I am quiting smoking, who's with me?

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Inspired by a number of things including this thread I am quiting smoking when I finish this pack. I have 6 cigarettes left that I will smoke tomorrow while I write (I need some time to try and figure out how to write without cigarettes), and then thats it I am done.

I am not a heavy smoker and can say with a fair amount of certainty that I am not physically addicted, at least not badly. But I am psychologically hooked in a way that is starting to scare me. I have too addictive a personality to allow myself to indulge like this. There isn’t really any sort of support group like AA for smokers, so I thought maybe some of you folks would help me out, be my safety net, maybe quit with me. It is a new year coming up after all.

Here is my story. Like most I started smoking young. I was 12 when I had my first cigarette, and smoked until the 10th grade. My high school girlfriend is the one who got me to quit the first time. I didn’t smoke again for nearly 4 years.

As much as I would like to blame my most recent ex (an enthusiastic smoker), it isn’t really fair to peg her as the reason I started again. But I did start again. It started casually. Like I said she was a smoker, and I would have a cigarette here and there with her. Then we broke up and I thought I was done with smoking for good again. I didn’t really like it anymore, I didn’t like that I would cough in the mornings, I didn’t like that my tongue always felt burnt, I was done. Finished, never to smoke again.

Side note, I work in theatre as a director. I just finished college where I got my degree in theatrical directing. This is important because it was on the last play I directed for school that I finally had the break down and became a smoker. I was very stressed, it was my final project, the whole department was going to be judging me and one night I just decided that I needed a smoke. I was at a friends house and he was smoking, everyone I know smokes, and I can remember how badly I wanted that cigarette. The truth is, as much as I hate all the after effects of smoking, I LOVE to smoke. There is little about the act of smoking itself that I don’t love, its everything else about it that I hate.

I went from being a very casual smoker, to smoking a pack and a half a week in less than a month. I have been a bonified smoker again for about a year now and the thing that scares me is that the amount I smoke is going up and up and up. Like I said, I am not sure that I am physically addicted, I go for days at a time without touching a cigarette. But when I do smoke, I smoke like a fiend. It is not unusual for me to go though 7 or 8 cigarettes while watching a movie. And I can’t imagine that this “binge smoking” can be any better for me than if I smoked my pack and a half of cigarettes a week 4 a day. I am sure it is actually much worse.

I describe myself as a situational smoker, I only smoke when I am doing certain things, but the number of things I do while I smoke is growing. I know from experience that I have a highly addictive personality and that if I don’t break this psychological addiction now I will have a very nasty physical addiction to deal with in the not to distant future. I need to stop, and I need to stop now.

So they say that the first step is admitting you have a problem and seeking help. So hi, I am NAF1138 and I am a smoker.

If you aren’t a smoker, or have already quit, please share stories and lend support. If you are a smoker take this opportunity to quit. We can all help each other.

So like I said at the start of the post, after I finish this pack I am done smoking for good. Who’s quitting with me?

2

I quit back in October. Finally decided to, didn’t finish the pack or anything. My advice is to just throw it away. Don’t smoke the remainders, it will just make you feel worse when you have the last one. It’ll make it a sad experience instead of a happy one, and you’ll equate the feeling of smoking with longing and desire. Just dump them, and find something to keep busy with.
Good luck.

-foxy

3

hmm, I had intended to drop this one forum down, not sure how it ended up here. I am asking the mods to move it to MPSIMS.

4

I quit two years ago when my heart started showing signs of strain (I’m overweight, too). I didn’t have a lot of trouble with smoking but the diet is hell. I’ve lost thirty pounds in the last fourteen months but it has been a struggle.

5

I think it’s important that you don’t smoke the remaining ones. It’s not going to be any easier once you finish those. It’s not about making the decision to quit, and then just riding along with it. You have to keep making the right decision over and over again every day. So, by smoking the remainders, you are already starting to “cheat”.

I quit about a year ago, and I regret it every so often - I almost wish I didn’t have the self control not to restart.

6

Moving thread from IMHO to MPSIMS.

7

I’m not quitting, but I wanted to stop in and wish you all well! Sending supporting thoughts your way! Go you! all of you! :slight_smile:

8

Smoke the remaining ones.
It is like saying goodbye to an old friend.

I quit smoking two years ago
but now I’m hooked on the nicotine gum
It would be cheaper to start smoking again

9

Hello, NAF1138, and good to meet you. I’m with you morally, just a little ahead of you quitting-wise (about 6 months). I had the shot treatment, where a doctor (he said he was a doctor, and my insurance company smiled reassuringly) injected atropine and scopolamine into my head. I didn’t trust it, then or now, but for me, I have to admit, it killed nicotine withdrawal dead. Not even the smell of smoke could trigger it. I still remembered enjoying smoking, of course, and I still had to deal with the habit part (walking out the door patting my pockets before I remembered that I wasn’t a smoker anymore). But the fact is that the treatment put me into a permanent four-o’-clock mindset: I always felt I could wait another hour. In short, pharmacology dealt with all the physical aspects, so I didn’t need to dip into my barrel, er, thimble of willpower.

You have a couple of obstacles I didn’t. For one thing, you apparently haven’t smoked enough yet that you no longer enjoy it: for you, it’s not just a matter of self-loathing and postponing withdrawal. For another, I wasn’t surrounded by smoking and smokers while I was quitting. But, unlike the times I tried to just quit, I wasn’t bothered by getting sick and muddle-headed at the same time, and that may be enough for you to keep your focus on being a non-smoker.

If the treatment is available where you are, you might look into it. If you have insurance, it’s often covered. If not, it will cost about $500.00 (or, unfortunately, whatever the market will bear where you are).

One thing I didn’t like is that there’s just not a whole lot of research about this not done by the people selling it. This is a side effect, I gather, of the treatment involving drugs that are not new and therefore unlikely to result in a huge windfall for pharmaceutical companies. But here are a couple of things to read, if you’re interested: http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/QuitToLive/story?id=1291565 – http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=3781691&dopt=Abstract – (this next one would have made me hesitate had I seen it first) http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/tandf/uacp/2004/00000016/00000003/art00007 – and http://www.cancer.org/docroot/PED/content/PED_10_13X_Guide_for_Quitting_Smoking.asp?sitearea=PED&viewmode=print&

Good luck, however you do it. Everybody stops smoking sometime. Some keep on breathing afterwards.

10

NAF1138, I’ve never been a smoker, but as I said in the other thread, lost both of my parents to smoking-related diseases.

You seem to be getting conflicting advice on whether to smoke your last few cigarettes or not, but I don’t know where to weigh in on that. But I do want to wish you the best of luck, and great success. We’re here for you.

11

Oh, dump your last ones, eh? Good bit of advice, that. :stuck_out_tongue:

I agree though. Take the ones you have now, and just toss them in the trash. Or better yert, the toilet. Becuase you might be tmepted to fish them out of a garbage can, but good luck getting them out of a sewer. :wink:

12

Good luck to you! You’ll feel better once you quit and you’ll save lots of money.
I hope you make it.
[sub]I also hope the thread pooper on-er stays away from your thread.[/sub]

13

I hope with all my heart and soul that you quit—just quit and never go back. You certainly have my full support. I am an oral cancer survivor; cancer “probably” caused by smoking. I went through four oral cancer surgeries spread over about 25 years AND there is always the chance of more to come. Oral surgery is very uncomfortable; don’t put yourself in the way of enduring it.

As to quiting cigarettes, just dump the damn things. Don’t try to taper off; don’t save the last few for an emergency and don’t tell yourself you will quit when the last few are gone. Just do it and do it now. Nicotine gum and/or patches can help, if you need help.

14

According to my little QuitTime thing, I’ve gone 1 month, 2 days, 17 hours and 18 minutes since my last cig. It sucks. I was planning on starting a thread about it today, but I’ll just whine in this one. I’m past being pissy, but I still really, really, really want a smoke pretty much all the time. Hopefully that will pass soon.

Regarding your last few cigarettes: I say keep them. Don’t smoke them, don’t toss them. I still have about half a pack left over that I keep on my dresser. Somehow it helps knowing that they’re there. I guess that doesn’t make much sense, but it works for me.

Good luck to all of us.

15

That helps me, too. I haven’t smoked in months and months now, but I still have about 4 in a drawer. I sort of feel like if they’re there, I’m not smoking because I CHOOSE not to.
Which, yeah, doesn’t seem to make sense…

Congrats and good luck to everyone!

16

I short-changed myself in my previous post - it’s been 1 month 2 weeks 2 days etc since my last smoke. Yippee, I guess.

17

Well as it turns out my writing partner has a conflict tonight so I won’t be finishing off the pack. The question of whether or not I should finish the remainders is a good one. I guess everyone is probably right, I should just get rid of them. The fact that I am finding it very difficult to throw them out is probably a sign that I should dump them right?

Alright, so they go into the trash. Day one as a non smoker has officially begun! December 8th 2005 at 12:46PM PST.
Wow, do I want a cigarette now.

I’ll keep you posted.

18

I’ll be with you after this month…me and the husband plan to quit after the New Year, but with December being fiscal half-year end here at work and many long, long work nights ahead of me I can’t handle the stress of it right now. The last time I tried to quit, the very next day Hurricane Katrina hit and by the end of the week after watching all the sadness and chaos unfold I gave up and started again.

19

Three months, one week, three days, 16 hours, 18 minutes and 9 seconds.

2566 cigarettes not smoked, saving $385.20.

Life saved: 1 week, 1 day, 21 hours, 50 minutes.

Started smoking when I was 19 or 20. Got up to a carton/week, weekends were god-awful.

I quit on my 30th birthday. I finished my last pack with a 6 pack and SNL, went to sleep and haven’t smoked since. I have found that the 3s thing is about right. First 3 days really suck, it gets a little better after 3 weeks and now at +3 months, I feel like I’m pretty much out of the woods. The thought of smoking a cigarette … ugh.

What worked for me; read somewhere about thinking of the withdrawl as a dying battery. For some reason, that image helped. I think having a quit date for a long time out helped as well, especially the birthday thing. I tried to quit a few times before, but it was more of a “I’m quitting right now.” thing and it never worked. I would stay away from booze and other smokers for a week, if possible.

Oh, and really get rid of all your lighters and cigarettes. The first day I went through the trashcan trying to find one more.

Good luck. It’s hard, but it’s not that hard.

20

I started smoking in 1984, just for the hell of it. Got hooked before my first pack was gone. Pack a day for about 20 years.

I quit on the day I ended up in the ER with a pulmonary embolism. What saved my sanity the first few weeks was a combination of the patch and a total disruption of my routine. I had very few triggers during my recovery because I wasn’t doing any of my normal day to day things, just vegging at my Mother’s house. What also helped was that, while I was still in the hospital, my Husband and Mom got rid of everything smoking related and thoroughly washed anything that smelled of smoke, including Febreezing the hell out of my car.

My advice is to do whatever works best for you. Good luck and congratulations!

One year, nine months, three days, 18 hours, 54 minutes and 25 seconds. 12875 cigarettes not smoked, saving $2,253.26. Life saved: 6 weeks, 2 days, 16 hours, 55 minutes.