Why Long-Term Quitters Start Smoking Again (And How You Can Avoid Joining Them)

The Danger Zone

Nicotine withdrawal is a sucky process, but quitting and staying quit does become much easier as time passes. Many quitters report that the three-day, three-week, and three-month marks give them grief, and that they continue to have occasional intrusive thoughts about smoking even beyond that, during important times of their lives.

Former smokers seem to take cigarettes up again after a long-term quit for three distinct reasons:

• They convinced themselves that they would be able to smoke the odd cigarette here and there now that their "addiction was under control".
• A life-changing and stressful event had them running back to cigarettes.
• Their short-term reason to quit, such as pregnancy, expired.

Helen's 17-year old son had a part-time retail job and offered to pay for his mom to quit smoking with the medication Zyban. Encouraged by her son's determination, Helen decided to commit to giving up, and remained smoke-free for a full 18 months.

She said:

"Then, I met this nice fella, my current boyfriend. We used to go to the pub together and he happened to be a heavy smoker. Somehow the thought that I could have a fag here and there seemed really appealing at the time. I remember my friend telling me off and saying you should not do that, but hey, I did it anyway. Now three years later, I'm back to chain smoking."

Was it worth it? "Definitely not. I should have listened to my friend," Helen shares. "I should never have convinced myself that I could be a social smoker. I was never able to be one before my quit, so why should this time be any different?"

Helen remains a smoker with no real plans to quit.

Tom's relapse, on the other hand was caused by a very powerful smoking trigger:

"I quit cold turkey because I had had enough of this shit, OK, and to save some money. OK, a lot of money actually. I lasted like that for seven years. Then my dad was admitted to hospital. Lung cancer! The first thing I did was go outside, spotted a smoker and asked him for a cigarette. That was me back to square one. Ironically. My dad died two years after. Nothing they could do after chemo, what have you. That's when I decided, no more of this. After we buried my dad, I smoked my last one and vowed never to go back. I don't want to end up like him. Lung cancer is heartbreaking. Nobody wants to go like that."

Margiet explains:

"I smoked until I was expecting a baby, then gave up straight away. Then started again seven years later, because I started working for someone who smoked and it just happened. Then gave up again three later, only to relapse a year after because my sister committed suicide. Then I was diagnosed with high blood pressure and my doctor told me to stop so I did. I smoked my last pouch of of roll-ups. I have been clean now for over 12 years and I still like the smell of a freshly lit cigarette but to be in a room of smoke makes me feel sick. I'm pretty sure I'm not going to relapse because I don't fancy it any more and my brain doesn't make me want to do it any more. It just disgusts me, basically."

Committing To A Life Without Cigarettes

All these people have one thing in common: they lost sight of the harsh realities of their nicotine addictions when they started smoking again. Their junkie thinking convinced them that "just one cigarette" would help them feel better, or that they could have a smoke occasionally now that they were "no longer addicted".

READ E-Cigarettes And Smoking Cessation

Two of them decided to try again, and their successful quits share a common thread as well. Tom and Margiet want to remain quit more than they want to smoke. They know full well that they are one puff away from a pack a day, as people in the quit-smoking community like to say. They know that, like sober alcoholics, they'll always be addicted, that they are "nicoholics". The know that smoking won't make them feel better, and just make them want to smoke more. They know that cigarettes cannot light themselves, that it takes their conscious decision to buy and light them to cause them to relapse.