Why can't I stop crying since I've quit smoking?

Intense, non-stop crying can be a sign of depression, which is also a nicotine withdrawal symptom. It can also be a sign that you need to learn how to deal with your emotional connection to smoking. Most likely it is a combination of both.


Not only is quitting smoking a physical journey but it is an emotional one too. Often quitters under estimate the strength of that emotional connection.

The ultimate way to increase your willpower to stop smoking forever

Zelda became fast friends with Mary another smoker when they both became members of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE).  CORE is a civil rights organization which helped organize the March on Washington and ended with Martin Luther King giving his famous "I have a dream" speech. 

After smoking for 30 years Zelda and Mary decided to quit together. While it was difficult, Mary was successful

Did a cold turkey sabotage your resolution to quit smoking?

Midnight on New Year's Eve was my favorite time to quit smoking. One particular time stands out. My roommate and I were having a New Year's Eve Party. I rigged a bunch of balloons up in a net to be released at midnight, which is when I smoked my last cigarette. As the balloons dropped and the smoke curled out from my lips, I thought how great it will be to stop smoking. As a cancer survivor, each

Relapsing at Superbowl Parties When Trying to Quit Smoking

Superbowl is one of the biggest sports parties of the year and a time when many former smokers will relapse. A huge social event with plenty of food and drink, with cheering and socializing and a slippery slope for those who have quit smoking. A cigarette seems to fit into this party atmosphere and many will rationalize that one won't hurt. But most people underestimate the power of nicotine-

Preparation for a Successful New Years Resolution to Quit Smoking

The Great American Smokeout sponsored by the American Cancer Society is next month where smokers are encouraged to quit for just one day, with the idea that the smoker might continue for another day and another day. As a spokesperson for tobacco issues for the local office, I'm often asked by reporters to give smokers one bit of advice to be successful at quitting. I believe that if the smoker

Take Positive Steps Toward Quitting Smoking

Quitting is a process where we change our behavior one step at a time. Thsi often starts with a statement such as, "I'm not going to smoke in the house anymore." "I"m not going to smoke in my car." or after we quit, we tell ourselves, "I'm not going to smoke ever again."But our brains are funny sometimes and the unconscious sometimes doesn't hear the word "NOT" because those kind of statments

First Step Towards Quitting Smoking

Quitting is like a baby learning to walk. First the baby grabs onto the coffee table and holds on, next stands up and immediately falls on their butt and finally takes a first step and falls on butt again. But we would never chastise a baby because they don't take off and start running immediately because we know it is a process and that the baby is learning how to use muscles they have never

What is the First Step Towards Quitting Smoking?

After building a desire to quit, many smokers get stuck in a love/hate relationship with their cigarettes. They want to quit but they also don't want to give them up just yet. But if you think of this a process and not a one time event, it will make it easier. So the first step is to start to break your connections to your cigarettes. Most smoker smoke unconsciously. The computer in our head

Changing the Way you Think about Cigarettes to Help You Stop Smoking

In a workshop during the time of 9-11, one woman had quit and her husband continued to smoke. She said, "Every time I see his pack of cigarettes, I just think that this is 20 little terrorists trying to kill me."It is important to change the way you think about smoking and cigarettes. Often smokers feel deprived when they quit or that they are losing a best friend. Instead of deprivation or loss,

Exercise As a Way to Stop Smoking

While I have had a couple of aerobic instructors attend my workshops to quit smoking, most smokers would rather go light up another cigarette than hit the gym. Besides, smoking makes it difficult to breathe after running up a flight of stairs, let alone when hitting the stairmaster. Exercise and smoking just don't seem to go together. Yet starting an exercise program can help with the quitting

Giving Bad Advice to Others When Quitting Smoking

I read a lot of blogs and websites that are written by former smokers that give advice on how they quit smoking. I encourage every smoker to find a way that works for them but often these reformed smokers are giving bad advice that will cause another smoker to fail or relapse, which just increases the sense of shame that a smoker has that there is something wrong with them that they can't quit,

Making Smoking a Conscious Choice

Have you ever found a cigarette in your mouth and forgot that you had lite up or had a second one in the ashtray? Smoking becomes an unconscious, automatic habit. Most cigarettes are not conscious choices but a reflex. The brain triggers a want, desire or craving for a cigarette and the smoker automatically reaches for one without consciously thinking about it. The brain reflex continues after an

Classical Conditioning Can Keep You Smoking

Palov was a scientist that discovered that dogs can be conditioned to salivate when they hear a bell rung because the sound had been paired with the presentation of food. The dogs learned that when they hear the bell, they would be fed. This is called classical conditioning. Habit cigarettes are the very same thing. Everything a smoker smokes a cigarette while doing something else, they can

Powerful Technique to Stop Smoking

When we exchange our cigarettes for freedom from tobacco, often we feel deprived. I remember it was a few years after I quit and a craving seemed to overwhelm me with the thought, "How dare they take my cigarettes away from me!" I didn't know who "they" were and it only took a minute to realize what a crazy thought this was, but it shows the seductive power that nicotine can have over us. When we

Appreciation for Quitting Smoking

I have been helping smokers become smoke free since 1990 and I love receiving letters like the following. It makes it all worth while:



Dear V.J.,

Just needed to drop you a note and thank you for your support and guidance to help me stop smoking. I am "smoke free" since June 8, 2002. Sometimes I still here your voice in my head saying "Remember, you are only a puff away from a pack a day" so I

Changing the Way You Think to Help Stop Smoking

It is important to change the way you think about cigarettes. I find it sad when individuals have quit for many years but are still thinking and wanting a cigarette. wouldn't it be nice for smoking to just be a non issue in your life!The following five steps will help you work through your compulsion to smoke, not only during withdrawals but any time in the future. When a craving comes over you,

Why Smokers Gain Weight When They Quit Smoking and Tips to Quit

there are 7 different reasons why smokers gain weight when they quit, most of it is because of eating more food:1. Change in metabolism accounts for 3-6 pounds. 70% of weight gain is due to increase calorie consumption.- Exercise, 20 minutes per day more than you normally do- Discuss using Zyban™ and Nicotine Replacement Products with your doctor, these medications can help reduce the amount of

Different Reasons Why We Smoke

I have personally quit a total of nine separate times for at least 3 months each time. This is not counting the numerous attempts of a day here or a day there. Each time I have quit, I have learned something else about how I was connected to my cigarette. The first time I quit, it seemed easy, too easy and I thought I could control my smoking. But I was wrong, I needed to learn about relapsing