Support for those quitting smoking

Marksie

Off them 5 days.. having to cut down on coffee too as it is sharpening teh pangs.. but am still on the lidle chewing gum.
What finally forced my hadn
two or three main reasons
1) the budget... he didn't put them up enough. It was the realistation that they are putting them up by increments not to get people to quit, as it isnt in their vested interests to do so, but to bolster the coffers. Given i cant stand FF anyways why prop em up LOL. (convoluted thinking)
2) i was going into Plaois shopping centre and there was his woman smoking, but she was heavily pregnant. For some reason that was the final straw.
3) i took a "white" shirt out of my wardrobe and it was yellow..i thought..is that what i am coating my lungs with????

I am going cold turky but i am also using meditation to help me to sleep. Put cold turkey in the poll

Backtoblack

I'm off them since june 05.. I used to smoke 20 plus a day, I would wake in the middle of the night, smoke a cigarette and go back to sleep. Crazy.
I tried a number of times to give up, I went to an Alan Carr seminar, didnt' work (but his 'thinking' is definitely helpful). In the end I used Nicorette lozenges - I found them really helpful in that they last a long time in your mouth so you tend not to think about having a cig as much.
Best best best best thing I ever did giving them up - if anyone's thinking about quitting - go for it - (you're only giving your money and your health to the CANCER-STICK companys!)

Recently I've been having the odd craving, but basically i will never ever even reach for one because I know if I had one, I'd be back on 20 a day.
f that!

Interestingly someone else had calculated how much they have saved.. and i'm gonna quickly get a calculater - €3285 approx
And I can safely say that I didn't 'just spend it anyway'!!
wohoooo!

Asok

I'm off them 3 weeks on tuesday. Simply got tired of smoking. Using nicorette patches at the moment which are working nicely.

RFP

Found the Allen Carr book very helpful. I was very sceptical about using a "self help" book but 4 years later I still never crave a cigarette so I guess his argument worked for me.

Best of luck to you all.


Note. I smoked for approx. 12 yrs and was smoking 40/day for the last few years..

Terry

congratulations. you are the first person to be banned from this forum.

Mr. Skeffington

Allan Carr did it for me, smoked between 20 - 30 a day and it started to mess me up, read the book and it did the trick, tried all the others ways before the book but nothing worked.

I do think that you also have to have to really really want to give up. When I was reading the book I stopped reading for a couple of months, then realised I was really ready to give up, picked up the book again, read the last of it and it was like magic.

Backtoblack

Asok wrote:

I'm off them 3 weeks on tuesday. Simply got tired of smoking. Using nicorette patches at the moment which are working nicely.

YAY! Keep up the good work, it gets easier every week and then (for me anyway) after 6 weeks I was really really happy I'd finally quit!

merritt

So many interesting stories.

I stopped smoking, what, 5 years ago? I just became disgusted with myself and it's like a little switch flipped in my head. Struggled the first couple of times in the pub (ah, smoking ban - god bless ya!), but survived.

At this stage, I can't even imagine myself having been a smoker. I've gone from smoking 15 to 20 a day (and shítloads at the weekend), being pasty and lethargic to running up to 20km a week, resting heartrate less than 70 and better skin than I had ten years ago (I'm 33).

Terry

fair play to all of you.
you are all much stronger than me. i'll just keep trying though.

smallpaws

I quit in '93, after I had a very vivid nightmare about my lungs literally speaking to me and saying that if I quit now, they could fix the damage, but if I didn't, they wouldn't be able to. After that, I got on the patch for a brief couple weeks and made a point of preparing myself for going to places where I used to smoke, amd having alternative behaviors at the ready--a stick of gum, a pen to doodle with, etc.. I hated the patch, personally. It was by prescription then in the US, and the thing would fall off or come halfway off at the first opportunity and drive me mental. I just bit the bullet and went cold turkey after that couple weeks and reminded myself that the chemical addiction would clear itself out of my system after about 3 days and the rest after that was psychological dependence. I used to get horribly ticked off when I was quitting, I kept noticing all the other people who were smoking, and it seemed like there were armies of happy smokers! Arrgh! I was insanely jealous. But quitting got easier as time went on; also having people I knew who still smoked looking at me in awe and wonder didn't hurt, either.:D
After a while, I noticed that my breathing was better and that I could run and work out without coughing (big plus).

custardcreams

patches for 8 days the step 2 patches as i smoked 9 a day. Then cold turkey for 3 days + mantra + replacement behaviour with silvermints. My dad beat a craving using silvermints. Past me the tradition. Didnt go out for a while and had one of my mates blow smoke in my face in a car after a few weeks. He was being a c-nt but it was an acid test. Anyway clean since and cannot stand the smell of it or dublin bus now ive got my smell back but on the way to being able to afford a car...sheesh not another one. Maybe ill just get a fancy bicycle as my scooter is too dangerous to drive around in this fair city of nutters.

romperstomper

smoked for 7 years until three years ago. had read the allen carr book a few times and although i agreed with what was said it didnt keep me off them. finally went to an allen carr seminar 3 years ago and have touched one since.

whatever method you try, if it doesn't work keep at it. worth it in the end

Supercell

I quit smoking many times, was easy. Then I started again and again and again..

Then a colleague in work gave me the Allen Carr "Easyway" book and that was it. After about 18 years hard smoking it was over on new years eve 2003

Not going to bullshít, it was one of the hardest things I ever did , and was about two years after before I didn't think about having a fag daily.

Thankfully now that's passed and I know that I'm probably one smoke away from the addiction again, but no way on earth is going to make that happen. These days I just view them as ugly smelly things that mad people inhale in the wind and rain and frost and fog..and then stink like crap afterwards.

Btw, a quit smoking forum should really spell Allen Carr correctly (http://www.allencarrseasyway.com/). The man died of lung cancer, but he saved many many many people from going down the same route, hopefully myself included. He deserves to have his name spelt correctly here !

greine

spurious wrote:

I stopped in December 1999 after I realised I was seriously considering going out in the lashing rain at 2.30am to walk a couple of miles to the nearest 24 hour shop for something that was killing me, making me stink, making me wheeze and costing me money.

I haven't smoked one since.

7y 1d 17:01 smoke-free
127,948 cigs not smoked
£38,384.40 saved
1y 2m 2w 5d 06:20 life saved

I'm giving them up 1st of jan 07, i know i should stop right now, but i got a box of duty free and feel i must smoke them, how stupid is that! Anyway, must try at least, i'm psyching myself up now and I told my daughter that I am going to go cold turkey so she is prepared for the crankiness, tried before, did 3 months last year, but had a smoke and next thing was buying pack of 20 in no time at all! I'll keep ye posted, this thread will help, I think. I'll focus on the cash i'll save!

LegacyUser

Just start a new life, WITHOUT cigarettes - forget about them. If you want to live without them, then forget them. Its as simple as that.

The cravings - if you want to give up cigarettes then just forget about cravings ... they are all in the head.

I am off them over a year now ...

Wishbone Ash

greine wrote:

I'm giving them up 1st of jan 07

A lot of pressure for New Year's Day. In my experience it may be better to wait a week.

bubby wrote:

just forget about cravings ... they are all in the head

That's really helpful :rolleyes:.

texanman

Went off them new years eve and havent gone back to them.Still miss them though.The thing is to make that decision and keep to it.
Easier said than done.
Merry xmas

LegacyUser

Wishbone Ash wrote:

A lot of pressure for New Year's Day. In my experience it may be better to wait a week.

That's really helpful :rolleyes:.

That was how I managed to do it and I found it useful .. so don't knock it - just becuase you haven't tried it yourself.

Fingers Mcginty

I was freed of the cancer sticks after reading Alan Carr's book.
Don't know exactly what did it it but something got into the old subconcious and it worked! ...have to say i do get the odd pine every now and again but it doesn't last long. My dad still gets it and he's been off them over 20 years!:eek:

DublinWriter

Wishbone Ash wrote:

60 Major a day for years. I still miss them but I could not have done it without Nicorette chewing gum . I was addicted to the stuff (i.e. the Nicorette) for six years and still buy an odd packet.

60 Major a day? Holy Jesus dude!

My aunt only gave up the Nicroette gum after 2 years non-smoking. At least the gum is far less harmfull.

I gave up for a year thanks to NicoteenL patches. I found the Nicroette patches utterly useless.

Unfortunately the family dog throwing himself through a plate glass window to get at the postman and the ensuing mad dash in the car to the nearest vet's complete with mad Jack Russell in the back with spouting artery made me go back on them again.

I hope to give them up in the summer of next year.

Although when I say 'give up' I mean 'let go'. I read the Allen Carr book and it was the genius of his technique. The mind is wired so that if you deny yourself something, you'll automatically want it. The trick is letting go, not giving up.

Best of luck everyone.

insight driver

I quit using patches about April of 1993. I started smoking when I was a young teenager since both my parents smoked. When my dentist told me my gums would not heal until I quit smoking and that he could prescribe the patch for me (the laws had recently changed in the US to allow dentists to prescribe nicotine patches for patients) I accepted his prescription. The patches I got were of the three-step variety, to be changed to one with a lower level each month. I went one week with the strongest patches but they caused a red spot on my skin so I started to leave it off until I couldn't stand the craving, then putting a patch on. By the end of two more weeks I was no longer using any patches at all. I went for years obsessively watching smokers and remembering how good that drag of hot smoke felt going down my lungs. I could smell the smoke coming from cars that were in front of me on the highway. It finally faded to the point that I don't even think about it any more. I simply don't smoke.

For me, it was an insidious habit that was a monkey on my back. I had been smoking for over 25 years before I quit. I am glad now, to be an ex-smoker. One thing I notice every day is that my lungs feel empty (meaning that there is no phlegm that I have to hack out of them). It is a good feeling to be able to take a huge deep breath and not have the urge to cough when I do so.

It is ironic that culture now is to the point that smokers are such a minority that feels they are being discriminated against. They are, but most of them realize that they ought to quit so there is no great outcry against the constantly rising taxes on the death sticks. I live in California where there are second-hand smoke laws, so that any bar that has hired help is not allowed to have smokers in the building. You always see a few smokers outside a bar having a cigarette before they can go back in to drink their drinks.

DonkeyStyle \o/

insight driver wrote:

I live in California where there are second-hand smoke laws, so that any bar that has hired help is not allowed to have smokers in the building. You always see a few smokers outside a bar having a cigarette before they can go back in to drink their drinks.

Yep we've got that in Ireland now as well... a workplace ban on smoking.
Groups of people huddled together outside bars puffing away is a familiar sight to us
England are following suit soon AFAIK.
It's a great way to get talking to random weirdos you wish you hadn't made eye-contact with :eek:

Bottle_of_Smoke

smallpaws wrote:

I quit in '93, after I had a very vivid nightmare about my lungs literally speaking to me and saying that if I quit now, they could fix the damage, but if I didn't, they wouldn't be able to.

Hehehe nightmare or LSD trip?

I stopped smoking through the Alan Carr method, still smoke a bit of pot though - anyone got a cure for that?

StandnDeliver

im off them 2years i feel healthy ,patches helped me for two weeks then i went without.hopefuly now il shed the extra pounds and i will feeleven better.

is_that_so

Off them 4 years . That said I have been known to have a very rare one (every six months or so).
I found the microtabs helped a lot. Patches just made me feel "stoned".
Recently a doctor told me that ex-smokers return to the same life expectancy curve as everyone else in 7 years.

Cushtie

I'm off them four years in Feb. Had tried various ways of quitting and finally went and got hypnosis. bBoth myself and Mrs Cushtie went the same day and we are still of them

Native Tongue

I quit New Year's Day. I decided I was going to quit a couple of weeks beforehand, and that I was going to smoke my brains out for that time. I had no particular reason for quitting, I just decided I was going to. Then at the turn of midnight on New Year's I stopped. For some reason I haven't found it too bad, I thought it would be hell. I must admit I'm enjoying being able to smell again! Also my mum laughed at me when I told her I was quitting which made my blood boil, and my will to prove her wrong has provided me with further incentive

I put the money I would have spent on the fags into a money box. 50 euro a week is an extra 2600 euro a year...big incentive for me. If I can save that money I'll be able to go travelling with my girlfriend! If I break it I'll give whatever money is in the box to charity.

I bought the chewing gum but haven't used it yet. I find that having it as a reserve is almost good enough for me...so if I ever get to a ridiculous state I can always chew the gum. Only just over a week away from getting 99% of the Nicotine out of my body so hopefully can stay away from the gum till then!

I've started reading Allen Carr's Easy Way to Stop Smoking. Interesting read so far, hopefully will help me enjoy stopping more than I am at the moment!

Every time I've thought about quitting in the past I knew I'd never succeed. It was always because my girlfriend was pushing me into it. The only reason I think I can do it this time is because I made the decision for myself, not for anyone else.

Fair play to all you people who have gone months, years and decades without smoking. Hopefully I'll be in the same position as you in the future.

johnnysmurfman

The Smurfman has quit too, had my last one on January 2nd. It's tough enough but I'm still on the wagon, one day at a time and all that. I must say that I do miss them though.

Lust4Life

Tomorrow morning I shall walk this road.
I have far too many issues surrounding me at the moment telling me it is time to quit the cigs.

So..... you can expect me to be surfing this forum often in the next few weeks until the cravings start to subside!

I can do this! I WILL do this!

Bastack

I gave up when I smoked 20 in a row sitting on my hole bored one Monday night! I was disgusted when I looked down and the ashtray was jam packed with cigs... I was soo pissed off with my self I have not had one since.

I also read the Alan Carr book about 3 weeks after giving up and there was one line in the book that is repeated through out the book ( I believe that book brain washes messages into your brain - in a good way) 'There is no such thing as one more smoke!' and it is so true, If you have 'just one more' you have gone right back to the stage of being a full time smoker.

That line helped me for all the 6 years I have been off them! I will never go back....