How can you stop smoking when your parents don’t know you do?
April 15th, 2011
My boyfriend smokes a lot, and his mom and dad don’t know. I want him to stop so badly, but he can’t. His brother, dad, mom, and sister smoke, so now he does. I want him to quit, and he does too, but he doesn’t know how. Can you give me any tips that aren’t Chant-ix, The patch, or hypnosis. I said just chew gum (that’s what i do) but it doesn’t work because he goes through a back a day. Help!
My boyfriend smokes a lot, and his mom and dad don’t know. I want him to stop so badly, but he can’t. His brother, dad, mom, and sister smoke, so now he does. I want him to quit, and he does too, but he doesn’t know how. Can you give me any tips that aren’t Chant-ix, The patch, or hypnosis. I said just chew gum (that’s what i do) but it doesn’t work because he goes through a back a day. The thing is that he’s only 15. He can’t tell his family, they’ll kick him out . And i don’t know what cold turkey means!
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you just stop cold turkey
I suppose buying a pack of gum is just as expensive as buying a pack of faggs a day.
The idea is to quit cold turkey. Every person I have met that has quit or is in the process says cold turkey is the best idea. My husband will be quitting in a few days when his packs are all up and that is what he is going to do.
Can’t help with that except to say that if I were his parents, I would very much want him to tell me so that I could get him to the doctor to help him quit. It would kill me to know I had a child who was afraid to come to me with a problem like that. Might that not be true for his parents, as well?
I had a family member who was addicted and took literally decades of trying to quit. By then who knows how much damage she did to herself.
Since all of his family smokes, it shouldn’t be a big deal for them to help him if he actually wants to quit. If that simply isn’t an option, chewing gum really is the best way to quit. Make sure he doesn’t do it cold turkey though, because that might make him sick. Allow him to cut back to 5 a day, then 2 a day, then 1 a day, then 3 a week, then 1 a week, so forth. The most important thing is to be supportive of him. It’s a hard thing to do!
Chantix is a miracle drug. It’s expensive ( 125.00 ) but if he is serious about quitting he will try it.
sorry, nothing will work until he really wants to quit,and then cold turkey.
He needs to be 100% sure he’s ready and not just doing it because you’re on him. He will fall back if he’s not completely ready to quit. Has he exhausted all means already? Gum, cold turkey, Chantix? I started cutting back after I found out I was pregnant. I cut out cigarettes at certain times when I didn’t “need” them. I would do one in the morning, meals, etc. I tried cutting them out other times. I would do anything to avoid a cigarette.
Seriously, what’s a pack of gum a day compared to what he’s spending (or what the parents are spending) on a pack or cigs a day for him?
He’s in a physical and psychological habit.
To combat the physical, he has to have serious willpower. Like the way that if you want to get fitter, it’s better to ask a friend to go running with you every morning rather than trying to motivate yourself, be his quitting partner. By that, tell him that if he ever really feels like smoking, to call you. Distract him or remind him of his goal when he does.
To combat the psychological, make it clear that he does NOT need to smoke. If you can, find a friend who quit a while back and hasn’t started smoking again. This might reinforce the idea that quitting is very possible, and that others have done it. Chewing gum helps because it is a replacement habit to smoking. Whenever he needs to smoke, tell him to take out a new stick of gum (if the price is really bugging you, tell him to break the stick in half and only chew the first half and chew the rest later).
Also, tell him to drink orange juice as often as possible – it makes cigarettes taste awful according to my friend.
Refuse to kiss or cuddle with an ashtray! If he does not want to quit he will not do it. It has to be something he really wants.
My husband and I quit cold turkey about 2 months ago. Cold turkey is when you just quit. No patches, no gum, no nothing, just quit. That is the hardest method, but we did it with prayer from our church.
You have to want to quit before you try anything else.
Good luck.
You’ve eliminated most of the possibilities, which means he’ll have to do it on his own — either cold turkey (quitting suddenly) or by tapering off (keep a record of amount smoked and smoke fewer every day). Probably doesn’t make much of a difference, many of the meds don’t work in kids. Paradoxically, he may have to wait until he’s 18 to stop.
Not sure why you say his parents would kick him out, BTW. I don’t know the situation, but usually it’s no great shakes when parents find out that their teenager smokes. Chances are they know already — it’s hard to hide the smell, even from smokers.