What made you start smoking? How come some people managed to stop and you kept going? This chapter will explain how cigarettes work on the brain to get you hooked and why it’s hard to stop.

Some (reformed) heavy smokers explain what made them start smoking and how and why they kept on doing it.

Smoking increases your risk of heart attack and stroke. It’s the main cause of COPD and lung cancer. Smoking can affect the way you look and the way you feel and cut your lifespan by ten years. It also makes your children more likely to smoke. There are many incentives to quit.

Nothing very good! Cigarette smoke contains more than four thousand chemicals including some you’d find in lighter fluid, pesticides and rat poison. 50 of them are known to cause cancer. Think about what you’re putting into your body.

Smoking tobacco is more addictive than heroin and cocaine. It’s easy to become addicted but very difficult to beat the addiction. It can take some people just a few cigarettes to become hooked. It can take some people 20 or 30 attempts kick the habit.

You will reduce your risk of developing cancer, heart disease and COPD. You will reduce your risk of gangrene or amputation caused by circulatory problems. You will improve your chance of a healthy pregnancy and baby. Your skin, teeth, breathing and general fitness will improve. You will enjoy the taste of food more and you’ll save money. The benefits kick in almost immediately.

Some encouraging tales from people who’ve quit successfully.

It could be the money or a health scare or nagging from the children. It could be the smell, the way smoking is making you look or wanting to be around for your grandchildren. Something will trigger your successful attempt.

Stories from successful quitters about what made them take the plunge.

Some people can stop at the first attempt. Most people fail many times before they succeed. The more times you try the more likely you are to succeed. And the more help you get the more likely you are to succeed.

Plan ahead, pick a quit date and take it one day at a time. The key message here is to seek help from the professionals. Using the NHS Stop Smoking service will dramatically improve your chances of stopping smoking – especially if you use Nicotine Replacement Therapy as well.

You’re far more likely to succeed if you use NHS Barking and Dagenham’s quit smoking service. People who try to give up smoking with willpower alone have a success rate of 5%. It’s 65% for people who use NRT and specialist support. You can find out about it from your GP or online at www.quitlocalbarkinganddagenham.nhs.uk

The ‘For the Health of It’ shop is the first of its kind in London. It’s located on the concourse at Barking station. You can meet Naime Kale. Half the people who visit manage to quit smoking with her help. (See the Contacts page for more details.)

There is a range of different treatments available that can increase your chances of going smoke free. In fact, if you use NHS support and a stop smoking medicine to help manage your cravings you are up to four times more likely to be successful! This is how it works.

Do you want the patches, the gum, the lozenges, the inhalator or the nasal spray? Naime Kale explains how the various products work and what you’ll be offered if you visit the ‘For the Health of It’ shop in Barking station

If NRT doesn’t work, Zyban and Champix are two drugs available only on prescription. Zyban changes the way that your body responds to nicotine. Champix works by reducing your craving for a cigarette and by reducing the effects you feel if you do have a cigarette. These options are not available if you are pregnant.

You may feel any or all of these withdrawal symptoms: light-headedness, depressed mood, difficulty sleeping, irritability, frustration, anger, anxiety, difficulty concentrating, restlessness, dizziness, craving for nicotine and increased appetite. NRT will help you cope.

All the experts say that changing your routine is a great way to break the habit of smoking. You come to associate smoking with various places and times and situations. If you change or avoid them it helps you stop. You can hear some tips in this chapter.

This is sometimes (but not always) the hardest period - when withdrawal symptoms will be at their strongest. Here are some tips that may help you through, along with your NRT and any counselling you may be getting. There’s no such thing as having “just one cigarette”.

The health benefits happen almost immediately. Within minutes your blood pressure returns to normal. Carbon Monoxide and nicotine are out of your system within two days. Your breathing and senses of taste and smell will start improving. Listen here for a “timetable” of benefits.

It’s a myth that smoking helps with stress. In fact smoking contributes to stress and when you quit your anxiety and stress levels go down. Don’t be fooled into reaching for a cigarette when something stressful happens. Try deep breathing instead.

Views from some smokers at various stages of the quitting process. If they can do it – you can!

If you smoke 20 cigarettes a day you’ll save £40 a week, £180 a month, £2,200 a year! In ten years you could save £22,000. Think what you could spend it on.