Wellbutrin (Zyban) helped me a lot also. In fact, I doubt I could have quit without it.
If you try it, note that it is available as a generic at a reasonable price.
It has been 3 years that I have been smoke free and it was one of the hardest things I have ever done. I started when I was 15 years old and quit when I was 33yrs old.
Well, I was able to quit for 6 months or so using the patch, but then I got stressed and arrogant thinking I had control. That idea was and will always be a bunch of bull for me.
When I finally got serious about quitting, I tried the patch again. For some reason the second time around caused allergic reaction. My skin broke out like it had an acid burn every place I tried a patch. Needless to say, that was out. So I tried the gum - well, my throat started to close up and get tight the first 10-15 second of chewing. But I was not going to give up. So I tried Wellbutrin. Heh. three days after taking it, horrible itchy hives broke out all over me. Needless to say, Wellbutrin was not an option either. I was pretty much down to cold turkey.
So, cold turkey it was. But I did time it to right before I got my gallbladder removed. Due to previous surgery scar tissue they had to get it out by cutting me open, so I should have been stuck in the hosp. a few days. 24 hours before surgery, no smokes. Removed them from the house entirely and put up/threw away ashtrays. Of course I was not a happy camper, but I dealt with it.
After the surgery, the doctor ticked me off so bad (another rant for another time) that I was out of the hospital 1 day after the surgery. The only thing that got me past the next few weeks was judicious use of pain pills. Pain from the surgery - not really… not that much at least. But pain from the craving? Oh without a doubt. Every time my body went to the “you NEED nicotine!!!” stage, I popped a pill. Went to happy land for a few hours. Long enough for my body to reboot and decide that I would survive without the nicotine. I did that for a few days, then it started edging back more and more and needing the bliss time less.
By the time the pain pills ran out, I was actually ok. Still crave them now and again but would I? Ah, hell no! Actually even though I still crave them now and again, the smoke now make me sick to my stomach (as a visit to a non smoking pub proved to me in many dry heaves)
Now, would I recomend using one addictive substance to control another to anyone? No. But I am saying that is what worked for me. I really think it was more the mental need for a cruth than anything else.
crutch :smack:
I must be lucky, because I was able to give it up cold turkey. Before those who have met me holler foul, I’ll admit that when I hang out with people who are smoking (and drinking) I enjoy a butt or two. Quitting completely wasn’t easy, but I’m glad I did. Fortunately, I can snag a butt or two when I’m at a party and don’t have the craving afterwards.
Yes, lots of Tootsie-Pops…lots and lots of Tootsie-Pops.
[sub]Except for the watermelon kind…they’re evil…[/sub]
433 days, 10 hours without a smoke.
Repeating various others’ statements:
[ul][li]Keep trying; one of those times you’ll get so pissed at yourself for failing that the next time you quit you’ll be successful.[/li][li]There are many ways to quit; at least one of them will work for you. I advocate all of them, but the thing that worked for me this time was a (not recommended) combination of the patch and the gum. The patch kept me at a baseline where I could get through most of the day, but I needed to keep a few pieces of gum handy for when I started crawling out of my skin. I was so scared that I might fall off the wagon that I stayed on the intermediate patch for several months.[/li](I’m hoping) the thing that will keep me from starting again is that I can never say I’m an ex-smoker or a non-smoker. Complacency or arrogance has nailed me in the past, so I’m still a smoker, but I haven’t had a cigarette in 433 days.[/ul]
I can’t do that. I’ve quit several times. Each time I started again, it was with the thought, “I’ll just smoke one. I can handle it.” I can’t.
Seconded. Worked a treat for me nearly 6 years ago and haven’t had one since. No desire to smoke either - reading the book takes that away.
My grandma quit after about 60 years following just 2 trips to a hypnotist. Btw, after the first session, she said she came out and thought “what bullshit” and lit up a smoke straight away. I’d say you’d have to give hypnotism a whirl before all the crutches - patches, gum, etc. YMMV, of course.
Here’s my quitting experience:
I basically quit semi-cold turkey. The important thing is to smoke nothing for three days at least. Then you should be out of the woods as far as the intense physical need. But then there are always the psychological problems.
I don’t think it would be a stretch to say that a lot of us use cigarettes as a way to relax. Its nice after a nice meal and makes you feel really good. You are really relaxed and its a nice thing. But after you quit you’ll always want that, as far as I know. Sure, it gets better. But one thing I found that actually helped was actually smoking a cigarette after the physical effects went away. I would focus on how they made me sick and tasted bad and basically ruined the experience for me. I know the only way to be able to acchieve that relaxation would be to go through the process of becoming addicted again, which wouldn’t be fun because it isn’t fun to smoke when you aren’t addicted.
But still, its hard to replace something for that after-dinner urge
I’ll just throw out this idea as one which I am contemplating (though I have not tried it yet): headstands. Yes, headstands.
For me, cigarettes are entwined in taking time out from whatever I am doing to go out and get a little rush. I figure that, every time I feel the urge for a cigarette, I could go out to my smoking place and instead do a headstand for thirty seconds or so. I get my break, get a little rush (which is entirely dissimilar to the nicotine rush, but is a rush nonetheless), and as a bonus get some exercise and a potential conversation starter if I am brave enough to do it in public.
This might only be effective if you do not smoke indoors–I’m in California, where smoking indoors is verboten most places, including where I live, so the physical changing of locations is a big component.
Like I said, I haven’t yet put this into practice, but I hope to soon, and maybe other folks could try it for themselves.
Sorry, no time to read the whole thread.
I quite once for several months. It wasn’t even tremendously difficult. I went back to it because I simply enjoy the social aspects of smoking.
The way I did it was to smoke exactly one cigarette per day. I usually waited until I was almost ready for bed, and then sucked that smoke like it was going out of style. Deep inhales, and holding it for a fairly long time.
On the plus side, that one cigarette very rapidly (within a couple days) started to give me head rushes like when I first started. Also, they started tasting bad, which helped the no smoking part.
Best of all, it was never monumentally difficult. I never had to mentally rationalize the rest of my life into one day, one hour, one minute at a time. I could simply tell myself, “I’ll smoke in a little bit.” It’s amazing how effectively you can not smoke when you know that you can and will smoke later that day.
In my mind, one cigarette per day was the same as quitting. Even if it becomes extremely difficult to stop that one smoke per day habit, who cares? It’s only one per day.
Hope this helps.
I’m no smoker, but I do have some independent statistics from the Dutch healthcare organisations.
Allen Carr’s easy way to stop smoking (just reading the book, and the book is available at any library and at any bookstore) is the most effective way. *Twenty percent * of the people using the Allen Carr method quits smoking (usually quite painlessly) and never goes back. Less then ten percent of the people using any other method are succesfull.
I’ve been a non-smoker for six months now.
The only method that worked for me was cold turkey.
I think that the basic problem with the other methods was that I really didn’t want to quit - I wanted the patch or the gum to do my quitting for me, so to speak.
I’ve never been a smoker. My father, who was a therapist for heroin addicts (!!) for 15 years, has always said nicotine is the hardest drug to kick, and reading this thread has brought that to bear!
I wish all of you trying to quit the best of luck! Rest assured that any non-smoker reading this will certainly be inspired to never start.
I’ve never been a smoker, but I’ve always found smoking kind of attractive in a weird way (the look of it). My father, who was a therapist for heroin addicts (!!) for 15 years, has always said nicotine is the hardest drug to kick, and reading this thread has brought that to bear!
I wish all of you trying to quit the best of luck! Rest assured that any non-smoker reading this will certainly be inspired to never start.
I quit just over a year ago, this was for the second time. The first time was many years before and was surprisingly easy, after six months or so I figured “Easy enough to give up, a few’ll do no harm”. Sadly it proved very difficult to quit the second time and I smoked for years more than I should have.
I finally quit when the numbers of reasons to quit became overwhelming (I changed to a less well paid job and was smoking between a fifth and a quarter of my total take home pay !).
The second quiting was hell, I went cold turkey and it was like I was missing this vital part of my life. I did nothing useful for three or four days, people noticed I was moody and irritable (moreso than normal). And then it slowly started getting better, and I now I have to read threads like this to remind myself just how bad it was. It’s true that a lot of lifetime non-smokers don’t quit comprehend just how difficult it is to do.
I used this website to help : http://whyquit.com/joel/ , it seemed very down-to-earth and refreshing and suited my psyche perfectly. I’d recommend reading some of the articles there to see if they ‘click’ with you. I also made a point of changing my routine, and not doing too much for the first week. Cold water, hot coffee or red wine all seemed to take the edge off the cravings for me.
It took a while, I thought about smoking a lot for much longer than I expected and there was less noticable benefit than I expected, although looking back I’m healthier and fitter than before. It screwed up my sleeping really badly as well.
Don’t be afraid of the withdrawl, but don’t underestimate it either – yes it’s bad, but it’s also temporary. It will get better, even if it doesn’t feel so at the time.
Best of luck to everyone out there quitting, and well done to those that managed it.
SD
I used to smoke. I became almost a chainsmoker the very first day I took it up and remained so for the next 26 years, smoking those extra long puppies at a rate of sometimes 2+ packs per day. I tried to quit 5 or 6 times, went insane and hysterical each time and was back and smoking within days. The best I ever did was 3 weeks.
I used to cry because I knew there was a nonsmoker inside me, someone who didn’t care about smoking or cigarettes, because, after all, that’s who I was before I ever started. All I wanted to do was get back to that person.
I am now nearly 5 years out from the day I quit for the very last time, I never think about it or want it, ever, for even a second. I will never smoke again without someone putting a gun to my head to make me do so, because I find it so repulsive and disgusting, and I cry for folks like you who are still trapped. I have felt this way since very shortly after the day I quit.
Does that qualify me as someone whose advice you would respect?
Because if it does, and if you are serious, then go here, read the other reviews, and do whatever it takes to get your hands on this book. It will change your head about the whole thing and enable to you to stop, and NOT by gritting your teeth and bearing it every day for the rest of your life, but by helping you become what you started out as: someone who doesn’t even want it. It saved my life, literally.
Tidbits to get you to go look:
“The object of this book is to get you into the frame of mind in which, instead of the normal method of stopping whereby you start off with the feeling that you are climbing Mount Everest and spend the next few weeks craving a cigarette and envying other smokers, you start right away with a feeling of elation, as if you had been cured of a terrible disease.”
“I was very skeptical that any book could do what everyone is saying about this one…but, I was willing to try anything to quit smoking.
I’ve been a smoker for nearly 35 years, and I’m stunned at how easily I was able to quit…
I cannot explain what happened, but by the middle of page 166, I knew I was an ex-smoker - never to touch a cigarette again. Call it an epiphany, an “Aha!” moment or whatever - but such a feeling of euphoria came over me and I knew I had just quit smoking forever.
The curious thing is that when the thought of a cigarette now enters my mind, I laugh a little immediately followed by a broad grin and overall giddy feeling knowing that I don’t need it - and I let out an enthusiastic “Oh yeah!”.
I just bought two more copies to give to a couple of friends, since I’m convinced the book will help them and I have no intention of parting with my copy.”
Note on teh UK amazon that there are 310 reviews of the book and it has a solid 5 star rating. It’s also in the top 40 books after years and years for sale. What does that tell you?
I feel for you, and I hope you listen.
The hyperlink helper isn’t king. This is the link for the Amazon UK reviews page:
Here is the link for the book on our amazon (New to us, I’ve been sending people to the UK site for years cuz we didn’t have it available here. I picked it up on a remainer table…the most crucial half-assed purchase I ever made!)
Go forth and read and save yourself!
Also, a tip from my personal experience: do it when you have a couple of free days. I had to quit drinking coffee initially at the same time because it was too much of a trigger for me, and quitting both my main stimulants together was hard in terms of energy. I slept alot for the first few days. Of course, I’d been running on too little sleep for a quarter century, my body was glad to get a break (I’ve been sleeping an extra 1-2 hours per night ever since I quit,a nd I learned I am not the night owl I always thought I was, even though I did eventually return to drinking coffee in the morning).
I also got the first indication that I have ADD, which I am now finally getting treated. Nicotine actually helps with ADD quite a bit, and as soon as i quit my ability to focus crumbled. But that’s me.
Stoid, amen to what you said about the Allen Carr book - sums up my experience totally.
I keep reading about this Carr book, and how amazing it is - exactly what, in a nutshell, is his approach?
To be honest, I’m a tad skeptical, simply because the praise seems too glowing to be true - it seems almost, to excuse the expression, cultish in its intensity. But if it really works, I have friends who could benefit from it, so I am interested, even though I have already quit without the benefit of this book.