Amy

Amy – a former smoker who lives in Nottinghamshire – talks about her desire to quit and how she managed in the end to give up cigarettes.

Amy started smoking when she had a job in hospitality. She talks of trying to fit in with the people she  worked with, and how if you didn't smoke, you were the odd one out. She started joining her colleagues on smoke breaks. Over time, the job became more stressful. Amy felt that she often needed just to get out and have 5 minutes relaxation, away from the job, and soon the smoking became a ‘bad habit’, and she was smoking around 10 cigarettes a day.

I was probably trying to conform, it was like a clique in the job itself. So if you didn't smoke you were like an outsider. So being so young I just conformed with them.

Coming from a family where there were smokers, Amy saw firsthand the damage that smoking did to the health of her loved ones.  After several years smoking, Amy and her partner started to talk about their future plans together, and the possibility of starting a family, which was something Amy has always wanted. It was at that point that Amy decided she really wanted to stop smoking, in order to be in the best position health-wise to start a family. 

I just thought to myself, ‘It's actually not worth the time and the energy and my health. I want the best thing for my life and my future children’s lives’. So I knew I needed to start making a change… I've always wanted children and I’d got my biggest motivation. I thought to myself why on earth should I put something that I want the most in life on hold, just because of a bad habit?

As well as being motivated to quit in order to be as healthy as possible, Amy talks about the financial impact of smoking, and the moment she took stock of how much she was actually spending on her smoking habit. 

It was partly due to money. I got my monthly wage, and I was thinking, I'm spending about 30 pounds on a pouch of tobacco, when that could go towards something a lot more worthwhile. And I think it was honestly the money side of things. I was like, why am I even doing this? I shouldn't be doing this. So that was the sort of the epiphany!

Amy describes the difficulty of quitting and how a stressful day would make the craving worse.

You’re going through it, absolutely fine, and then you have the stress, and you just instantly want to turn to nicotine and have that rush to feel fine and that you have no worries. That you can get through it.

Amy used several tactics to help deal with cravings, including chewing gum and occupying her hands by playing with a pen. “Little things to swerve those negative thoughts when I was desperate to have a cigarette”. She talks about the challenges of social nights out and being drawn into wanting to smoke when others were. She used vaping as a last resort when her cravings get too bad, but most of the time her focus on her future family helps keep her resolve.

I would just think to myself ‘There's no point going back to where I was and starting from scratch again’. Why should I reverse everything I had tried so hard to stop, just for a night out, or even a drunken smoke. It's just really not worth it.

Amy talks of the benefits of being a non smoker, saying she feels healthier and her breathing is easier.

As weird as it sounds, I feel cleaner. I’m determined to stop now. I never want that influence on my future children, I’d be really upset if I caught my children smoking. It would mortify me. So no, I could never go back to it.