I’m definitely sensing something about this Alan Carr book…we’ll have to check it out.
This is my wife’s 3rd attempt at quitting, IIRC. I think this is her most serious attempt, and it’s definitely all her idea. So I’m gonna poo-poo the “if she has cravings, she’s not really serious” stuff.
Thanks for all the tips & pointers. Keep 'em coming!
Quitting is an absolute b*tch. I finally managed it through a combination of the patch and developing a rabid hatred for cigarettes. I made up my mind that they were the enemy, they robbed me of money, caused me and my home to stink of smoke, were wrecking my health and enslaving me to the point where I could not go to sleep if there were none in the house. The patch helped keep me from going into insane, jonesing ‘I want to kill you all!’ mode, and I used scissors to trim them smaller and take my dose down over a matter of weeks till I didn’t need it any more.
I wish you and her all the luck in the world.
I’m currently on day 8 after smoking for 11 years, one pack a day for most of that time, two packs a day for the last year and a half or so. I’m using Chantix…I don’t know if it’s making it any easier or not, I can’t remember how I felt last time I quit, but I’ve already beaten my previous record by two days.
I can sort of relate to it getting harder…the first three days were actually fairly easy. I kept busy with work and giving my house a thorough cleaning. Then I hit the weekend, and I didn’t have anything planned, it was going to be just a lazy sleep in, hang out and watch movies with my husband type of day. It SUCKED. I was a basket case. Then, my husband and I went to the grocery store that evening, and I caught my first whiff of cigarette smoke since my quit day. It wasn’t pretty. But, I got through it, I didn’t break down and buy a pack. The next day was much easier.
I second the idea of telling people, especially those who will give you lots of support. I told my mother-in-law, who has been gently encouraging me to quit since I met her, and knowing how sad she’ll be if I fail helps motivate me.
My husband’s quitting too, so it helps to have him right there with me.
Another thing that I’ve found useful is getting a hobby that you can do to keep your hands busy when you’re not actively doing something, like when you’re on the phone or watching TV. I’ve taken up knitting.
I hope it gets easier than this, though…even with all the stuff I’m doing, I’m still pretty much pissed off all the time. I want a cigarette, but yet I don’t. I LOVE smoking, love love love love love it, but yet I’m also completely disgusted by it. All this leads to a low grade anger constantly bubbling under the surface, always in danger of spewing forth all over whatever unlucky target happens to be in front of me. But, I’ve kept it under control, and I haven’t smoked, so…
I do like the improvement I’ve already seen in my skin and teeth, though. All these years, I’ve been cursing whitening toothpastes and how they JUST DON’T FREAKING WORK. Well, they do. I was just undoing it every day.
Anyway, I think I’m going to make it this time. And now that I’ve said that, I have to, otherwise I’ll feel like crap since I told the internet that I’m going to make it this time.
Allan Carr’s book clicked for me, too. I know I post on every one of these quit smoking threads about it, but it worked and it worked well.
I did use M&Ms for the first few days, but I only went through 2 large bags.
It was easy once I started thinking of myself as a non-smoker. I kept thinking “I am free of smoking, I am a slave to it no longer” and that helped too. No more “I have to go outside and smoke” at places where smoking indoors wasn’t allowed, no more nervous fidgeting on plane flights where I had to wait to land so I could smoke, no more standing outdoors when it is cold and dark to smoke…and so on. I am free of that. I kept on thinking abut how free I was (Basically what the Carr book goes on about) and it worked. It is more relaxing to not smoke because I don’t spend so much time worrying about when/where I’m going to smoke.
Never read Carr’s book, but I have quit (almost 3 years now).
The important point, as others have said, is to really want to.
I quit cold turkey (no nicotine gum or such). Most important factor? Throw away the lighter, throw away the “emergency smokes”. If you have to go through a whole process to smoke (get new lighter, buy smokes) you are less likely to “only have one”.
The phsical side of it isn’t pleasant, but it is the psychological side which is killer. Don’t be fooled that once you make it through physical addiction you are fine …
I quit last May, cold turkey, after telling everyone who would listen that I was quitting on such and such day. I had one night of absolute hell (anxiety to the point of lying awake screaming) and a couple weeks of really being miserable but slowly getting better. After that it wasn’t so bad. The main thing that kept me quit was not wanting to have to go through that first night again EVER. I swore at myself for months after that every time I thought, “I can’t wait to get done with…so I can have a cigarette.” Those little cravings weren’t any more than an annoyance though. I still get them very occasionally and laugh because it seems so silly.
She really should be about at the hump or over at this point I would think. I wonder if it isn’t the nicotine crutch that she’s using that is making each day worse instead of better. I would continue to be very supportive (and especially understanding when she falls apart and cries). Perhaps have her list her reasons for wanting to quit each day. Keeping her occupied doing fun, nonstressful things might help, and if it doesn’t get better in the next few days she might want to visit her doctor to see what further help s/he can provide.
SEX!
And if she wants to smoke after,. do her again. 
Well, I guess it could help to keep her mouth occupied. 
As I said, I quit once and only once after smoking 17 1/2 years, and that was almost 15 years ago. The whole key is to WANT to quit. Not just think you ought to quit.
I’m going on almost two years smoke free and I still, given the right circumstances, crave one on occassion. Usually when I’ve been drinking in a bar type situation, go figure. :rolleyes:
It gets better, to be sure, but I’m not sure the crave ever goes away. For days, weeks at a time, yes, but there’s your morning coffee and newspaper sitting outside on a sunny day and it’s all, “I could really go for a smoke” time again. It’s an addiction, just like any other. You’re an alcoholic even if you’ve quit, why are smokers expected to be any different?
One thing that helps tremendously though, is there seems to be a point where your nose and brain realize how amazingly disgusting the smell is, and how it permeates everything. After that, the situation still calls to some primitive part of your brain but the desire to actually have one is monumentally less.
Good luck to your wife.
If it’s available where you are, you may want to check out atropine/scopolamine injections (about halfway down the page). For me, it killed nicotine withdrawal dead dead dead. It took about three months to stop patting my pockets and walking out the door to my favorite smoking spot, that was just habit. The physical symptoms were easy – and I’d never made it two days before. I can best describe the sensation as being constantly in a state of having had a cigarette about twenty minutes ago. I had my last cigarette the day of the treatment, and if I ever have another it’ll be because I’m stupid, not because of any real craving for the drug. Nicotine replacement never worked for me, but this did, and it’s basically a one-shot treatment with, in my case, a week’s worth of pills to follow, plus a prescription for xanax that I never bothered to use, and no maintenance apart from that.
I was a little concerned that, because there’s no new drug here, there’s a lack of scientific studies and information not put out by the people selling the stuff. But some insurance companies really seem to love it, and when it works, it really works.