The good news

If you don’t start smoking at high school you are less likely to do so later in life, and smoke free means a longer life with significantly less risk of disease.

If you do smoke, giving up will immediately improve your health and reduce your risk of serious disease. From the moment you stop your blood oxygen level begins to return to normal, your circulation improves and your lungs work much better.

Over time even long term heavy smokers can return to near normal levels of health, the risk of getting lung cancer drops to a level virtually as low as for non-smokers after about 12 years without a cigarette.

And with support from one of the stop-smoking campaigns and nicotine replacement therapy there is a good chance of successfully quitting.

Top tips for quitting

• Set a quit date and throw away your cigarettes
• Don’t go it alone, get some help - call a helpline
• Give up with a friend
• Make sure you have the support of friends and family
• Avoid the situations and places where you would normally smoke
• Put the money that you would have spent away and use it to buy yourself something as a reward for not smoking

For more help and information

Links and helplines

The links listed provide additional information or an alternative view on this issue.

If you need to talk about your problems with someone you don’t know, all the helplines listed are free, confidential and manned by professionally trained counsellors.

 

Share this article