Don't Try to Cut Down – Just Go Cold Turkey

If you want to quit smoking without drug and patches, you can use two approaches. The first is to quit gradually by cutting down the number of cigarettes you smoke until you are not smoking at all. The second way is to quit cold turkey.

Which is the better method to quit smoking? Statistics have shown that those who set a quit date and then quit cold turkey have a much better success rate than those who try to cut down on their cigarette consumption daily.

The reason that quitting smoking cold turkey might work better than cutting down gradually is because once the smoker strikes the quit date they are in a invariable position with their craving. They cannot just say, "Oh, one more today is not going to hurt."

In addition, smokers who are cutting down the cigarettes are still surrounded by all the triggers for smoking including the lighter and the cigarette pack. This is like telling a heroin addict not to do heroin while at the same time giving them a needle and ounce of the drug.

Cutting down on cigarettes before an actual quit date seems to help. Also, to reduce your smoking before quit date try to buy only one pack at a time, change brands each time, and give your cigarettes to someone else to hold, so that you have to ask for one every time you want to smoke.