I’m going to try Cecil’s advice by keeping myself as non-acidic as I can. I’ve been sipping on bicarbonate of soda throughout the day. It tastes nasty and it’s a load of sodium (Tums would probably be better), but it’s cheap.
It also kills the heartburn that I’m getting from eating too much…
I do not believe that there is “one true way” that will work for everyone. Different methods and mentalities work for different people.
That said, you sound like you’re in the right place mentally, but haven’t found a method that works for you. Before going on to the more expensive methods, may I suggest the method that worked for me? Read this: Allen Carr’s Easy Way to Stop Smoking. It may not work for you, but you can probably get it from the library, so it’s a cheap method.
Good luck!
My husband tried to quit several times before he actually managed it. He used the “step down” patch, but stayed on the strong patch longer than he was supposed to. He chewed a lot of gum. And every day, he’d put three or four single dollar bills into a special container. They had to be singles, and he didn’t want to swap out singles for fives or tens or twenties. Every now and then he’d iron a batch of them, count them, bundle them, and put them in his underwear drawer. I thought that this was rather odd, but it seemed to help him, so I wasn’t going to mention it. I took care to be extra supportive and sweet to him (usually I’m cranky and not at all supportive), even though he was bitchy. It’s been two or three years now, he still hangs out with smokers (his whole family smokes) and he doesn’t smoke at all. He’s happy about not having to make sure he has cigarettes all the time.
Good luck to all those trying to kick this habit.
Above all else I hate being a smoker,but I am frightened to death of quitting. I tried to quit a couple times in my life and both times I believe I was a hazard to my kids and husband. The closest I came to quitting was when I had hip surgery 5 or so years ago. I was with out a cigarette for 4 days. There I was in the hospital pacing back and forth between my bed and the bathroom, barely able to walk.I was using a walker, was up for 72 straight hours in incredible pain from my hip,on Vicodin, and all I could think about was how a cigarette would calm me down and let me sleep. The doctor wanted to keep me for an extra day, but I was determined to go home.I streched my endurence by proving I could “pass” the physical therepy by using stairs and generally getting around. When I was finally discharged from the hospital * it was nine at night by this time* I kept telling myself I’d gone this long without a smoke I’d be stupid to have one. Needless to say I got about 10 miles (home was 30 miles away)before my resolve cracked and I said FUCK IT and I lit up. I went home and slept like a baby.
[sub]My first doctors appotment after surgery the nurse said “We could have given you the patch” Duh …It was plainly stated in the doctors records I was a smoker. I plainly told the nurses in the hospital I couldn’t sleep I was going thru withdrawels. After I get out of the hospital you tell me I could’ve had the patch???[/sub]
What helped me was to take a vacation to start my quitting rather than to reward myself at the end.
Patches worked okay for the physical addiction. They didn’t totally alleviate it, but they did make it bearable. However, the habit of smoking was really difficult for me to overcome. It was near impossible to skip that “come home from work, have a cup of coffee and relax” cigarette or the “surf the Web and smoke” cigarette. I just couldn’t break out of my smoke-filled routine. Plus, I was really worried about getting into trouble at work for that first bitchy week of quitting.
I decided the only way I could realistically quit was to get away. That way I could change my environment and routine and also avoid being around co workers when I turned into a raving, nic-craving bitch. So I decided to take a smoke free vacation. I chose a horseback riding vacation since it would be full of activity (most of it physical) that would keep me occupied and not be all that conducive to smoking.
It worked really well for me. I didn’t see that ashtray sitting on my coffee table begging to be used at the end of a hard day. I didn’t have to worry as much about offending anyone with my quick temper since I’d never see them again (okay, I worried about it a bit–but not like I would if I’d snapped at a co worker).
Another that helped me was to not eat a lot while I was quitting–or at least not a lot at any one meal. I loved–loved–that after dinner cigarette. It’s the best one of the day! For some reason, resisting a cigarette on a totally full stomach was totally impossible for me. So I had really small meals and snacked more during the day. I didn’t want to be hungry (that led to cigarettes as well), just never totally full.
I am in the process of stopping myself, I just finished my first week. Although I wasn’t a huge smoker (100 g a week), I miss my cigarettes dearly. There are several times a day when I find myself wishing for one (especially in the morning). The patch works for me for now but I’m wondering if it will work later on.
I just bought Alan Carr’s Easy Way To Quit Smoking this week. Going to read it this coming week. We’ll see. I’ll let you know how it goes.
I have ZERO willpower when it comes to smoking. Cigs are my lil crutch through life. Ok it is a crutch that may/will kill me but dying is something I will do one day anyway.
Dio’s post is what scares me though. I was a FAT teenager and evolved into a sometimes-slim-sometimes-have a few-pounds-to-lose but not fat adult. I really would rather keep smoking then hate myself for fatness. I don’t question anyone else, I just know how much I hated myself when I was really over weight. Somewhere down the line I “decided” to be a smelly social pariah instead.
I’m a heavy smoker and I would love to kick it (well I would love it in theory). I laugh at US prices of $3 a day, a pkt here is at least double that (more actually)and I’m a pkt a day type. I just can never see myself quitting. I am prepared to stand on the footpath when it is pissing with rain. I am prepared to be eternally broke because I smoke my money. I am prepared to be unwelcome in more and more places. I am prepared to get the Emphysemia that kiled my grandmother and will do away with my dad.
I feel withdrawl if I have only 2 cigs left. I am pathetic and a slave to the cigarette.
I am sorry that this was NO help but I wish I could have spoken to you as a former smoker…it just ain’t gonna happen.
I used How To Stop Smoking And Stay Stopped by Gillian Riley. I bought it remaindered for $1 and had it round for years before I used it. She recommends the opposite of most quitting methods - carry around cigarettes, hang with smokers, don’t change your other habits, don’t tell people you are quitting, don’t use patches or other aids.
Her philosophy is thatthe reason you smoke and the reason you have cravings is that you get a buzz out of smoking. Therefore it is stupid to expect cravings to just go away, you have to learn to deal with them. This involves a little “mantra”:
I am really craving a cigarette.
I could have one if I wanted (you have a packet on you)
But if I have one I will be smoking again
And for the following reasons…blah blah…I have chosen to not smoke.
So I won’t have one now.
I followed her plan and it was almost fun. I went from 30 a day for about 30 years to dead stopped. I carried cigarettes for 6 to 8 weeks, still went out with the smokers for cigarette breaks at work, kept drinking and going out with people. I would sit outside with a packet of cigarettes and an ashtray. Sometimes I would take a cigarette out of the packet and play with it to stimulate a craving (part of the process) and because of all these things no one knew I had quit for over a month. I even lost weight during giving up. If you can find the book and absorb the psychology it is far more wholesome and empowering than any other methods I have seen.
Definitely – it’s different for everyone.
I quit for three years after reading the Carr book. It felt like nothing short of a miracle. No withdrawal pangs, just a wonderful feeling of freedom. I started smoking again last June, out of boredom more than anything else. I’m thinking of reading the book again but I’m afraid it won’t work a second time.
I quit for ten years after several sessions with a hypnotist. No withdrawal pangs that time either.
The plan now is to (I hope) get a full-time job so I don’t have so much spare time, and then get a prescription for Wellbutrin.
I won’t even consider cold turkey. As people have said, it’s brutal, it feels like punishment, and if you thinking of quitting as punishment, the attempt would be hopeless.
Well, I’m in the same boat, folks. I’ve now been smoking for 11 years(I’m 28 now), and I need to quit. If I don’t, not only will I die, but my wife will fucking kill me, too!
I quit about 2 years ago with my brother. I used the lozenge and got to where I rarely, if ever needed a ‘bump’. THen slowly but surely smokes creeped back into my life one at a time until I was smoking again. I hide my smoking from my wife like a creep, and it really bugs me(note: I know she knows I’m smoking-I’m not as slick as I fancy myself).
For the last 6 months or so, I could get through the day with some form of Nicotine replacement and only need one or two smokes a day to satisfy my heroin-addict-like need for a smoke. But not now. I’ve been stressed out and I haven’t had the energy to fight my addiction.
I really feel like a loser at times. It’s hard to let yourself and your family down repeatedly like this.
Sam
I quit back in 2000. I had quit for a few months in 1999 but quickly relapsed one night when I went out for beers with friends. By the end of the night I had bought a pack and was chain smoking.
For the second sucessful try, I had a few things going for me, I had moved to a new place where I only had non-smoking friends, I had set up a routine where I only smoked outside, which by December when I quit made it quite unpleasant, and I had it planned so I would be alone and not at work for about 4 days after my quit date. I set a date on the calender about 5 days before I did it. For the last evening, I gave myself a full pack to smoke. I did this so I would eventually puke from it. I wanted my last smoking experience to be absolutely vile and disgusting, and it was. My last cigarette was outside on a cold drizzly night and ended with me puking into the bushes before walking up the stairs to my third floor apartment. It was lovely. For my three day shut in period, I had plenty of rice cakes, jerky and other things to snack on. I agree with ** Diogenes**, the first three days are the absolute worst, if you can get through those, it will be OK. I found that I had to stop drinking for a few months to make sure I didn’t slip.
Sampiro, you did it before and you can do it again. Just remember, you can’t go back to having one every so often. If you slip up, it will be OK, don’t go back to smoking.
Exactly, Sampiro. You did it once and you can do it again. It’s about mental game, as someone said. All the pieces are in place, because you cannot quit unless you REALLY want to, and you really want to. Four or five days and you’re past it, or using the patch the way you’re supposed to will take a while longer, but it all boils down to not picking up the first one. One puff and you’re back; it doesn’t matter how long you’ve quit. My mom started smoking again after 8 years. Me, it’s been 19 years. And I still get a jones once in a while. But I ride it out and it goes away.
You can do it, man. Step up to the plate and be ready to feel like shit for a week or so. And stay out of bars for a while. I’m rooting for you.
Yeah, nicotine really hooks you thru the bag. At least it did for me. I gave up morphine, alcohol, and marijuana, and thought that was tough. Giving up nicotine was harder. I am clean and sober for over 14 and a half years, but it took 7 years off the other drugs before I gave up nicotine. And it took a heart attack to give up the nicotine.
Nicotine replacements are a great crutch, but they’re not perfect. That’s because tobacco delivers so many chemicals in combination with the nicotine that it’s effect on the mood and physiology is much different than nicotine alone.
So, do what I did! Pharmaceutical treatment! I had IV nitroglycerine in the ER and hospital, along with a cardiac cath and stenting, and after that I have not yet had any nicotine in any form! Just wait for the crushing chest pain, the inability to breath, and stare down that long dark tunnel into the light! Then say goodbye to nicotine! 
Just make sure someone’s dialed 911 and is ready to start CPR!
My experience has been pretty different from most of you.
I quit cold turkey on December 20th, 2004 after being a smoker for 13 years and never trying to quit before and my worst cravings within the first couple weeks of January.
I have found that eating helps, and I’ve been eating a lot more, but I’ve been excersizing a lot more too so my weight hasn’t changed. I’ve also found that drinking helps, as long as I’m not around other smokers. It takes my mind off of it.
The absolute, hands-down hardest thing though - and it’s still hard now - is watching someone else smoke a cigarette and not asking them for one. I can sit at by myself or be with my (non-smoking) girlfriend or other non-smokers for days or weeks at a time without even thinking about a cigarette, but as soon as I’m around a couple of smokers it feels like someone is torquing my soul with a monkey-wrench.
If you can beat that part (which I still haven’t beaten), you’re golden.
I’ve got to quit using quick reply. That post was begging to be proof-read.
I really don’t have anything useful to add to this thread, except to say that I’m on my 15th day of quitting. I’m on Wellbutrin and the patch, and so far I’ve been coping surprisingly well.
I’m a hardcore smoker. I LOVE to smoke. I love the taste, the instant stress relief you get when you take that first hit after a hard days work, the ritual of waking up with a smoke and a cup of coffee…BUT I’m almost 40 and I have a 2 year old and a 3 week old, and I don’t really want to die any younger than I have to so I quit. I know it’s a cliche, but If I can quit, ANYBODY can. There’s still a lot of times when I really REALLY want a smoke. I really want one right now, but so far, I’ve been holding firm.
I have to say, I’m proud of myself. I have no willpower whatsoever and yet I’m actually doing it. Yay me 
I am struggling with giving up something too. I just want to encourage you to keep trying. If you fail this time, maybe you’ll succeed next time. Keep trying!
Do you think being in QtM’s arm helped you?
I quit in January 1999, along with mr.stretch. We both used Zyban/Wellbutrin and mr.stretch also used the patch.
I smoked for around 20 years; it was hard to quit. We got the Zyban, used it as directed, set our quit date on a Tuesday (no way was I quitting on a Monday!), and quit. I back slid after about 5 days and had 5 smokes; I haven’t smoked since. I had a pretty bad hand-to-mouth habit, so I ate Tootsie-Pops for about six months while I was in bed reading which was one of those times when I always smoked.
Driving was my big smoking trigger and even now, sometimes I’ll be next to someone at a stop light and s/he’ll be smoking and it’s all I can do not to jump out of my car and bum a smoke.
I’ve had one beer since I quit smoking–and beer must have smokes so no more of that for me. I also tried drinking mixed drinks while out with friends, but after a couple of drinks I started craving the smokes so I’ve given up drinking entirely. I kinda miss tequila. 
I still consider myself a smoker who is not smoking right now. I know if I have just one cigarette, I’ll be smoking again so I don’t have that one cig. The smell can still start a craving in me–I loved to smoke and I still miss it.