Break your way to freedom!

Right here, right now you will find the way out of the smoking world.

A quiet evening. You have just finished the day's work and you are browsing the web. The movements are smooth because you have made them countless times before. You reach for the pack, take one out and light it. The first drag fills you with a sense of calm. You don't even think about it, you simply enjoy it. Sound familiar?

What if I told you that you will never live through that moment again? What's your first reaction? Rejection? Shock? Bitter amusement?

A cigarette is not the end of the world, right? You can quit any time you want, after all, right? Honestly, for most smokers the answer is no. You can't quit this very minute, and you probably can't imagine your life without cigarettes. I couldn't either.

What if I told you that you should be feeling hope?

Yes, you heard right: hope. You have heard it so many times. Smoking is bad for you. It's the mantra everyone keeps pushing down your throat. What everyone forgets to mention is that smoking is addictive.

When you take that first puff, countless little mechanisms fall into place. Nicotine reaches your brain within seconds and triggers the release of dopamine, the brain's reward messenger. For a while you feel calmer and sharper. Cigarettes can't be drugs, can they? Unfortunately nicotine is exactly that, and an insidious one. If you don't believe me, try this experiment: go eight waking hours without a cigarette. You will probably become restless, irritable and anxious, find it hard to concentrate and think about smoking far more than you would like. That is what nicotine withdrawal feels like. But again, you can be hopeful. Because there is a way out.

As you might have guessed by now, I am a former smoker. I quit and never looked back. On this site I will show you the big picture: where the soft spot in the habit is, how to push it and how to break free. And it won't cost you a penny.

A sceptical eyebrow should be going up just about now. Here's another guy who wants to tell his life story, and he even puts that lame guru title in front of his name. Not quite. When I gave up smoking I had an advantage, the sort of advantage I wouldn't wish on anyone. That year my father died of lung cancer. It wasn't a pretty sight. For me it acted like a shock, a shock that made me quit on the spot. I've never touched a cigarette since. The whole story is in why I quit.

You have probably never had to go through anything like that, and I honestly hope you never will. A shock is not a method, and you don't need one. For me, simply quitting was not enough. The harm smoking does to your health is greater than most people imagine, so I started reading everything I could find about why quitting is so hard and what actually helps.

There will be a fight, my friend, a fight that will take place inside yourself, a fight you must win.

I have spent years since then reading about smoking and how to stop: health service guides, research summaries, books by doctors and by former smokers. As for the guru part… well, let me put it this way: I don't have a medical degree and I don't pretend to. “Guru” just means someone who has walked the road and done the reading. The health facts on this site follow what bodies such as the WHO, the NHS and the CDC say. The good part is that your odds are better than you think, especially with a plan, support and, if you want it, medicine. Not try, but actually do it.

But what exactly will you find on this site? Fair question.

• You will become aware of what nicotine addiction really is and gain a deeper insight into yourself. Read more
• You will learn how to change the environment around you so you have better chances of succeeding. Read more
• You will learn how to make a plan, stick to it and make it work. A vague promise to stop “some day” is one of the most common reasons quit attempts fail. Read more
• You will learn how your friends and relatives can actually help once you decide to go forward. Read more
• You will learn to recognise the inner voice of the nicotine-addicted mind and how to answer it. Read more
• You will see the main ways to quit compared: cold turkey, nicotine replacement, prescription medicines, vaping and support. Read more
• You will know what to do when the urge to smoke seems unstoppable. Read more
• You will learn how to deal with the symptoms of nicotine withdrawal and how long they usually last. Read more
• You will see what happens to your body after the last cigarette. Read more
• You will get a plan for after quit day, including what to do if you slip, so you never go back. Read more
• You will learn how to stay smoke-free on a night out: at the bar, at the poker table or on a casino floor. Read more
• You will see how much money you get back when you stop buying cigarettes. Read more

This is the path that you must take. See yourself as you are now, and then imagine yourself free. If you want this vision to become reality, start with the quit plan.

Here is what quitting does for you, hour by hour and year by year:

But this is not the end of it. One thing struck me when I read the literature dedicated to quitting smoking: the overall tone. I don't know who keeps writing books like those, but they are almost insulting. They treat smokers as some sort of lower form of life.

I mean really, cigarettes are the problem, not the smokers. When I smoked, I used to hate the superior grins of people looking down on me as if they were better than me. This is not what you will get here. Smoking does real damage to your body, but it says nothing bad about you as a person. As a matter of fact, some of the best conversations I ever had took place over a cigarette in a club. Yes, there was a time when smoking was allowed in there. Today most bars and clubs are smoke-free, and casino floors are among the last indoor places where you'll still walk into a smoky room. That's a different problem, and I deal with it in Smoke-Free Casino. You are reading this because you want to quit smoking, and you will be treated with the consideration reserved for intelligent people, without any sense of superiority and without being blamed every two or three pages. More in cigarettes are the problem, not smokers.

Now, quitting costs you nothing, and it pays you back from the very first day. Just to make the decision more worthwhile, here's a bonus for you:

However, there is a bit of a hurry. The “I'll do it tomorrow” type of thinking never leads anywhere, so you must act now. Make “Act now” your mantra, because that's the crux that will help you: set a quit date within the next two weeks, while the motivation is fresh.

So this is it. You either make it or break it. There's no middle ground. You either start your way to a nicotine-free life now or you remain trapped. I've laid an option in front of you. It's up to you to make the first step.

Hoping that I'll see you on the other side.

Yours truly,
Tony

P.S. Quitting smoking has some additional perks. My health insurance cost dropped after I quit. In the US many health and life insurers are allowed to charge tobacco users more, so check your own policy.

P.P.S. There is a social world outside the smokers' corner. I know it sounds hard to believe right now, but it actually is. And by the way, coffee will taste better.

P.P.P.S. If you do make it and manage to quit, please don't look down on other smokers and please don't be preachy. If you really want to help, stick to giving them practical advice and let them make their own choice. Here's how to help someone quit without driving them away.