Quitting smoking is one of the best steps you can take to improve your health and well-being. However, breaking the habit can be a challenge. That’s why VA offers digital tools to support you on your journey to becoming tobacco-, nicotine- and smoke-free.
Whether you need encouragement, mindfulness techniques or structured guidance, these three VA apps can help you succeed.
1. Annie for Veterans
Annie is a VA text messaging service that empowers you to take an active role in your health care by sending various automated self-care reminders. One of the subscriptions available is the Tobacco Cessation Support feature, which provides motivation if you are thinking about quitting. It also helps you create a quit plan and set a quit date.
Annie delivers supportive messages, educational content and progress-tracking tools to help you stay on course. You can customize the message frequency and receive daily encouragement to reinforce your commitment to a smoke-free life.
Registration is required to begin receiving Annie messages. You can find instructions on the VA App Store and then subscribe to Tobacco Cessation Support by texting “SUB TOBACCO” to Annie (75338).
2. Mindfulness Coach
Stress and cravings are common barriers to quitting smoking, but mindfulness can be a powerful tool in managing them. The Mindfulness Coach app was developed to help you learn how to practice mindfulness.
The app has resources specifically for quitting habits, such as tobacco use and vaping. It offers guided meditation sessions, breathing exercises and relaxation techniques to help you develop greater awareness of your triggers and gain control over your impulses.
This app is a great resource for anyone looking to strengthen their mental resilience while working toward a smoke-free lifestyle.
3. Stay Quit Coach
The Stay Quit Coach app is designed to help anyone who would like to quit or reduce their use of cigarettes, electronic nicotine delivery systems, cigars or chewing tobacco. This app helps you identify your reasons for quitting, set goals and track your progress over time. It also provides information about tobacco use and nicotine withdrawal.
Stay Quit Coach offers interactive tools, goal-setting features and coping strategies tailored to each user’s journey. You can identify your personal triggers and receive encouragement to prevent relapse. Stay Quit Coach is designed as a comprehensive digital companion for quitting smoking—for good.
If you or a fellow Veteran is looking for tools to quit smoking, these resources can help you take control of your health and enjoy the benefits of a tobacco-free life.
For more information, visit the VA App Store.
Topics in this story
More Stories
VA encourages Veterans to try its free mobile apps to support their wellness and fitness goals.
Veteran John Lewis' lifetime love of art now helps him and others find healing.
Man in hospice marries lifelong love, fulfilling heartfelt wish.
Why on gods green earth would I want to quit vaping? I used to smoke a pack of Marlboro reds a day almost. Until I discovered vaping in 2013. Yes I was vaping long before it was fad. I used to vape everywhere I went and when people would come up to me all uptight and flustered to tell me that I couldn’t smoke in the fascility, I would quickly educate them that I agree I couldn’t and wasn’t smoking, in fact it was just water vapor that I was billowing out everywhere leaving a pleasant fruity watermelonie scent in my wake. Most of the time they would just look at me with their heads cocked to the side a little like when you do something in front of your dog that it totally doesn’t understand. I love vaping and unfortunately for big tobacco their very aggressive and expensive smear campaign against vaping completely missed me, because you see I relate more to facts that slogans that are derived from opinions. Think about it folks, what is worse for your body, the carcinogenic acrid smoke that contains thousands of harmful cancer promoting chemicals filling your soft pink lung tissues? Or a misty fog of flavored water and air that may or may not have some nicotine in it ? Science tells me that the vape is leagues beyond healthier for the human body that nasty cigarettes. It’s not the 1950s anymore kids, when no one knew better, they just knew a cigarette was what you smoked after you ate,had sex, drove your car, or while you waited, or walked, or talked on the telephone, basically it was the perfect complement to most activities we humans perform in a day. But that was all the lie machine hard at work. Time to wake up people. Logic has been an avacable tool since the Greeks you would think more of us “modern” folks would employ it in our everyday decision making. Happily vaping until I physically can’t. Chuck in big ole clouds in the maternity ward at the hospital, blowing smoke rings on the vegetables in Safeway. At the police station, in 711. Ima vape everywhere i go today.
i quit cold turkey in 2009, after 40 years of smoking, it was a very hard thing to do. But well worth it.