I desperately have to quit smoking

[The Suitor]

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 

[Alarconte]

Try to give to theirs a "kind" of reward if don't smoke

[monkey0506]

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

[Nacho]

As a fighter against the smoke, I only can encourage you to keep on. No advices, though, since I never smoked. 

[earlwood]

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.

[Nacho]

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.

[Evil]

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.

[earlwood]

Sounds like an addiction to me.

Heh, I know, I'm not fooling anyone


Also, I forgot to mention, that this 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.

[Ubel]

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!

[Nikolas]

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!

[Dualnames]

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.

[earlwood]

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.

[Nacho]

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.

[Chicky]

Take up coke.

[miguel]

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

I hope it helped!

[InCreator]

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:

Upon 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:

In 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.

[LimpingFish]

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.

[The Suitor]

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

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

[LimpingFish]

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.

[Quintaros]

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 is some info on addictive properties of nicotine saying that withdrawl symptoms can last for a week.