Successfully quitting smoking

[peach]

Posted: 10/13/06 at 1:27pm

Just curious for any ex-smokers that have successfully quit - what worked for you?

I am on Day 1 - feel pretty OK actually, using the gum (it takes the edge off, but it's a bit gross). Although I just ate lunch and now I'm Jonesing for a smoke...time to have another piece of gum, I guess.

No need to remind me of health risks, or that smoking causes cancer, etc. I'm fully aware of all that. What I would like to hear though, are constructive tips from those that have quit successfully.

Must stay motivated!

[doodlenyc]

Posted: 10/13/06 at 1:31pm

have no tips, just wishing you good luck!

[DayDreamer]

Posted: 10/13/06 at 1:37pm

Good luck peach!

What I find helps ME is having someone to talk me out of it when the cravings get too bad. Someone to 'keep me honest.'

Be strong. The important thing to remember is that IF you fall off the wagon, not to feel defeated. It's one of the toughest addictions to break. Just get back on when you can.

[Kringas]

Posted: 10/13/06 at 1:37pm

Hypnosis helped me in the short term. I started up again, but that was my own stupidity.

[peach]

Posted: 10/13/06 at 2:22pm

Thanks all! I must say, the gum does help when I get a craving.

My biggest problem is that I enjoy the actual act of smoking. May be hard for some to believe, but it's the truth. For me, I think that's going to be the hardest part.

[Broadwayboobs]

Posted: 10/13/06 at 2:31pm

I haven't succeeded yet, but a friend is doing it and this site seems to help.

http://whyquit.com/

[WOSQ]

Posted: 10/13/06 at 2:32pm

First off, welcome to the other side.

Here is the permission that I got when I stopped:

"You do whatever it is you need to do to avoid having a cigarette" (within legal reason).

You have been granted permission to be a little crazy right now. It is all good and it is okay.

I couldn't talk about anything for a week except that I had stopped smoking.

Anyone who has ever smoked and stopped, or has seriously tried to stop knows what you are going through. Those who smoke and have never tried to stop or those who have never smoked don't have a clue. Find the former smokers. Its like AA. They can mentor you.

Avoid cig ads in magazines. You know what they look like so you can see one coming up. Just turn the page.

Cigarettes are so much more than the drug that they are. It is a whole culture.

I could write 100 times more than what I have written here (and someday might), but just like AA, it isn't all the cigarettes you're not going to smoke. It is the next one.

[Link Larkin Wanabe]

Posted: 10/13/06 at 2:33pm

Yeah...I agree with you. For me it is more the habit and the act that are more addictive than the substance. It just becomes routine, almost ritual in a weird way. My advice to you is to come up with some new "rituals" or things to do at the times when you used to smoke.

Keep fighting the good fight!

Akiva
Updated On: 10/13/06 at 02:33 PM

[Color and Light]

Posted: 10/13/06 at 2:45pm

I don't have any new advice - find other ways to keep your mouth occupied and new rituals to take up your smoking time and such - I just want to wish you good luck! I know how difficult it is!

[DayDreamer]

Posted: 10/13/06 at 3:07pm

peach,

I have the same problem. I actually LIKE smoking. I am on a quest to stop all together, but it's proven to be quite difficult. I just know that I keep on trying until I finally stop for good.

Which is another thing I do. I don't say "I quit smoking" because then, if I start up again, it's like you failed. I always tell myself "I stop smoking" because then IF I start again, I feel more motivated to stop again. I can, and have, stopped for up to 11 years. I know I can do it again. I stopped smoking regularly on July 2nd, fell off the wagon during tech week of the show I'm SMing... and I'm trying to hop back on the wagon.

And yes... find other smokers. I found that smokers get very little sympathy. You get the 'just chew some gum' or 'get a patch' comments, but no real support. Like I said, I had a couple of people to call that would talk me through it.

[Rathnait62]

Posted: 10/13/06 at 3:13pm

I used to date a smoker, and when I tried to stop overeating, she had no sympathy at. ALL. "Just stop!" Ironic, eh?

[JohnBoy2]

Posted: 10/13/06 at 3:13pm

I quit, cold turkey, a couple of years ago, after years and years of smoking. So, I really have no tips. You need lots of determination. I just kept telling myself that a tiny little tube of tobacco wasn't going to get the better of me. For some reason, it worked! It's really a great thing to lose that dependence, and be among the clean-smelling set! I also have a hell of lot more money. Best of luck to you!

[papalovesmambo]

Posted: 10/13/06 at 3:48pm

i quit cold turkey after smoking for about 15 years and it lasted 2 years until i moved back to ohio. it's been about a year and a half since then and now i'm on day 5 without a cigarette. i'm using the patch for the initial period. it seems expensive at first, but when i did the math it works out to less than i would have spent on smokes. you really have to want to quit. i mean really want to.

i'm sitting in my office and someone just came back from having a smoke and all i can smell right now is cigarettes. it's tough and it doesn't really get any easier until you've been at it for a while.

the best advice i got was from an old professor of mine who told me that when he quit he said to himself everyday, "you've gone 'x' days without a cigarette, you'd be a real ass to have one now." not the most astute advice i know, but it helped me. that and i prayed a lot. if you don't pray, i'd suggest meditation and do you best to try to cut the stress in your life. that's when the craving gets really bad for me, when i'm under pressure.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 10/13/06 at 5:30pm

So is that why you were such a bitch yesterday?

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 10/13/06 at 5:48pm

You have my empathy, papa. I went five minutes without masturbating once. I was in hell.

[papalovesmambo]

Posted: 10/13/06 at 5:58pm

maybe so, pj, what's yer excuse?

they don't have a patch for that, namo.

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 10/13/06 at 6:17pm

I quit cold turkey over 30 years ago

[SNAFU]

Posted: 10/13/06 at 7:17pm

I quit after a three pack a day habit. It was rougn but I tried the patch for the first week. It screwed up my sleeping so I had to abandon it.
Chewing Altoids helpped a little as did Velarian root and Kava Kava tablets I got from a health food store.I know recently there has been health concerns about that. Smoking however is worse I believe.
Just remind yourself when you are going a bit crazy, that once you get through it you will NEVER have to go through it again (if you don't pick up another cigarette).
The joys of not smoking and not having that monkey on my back made all the uncomfortablity of the quitting process worth it.
If you do slip, do NOT beat yourself up. If you want to quit you will, when you are ready. Just try again. Took me four attempts. Now I am smokless 12 years!
Good luck!

[best12bars]

Posted: 10/13/06 at 8:27pm

I quit smoking 14 years ago. I was a pack-a-day guy, and I had a bad chest cold one year, over Easter weekend. I ended up going two days without a cigarette, and it was the first time since college that I had done that. I decided to make two days three... then three days four... and before I knew it a week had passed.

I kept a pack of cigs in the fridge (in case of emergency!) for almost a year... Never had one of them.

My experience was that the "nicotine" part of the addiction takes about two weeks to kick it out of your system. Just two weeks. After that comes the harder part... and that is breaking the habit of having something in your mouth and something to do with your hands. (Okay, boys, crack the jokes!)

But that hand-to-mouth "oral fixation" habit took me about a YEAR to break. It's a real bitch! I gained 30 pounds putting sandwiches in my mouth instead of cigarettes. Then I chewed gum like Violet Beauregard for a year. I decided not to battle both issues at once, so I waited until I was sure I had quit smoking (which was about six months into it), and then I concentrated on taking the weight back off again. I ended up losing a lot of weight, and kicking the cigarette habit really changed my life for the better.

Not only can you BREATHE when you go up stairs, your clothes, car, house, and belongings smell better. YOU smell better. And food tastes better, because your taste buds aren't being destroyed by the cigarettes.

Just go one day at a time. Don't think about "forever" or "permanent." Just say to yourself, "Today, I'm not going to smoke. Tomorrow, who knows?"

That's how it's been 14 years now, for me.

[munkustrap178]

Posted: 10/13/06 at 10:24pm

I started smoking when I was 18...I'm 21 now.

I quit for about 5 months. I know it's gross and bad, but I actually enjoy smoking.

I will try and quit again soon.

Best of luck!

[vbplayer]

Posted: 10/14/06 at 12:39am

Well, I belong on this thread.

Smoking is a "bitch" to quit. I quit for a year and a half and went back to it.
Everyday i say "this is it", but it never is.
I play volleyball and I keep saying it dosen't bother me.

I'm such a liar!

I've played vb consistantly for 18 years. It certainly plays a role in my performance.

I worry about when will it REALLY be the time I quit....and my other worry is.....will it be too late?

Not preaching, but this is what I think every day.

[neddyfrank2]

Posted: 10/14/06 at 12:48am

I have no tips, except best of luck to you.

[vbplayer]

Posted: 10/14/06 at 1:03am

No tips needed......the tip is....it needs to be me.

I'm trying.

Thanks for the thought.

[Rathnait62]

Posted: 10/14/06 at 9:33am

*hugs vb*

[JerseyGirl2]

Posted: 10/14/06 at 10:12am

I started smoking because I had a truly stressful job and every member of the team I traveled with smoked. I was up to about a pack a day. In the two weeks between quitting the evil job and moving, I still smoked. I decided that I would no longer smoke after I moved. And then I didn't. I don't know if it was the decision, the fact that none of my friends here smoke, the public places smoking ban or the fact that smokes cost 2-3 times as much here. Whatever the reason, I gave it up cold turkey and the smell disgusts me now.