave me gum deterioration. I also hated the stains on my fingers and having to go outside in the cold and rain just to have a cigarette.”
It turns out that Tracey was mostly only smoking out of habit, and it was not pleasurable. In fact, it was an ugly, unpleasant experience.
A friend, who successfully became smoke free with the support of our smoke free service, recommended us. She called our friendly wellbeing team who arranged an appointment for her with another Tracey, one of our expert health improvement practitioners.
Tracey provided specialised, one-to-one ongoing support, offering encouragement and understanding of the nicotine addiction process. Together they developed a personalised quit plan that included a quit date, strategies to cope with cravings, withdrawal symptoms, how to manage triggers, and much, more.
To further assist Tracy with her quit attempt, Tracey talked through all the nicotine replacement products available. Of all the options she decided to quit smoking by switching to vaping and using nicotine patches. Tracy said:
“By using the patches and vape, I didn’t have any real cravings.”
To Tracy’s surprise, giving up smoking was far easier than she expected:
“I’ve tried to quit smoking before, but this time I really wanted to do it. I used to think that a stop smoking advisor wouldn’t work for me, but it really did. Tracey’s phone calls really helped. I’d know the phone call was coming and I really wanted to tell Tracey I hadn’t had a cigarette. I felt like she’d hypnotised me. One day I was smoking and before I knew it, I was done with cigarettes. I can’t believe it’s not bothering me that I don’t smoke anymore. I still can’t believe I’ve done it. It was easier than I thought it would be. I honestly thought that when I got my patches and vape I’d have to put up with horrible cravings, but it wasn’t like that. I’m absolutely amazed!”
Naturally, Tracy felt worried about socialising after quitting, especially when she knew she’d be around other smokers and be in situations that she’d previously associated with smoking. However, she successfully navigated these social challenges by using her vape instead of smoking:
“I was really worried about going out socialising as I’d normally smoke more then. But, I’ve been out for a couple of drinks since quitting and, even though I was around friends who smoke, I didn’t. I vaped instead. I think it’s the action of inhaling the vapour that worked for me, it’s similar to smoking.”
Although Tracy had been smoking for nearly 48 years, she has shown how effective contacting our stop smoking support service can be to quit smoking in a relatively short time.