What are the 5 main stages of smoking cessation?

1. The apathy stage

At this stage, smokers have no knowledge of the harmful effects of cigarettes. Smokers only feel the temporary “benefits” of smoking. They have not yet felt the harmful effects of smoking because the smoking time is too short, not enough to reveal the harmful effects of cigarettes on the smoker’s health.

The “indifference” stage usually lasts from several months to several years. This stage ends when the smoker is cognitively mature enough to know and believe that the harmful effects of cigarettes are real. Or when the time of smoking is long enough and causes some harmful effects on the smoker’s health such as yellow teeth, bad breath, and coughing in the morning.

2. Intention stage

At this stage, smokers have gathered a fair amount of knowledge about the harmful effects of tobacco. Enough for them to believe that tobacco is really harmful to health. Or smokers have smoked long enough to experience the harmful effects of tobacco on themselves and their families. However, they still feel very deeply about the benefits of smoking.

Smokers in this stage often intend to quit smoking but cannot decide when to start.

The stage of intending to quit smoking usually lasts from several months to several years. This stage ends when knowledge or experience of the harmful effects of smoking becomes clearer.

3. Preparation phase

At this stage, smokers have realized the real harms of smoking. However, smokers at this stage still do not quit smoking because they are worried about the side effects of quitting smoking.

The manifestation of this stage is that the smoker has known for sure that cigarettes are harmful to health and the “benefits” of smoking are not enough to compensate for those “harms”. They have started to change their behavior to quit smoking such as not smoking every morning, not smoking indoors, only bringing a certain number of cigarettes to work, reducing the number of cigarettes per day.
However, they do not dare to quit completely because they are still afraid of the symptoms of the withdrawal process such as weight gain, stress, headaches, and high blood pressure.
The preparation phase ends when the smoker finds a trusted source of support. This makes them more confident that they can quit smoking effectively.

4. Smoking cessation - consolidation phase

The withdrawal period is the period from the start of quitting smoking to the 6th month of the process.
The characteristic of the smoking cessation stage is that the person quitting smoking must overcome the side effects of quitting smoking. Symptoms of the smoking cessation process are characterized by feelings such as headaches, high blood pressure, weight gain, and irritability.
The consolidation phase follows immediately after the cessation phase. This phase usually lasts from 6 months to 1 year after quitting smoking. During this phase, the person quitting smoking must overcome the temptations of smoking to avoid smoking again.

The temptations in this stage are often from the outside environment such as when you see other people smoking, the smell of cigarettes. Or temptations from yourself such as feelings of sadness, joy, loneliness or reunion, success or failure. In this stage, the unpleasant feeling of quitting smoking has decreased a lot but it still exists in you.

The “quit” and “consolidation” phases will end either with the quitter smoking again or after 1 year when the cravings for cigarettes are gone.

5. Success and relapse stages

The successful stage corresponds to the person who quits smoking and maintains a long-term smoking cessation. The definition of successful smoking cessation as being 1 year without smoking is also conventional. However, in smoking cessation there is no permanent success, a person who has successfully quit smoking can still relapse at any time if he loses his vigilance.

The relapse phase corresponds to the person who has quit smoking and now starts smoking again. Relapse can occur early in the quitting phase. Usually it occurs within the first 6 months after quitting smoking. It can even occur very early in the first week after quitting smoking. However, relapse can also occur after 1 year of quitting smoking or even very late, decades after quitting smoking.