So you want to quit smoking. You think you can quit cold turkey. It just takes a lot of self-discipline, and then you can do anything, right?

Well… maybe.

Quitting your smoking habit can be like losing weight -- if you do it too quickly, you’re likely to gain that weight back just as fast. Really, when it comes to changing a lifestyle or habit, slow and steady wins the race.

In fact, many studies show that a pretty good strategy to help change your habits is a mixture of behavioral therapy and a technique known as nicotine fading. The behavioral therapy isn’t the traditional therapy you would think of. Instead, researchers suggest cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT).

Cognitive behavioral therapy is a type of psychotherapy that differs a bit from traditional psychotherapy in that it is an active intervention, requiring both the patient and therapist to focus on the problem-solving and goal-oriented aspect of therapy.
CBT comes from the idea that your thoughts and feelings directly impact your behavior; therefore, changing those thought patterns can change your actions for good. From this viewpoint, changing the way you think and feel are essential to combatting either an addiction or mental illness. CBT helps you to channel those negative feelings into constructive, motivational thoughts that will cause you to change rather than beating yourself up.
This type of therapy isn’t a magically quick solution, or even a solution at all. Instead, CBT helps you to realize your own ability to change your thoughts to regulate emotions, such as stress and behaviors.

Luckily, smoking is a learned habit, which means it can be unlearned! Cognitive behavioral therapy is one of the best ways to “unlearn” smoking, and has 10X a better success rate with smokers than other therapies.

With CBT, you are able to replace those negative thought patterns and behaviors with positive feelings and coping skills. So, instead of thinking that you need to “go big or go home” when beating your addiction, you learn how to look forward to the little successes that will eventually turn into a huge feat.

CBT can happen either face-to-face, online, one-on-one with a therapist, or through group therapy where you can find others fighting the same battle. You will still have the regular nicotine withdrawals, which is where nicotine fading comes in. Combined with an effective nicotine fading strategy, CBT will help you stay in control and cope with the symptoms.