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Advice on Stopping Smoking
Don't know if we already have a thread about this if we do....Sorry for starting a new one.
Decided to stop smoking, planned on using the patch. Today was my quit date. Put on my patch this morning and it made me sick. Even started the lower step down than what I was smoking.
The last time I quit I gained 70 pounds in the 2 years I quit. All of that weight is off and I really don't want to go there again.......
So I was wondering if anyone would like to share what worked for them when they quit.
Thanks,
Deb
Decided to stop smoking, planned on using the patch. Today was my quit date. Put on my patch this morning and it made me sick. Even started the lower step down than what I was smoking.
The last time I quit I gained 70 pounds in the 2 years I quit. All of that weight is off and I really don't want to go there again.......
So I was wondering if anyone would like to share what worked for them when they quit.
Thanks,
Deb
0
Comments
Try it! It works great!
-bf
And pipes look cooler anyway!
Also people who change from cigarettes to pipes usually end up inhaling ... so double whammy negative.
And I am still looking for a way to stop smoking myself without going up the wall. A friend of mine in the village who also found it nearly impossible to stop has just signed up with a support group at the local hospital and is finding that very helpful - it is apparently like AA without the God thing and they cheer each other on, starting with the "My name is .... and I haven't smoked for xxx weeks."
Maybe there is a similar scheme in your area?
I've never talked to any pipe smokers who are addicted in the same way that long time cigarette smokers are. I could just be an anomaly of course.
I'm probably a bad person for advice on stopping smoking, but I've always liked Mark Twain's philosophy. Something to the effect of, "I've cut back on my smoking in the past few years. I only smoke one cigar at a time now."
Now about patches, drugs, and supplements. Some people use them but it seems to me that it doesn't work all that well. Nicotine is out of your bloodstream in 72 hours so the addictive part is over. It just takes time to psychologically adjust. Now, I was on a vent for 36 days and woke up not having smoked for a month. I still struggled daily. It was a while before I didn't think about smoking all the time. Next month will be 4 years. I had tried the other methods and cold turkey is the easiest. I had done it cold turkey before and it really wasn't that bad. Eventually you have to go off the patch and learn how to live without it. It is a personal choice and if you think it will help, please use it. I rather you use a patch for 8 weeks and quit permanently than listen to an opinion that doesn't have all the facts. But quitting is possible.
One thing that I do is when I have those short of breath (SOB in medicalese, seriously
I could come up with a million excuses to still smoke. But now that I've quit, I can think of a million reasons not to smoke. I will do anything I can to help. If you need to PM me daily, I will try to answer daily. You can do it!
We should stop selling the most addictive substance on the planet and then act like it's no big deal. I love www.truth.com when I want to lie to myself about smoking. Great info.:D
Seriously though folks - Brigid's idea of a New Buddhist rehab centre isn't such a crazy one. Why not? Anyone else wanting to give up something? We could have a giving up corner where we all lie on our bean-bags and help each other stop ... no matter what it is.
That was the only New Year's resolution that I have ever managed to keep!
Good Luck!
(maybe a good meditation might also help everytime you have a craving) :uphand:
PS, I gained a lot of weight, but I considered it a good trade-off. I have since been able to lose most of the extra pounds since then. Remember, being a little overweight is MUCH healthier than black lung!
Support from each ohter is a fantastic idea. It helped me so much. I was scared to death not to smoke. I was scared to smoke. Or as the old saying goes "I was sick and tired of being sick and tired". Learning from each other what works and what doesn't is always helpful. Just ask for help before you light up, not after. I remember waiting for someone to post when I wanted a cigarette as it gave me something to think about during cravings. www.whyquit.com had information that kept me extremely honest with myself about my addiction to nicotine. I don't know how much it is in other parts of the country but I'm too cheap to fork out 5.00/day for a pack of cigarettes. That's posiibly an airfare round trip to London. There are tons of things you can do without a smoke.
The day is drawing near, I feel ......
Two nuns meet for the first time, standing outside for a cigarette. It is raining and the older nun removes a condom from her pocket, snips off the end and smokes through it, whilst her sister has a soggy smoke which does not last or satisfy.
"Where do you get tht?" she asks the older one.
"At the pharmacy," replies the other.
The next day, the younger nun goes into her local chemist's shop and asks for a packet of condoms. A little surprised but always the professional, the pharmacist asks, "What size, sister?"
"Oh dear," says the young nun. "I'm not sure. Just make sure it will fit a Camel."
I started working on the on line program with the American Lung Association. One of the things that they recommend is quiting with a buddy. So if anyone else wants to quit with me that would be great!
I watched John go thru Cemo and Radiation for oral cancer...I do not want to go where he has been.
I'm scared to smoke and scared to quit just like you said Jerry so if anyone as I said wants to walk this path with me...........we can hold each others hands and cry on Jerry's shoulder....heehee You may regret offering your support but I do appreciate it very much and will take you up on it. Thank you!
I'm going to check out the sites you posted....Very cool! thanks
Deb
i will not regret it one bit. I am so grateful to be smoke free that I want others to experience what it is like not to be chained to nicotine with no way out. I truly believe that I was addicted to nicotine and would never quit. I told people I would die asking for a light.
Second, you all will help me to remember what quitting smoking is like. There are times my mind wants to glorify a cigarette, but I remind myself that it almost killed me once and not to give it another chance. At www.whyquit.com , read Dave's and Noni's stories. I used to read them weekly to remind me of the truth.
So cry away on my shoulder.
I have been getting progressively more and more disgusted with my addiction and my enslavement to nicotine. So yesterday I made sure I had none left and today I start a new life as a non smoker.
The health threats and the fact that I have to do a general anaesthetic soon are also a great spur!
Hold hands and breathe Deb - it gotta work.
I know that you need to stop sooner with your surgery coming up so I won't let you be alone. I'll quit now too.
thanks Knitwitch.... I'm holding your hand......and standing beside you taking a big deep breath...and chewing on a straw.........lol
anyone got a lifer saver.....or a lollipop
Day 3 and I haven't killed anyone yet. Feeling good (feeling great actually). Any time I forget that I have stopped and look around for my cigs, I take an enormous breath and rejoice in being able to feel my lungs and fill them.
Am sleeping a lot but that is also stress about my impending op. No worries - while I am sleeping I am not smoking either. Can smell things better (unfortunately also smoke on other people bleuch bleuch
So - onward and upward.
Needed to prepare a bit better yesterday. Forgot to throw ALL the smokes out. Today I'm doing better...Haven't forgotten anyway but aaaaaaaa THIS TOTALLY SUCKS!!!! I'm thinking I have a serious addiction....But I CAN QUIT SMOKING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Glad your doing so well.........Wonderful!!!!
I'm in there batting with you - there will always be temptations, I am dreading it when my colleages ask me to go outside for a smoke with them - but we are bigger than that, aren't we Deb,
Just having a look around and caught site of this post.
Well done on stopping smoking.
Today is one month since I quit smoking waking up from a twenty a day, 22 year addiction.
The first three days were the worst but gradually the cloudy skies began to clear after about three weeks.
It isn't as bad as all that (although I will not do this again)!
I did not put on any weight either (just don't substitute nicotine for food).
I did not use any NRT as once the nicotine withdrawal is through the worst is over.
Four weeks on and I feel absolutely marvellous. I have so much more energy and I have actually stopped using my inhalor - I can breathe! Walking up hills is so much easier and my face has a lovely glow to it (oxygen). Oh, and I have saved about £145!!!
Meditation has also improved (no withdrawal feelings lurking underneath the surface).
Whyquit. com is a great resource and quitting smoking really is about education and knowledge; once you understand nicotine addiction and how it works, you understand that there is no reason on earth to smoke. Allen Carr's books are also great for understanding the psychology of smoking - he basically gave me the courage to quit.
Good luck and best wishes!:D
Get rid of the cigaretters and lighters. They are a set up for a moment you are off guard. Why put yourself through more temptation than you have to? I know me. If they were here, I would have smoked them. I didn't know this, but my partner Mike was worried that I would ask him to stop at a drugstore to get cigarettes and a lighter after that 68 day ordeal in the hospital. Not that I didn't think of it, but decided to do it one day at a time and I had a really good quit going that day. He knew how addicted I was more than I did.
Get back up on that horse and don't look back. I know it is common to beat oneself up over smoking after a period without it, but it doesn't really do anything to help. Feel free to PM me if need be. You too, Knitwitch! It is my pleasure to help you two get off this life robbing addiction. You are both worth so much more than having burning leaves wrapped in paper sticking out of your face so that smoke can come out of your mouth and nose after you inhale. Not attractive at all!
I know if I had had ciggies in the house during a crave, I would have caved in. Besides which, if you are a non smoker why would you keep them in the house anyway? Throwing all cigarettes etc. away is a sign of commitment and determination to succeed!
Preparation in the form of education and getting the right mind set to stop smoking can make all the difference between stopping and starting up again.
As long as you keep a positive mental attitude throughout those three weeks it can easily be achieved and as each day passes it just gets easier and easier.
There is nothing to "give up" but everything to gain.
I wish I had known all this years ago but it wasn't until I started meditating and took up Buddhist practice that I realised I was ignoring that sensible little voice in my head that kept telling me I was a fool and to stop smoking!
Before I have done silly things like hiding my packet or giving it to the Old Feller to hold for me, but that is only putting off the moment when you pick up the packet again. As Allen Carr says - if you are waiting for something to happen, you are only waiting to smoke a cigarette again, don't wait for anything, get on with living a smoke free life.
End of day 4 and it is getting easier - deep breathing and centring helps enormously. Today there were quite long periods of ohhhh at least five minutes when I forgot I had stopped smoking
Still got a yucky taste in my mouth from all the toxins coming out of my system and areas of my lungs are encountering fresh air for the first time in years and going "Gas Attack, Panic, cough cough" but generally I feel great.
Pick a day and start. It is easier to do when you have a few days under your belt. Another thing is to figure out why you are failing. PM me and let me help if you want it. Learning not to smoke is harder than quitting!
In the hospital, it was so easy not to smoke. I wasn't allowed to anywhere and really was too weak to go outside to do so. No nurse would take me out and then I had no smokes/lighter. But at home, I had more control over my situation. Or did I? What I found is that the cravings didn't come that often. Sometimes the intensity was tougher than others, but I knew I had to give it an honest try. Michael had been through hell with me and I used that to help me keep focused. I didn't want to break his heart by lighting up. His mother was also dying of lung cancer at the same time (nonsmoker) so I decided that when he told me I could light up without upsetting him, I would do so. I'm still waiting for that moment. I usually hear something like this: "Light up and I will take the vaccuum hose and ram it down your throat to help remind you what being on a ventilator is like". I take that as he's not comfortable with the idea. Plus, I want to make 5 years. In some 12 step thinking, it is the time that you can make a rational decisions about drinking/drugs if you haven't used at all during then. I still try the one day at a time method though. Really haven't had the desire to do so today, so going to stick with it. YOU CAN DO THIS!!!!!!!!!!!
Banning alcohol laid the strong economic foundations for organised crime but just imagine banning tobacco! A nation of strung-out, edgy, irritable people - not quite what the powers-that-be want to consider. It's OK with them that they have spread the idea that 'giving up' is too hard for most smokers. That way only a minority will stop.
"Fig leaf" legislation like banning smoking in public places and, at the same time, profiting by the taxes on imports, exports and sales - these people are taking the p*ss.
I must say that I am appalled at how smokers are being treated in the U.S. In Michigan where I live, the taxes on tobacco products is incredibly high. They say it is a deterrent. I say it is one way to make sure they get the money as the addict needs the fix. I saw a sign saying 4.83/pack when you buy 3! They acted as if it were a deal. I really think that is taking advantage of addicts who can not say no at this point in their lives. I am not against a "sin" tax per se, but make it fair and across the board. Make it for everyone. Not everyone will use it frequently. It would be nice to see the tobacco companies hurting for money and having to go to the overnment fot a bail out along with the other companies are doing in America right now.
It would be nice but I fear it would signal the final collapse of the US economy. It must be Armageddon when the funders of first resource (the tobacco industry) go for funds to their wholly-owned subsidiary (the Government and both political parties).
To be honest, I'm not against it for recreational use. I wouldn't use it myselffor mental/spiritual reasons, but if one can handle it I see no reason for it not to be available.
Palzang
My partner is always coming home saying he wants to put chlorine in the gene pool But it would have to be kinder and less painful than lung, oral, espohageal etc., so no one group is singled out.
31 years, 3 months and counting...
What I found the most difficult was learning how not to smoke. Breaking old patterns, stating new ones. Most days, I don't miss smoking. I used to go places where people smoked at first, but it hurt too much to breathe. Some say it is psychosomatic. I say it is self defense. After 25 years, I think I've used up all my tickets to have a cigarette. Breathing is a much needed activity than inhaling carcinogenic gases so I may die younger than I have to.
How are the quitters doing? Remember, I will help as I can. If I don't hear from you, I assume you are doing fine or smoking again. Either way, I still care!