Support for those quitting smoking

marzic

I read alan carr's easy way to stop smoking and subsequently quit smoking just after the ban came in(4yrs ago?). I wanted to give up for a couple of years, and read the book in about 2weeks and found that it was really easy once you kept an open mind and followed the advice given. the basic message in the book is that smoking is a psycological addiction, and the central themes ie the health risks, cost, nature of addiction, benefits of quitting etc in the book are repeated so often that it changes your view, and basically brainwashes the addiction out, so to speak. The bigest benefit is that it effectively rules out willpower as the main requirement for quitting. I was off them pretty much from closing the book and never suffered any withdrawl worthwhile, in fairness the smoking ban was an added help. Best of luck

Captain Slow IRL

marzic wrote: »

I read alan carr's easy way to stop smoking and subsequently quit smoking just after the ban came in(4yrs ago?). I wanted to give up for a couple of years, and read the book in about 2weeks and found that it was really easy once you kept an open mind and followed the advice given. the basic message in the book is that smoking is a psycological addiction, and the central themes ie the health risks, cost, nature of addiction, benefits of quitting etc in the book are repeated so often that it changes your view, and basically brainwashes the addiction out, so to speak. The bigest benefit is that it effectively rules out willpower as the main requirement for quitting. I was off them pretty much from closing the book and never suffered any withdrawl worthwhile, in fairness the smoking ban was an added help. Best of luck

It takes more will-power to smoke than it does to quit!

jnthnallen

I Think there is still a lot to be said for will power. I go on and off the fags every few months and i find it quite easy, and i have been smoking for almost ten years. I have been off the Smokes now for 1 month coz im saving for a holiday but Ill probably start smoking again when i go on holdays.

The Physical withdrawals from smoking are very small and only last a couple of days, I always find it quite easy to go cold turkey! i really cant see the point in Nicotine gum and patchs at the end of the day its the nicotine we are trying to quit so whats the point in outting it into your body in a different form!!??

browney

Hi all, my son is 20 years old and about to undergo treatment for his heroin addiction and he says that he doesn't want to do it alone, that maybe we could be there for him sometimes, even if it's only for a few sessions. Are there drug rehabs that allow this? Any drug rehabs in Goshen, New York, that will allow family members of the patient to participate? Thank you.

Terry

browney wrote: »

Hi all, my son is 20 years old and about to undergo treatment for his heroin addiction and he says that he doesn't want to do it alone, that maybe we could be there for him sometimes, even if it's only for a few sessions. Are there drug rehabs that allow this? Any drug rehabs in Goshen, New York, that will allow family members of the patient to participate? Thank you.

I'm afraid we can't really help you with that.
This forum is for giving up smoking and is mostly based in Ireland.
I'm not sure if many people from New York read this.

You could try this forum: http://boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=127
I can't guarantee you will ge tthe answers you want there though.

Here's to your son getting clean.

Heisenberg.

This post has been deleted.

Curlypinkie

Had my teeth whitened and partial veneer work done. The painput me right off ever wanting to smoke again! And I don't ever want my teeth yellow again, it looks disgusting.
Besides I always said I'd give up smoking when I'm thirty and I haven't even had my birthday yet, already 3 months and counting since the last cancer stick

lemon_of_old

Cold turkey sucks.

This is my first day. I'm narky, irritable and want to scream. But I don't, I've just sat quietly watching tv all evening eating biscuits and ignoring my flatmate for no good reason whatsoever. I'm planning harebrained schemes of getting a taxi to 24 hour tesco to get smokes in the middle of the night, or going to the nearest shop first thing in the morning, i.e. 7am. Like. Crazy stuff. This is the physical side of it yeah? If I can get through this weekend I can get through anything.

Honestly, I didn't think it'd be so hard. I quit about a year ago for 3 months, but used the lozenges then. My problem then was that I replaced my addiction for cigs with the lozenges and found it very hard to stop using them. Eventually I just reverted to cigarettes again.

I don't know if I'm going about this the right way or not, I have nothing at all planned this weekend except for lots of sitting in. There won't be anyone around to keep my mind off it. I might have to try the patches. But if I make the effort to go to the shops to get the patches, I know I'll cave and get the cigarettes...........

Ugh I feel so weak. I hate this dependance. Fingers crossed I'll wake up tomorrow with a bit more enthusiasm.

ZENER

Is there a gym near you ? Go enroll and get an assessment. This will give you a reason to quit and also give you something to occupy your cig free time.

You can do it if you just keep telling yourself - "one more day !" It gets easier honestly it does ! Chemically it takes 3 - 4 days to get nicotine out of your system. After that it's the physical dependancy that keeps your desire going.

Good luck !! IF you feel like giving in just come back here for more encouragement !! I'm 4 and a half years off my 60-a-day habit. I replaced the unhealthy with the extremely healthy - I go to the gym every 2nd day for 2 hours. Now I'm convinced my hard work in the gym is valued well higher than a 3" stick of cancer causing tobacco !!!

Keep the faith !

ZEN

Madra Sneachta

Heading for a month now, and patches (NiquitinCQ 24 hour) are doing it for me, with an inhaler on the side for back up. I've used it three times, but just knowing it's there has, at times, proved the safety net I needed.

This may not seem a lot to many people, but I suspect many of the folk frequenting this board will appreciate it. Started at 15, this is the longest I've gone without smoking since doing the inter in 1979.

I'm still addicted to nicotine, but if, as we're tld there are 4,800 dangerous chemicals in cigarettes, then it's 4,799 down, one to go!!!

ZENER

Evil-p wrote: »

After smoking at least 20 a day for the last 12 years i've stopped starting yesterday.

Well done, After 3 or 4 days it gets easier.

i wonder is there anyone out there who has quit successfully using patches because there seems to be a lot of negitivity about if they work or not? I'm finding the patches are keeping the cravings at bay though i feel a bit anxious.

I went cold turkey as they say but I'm glad I did. Formerly a 60-a-day habit. It was totally myself who got off the ciggies - no one or thing else. It made me less reliant on external forces and feeling better about my accomplishments. IMO quitting is easier if you achieve it through willpower alone. But if patches work then go for it but don't underestimate your own ability to kick the habit. It's way more satisfying !

Also my boyfriend smokes, does anyone have any suggestions about living with a smoker when your trying to quit?

My partner has smoked for as long as I know her but she has low self esteem and poor willpower, both could be elevated if she would just try to quit but she convinces herself she can't. Lately she has caught my health buzz so hopefully in a couple of months I'll convince her to give up the smokes - she's got a 10 - 15 a day habit, still too many in my opinion.

Get yourself sorted first but use your partner as a punching bag if you have to. Tell them how bad smoking is and what it does to their health - it'll also help you stay off them too.

The reasons i want to quit:

Better Health

The number 1 reason.

More money

Yes but don't rely on it for a week or so.

No smoky smell

Never noticed this myself until about 7 or 8 months after quitting - the smokes ruined my sense of smell and made me more prone to hayfever !

No staining on teeth

Tell me about it, brown teeth are a major turn-off !

More incentive to get fit when you don't feel your destroying it with every smoke!

This is your key to better health - put this at the top of your list and you're well on the way to giving up the fags ! - Convince yourself of THIS ALONE and you will succeed - Every time you don't have a smoke you're giving yourself an extra few minutes of life - tell yourself what you could use those extra weeks for (calculate it as if you were smoking 20 a day for 50 years = 6.9 extra years - based on 10 minutes per fag ). Read this. Try this.. Look at these ! . . and these ! Oh and this too ! This is another nail in the coffin of smoking if you're female and want kids.

Anyone else out there in the early stages of quitting??:)

That doesn't matter. You're always one fag away from giving up - it's up to you to stay off them for your desired time. Manage a week though and you're well on the way to a fag free life.

ZEN

Greenmachine

I gave up cold turkey after I took up a new activity that required good stamina and fitness. Was thinking about giving up for a few months. I am off them about a month this time. The longest I was off them before was just under 2 years cold turkey too about 6 years ago. I originally started smoking 15 years ago when I was 13. At my heaviest I smoked about 60 a day. Was smoking around 30 a day when I gave up this time.

I thinking giving up because you want to improve your health is a pretty good reason. If you take up an activity all the more.

gstar

decided to give up after having a serious hangover (coupled with a cigarette hangover) can't face cigarettes the morning after the night before . it was a good spur-of-the-moment opportunity. I was on rollies (cutters choice) for about 2 months previous, and the thought of paying 7.50 for a box of smokes was crazy. a pack of rollies was about 3.80 and I got three days out of it The rollies were a help also as i cut out the "boredom" cigarettes I seemed to be having since they introduced the 20-boxes and banned the 10-boxes. With the rollies, half the time I couldn't have been arsed rolling them, say if i was driving etc whereas I would've just lit up prior to them. Weekends are killing me, so using a patch when times are particularly tough. Psychologically it's very hard, so blowing the dust off my ps2 and my medal of honour games are a godsend... keeps the mind busy! day 12 and counting.....

Another thing that is keeping me "clean" is the fact that I could ask ANY smoker in the world if they would like to be 12 days free from fags, and I know their answer is YES!! It's early days, but i do believe I am in a privelege position right now :cool:

Captain Slow IRL

Best of luck!

Get an xbox and a broadband connection - that'll cure the boredom!

psycho8itch

Had a 30 a day habit up until 5 weeks ago. Had just come back from holidays any had a chest infection. It actually hurt to breathe not to mention trying to get a drag from my cigarette. The longest ive gone before has been a month so fingers and toes crossed for us all this time!!! Ye are all an inspiration!:)

insinkerator

I gave up on Saturday for the second time.... I started when i was 16 and smoked for about a year... i was on about 10 to 12 benson a day. Then i gave up the day the xmas holidays finished, cold turkey... A few months later i was going through the whole "only smoking when im drinking routine" and that inevitably escalated as it always does, it didnt help at my gf at the time smoked too. Now 12 months on, my non smoker gf has nagged me to the point where i think it might be easier with the cravings:P although it did scare me, the amount i smoked on holidays.

So anyway here i am again, giving up, cold turkey again. It was really difficult the last time, but i reckon this will be harder. Im giving up the week i start college! silly. I havent gone out yet because i wanna get a week or so in so i can reason to myself when im drinking to not start again. ITs saving ,me serious money though:D

ali.c

I came across this website after having a bit of a relapse in getting of the fags- Back off them now thank god

http://whyquit.com/

it is pretty good IMHO dunno if it has been posted here before but I figured i'd through it up!

fixernixer

Nearly 8 months now, well and truly off them for good. I used to smoke 15-20 a day for over 10 years but now I am free, forever.

My method was cold turkey: no books, champix, acupuncture etc. I found the real trick was how I viewed cigs. That they controlled me, they cost me and at the end of the day all for what? So they could kill me? B*****ks to that!
I am not really a food connoisseur so the fact that I can taste more now is incidental. And tbh, the fact that I have an improved sense of smell isn't always a good thing !! (I live in Dublin!!)

I don't believe in scare tactics just simple common sense, cigs are one of the in the world for reasons we all know too well. To successfully quit and stay off them, all you need to do is remember these reasons. As was said earlier, after 3-4 days your physical dependency is gone, after that its all in the mind.

Giving up smoking will be one of the best things you will ever do, guaranteed!!

thebouldwhacker

well said fixernixer! mind over body. Cravings are like a spoilt child crying for a treat they cant have, give'm a few minutes and their attention moves onto something else... one tantrum at a time:D

congrats on your 8 months... hope to be there myself, in about 8 months...:cool:

daveco23

There is a thread on page 4 or 5 of this forum with some photographs and links of people in their 30's dying of cancer leaving behind their kids and families - www.whyquit.com
Extremely upsetting stuff. Have not touched one since. Defo helped me quit.

glenq

I gave up on the 1st September. Just stopped cold turkey. I've had the odd urge to have one, but honestly, it's not been too bad (yeah, you're really gonna wanna heard that ).
Smoking for about 10 years, and I've tried giving twice before, both were incredibly poor efforts. But I think the difference this time is that I really wanted to give up. Before I always thought it would be nice to give up, you know, likes it what I should be doing. They were half ar$ed efforts and in reality I didn't really want to give up.
But as I said, this time there would be nothing stopping me, I just had enough of them. I was embarassed by the smell, by my lack of fitness and by the act (huddling outside a in the rain having a smoke :rolleyes:).

Anyhow, it's almost two months and I feel great. I'm determined to make it happen this time.

silversurfer

Was told by Doc (Specialist) that giving up the Cigs would be the best thing I could do for my health, so I stopped the very same day (13 Oct 08), Cold Turkey.
Any time I think of having one, I stop and think about how sick I am and that giving up is the best thing for myself and my family.

Was on them for about 1 year, after having given them up for over 5 years.

Hope we all give them up for good

Rgds,
s

miju

Have stopped smoking since March this year and just went completely cold turkey (my previous record was 48 hours )

Used to be 25 a day for about 7 years. After trying patches , gum and everything else one day while having a lunch time fag I was walking back to the office and I had an "ephinany" of sorts and thought to myself I'm done with these.

In the end after all the struggling I couldn't believe how terribly easy it was to stop once I'd the resolve to back up my desire to stop.

I will say one thing though. The money I was supposed to "save from not smoking" doesn't seem to have materialised and I just seem to fritter it away on other things

TestTransmission

Champix,was smoking 20 a day for 6 years.Off them 6 months in a weeks time,best thing i ever did.

bockie

I became friends with a guy I met in Brittany 3 Years ago.
In all that time he was cancer free for twelve weeks.
Like me he has 4 kids and I said to myself I do not want to put my kids through this if I can Help it.
I am of the smokes about 2 months cold turkey and holding tough.
28 years on the fags was long enough.

Karmaa

The Champix tablets got me off the cigs ....I also went to see a smoking cessation specialist she was great for a chat bout giving up but the champix and I did all the hard work.
After 21 years smoking, like a chimney and so many failed attempts on the patches, gum and inhalers the Champix are miracle workers....I never thought I would see the day I could actually say I'm off the cigs and don't crave them whatsoever!!!! I didn't even finish the 3 month course of the tablets because it got to a stage where I stopped thinking about the cigs and therefore stopped remembering I need the tablets.....honestly they are the way to go if you are determined to quit...they are pricey but well worth it in the long run.
Those so called cravings only last for about 2mins at a time, just distract yourself til it passes and eventually you will find there are no more cravings!!!
I will never go back on the cigs, stress is my downfall and by hell have I been stressed over the past 2-3 months and that is how long I am off them
Good luck to anyone giving up wish you well

extopia

zyban, four months and counting

suesuss

Hi all, I am an ex smoker i gave up last April i still cant believe i have done so well and i,m determined to stay well away. I,v just read my post from when i gave up where the time has gone since then i don,t know. I feel so much healthier and my skin is glowing ( so i,m told ) and the money i used to spend just bought me a new car so onwards and upwards...... Best of luck to everyone giving up it,s well worth it and stick with it.:p:p:p:p

ALFIET

I gave them up 16 months ago, 6 weeks before i got married. So u can imagine the stress levels but to be honest I have never missed them!
Easiest thing i ever did. Although the 1.5 stone i put on wasnt great and only now starting to lose weight.

howamidifferent

Jerry - Free and Healing for One Month, Five Days, 16 Hours and 59 Minutes, while extending my life expectancy 2 Days and 13 Hours, by avoiding the use of 734 nicotine delivery devices that would have cost me €295.95.


36 days off the fags at the minute...Patches at the minute...

Smoker for the last 30 years except for a 5 year spell between 1995 and 2000 when I was doing so well I decided to "just have 1"

Promising myself a pioneer plasma if I can stay off them for a year!

Woohoo...