I've felt a sudden drop in my health lately, and I suppose it's time to quit. I tried quitting about a year ago but I only made it for two weeks. The family doesn't encourage me much, and my in-laws smoke like freight trains so I'm constantly tempted.
Anyway, any ex-smokers willing to tell their success stories? I sure could use some encouragement!
edit: after searching the forums, I see this has been brought up before. :-[ But I guess I can still gripe about my in-laws :P
Try to give to theirs a "kind" of reward if don't smoke ;)
My name's monkey and I've gone 20 years, 1 month, and 25 days without a cigarette.
I was a total chain-smoker when I was in the womb. :=
Sorry to make fun, but I'm not a smoker and never have been. Furthermore I don't plan to start. It's great that you're trying to quit (IMO). Now if only someone invented a Fat Arses' Threshold To Improving Energy Sustenance (FATTIES) support group I could work on my own health. :o
As a fighter against the smoke, I only can encourage you to keep on. No advices, though, since I never smoked. :)
I few of my friends have encouraged me to stop several times, prompting me to quit for a few days, just long enough so I could say, "look, I'm not addicted or anything." and pick it right back up.
Though one method I found to be particularly effective was lighting up all the remaining cigarettes I had (7-8 smokes) and smoking all of them at once, I don't mean chain smoking either, I mean a huge fistful of tobacco in each hand. By the time I had take four drags I was so sick of smoking I threw away my cigarettes and the remainder of my rolling tobacco, I couldn't even look at a cigarette for a month or two. If you have more will-power than I, this could probably work on a long-term engagement.
Also, get something to help with your oral fixation, mints or chewing gum work well because the mixture of the strong tobacco flavor and the mint aftertaste is very undesirable, (I heard milk and diet pepsi had similar effects) perhaps you could brush your teeth any time your crave a smoke, kill two birds with one stone and replace a bad habit with a good one. If you still seem to quash your desire to smoke, a lot of convenience stores in the states sell plastic filters that trap nicotine but still allow you to enjoy a cigarette, though I cannot vouch for their effectiveness.
Finally, when it comes to quitting, tenacity is key. It's going to take a long time and it's not going be whole lot of fun to be so short-tempered, but if you're already experience an effect on your health, you really don't have any other choice. Good luck.
Quote from: earlwood on Fri 30/05/2008 08:17:57
prompting me to quit for a few days, just long enough so I could say, "look, I'm not addicted or anything." and pick it right back up.
Sounds like an addiction to me.
Both of my parents smoke. My dad smokes a few times a day, my mom only when work stresses her out, which is often. My dad has tried every method to quit, but never has. My mom did for a while, but eventually went back to one every so often, to whenever she feels like. It can be done, you just really have to want it.
LGM had a little smoking problem for a while and bought himself some special flavored tooth picks for his oral fixation, like earlwood said.
But I think the best method is just to work in steps. Bob Clendenin just did a PSA about if you can not smoke and drink a cup of coffee then you can not smoke while whatever, then whatever.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lf01Ti6bH8U
Best of luck to you.
Quote from: Nacho on Fri 30/05/2008 08:37:17
Sounds like an addiction to me.
Heh, I know, I'm not fooling anyone
Also, I forgot to mention, that this (http://www2.pmusa.com/en/quitassist/) website (started by Phillip Morris USA, ironically enough) has a lot of useful information about quitting, and provides a free, 48-page guide that could come in handy for people trying to quit, it even has great information about medications and distracting yourself from your addiction. Maybe I'll come back to that when I don't have so much on my plate.
Lots and lots of nicotine gum... It worked for my mother.
f you really really want stay alive, I'm pretty sure you really really want to quit smoking, therefore you really really can do it. Good luck!
A necessity will push you to quit.
My wife used to smoke 2 packets a day, but quit when she was pregnant to our first son, and thankfully did not pick up. My brother in law quit when his first son was born.
Having children around is a real push towards quiting I think.
I never smoked, so no idea really.
But in general, maybe a big nice shock will help you towards quiting. I mean if you go to a hospital and run a general test, and tiring test you might be SO amazed by the results that you will quit immediately!
well, I've smoked. For 6 months or 8. Well , I quit when I said to myself, that I don;t need smoking to make me feel desirable, I don;t need smoke to make me feel more close to my friends or to everybody else who waste their lives slowly, I just need nothing and especially smoke to make me feel anything. If i wanna feel good , I will , If i wanna feel desirable I will and If I 'm gonna go and feel I wanna smoke, hell no I won't. watching a couple of documentaries about marlboro might help as well.
Quote from: Dualnames on Fri 30/05/2008 10:36:28
well, I've smoked. For 6 months or 8. Well , I quit when I said to myself, that I don;t need smoking to make me feel desirable, I don;t need smoke to make me feel more close to my friends or to everybody else who waste their lives slowly, I just need nothing and especially smoke to make me feel anything. If i wanna feel good , I will , If i wanna feel desirable I will and If I 'm gonna go and feel I wanna smoke, hell no I won't. watching a couple of documentaries about marlboro might help as well.
Well for a quite a few people, social factors don't really play a huge part in their smoking habits, though it may encourage it, and while I don't dispute that I may have an addiction to smoking, I know I continue to smoke because I enjoy the taste. And all moral implications involved with the Marlboro corporation probably don't apply to me because I buy my tobacco locally...
I'm seconding the impregnation advice.
Under my experience, quitting smoking has to be a process as simplier as possible. Wake up one day, and say "this is my latest one". That worked with my dad and my mom. All the techniques focused on "diverting your attention from tobacco" are actually making you remember about it, so, that' s a bad tactic, IMO. Actually, you should abandon this thread asap, because reading about tobacco will you desire it again.
Take up coke.
(http://cache.viewimages.com/xc/52984170.jpg?v=1&c=ViewImages&k=2&d=17A4AD9FDB9CF19390335F8FA9CA92A6376524EF731CC8C478A0E721FD50B7AE)
Hi there!
Well, I quit smoking last December the 1st. It wasn't the first time I tried but it was the one time that I convinced myself that I was going to quit for good.
10 days later I smoked a cigarette only to find out how stupid I was! I didn't finish the cig and decided that that one was the last one in my life.
Up to now (6 months later) I still dream that I am smoking and believe it or not, I wake up with a strange sensation on my throat and lungs.
There is no right way to quit smoking but I use a trick that I read on a book and it works for me:
- when you feell the need for a cig just concentrate and wait 2/3 minutes on not smoking, the desire will go away.
- and the basic trick of them all: don't carry cigarettes with you ;D
I hope it helped!
Ever tried sunflower seeds? They are sold salted and non-salted, as a snack. It's almost national snack for russians, for example. Healthy too. Mulder always ate them in X-files. Plus, they are cheapest snack in the world, I think.
I know that if I buy a pack of seeds, eating them consume heavily time and stop my smoking for 3-5 hours. You don't have hunger for cigarette during and a bit after eating too. Otherwise, I smoke one in every hour atleast.
If you like them, they're more addictive than smoking is. You eat few, and you can't stop anymore.
Also, don't buy dehulled ones: Eating ones with hull intact, cleaning them... takes much more time and won't get you nauseous. Cracking the hulls to get to the core is the main point of eating them.
Quotes from wikipedia - how to eat them:
QuoteUpon consumption, in-shell seeds should be dehulled and the hull should be discarded before swallowing the kernel. Dehulling is commonly performed by cracking the hull with one's teeth and spitting it out while keeping the kernel in the mouth.
And why is that good:
QuoteIn addition to linoleic acid (an essential fatty acid), sunflower seeds are also an excellent source of dietary fiber, protein, Vitamin E, B Vitamins, and minerals such as magnesium, iron, phosphorus, selenium,calcium and zinc. Additionally, they are rich in cholesterol-lowering phytosterols. They are also a good source of calories(205).
I suggest roasted and heavily salted ones: Even though people call salt unhealthy, it's nothing close to nicotine. Also, if your mouth is salted enough, tobacco doesn't taste at all, so even if you smoke, you put it out after few breaths. Combination of salt and sunflower oil totally kills tobacco taste.
The less you smoke in day, the lower your "normal" nicotine need will go. So, the closer you are to no need for nicotine in your blood at all. This takes long time though.
But first, make sure that you need to smoke at all: answer this question:
* Can you survive a day without smoke?
I have theory that people who under some circumstances don't smoke, or can easily be atleast 6 hours without one (awake), DON'T HAVE TO SMOKE at all. Those are people who can simply quit at any point, because their physical addiction is almost nothing, and everything's behind psychology only. I have a friend who never smoked at home, but did everywhere else. I always told him to stop jerking around, he doesn't really need tobacco. And one day, he simply quit. There are people like this. Even if they smoked for 10+ years.
I, for example, can't really imagine more than 2 hours without tobacco, unless I'm asleep or dead. Even if this rare and though thing happens, I smoke at triple rate as soon as it's over.
Also, no smoking means no alcohol.
I've quit too many times to end up at a party, a bit drunk, and noticing that I've smoked two packs in one night. Next morning, quitting project is wasted.
There's also a method I believe could work, though I never tested it:
First, buy a pack 50% lighter smokes than ones you smoke.
Limit your daily smoking to a pack (or half, depending how much you smoke now).
Keep the limit. Don't break it. Tell yourself that this is all you can smoke, and if they're over, there will be no more for the day. So you have to kind of calculate.
And if you can handle the limit, start subtract a cigarette a day, make your limit smaller.
I think it should work by lowering your nicotine consumption.
Stop. Smoking.
Stop the physical act of reaching into a packet, withdrawing a cigarette, bringing it to your mouth, moistening it on your lip, holding it there while you reach for a light, lighting up, sucking in.
Just. Stop. It.
Problem solved. :)
Quote from: LimpingFish on Fri 30/05/2008 18:44:24
Stop the physical act of reaching into a packet, withdrawing a cigarette, bringing it to your mouth, moistening it on your lip, holding it there while you reach for a light, lighting up, sucking in.
Wow, that helped a lot! I'm very tempted now :P
Thanks for all the advice everyone! I think I might try to quit today actually!
When he was sixty, my father was told he'd need a triple heart bypass. His doctor told him he would have to stop smoking.
Which he did.
No gum, no patches, no hypnotism, nothing. He just stopped. He didn't experience withdrawl symptoms, but admitted he sometimes thought about smoking during the day, around the times he would have usually had a cigarette. It wasn't a craving, just a little mental reminder that "Oh, yeah. I used to have a cigarette around this time.". The thought of actually smoking again never entered his mind.
And he never did.
Unfortunately, he was later diagnosed with lung cancer (It seems the damage was already done. He had, after all, been smoking since he was eight years old!), and subsequently died.
Over all the time he was ill, though, he said giving up smoking was the easiest thing he had ever done. He just...stopped. :)
Quote from: LimpingFish on Fri 30/05/2008 20:57:50
He didn't experience withdrawl symptoms, but admitted he sometimes thought about smoking during the day...
I have heard (but cannot substantiate) that the physical additiction to nicotine runs its course in 48 hours or so and that beyond that it is purely a psychological addiction. Interesting, if true.
<edit> Okay here (http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/hl-vs/tobac-tabac/res/news-nouvelles/nicotine_e.html) is some info on addictive properties of nicotine saying that withdrawl symptoms can last for a week.
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 ;D), 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)
QuoteThanks 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!
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 :D).
The advices of the smokers during years to health is propaganda to not Start smoking.
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...
Hey Alarconte... Pulmons are "Lungs". Visca el Barça, though... ;)
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.
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! ;)
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 :P
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.
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.
This probably wont help but here goes anyway: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNjunlWUJJI (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNjunlWUJJI)
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.
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 :P
Good luck
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 from: Mods on Wed 04/06/2008 00:15:19
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 :P
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.
Quote from: Domino on Wed 04/06/2008 01:24:36
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
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. ;D
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
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.
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.
I don't know why of this determination for changing something that is an addiction or a vice into the word "habit".
An habit is a repeatitive conduct considered as good. Doing sport is an habit. Washing your teeth after a meal is an habit.
A vice is an repeteative conduct considered as bad. Smoking is bad. Biting nails is bad. Both are vices.
Nacho, thanks for the language correction, Lungs, I see today this word in a Futurama chapter xD
Sip, visca el barça i la mare que em va parir xD
Well, I'm a social smoker, and i don't smoke cigarrets, only cigars (I don't know if is a good explanation). They're called Moods, a kind of hard cigarrets, little cigars. And they're half-social... when I stressed I have apetite of moods... But when I'm with people, I smoke while eating, I smoke while 'm with a girl, I smoke when I see tv series drop in the bed...xD
(http://euro-tobacco.com/newpic/piccigars/moods1.jpg)
But for other hand, if I don't go to street or to see people, I can go without smoking for weeks xD
The problem is that I smoke moods for pleasure.. and I don't want to quit... but is a health problem, and sometimes I care of it.
I bite my nails, not due to nervousness or anything, probably just as a thing to do. If I'm bored, or sitting still for a long time, I suddenly discover myself biting my nails (or running my teeth under them, or scraping my cuticles, etc). I recently stopped doing it, and it seems really weird and irritating now, things keep getting stuck under them, and then I have to clip them anyway, and I wonder what the point was.
Can't really say I used to smoke, I only did it on certain strange occasions, and haven't done it in a long time now. The major bottleneck in the process was actually having to buy the stuff with my money.