By Lucy Ashton
As part of our Health and Wellbeing series, the Health Improvement Team at NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde will be sharing information and tips to help people who smoke, kick the habit for good.
Geraldine Lucas, Health Improvement and Tobacco Control Lead, said “Most people are aware of the physical risks of smoking to health such as increased risk of developing lung cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), but smoking is heavily linked to having increased anxiety and depression, and whilst many people believe smoking helps them cope, it can actually make symptoms worse.
“Stopping smoking can be a real challenge but the benefits stopping can have on your health and finances are very real. For example, if you smoke 20 cigarettes a day, stopping smoking could save you over £3,115 per year, and our latest campaign ‘Smoking burns your money’ aims to highlight this, especially given the current cost of living crisis. You can also use our NHS inform interactive tool to see how much money you can save.”
Top Tips for a successful quit attempt include:
- Keep a diary for a week and write down every time you have a cigarette and why. This will help you identify those cigarettes that you will find harder to stop e.g., first thing in the morning.
- Write down why you want to stop smoking and any time you are tempted read your reasons for quitting.
- Plan ahead – Set a date to stop, get rid of any smoking related products on or before your quit date.
- Get Support to Quit. Contact your local QYW stop smoking service for information, advice and support and if you feel comfortable doing so, get support from family and friends.
If you’re ready to stopping smoking our Quit Your Way services in NHS GGC are there to help and support you. Quitting smoking isn’t something you have to do on your own and over the last two years 1 in 3 people using our services to help them quit have remained smoke free at 12 weeks.
All of our services are completely free and offer:
- The best tried and tested methods available to help you stop
- Access to specially trained stop smoking advisors
- Free Nicotine Replacement Therapy
To find out more about the stop smoking services and to access the best support to quit in your area call the Quit Your Way helpline on 0800 84 84 84. Alternatively, you can visit QuitYourWay.scot for more information including web chat. Service operating hours are Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm