I desperately have to quit smoking

[Nikolas]

It is a habbit! A nasty habbit! I'm bad at giving up habbits! I still bite my nails, quite badly! And I've tried everything, at random times in my life, starting in... 88 (when I was 11). Nothing worked in the end. I just like doing it! It doesn't create a health problem really, and I can control it so I don't do it in front of others (there goes my cover really in a public forum ), but in the end, I'll never be the hand model I wanted.

Habbits die hard and I know from my wife that there come times when she would LOVE a cigarette, as much as I want a beer with dinner some times! It is phychological, and the main problem is that the damage is not evident to the user, ever. Simmilar to alcohol; who care if you have 4 units a day, or 30 units per week! Once your liver is gone, it's gone, and you won't know when it happens. You don't realise it. Exactly like smoking. You don't get to tell "oh! This is bad! I have to quit". you are not convincend until something bad/good happens!

As I said a health test will prove the poor results and might give you the boost to quit really, without much. All it takes is a big "no"! (talks the man who gave up his diet after all! Couldn't say no to pizzas... :p)

[InCreator]

Thanks for all the advice everyone! I think I might try to quit today actually!

I wish you luck.
The hardest point (if your quitting will be though), will be feeling of guilt and lying to self -- making up reasons why you could allow yourself this, last, cigarette.
If you can overcome this, you're done!

[Alarconte]

In "dejar de fumar es facil si sabes como" (something like... "drop the smoking is easy if you know how", a very good book of dropping the cigarrs, tells that the body, the ¿pulmons? health completely 3 months later of drop the cigarrets, (unless you have cancer, of course ).

The advices of the smokers during years to health is propaganda to not Start smoking.

[vertigoaddict]

I quit smoking when I was 7 (my sister got a pack from my grandmother and gave me one so I'd shut up), then I had a slip when I was 10 or 11 then I stopped, then slipped again at 14 - 15 (I only really smoke when I'm stressed really).

Some doctors actually give drug addicted patients a stronger drug to overpower the other one. Now I'm not saying take heroin or anything; just find something else that's addictive.

When I turned 10-11, I learned that my hand had other uses...

[Nacho]

Hey Alarconte... Pulmons are "Lungs". Visca el Barça, though... 

[radiowaves]

I am an ex smoker.

I did some 5 cigarettes in seventh grade, then I quit. But damn, quitting is hard, I did two cigarettes again a few weeks back.

But it was disgusting enough, so I don't think I will be doing it any time soon. But I am something like vertigo described.

[monkey0506]

Well he didn't post for 2 days so clearly he broke down and smoked 2 cartons...an hour. For two days.



Seriously though, like I said, I don't smoke. But again, best of luck in quitting. If I can offer you some advice though it would be that if you're going to stop make sure you're doing it for yourself. You can't quit smoking for your girlfriend or your family or anyone other than yourself. If you do, then the first time you get in a bad argument or have a disagreement you'll take the cigarettes right back up just to spite them. So do it for yourself!

[voh]

I'm a smoker, and my smoking addiction is, as far as I can see, entirely psychological. I've quit a couple of times, twice proper (meaning not just to give in shortly after), 5 months without and 9 months without respectively. Never had any physical withdrawal symptoms, just my mind going "Hmm, a cigarette would make this situation so much more awesmoe."

I'm planning to quit this year, though the moment where it'd come most easily is yet to present itself. I've got more than enough time, I only started 5 years ago anyway

[Oliwerko]

I think when people quit, it HAS to be psychological. I know a few people that quit. No plasters, no chewing gums, no anything. I think you just have to have a very strong will. That is the strongest weapon against smoking I personally think. No gums or plasters will help you when you don't have a will that is strong enough to quit.

I actually admire people that are so strong to quit such a habit, nothing easy indeed.

[jamicus]

yeah any kind of addiction or even habits are tough as shit to break. i don't have the smoking problem, but i've got some problems of my own and it is so easy after a couple of weeks to forget why you made a change in the first place and just fall back into old patterns.

the only advice i guess i can offer is watch out for that. watch out for making deals with yourself - just one more etc - and watch out for forgetting about what it was that made you quit.

i can say these things, but i haven't had any extended success with it yet. you've got to want something different, i think, and you have to actually be able to get it. why quit something if there is no better alternative? smoking's a bit different, but i'm assuming the psychology of most addiction is similar.

[rharpe]

This probably wont help but here goes anyway: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNjunlWUJJI

[Ryan Timothy B]

Actually in Canada (no idea if it's only Ontario or all the provinces), we passed a law not too long ago (and it's now in effect already - 1st of June) that where any pack of smokes are visibly stored there must be a cover hiding it from customers.  So any variety store, or grocery store, or wherever you may see smokes, we have cupboard doors over the fancy shelving those stores used to have.  Now if the customer wants to see what you have in inventory, he is handed a magazine where he flips through to see what interests him.

Now when it comes to the employee grabbing the smokes, he/she must keep it out of sight.  Either by putting it in a grocery bag before handing it to the customer, or just by concealing it with your hands (so I was told).  Also when I said they have cupboard doors, they aren't allowed to be large cupboard doors.  Because if it were large and you opened it, every customer could see the smokes.

I don't smoke and I think it's almost too much.  We're treating smoking, here in Canada, as if it were an illegal drug.  "Shhh!  Keep quiet.  Don't tell anyone you bought this from me."

I understand the 'out-of-sight--out-of-mind' philosophy, but it's ALMOST too far.

[m0ds]

My grandpa told me the other day that the best way is to wipe out any ciggy you would normally have after eating a meal. From there on - it can be done! Personally I think the best time for me is when I'm ill and in bed for 3 or 4 days, and physically can't handle a ciggy. But that doesn't happen so often and afterwards I give in too easy

Good luck

[Domino]

Me too. I just paid $6.55 USD for a pack of cigarettes. New York State taxes each pack over $2.00.

Time to quit.

[InCreator]

My grandpa told me the other day that the best way is to wipe out any ciggy you would normally have after eating a meal. From there on - it can be done! Personally I think the best time for me is when I'm ill and in bed for 3 or 4 days, and physically can't handle a ciggy. But that doesn't happen so often and afterwards I give in too easy

This is true.
I know a sure way I could quit, but that means prison-like life for some time. Lots of sleeping and little activity, no stress. There was a summer when I didn't work or do much, spent most of the time alone at computer and sleeping randomly. If you're taking long sleeps and little activity for a week or so, you're actually feeling more tired and sleep even longer, though it makes no sense due not spent calories. During this time, my smoking dropped 90%.
Lack of stress reduces smoking and sleeping cuts heavy (8-14 hour) gaps in nicotine usage, you could quite easily quit in a month or two, without too much psychological suffer. Also, it's important to everytime translate smoking hunger into real hunger and grab a bite instead of cigarette. And then go lie down instead of after-meal smoke.
It works. But today, getting a sick holiday like this is almost impossible. Unless you're rich and single.

[vict0r]

Me too. I just paid $6.55 USD for a pack of cigarettes. New York State taxes each pack over $2.00.

Time to quit.
[/quote

Hah!
Average price of cigs in norway is around 16-17 USD... o_O

[Dualnames]

Well, I quit when I decided drinks and cigars are lame and bad. I decided to watch people die as well. Might seem harsh but that's what I'm gonna end up doing. I'll die healthy.

[SinSin]

I started a post just like this one last year I managed to quit smoking but soon afterwards i started again, Nevertheless i wondered why i stopped smoking and i realised that i actually liked it and felt that i wasnt "ready" to quit.
Some time passed and 3 months ago i felt like quitting again and this time i was going to succeed, and how?
Guidelines were my answer first up i told myself and everyone who came to my house to smoke outside and outside only
Secondly i got myself down to 8 a day
A week after that I started to tell myself that i didnt enjoy it   at all   and everytime I reached for a cigarette i would deliberatly put them somewhere where it meant i had to go far away for them eg my time delay safe
Once i had lit up i would tell myself this is horrible every time i had a drag. (a form of conditioning myself)
then one day i woke up and i was a non smoker "seriously it is true" i got up went downstairs went to the shop and came back with Bread, milk and a can of coke, no ciggys
         The first day was hard after i had realised there was no niccotine but i replaced this with water   
Water really does help plus keep a pencil between your fingers this will give your finger something to do.

Hope my story helps

[yukonhorror]

without reading what every other person has said, I'll say this.  I am not a smoker, but my wife was.  What helped her to quit was me giving her a guilt trip everytime she ran out for a cigarette.  In general, she had an external motivator to prevent her from having another one.  After the withdrawal is over (3-7 days maybe), the trick is to avoid the habit.  This means avoid the things you used to do that instigated smoking.  I.e. taking a coffee break with your smoker buddies.  Take it at a different time by yourself. 

Also, it helps to ween off of it if you only smoke if already slightly inibriated from booze.  Then you fall in the trap of wanting a cigarette everytime you are buzzing off of booze.  Not a great situation, but maybe a fair tradeoff.

[SurplusGamer]

I guess it's the sort of thing that's difficult to understand unless you've been addicted, which I haven't.

I bite my nails sometimes, which is a habit rather than an addiction, but someone compared it earlier. But a big difference I suppose is that I have constant access to nails with no money/effort. To get more cigarrettes I might be able to ask someone, but most of the time I'd have to go to the shop and pay a not-insignificant sum of money for a pack.

The bit I find difficult to wrap my head around is how someone who is trying to quit is unable to think 'no, I'll not do that' at any point in the process of standing up, going to the shop, asking for cigarrettes and handing over the money.

That's not the sort of thing that it seems to me you can do without even realising you're doing it, like nail-biting. Maybe it is, though, and that's the part that I find difficult to wrap my head around.

I'd love for a description from someone who knows about what is going through your head when you buy cigarettes after having already decided not to.

Also, I'm genuinely curious, I'm not trying to put anyone down.