Yeah, after a great deal of consideration, I’ve decided to quit using crystal me…umm, I mean cigarettes [sub]that’s right[/sub]. So far, I’m allowing myself one a day. The idea is that the nicotine will work its way out of my system as it would otherwise and, if the cravings really get too much, I’ll still have that one cigarette before bedtime to look forward to. As my cravings lessen, I’ll stop looking forward to that one smoke and eventually give it up completely.
So yeah, anyone have any advice, any little tips, tricks, or general encouragement that could help me stay on the narrow path to righteousness and stuff?
Tried that, didn’t work for me. It’s just too hard to stop myself after having that “allowed” cigarette.
I’m smoking again, but the last and most succesfull attempt (when I managed to smoke only 2 cigarettes - both at a weekend-long festival, special circumstances - in about 5 months) my strategy was:
[ul]
[li] quit completely, at the start of the day (wake up in the morning and just don’t start smoking).[/li][li] NO COFFEE for two weeks - I get hyperactive for about a week when I quit, and I can’t take the additional hyperness of the caffeine.[/li][li] no beer for a week. :([/li][li] no red wine for a month or two. I really can’t drink red wine without smoking.[/li][/ul]
Addiction is linked to environment/activities - i.e. if you always smoke when waiting at the train-station, it’s hard not to smoke when you’re waiting at the train-station. It’s easier to not smoke in surroundings where you’ve never smoked before.
Yep,yep. I quit due to that book. It really worked for me. Good luck, it wasn’t really all that hard and I was a 2 pack a day smoker at the end, and had smoked about 25 years.
It’s an extremely bad idea. It’s going to be much more painful. Asuming that you smoke a significant number of cigarettes every day (not 4-5), this cigarette won’t make much of a difference. You’re going to crave as much for nicotine. Worst, you’re going to spnd your day waiting for this cigarette, and thinking about it all the time. The issue when you quit smoking is to stop thinking that you want to smoke. When you quit completely, you don’t consider that you could smoke, or think that you will smoke later. It’w way easier.
Either just reduce your daily consumption or you quit completely. You’ll have a realy hard time trying to cut your cigarette consumption so drastically.
I speak from personnal experience. I quitted and resumed smoking a number of times. Using various methods. I smoke on average 30 cigarettes/day (actually between one pack and two packs depending on the period. high stress = 2 packs, low stress = 1 pack). Trying to smoke consistently less than a dozen cigarettes/ day is just self-inflicted torture. I’m btter off not smoking at all.
I guess everyone is a bit different, but the thing that finally worked for me was simple, old-fashioned Cold Turkey. No gum, no patch, no lozenge, no pill, no “weaning.” Just my decision that I wasn’t gonna bring another one of those goddamned coffin-nails to my pristine lips. My two-pack-a-day habit dropped to zero in October 1989.
So far, so good. Not a cig has been in my hand in nearly sixteen years. I still crave 'em, though.
Do you still use the patches? I’ve never used 'em, but the real cravings stop (for me anyway) after a day or 3, 4. After that, it’s relatively easy to keep on not smoking (except when I’m drinking)
My supervisor is on the third week of the patch. It seems to be working quite well. He does say he’s having the most bizarre dreams since starting the patch. Is this common?
Just started the patch this week. Works great (tastes awful). :rolleyes:
Seriously, this is the only method that works for me. Cold turkey, and the patch. Worked like a charm 10 years ago (lasted 3 years). Totally committed again.
I think the reason “Willpower” alone doesn’t have the best results for most people, is that is one of the reasons they continue to smoke. Everyone knows it is bad for them. If they had this elusive willpower, they would have stopped long ago. Most people need a little help, and for me, it’s the patch.
I don’t buy the idea of cutting back to one a day, for reasons stated above. It becomes to easy to have just one more, and then you are smoking again. Think like a recovering alcoholic, and vow not to smoke today. Soon, you will have modified your routine enough that smoking won’t enter your mind constantly. But the unexpected urges never go away.
Or, think like a recovering alcoholic, and have a drink instead of a smoke. Once you are drinking steadily, at least there are lots of programs out there to help you quit again!
The weird dreams are common. Solution: Remove patch right before going to bed. Replace with new one in morning.
This works, and does NOT dilute the effectiveness of the patch.
The atropine injection behind the ears worked for me. Killed nicotine withdrawal dead dead dead. Painless cold turkey. And my insurance company covered it (they practically mandated it). I didn’t trust the method at first, and I still don’t like that it’s hard to find information on it that isn’t put out by the people selling the program, but if I start smoking again, it’ll be stupidity, not addiction.
General encouragement:
4 days, 6 hours, 38 minutes, 20 seconds time passed.
64 cigarettes not smoked.
$11.20 saved. QuitMeter Counter
Put in your numbers (cigs per day, cost per pack, quit time) and save the cookie. Mine’s in my Livejournal at the top so I can see it every time I go update.
Hey now! Good show on quitting and I agree with everyone who said don’t have that daily cigarette. I’m coming up on 5 years smoke-free and it’s great. I used the patch, but only for about 1/2 of the recommended length of time just because I knew I was done.
Here’s an odd thing that helped me quit, although I can’t really recommend it. After about 1.5 weeks of not smoking I forgot to put a patch on before going to work and so had a serious craving at about 9 am. I gave in and cadged a square from a cow-orker. Man, it tasted HORRIBLE! I took one puff and tossed it in the ashcan. From then on, even when I REALLY craved a cigarette I would just think “Even if you had one, you wouldn’t like it” and that helped me get over it.
I forgot to mention another thing, seeing the QuitMeter reminded me of it.
Reward yourself for not smoking. Use the QuitMeter and look at that running total of the money you would have wasted on cigarettes. After certain intervals like 1 week, 2 weeks, 1 month, 3 months, 6 months, etc.,take that total and cut it in half, and buy yourself a reward. You get to buy yourself fun things, and you still only spent HALF as much as you would have spent on cigs.
I quit cold turkey in May 1998; a few things I found to be indispensible.
1: no acidic foods, or take an antacid afterwards when it is unavoidable. Why I don’t know, but it helped.
2: bubble gum or chewing gum to take care of the “oral thing”. Besides the physical cravings are the cravings of physical routine. Gum’s a gross habit too, but easier to quit.
3: a squeezy-ball or tennis ball to eliminate the “hand thing”. (I caught my hand wanting to twist itself into a cigarette-clutching claw, that was weird but something to hold in my hand really took care of that.)
4: no drinking - it lowers your inhibitions. And you might as well just quit for real instead of dragging it out by having “just one” every so often.
