Stoptober - Diary of a Quitter: Day 15

Matthew Backhouse smokes his last cigarette before starting Stoptober. Photo / Nick Reed

Journalist Matthew Backhouse chronicles his efforts to quit smoking for Stoptober in a daily diary.

Some quitters must really respond to persistent hounding - because that's partly what you're signing up for when you sign up for Quitline.

Don't get me wrong - Quitline is great. They offer prescriptions for cheap nicotine patches, gum and lozenges. Their website and booklets offer heaps of great advice on how to quit. You can contribute your own quitting blog entries on their website, and interact there with other quitters. And, of course, there's the eponymous phone service, where you can call up for help, advice, support - or just a friendly voice on the other end of the line.

Read yesterday's entry here.

The cost? Free.

But not quite.

You'll also be bombarded with emails, texts and phone calls. I haven't added up how many I've received over the last two years of trying to quit, on and off, but it's somewhere in the region of 10,000.

Over Easter, during one of my numerous abortive attempts at stubbing out the habit, I spent a day with family friends at a bach overlooking a West Auckland beach. The cell phone coverage wasn't great, but somehow my phone got enough reception to ring several times. Each time I ignored it, because the caller flashed up as 'private number'. I thought it must be the bank. But then I wondered - why would the bank be calling over Easter? I decided I'd answer the next time it rung.

It was Quitline. They wanted to know whether I'd had a cigarette in the last two weeks. Yeah, I have. Now can I please get back to the egg hunt?

The thing is, this does work for some people. Studies have shown you're twice as likely to quit if you receive tailored text messages aimed at breaking the habit.

Maybe I'm not the target audience, but it certainly seems to help some people. If you think it might be for you, then definitely sign up with Quitline. And if it doesn't sound like it's for you, sign up anyway. You'll get all the other great benefits, and you can just ignore all the texts and calls. Plus you'll seem super, super popular, what with your phone going off constantly.

One word of advice, though - you might want to switch it off over Easter.

To take part in Stoptober, visit www.stoptober.nz

For help quitting, visit Quitline at www.quit.org.nz or phone 0800 778 778