You can download a small application here that will keep track of how long you’ve been quit, how much money you’ve saved, how many cigarettes you’ve not smoked, how much you’ve extended your life, &c. You may find it encouraging.
Whatever you do, stick with it. Whenever the urge to smoke hits, just remind yourself that having “just one” won’t satisfy the craving; it’ll only make you want another one.
Good luck.
It empowers you. You feel more in control. You feel stronger because you are making the decision, not the tobacco or your addiction. You can look forward to the day when the cravings cease and you don’t even give it a second thought, and in the meantime you can actually feel the urge lessening every time you resist. It’s a new narcotic, and it’s called self-control. It’s great.
Plus, if you’re a guy, your erections will be larger and thicker. No lie.
Okay, so here’s your new motto: Quit smoking!! Your keyboard will thank you!
Best of luck, I know you can do it!
If you don’t quit smoking, we’ll all start posting in purple. So drop that cigarrette and take one step back with your hands visible at all times.
I just remembered one more benefit of being a non-smoker – I can laugh really, really hard at something without going into a coughing fit.
This has helped me immensely:
It’s 1/4 way down the page, #1420.
Don’t get me wrong, I still get cravings, which I quell with the gum, but seeing the amount of money I’ve saved add up day after say is pretty cool. My plan is to put the money aside and do something stupid with it after one year of being smoke free.
Q.E.D. Nobody likes a quitter. I encourage you to switch to a stronger brand, like unfiltered Marlboro Reds. These people are all undercover agents for the following industries: nicotine gum, plastic straws, stir sticks, toothpicks, small candy and fingernail restoration. Do not listen to them. The are ly. . (COUGH COUGH COUGH) . . excuse me, lying. Good day.
I quit after fifteen years of about 10-15 cigs a day.
I tried to cut down and could manage, say, none on sunday or monday, but by tuesday night I really wanted one. However, it was ignorant of me to think that this meant I was any less addicted to nicotine than all the other smokers.
I really had no idea how I would go about quitting. How would I manage when I had a beer?
Anyway, I managed it after reading a book by a guy called Allen Carr (do a search, the title is pretty obvious!). the approach is subtly different, with the heart being the removal of the desire to smoke. It’s a really fantastic book as, four months down the line (I quit on the 3rd January), I’ve not so much as touched a cigarette, and have not seriously considered having one (although that doesn’t mean the cravings have always been easy
Good luck…and if cutting down doesn’t work, try this book, it will work if you want it too!!!
At your current rate of posting, it will take you about 100 years more to break a million posts. How are you going to manage to live 100 more years if you keep smoking?
Good on you Q.E.D.
I quit after 17 years, although it takes serious resolve and doesn’t happen overnight. Keep the goal in mind, which is not having a closet full of clothes that positively stink, not having breath that’s unpleasant to be around and not having you’re last dying breath come out as a hack.
You’ll miss it for awhile, possibly years, but trust me… it’s without a doubt the best thing you’ll ever do for yourself and those around you. I wish you continued success.
I’ll quit if you quit.
Quit smoking or the proteans will be lonely.
… I’ll be your best friend.
Sure, there are those who will say “It’s too hard” or “You can’t do it”.
Think of all the neener neeners you can throw at the unbelievers when you quit.
Well, there’s just one cigarette left in the pack, and thats going to be my last one ever! I know if I can get through the next three or four days, I’ll make it. Wish me luck!
Good luck!
Good luck!
Good Luck. You’ll look back and thank yourself for the rest of your life
My high school Health teacher permanently made up my mind about ever taking up smoking when she told the class about how one of her old friends died of lung cancer.
He locked himself in the bathroom, and over the period of about an hour (they think, might’ve taken longer) coughed up his lungs.
Literally.
When someone finally broke the door down it looked like someone had been butchering cows. Lung tissue and blood covered every surface of the bathroom - except a few patches on the ceiling.
Not a fun way to go, and not fun to go before you even get old enough to go over the hill. Best of luck with the quitting!!
I think your teacher engaged in a bit of melodramatic hyberbole, for effect. I don’t think it’s actually possible to cough out lung tissue. Blood yes. Still, I can see why that would have been effective at keeping you from smoking!
Anyway, it’s been over three hours since my last smoke, and oddly enough, I’m not feeling at all anxious or craving a cigarette. Usually, I’ll start jonesing about an hour or so after having one, but this time, I’m strangely uncaring about not having another one. A good sign, I think.
I read Carr’s Easy Way to Stop Smoking immediately after I stopped (cold turkey at the end of last year after more than a decade off and on). It reinforced my decision not to light up again and indeed I haven’t smoked since. The book is, in my opinion, not all that well written but it does get across the point that there is no benefit to continuing and that the desire to smoke can be ended quickly, as Andy wrote. Carr’s book is designed to be read while the person is still smoking (i.e. it builds up to the reader’s last cigarette) but I don’t think that should put off readers who’ve already passed that stage.
By the way, I never tried nicotine patches, gums and other things to replace smoking. I cannot see the point in continuing addiction and cravings with other products once one has moved on from cigarettes. Good luck, Q.E.D!