One of the most difficult aspects of stopping smoking can be changing the way you spend your free time with friends who smoke. Use the suggestions below to maintain friendships while you’re trying to quit smoking.
If your friend smokes and smokes in his or her vehicle, offer to drive on your outings. While smokers assume, rightly, that they can smoke in their own vehicles, smokers will not smoke in your vehicle if you don’t want smoking inside your vehicle.
Don’t go out very late at night if you enjoy going to clubs with someone who smokes. As with any addiction, being tired can impact your ability to resist smoking so that you’ll want to turn in early enough to be at your best in battling your desire to smoke.
Surround yourself with scents you like. While your friend’s cigarette smoke may smell delicious to you when you’re trying to quit smoking, using a favorite new perfume can help you enjoy the scents surrounding you.
If you and your friend typically sit outdoors so that you can smoke at restaurants or coffee shops, try suggesting indoor locations for those meetings.
If you’re feeling argumentative because you’re missing cigarettes, put off socializing with friends until you’ve successfully gotten over the hump in dealing with your new smoke-free status.
Avoid get-togethers where there is alcohol being served as a beverage such as a backyard barbecue or watching a game if smoking usually accompanies drinking in your life. Consider moving these activities to a commercial location that does not permit smoking and limit or avoid drinking.
Do not choose to try quitting with your friend because it adds unnecessary strain on a friendship or partnership that creates the chance of a winner or loser. If you want a buddy to support you consider a formal telephone support system or in-person support system for aid with your efforts to quit smoking.
Limit the time you spend with friends where your friend smokes in order to reduce the chances that your willpower will weaken. Instead of hanging out at your friend’s house for three hours, consider meeting for an hour.
If you typically go outside with a work buddy for a cigarette, take the same breaks but stay indoors. You should continue to take your breaks at the same time and replace having a cigarette with going to the bathroom and brushing your teeth or having a glass of water.
If you begin to resent the fact that your smoking friends still smoke around you when you’re trying to quit then you should work with yourself and try to think of all the behaviors that people do that others don’t modify merely because one person has an issue with the behavior from eating high calorie food to drinking alcohol.
Maintaining friendships with people who smoke can be difficult when you’re trying to quit. Use the suggestions above for preserving your friendships with your friends who smoke when you’re trying to stop smoking.