quitting smoking with your GP 🚬
Let’s be honest: everybody knows that smoking is pretty bad for your health. Whether you smoke or not, this is common knowledge. Quitting smoking drastically reduces the health risks. The difficult part is quitting.
Some people can quit cold turkey, but this isn’t the best option for everyone. The good news is that we have multiple options to stop smoking and lots of resources ot support you along the way.
making your quit plan 🙅
A quit plan is a way to increase your chances of success when quitting smoking. A good quite plan includes:
a quit date
the reasons you want to quit
a plan to deal with cravings and withdrawal symptoms
a list of your smoking ‘triggers’ and how to manage them
a plan to transform the places around you into ‘smoke-free-zones’
your method for quitting smoking
why you should involve your GP 👨⚕️
Seeing your GP is a great first step when planning to quit. It’s also a great idea if you’re pregnant, have any medical conditions (including a mental illness) or are taking any medications. Your GP can check if any medications are available to help you stop smoking. Some of these medications are available on the PBS, which means they’re cheaper with a script from your GP.
how do patches work? 🩹
Nicotine patches are a form of nicotine replacement therapy (NRT). People keep smoking because of nicotine. Cigarettes give you a dose of nicotine. Once the level of nicotine in your blood starts to drop, the nicotine receptors in your brain scream out for you to feed them!
NRT provides a small, measured dose of nicotine to help decrease your physical withdrawal symptoms and cravings. When given by a patch, those nicotine receptors in the brain start to get bored and pack up shop. Using a combo of 2 different forms of NRT (eg. a patch and gum/spray) can be even more beneficial.
are there any other meds? 💊
There are some other medicines that don’t contain any nicotine. They work on those same nicotine receptors but in different ways. These medicines need scripts from your doctors, so check with your GP if they’re right for you.
how about vaping? 💨
Vaping or e-cigarettes are the new kids on the block when it comes to quitting smoking. The tricky part is that because they’re so new, we don’t know if they’re safe long term.
keeping you supported 😄
While there are some medications that can be really helpful in quitting smoking, professional support & counselling can be a great way to quit. This involves having someone to keep you accountable and provide support when you’re struggling. There are many services available, and your GP might be able to play this role. Quitline provides free counselling and online chat service. My QuitBuddy is also a great app to check out.
