Quitting smoking

No matter how long you have smoked, quitting will benefit your health in both the immediate and long-term future. It will also benefit the health of your family and friends and save you money.

Giving up smoking can be hard, so ask your friends and family to help, talk to your GP or contact the Quitline on 13 78 48 for help and advice. There is also useful information, hints and tips in our stop smoking fact sheet and stop smoking position statement.

Approaches to quitting include:

• slowly reducing the number of cigarettes you smoke each day
• going ‘cold turkey’ – quitting smoking outright with no aids or phase-out
• nicotine replacement – using patches or pills to help you give up smoking

Smoking is highly addictive and as your body goes through withdrawal, you may feel unusually anxious, hungry or irritable. These symptoms will pass after a few weeks.