[TLDR: I am trying to make quitting more tolerable, fun, and effective through a daily game of BINGO personally tailored to your triggers/cravings. The simple game design enhances awareness of triggers, promotes mindfulness, celebrates progress, and can be adapted around a quitter’s evolving relationship with smoking. COME PLAY WITH ME!]

Hey there friends!

I (25f) inexplicably chose to quit smoking cold turkey during quite a physically and mentally taxing time in my life. Nonetheless, I’m now 6 days smoke free for the first time since I started up 3+ years ago.

I am both a behavioral science student AND a fundamentally goofy person w/ ADHD- so I wanted to create a personal tool for quitting that was evidence-based*, simply structured, and overall fun to engage with. Over the past few days I’ve meticulously observed and catalogued my triggers to see what aspects of my life I most associate with the dopamine hit of a cig. This has not only helped me swiftly identify why a craving suddenly hits, but also grants the opportunity to self-regulate past the discomfort. The end goal is to neutralize previously conditioned stimuli so my mind/body quits expecting/desiring a reward.

So how did I incorporate these elements into a silly way to cope with the cravings and fluctuations in my mood/energy? I present to you…

⚠️ A Daily Smoker’s Daily Trigger BINGO ⚠️

How To Play:

1. Take as much time as you need to identify 24 of the most potent triggers for craving a cigarette/ smoking

2. Randomly fill them into your blank BINGO card

3. Throughout your day, mark down every time you encounter a trigger that makes you want to smoke in red;

—> 5 in a row gives you a 🔴ACTIVE BINGO🔴

—> ACTIVE BINGOS show a growing awareness of current triggers and celebrates actively resisting urges to smoke

1. At the end of each day, review your BINGO card for triggers that you may have encountered, but that did NOT make you want to smoke in real time. Mark these in green;

—> 5 in a row gives you an 🟢ABSENT BINGO🟢

—> ABSENT BINGOS show the weakening association between triggers and cravings and celebrates the progress you don’t always notice in the present

Change up how you play over time…

1. ‘RETIRE & REPLACE’ BINGO

—> retire slots that no longer trigger cravings (ABSENT) and replace them with other/new ACTIVE ones not already on your card

1. ‘THE LONG GAME’ BINGO

—>instead of a daily game, start playing over the span of a few days, weeks, months, etc. to see which cravings do or don’t endure over longer periods of time

1. ‘ABSENT BLACKOUT’ BINGO

—> work towards having only green (ABSENT) markings across all slots

—> this would likely work best over longer periods of time depending on how frequently you encounter certain triggers

1. ‘YOU-NIQUE’ BINGO

—>create your own rules, game system, and/or various BINGO ‘prizes’ and share it in the comments

NOTE:

—>I included my BINGO card before and after as an example PLUS a blank card for you to use!!

*I pulled from basic concepts in Classical Conditioning, Acceptance & Commitment Therapy (Addiction) strategies, somatic mindfulness/ mindful savoring as rebuilding organic dopamine, Th. of Reasoned Behavior, etc..

*it is a scientific fact that BINGO is fun