I just want to send out supporting thoughts to all of you are trying to quit and congrats to all of you have quit!
Quit some time in late Jan/early Feb (found out we were gettin’ a Dude).
Having a very hard time tonight. No chance of going to get a pack (The Dude is great motivation), but I’m in one of those retro-nic-fits. Bad.
Was on the phone with a client, she’s on her way to Copenhagen with a slew of materials we’ve been working on. One thing never came into shape, the author has been all over the map. So at about four or four thirty today, she asked if I’d write be able to write a short paper.
For tomorrow morning.
So it’s about three AM here, I’m wrestling with all sorts of snarly ideas, trying to get them coherently organized … just the time when it was soooo goooood to smoke.
Can’t have one, won’t have one … but man do I need something.
Seconded. I lost my aunt to emphysema and my sister to cancer. My sister didn’t smoke, but it wasn’t pretty. I can emphasize with those who saw loved ones die of lung cancer.
Sometimes it isn’t clean. My dad had half a lung carved out due to smoking. The rehab was horrible, they practically cut him in half. Then his life was badly diminished. He couldn’t do simple things for a long time. Then he slowly started losing weight and exercising. But it was too late. He died at 53. He gave up so many years to suck on a burning weed.
Smoke free since 1987.
I accidentally quit on the Great American Smokeout. I mean, I quit on purpose, but I didn’t know that day was the Smokeout until my clock radio woke me up telling me about it. I think it strengthened my resolve a little, but I was already set to quit for the last time. This time I went cold tukey with no cheating, and it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. I still get little urges, but then I get near a smoker and nearly gag from the smell. Three weeks today, yay!
Wow, three weeks. Congratulations!
Those early weeks can be the hardest! (Though the six-month “I don’t really crave them anymore but they’re so fun so I think I’m safe having just one” cravings can be a subtle bitch, too.)
Good luck~
I went to my doc a few months ago to get a scrip for Chantix, as I desperately want to quit smoking. Then he saw my blood pressure and found out how much alcohol I consume (and have for 20 years) on a daily basis, and told me we were tackling that first.
Well, I quit drinking, and now I want to quit smoking. I need my wife to do it with me. Sadly, my fifteen year old stepdaughter has taken it up, yet another reason to get them out of the house. She takes the long butts out of our ashtrays. Its sad, really.
Another quitter here- a year and a half for me. I did smoke one a couple of weeks ago, to remind myself of how disgusting and nasty they are, and actually, it worked! It tasted completely horrible, and I actually felt nauseous from it. Yuk- I spent 20-something years thinking that was fun?? Never again.
Come on, people! All smokers left should start a race to see who will be the last smoker standing (that’s the loser). YOU don’t want to be the last one, do you? (generic you) It’s starting to seem like a real anachronism- who the hell smokes anymore?? Oh, yeah- way too many.
Thanks, Rhythmdvl! I had always heard of (and experienced, that’s as far as I ever got) the five days of hell, so it’s the sneaky nic-fits on day 11, day 16, this morning that are catching me off guard. I know from all my practice quits though that I can’t have just one. If I can justify sneaking one, I can justify another, until I’m buying two packs at a time again. So it’s easier to just ride it out.
FoisGras, I wish you very much luck. If you can stand the side effects of the Chantix, it may well work for you. But wanting to quit as badly as it seems you do, and having a child you love to do it for may be all you need. I tried Chantix and it did make it easier to not smoke, but it also gave me constant nausea and dreams that made me not want to sleep. YMMV, of course. You’ve already quit drinking, so plainly you have the willpower to quit smoking, too.
Okay.
Okay, again, in all seriousness… I tried last October, failed, and have been gearing up (slowly) for another try December 31st. New Year’s Resolutions, and all that. (The last time I managed to quit and stay quit for 3 years was a cold turkey quit on December 31st, so I thought a re-run was in order.)
However, I’ve been sick since October. I was sick for Canadian Thanksgiving, finally got over it for about a week, then got sick again. Never had a winter like this before. I think I’m finally getting over the second bout. Anyway, the cough. You know, the cough. The cough that after a cold, just seems to hang on in smokers? That cough. That cough is scaring me. And I am so tired of being a slave to these things. And the money! It’s $10.00 a pack here. Buying two packs every few days is a stupid expensive way to spend money.
Anyway, I swore that on Friday, those were the last two packages of cigarettes I was going to be buy. So every one I smoked, it was a countdown. I sure made them last longer than usual, too… Anyway, I hit the last of the package and I am NOT going to buy more.
Yes, well, there were the “emergency” half-smoked ones, the not-my-brand leftovers, and then that was it. I smoked a stale, leftover, not-my-brand last cigarette at 12:30 p.m. today. I’ve been on the patch since then.
Stopped at the grocery store and bought gum (regular), gum (nicorette) and candies. To counteract the candies and give me something to do in the craving spells, I also got a new toothbrush and a new toothpaste (citrus! ooh!). This is going to suck, but I’m tired of being a smoker. No matter how much I enjoy the sin and pleasure of it, and I do, I don’t like being hooked, can’t afford it any more, and a million other reasons even better than that.
Anyway. Thanks for making your plea–it is being heard.
And you know what? If this quit fails, I’ll just have to try again. Until I’m free.
So how are you handling yourself?
I decided to try to quit after waking up with an enormous hangover jan 1st. Today is Day 4. I’ve been relatively good; last times (3 months and 6 months) I quit I spend the first two weeks very hyperactive, this time, it’s a lot less.
I’m not drinking any coffee or alcohol until the hyperactivity is gone, though. I don’t trust myself enough.
Well, my quit on December 10th didn’t last, but it was a good practise run. I could go a day without smoking, I really could.
I went cold turkey on January 1st. The only other time I managed to quit (for three years) I did it by going cold turkey on January 1st. So far, it hasn’t been as difficult physically as I remembered, but having the long weekend meant I could take lots of naps. Basically lie down and go to sleep and wait for my body to reach that 72 hour mark… today, back at work was rough. I really missing the break of smoking. And I really want to go out for one right now. However, knowing that just having one will wake up all those nicotine receptors and start them screaming for more…
Day 3. So far so good!
I’ve been reading The Easy Way To Stop Smoking.
It really makes sense and I haven’t had much in the way of cravings or issues. It feels great to be an ex-smoker!
I’ll admit: I really need to stop smoking. Problem is I don’t know how! Anyone care to share any advice on how to distract yourself from wanting a cigarette?
Stopping by to send out good wishes for success for all who are trying to quit!
Probably a lot of people here with better methods, but I always just quit cold turkey - no patches or nicotine gum or books or anything (I seriously quit 2 times before, lasted 6 and 3 months respectively). Chewing gum may help a bit with the cravings, although I suspect it actually reinforces the ritual (meaning you’re still in your smoking habit only not smoking, which makes it harder to keep your mind off the fact that you’re actively not smoking), so this time I’m doing without.
My main problem the first week has always been with lack of concentration and hyperactivity - kind of what I imagine ADD feels like. This time I’m spending most of the week working at home, so I can walk outside for a bit, or clean house, or take a nap when the urge is getting to me - basically anything to take your mind of it or that just calmes you down will work. Day 5 and it seems to work; I can even drink coffee today without getting real cravings.
After the first week or so the main problem is that nagging feeling that you sometimes get that “I’m over it, so just one will taste so fine right now” which is really just a matter of not giving in to it - which isn’t hard at all, as long as you do realize that giving in to that will dramatically increase the chances of “falling off the wagon” completely.
A good friend of mine here in Tokyo just found out that his mother had lung cancer, a malignant tumor the size of a golf ball. Her lungs are shot from emphysema so they aren’t sure if they can operate or not. If they can’t, then maybe two months. If they can, then a year or so, maybe two.
He’s flying back with his 16-month-old son, who won’t grow up knowing his grandmother.
And yes, she still won’t quit.
I smoke tobacco pipes. At most twice a week, sometimes as little as once a month. I don’t inhale, I don’t smoke cigarettes, and I’m not addicted to nicotine (clearly, as show by my infrequency). While there’s no solid research on exclusive pipe smokers, everything I’ve read tells me that this very low level of non-inhalation smoking is very likely to be harmless. Heck, even if I had two cigarettes a week I wouldn’t worry.
I understand people’s anti-smoking drive, especially when it’s personal, and I understand and comply with smoking bans. But there are a sizable number of people who enjoy tobacco just like I do - whether pipes or cigars - who end up getting lumped in with the worst of tobacco users. We have to abide bans that were never aimed at us, and eventually will fall under ever-expanding sin taxes that can double the price of pipe tobacco.
Quitting smoking is like losing weight. It’s not the fact that you stumble, but how long you stay down. I have never smoked, but I grew up in a family of smokers. I lost my grandpa to emphysema and grandma to high blood pressure. She quit about a year before she died. Out of my whole family, I can only name four non-smokers.
Please, if you’ve tried and failed in the past, don’t give up. Keep trying. 