Yeah, I think that’s about true-I quit cold turkey New year’s day this year after 2 packs a day for like fifteen years. Went thru hell for about three weeks, then day by day it got better till I got to the point I’m at now, where I don’t think about it or miss it very much.
I think cold turkey’s the way to go-also, take the money you used to spend on smokes and spend it on something for yourself (I bought myself a DVD a week with what I saved!).
That’s a good positive motivator, and a good way to see what the benefits of not letting your $$$ literally go up in smoke are.
I quit almost three months ago. I don’t feel any better, I still crave almost constantly, and I still wake up coughing. I’d go back to smoking, but I think I’m a bit of a masochist:)
Well, I do give a rat’s ass. I’d like everyone to quit, because not smoking feels so good, and because I’m mad at the tobacco companies, and because of my mom.
What did I like about the book? Hard to say. It’s been four months, and what I remember most was the repetition of certain statements.
When someone asks me what made it work so easily, I have to say that it felt like a form of self-hypnosis – brainwashing, almost. I knew what Carr was doing and chose to accept it, to see what might happen.
I took an honest look at my smoking and couldn’t find any real pleasure in it – just a temporary relief from the nicotine craving.
You said the book insulted your intelligence. Yeah, I can understand why someone would say that. It’s not a work of art, and it’s not technical or scientific. I don’t know that any of his statements could be clinically proven. But art and science and hard data wouldn’t have convinced me that quitting would be easy – Carr’s book did. I decided to buy Carr’s arguments, and I made a conscious decision to believe that quitting would be easy, and it was.
I shouldn’t have given the impression that I enjoyed smoking all the time … many cigs during the day were just for habit and I didnt really enjoy them.
But there are some that were good. After a big meal of spicy Thai or Mexican. With a tall draft beer. With a cup of strong coffee on a Sunday morning. Taking a break from driving in the midst of a roadtrip, and lighting up on the side of the highway and stretching. Those were the good ones.
But, in any case, I really do think I am done. I was around smokers both times I was out drinking, and I din’t even get the urge. So maybe some of the stuff in the book did sink in, who knows.
That’s a pretty good description, but I think that’s partially what turned me off to it.
There were several good points and ideas in the book, and I am going to finsih it. I don’t want to give the impression that I hate it, becuase, after all…I’m not smoking now.
I was kinda annoyed with it at first. But then I did what Auntie Pam did… I surrendered to it. DId I want to find a way to quit that made it easy and made it stick, or did I want to find the problem and therefore the excuse to keep smoking?
What I wanted, more than anything in the world, was what he was promising: that I really could quit and it wouldn’t be misery. I could give it up forever and ** not ** feel deprived. I could practically put my head back where it was before I ever started smoking. So why find the problem?
Once I gave up finding the flaws, and let myself go with what he was saying, it worked.
I’m cured.
When I see people smoking, I don’t envy them, my heart goes out to them. I was trapped in that addiction for 26 years, I know every single thing there is to know about it. And I miss nothing.
But you’re right, MB, there were occasional cigarettes that seemed to taste good. Which represented 1% of the entire physical and mental and emotional experience of being addicted to nicotine. The other 99% was ** shit ** that reached into every aspect of my life and tasted bad, smelled bad, felt bad, and was filthy, nasty and deadly, forget time consuming! He helped me see that clearly. No contest.
I’m sure it’s related to the same reason recent quitters tend to come down with more colds and other upper respiratory infections than when they were smoking: cilia.
Cilia are the fine hairs that line all your air passages and function as traps to catch viruses and bacteria and debri to keep them from being sucked into your lungs. In smokers, the cilia are damaged or destroyed entirely. However, you don’t necessarily become more ill, because the hot, poisonous smoke you inhale all day does a pretty good job of killing off whatever is getting in there now that the cilia is gone. After you quit, those passages have no smoke, and they have no cilia. They are sorta naked and exposed and become more easily irritated, as well as providing no protection from airborne beasties. The cilia are all grown back a year or so after the last cig, usually.
This is my theory, anyway, and I have shared it with two doctors, who both felt it was a very sound theory. (the stuff about the condition of your cilia is all fact, the results are my speculation)
That’s, like, so true! In my smoking days, I got sick once a year (regularly, in November). I quite smoking almost two years ago. Since then, I have almost constantly suffered from bronchitis, sinusitis, influenza, hayfever, head colds, sore throats and one bout of pneumonia. I am sick again right now. I got sick during a holiday in America and had to postpone my flight back to Europe (I stupidly postponed it to the 11th of September and was then stuck in America for ten extra days and used up all my holidays for the rest of the year). Since quitting smoking, I have no energy, can’t climb a flight of stairs without feeling exhausted, and can’t stay awake at work.
Can anyone explain why all this is? Stoid, how long will it last?
But, mouthbreather, I don’t feel tempted to smoke again because cigarettes don’t even taste good any more. When you get to that stage, you know you’ve won. I would say it happens after about six months. But after the first three months you should notice that your cravings have subsided into passing thoughts. So, yes, it gets a lot easier. And just think of what you’ll do with all the money you save.
Best reminder for me why I’m glad I don’t smoke anymore?
I kept a used ashtray. It’s under the sink.
If I reaaaally want to smoke, get it out and take a big whiff. And remember when I couldn’t go a day without smelling like that (I’d started to really hate the smell years before I finally managed to quit for more than a day or 2)
Just over 3 months for me. If it helps, I can’t really say I ever noticed improvement in stages.
I just noticed what’s gone now:
I never have that little wheeze when I’m lying down.
I don’t wake up all phleghmy (yuck!)
I don’t cough. Period. And I was queen of the “hack-yourself-awake-club”. Gross, I know, ain’t smoking sexy?
I smoked 18 years, 2-2.5 packs/day, mostly out of habit but some (as others have described much better then I can - the first in the morning, and those after meals) were tasty. I swore that if I ever got pneumonia I would quit, then one day it happened~ I was sick as a dog so I figured I would give it my best shot.
Most annoying physical ailment: constipation. yikes! First few weeks were a killer. I did put on some pounds pretty quickly, so I started exercising - I don’t think I noticed REAL lung improvement for at least 6 months though (although I did notice that the morning hacks disappeared after a few months, if I remember properly). And like other posters have described, I had a lot more colds and sinus infections.
The only way that I was able to do it was to recognize that I was going to think about it constantly and that THAT WAS OK. I believe that for the first week I thought about a cigarette every 10 seconds. When it tapered down to once an hour life was a lot easier. Had to relearn a lot of habits - most difficult was driving without a smoke.
Am I glad I quit - absolutly! wouldn’t ever go back (although after 3 years clean I tried a puff and it was nasty). Working out helped - took up marathoning, of all things - I am in better shape at 42 than I was at 22!
Besides the softball league, are you increasing your physical workout at all? Do you like walking? it may be fun too! Best of luck to you and know that we are pulling for you…
