I am a smoker going on 10 years, (14 total quit 3 years in between when I was physically active in the Army) my wife quit rather easily three years ago and we where having a discussion about smoking, and our children (I do not smoke in the home/car when they are in them) but we are afraid they may do by example.
I usually smoke about a pack every two to three days, not a heavy heavy smoker but enough.
Why I do not want to use patch/gums is I have brother who after a year still uses the gum, I find replacing one addiction with another rather stupid.
Now the hard part, I work in the cigarette supply business, so they are cheap, they are readily available, and they are all around me. Not to mention I work extremely long hours at a desk. I would use exercise as the breaker as I did in the military but thats really not an option right now.
Any and all advise from former smokers, or second hand stories will be greatly appreciated. And when I go cold turkey tomorrow, I will keep everyone updated on my progress.
I used no patches, programs or anything else. Just kept reeeallly busy while I was doing it. That’s the only advice I’ve got. Keep busy, if your hands and mind are idle, you’ll want a cig.
My best advice is this: do not assume that the desire for cigarettes is going to leave you magically. It may leave slowly, or (as in my case) it may not leave at all. If you backslide and sneak one cig, that does not mean that your entire effort is wasted. Take it one hour at a time. Every hour that you don’t smoke a cigarette is another step up. If you should slip and take one step back, that doesn’t dump you all the way down the staircase.
Please don’t dismiss products like nicotine gum as merely “stupid” or just an “addiction replacement”.
Nicotine gum, while not particularly healthy, is orders of magnitude less of a health threat than smoking itself. And most chronic chewers eventually burn out on it and give it up, without going back to tobacco, in a year or three.
IV nitroglycerine broke my nicotine addiction. After receiving it while having a heart attack, I never took up nicotine again. That was over 8 years ago now.
You may know my “own” reason for quitting smoking based on other threads QtM and I may take up chewing the gum if thats what it takes. I have not smoked one cigarette since about an hour before this post, and though not that unusual, this time I threw away all lighters/ashtrays anything that reminds me of smoking.
And crossing my fingers, but stories like your heart attack only make it easier for me to do before I am in that same predictment.
Good to see you made it through it though!
I quit smoking 11 days ago–August 1st–on the day that a new $.75 “fee” was to be added to each pack of smokes sold here in Minnesota. So, I guess I’m quitting for at least three reasons: health, economic, and the principle of the thing!
Tim Pawlenty, our Governor, made a “no new taxes” pledge…so the increase was termed a “fee.”
My ass.
If smokers are the ones paying the fee, then they should expect some kind of service in return. I don’t see any “smokers only” restaurants, busses, workplaces, etc., popping up anywhere.
And don’t give me any of that “smokers cost the economy more” hogwash. Smokers have the decency to die earlier thereby putting less of a drain on social services/Social Security, and so forth.
Anyway, I didn’t like the idea of paying for something I’ll never receive, so I quit.
My method for quitting: cold turkey, with a side order of aggravation and a dollop of righteous indignation.
One last thing: If I went one year without smoking and just put the money away, I’d save enough money to take another vacation to Hawaii with my son.
How about this way to quit from my friend (a former smoker)…
His wife was watching their young kids (like 5 and 4) out playing in the yard one day. Mind you, these kids are smart as the dickens. The little girl, the 4 year old, was in the play house. The boy, 5, was in front of the playhouse and laid out flat in the yard, not moving. Every once in a while, the little girl would come out and check on the boy, pretending to do doctor stuff like listen with a stethoscope, writing on a pretend clipboard, etc. Finally, Mom’s curiosity got the best of her and she went out and asked the kids what they were doing.
The boy “patient” looked up at her from the ground and said matter of factly…
We’re playing “Lung Cancer!”
He quit cold turkey as soon as he got home from work and heard what his kids had been playing.
There have been quite a few threads about this lately.
This book worked for me and several other people I recommended it to (not to mention many thousands of others around the world). My advice is Just. Buy. It.
I quit this past January so it’s been close to 8 months for me.
I was like you. A pack every two or three days. Never smoked in the day time. Had my first cig when I came home from work in the evening.
Here is a brief list of suggestions:
Drinking lots of water is supposed to help flush the nicotine out of your system.
If you drink alcohol be careful. Alcohol affects your brain’s decision making abilities and will make it easier to rationlize abandoning your decision to quit.
Be wary of situations where you habitually smoked like after a meal or talking on the phone or driving. This will be strong triggers.
Don’t just throw the smokes in the trash. Run water over them so they’re not smokeable. Empty all the ashtrays.
Tell everyone you know that you’re quitting. Your friends and family will help you when your will is shakey.
I almost forgot this morning, good thing I rid myself of smoking material I am succeeding so far, though I did chew threw two packs of gum already. I am using a rubber band to play with, actually a few of them and keeping myself busy seems to be working.
But my wife will be picking up some gum today and drop them off at work, they are lower priced now then when I originally looked a few years back. Thats good.
I was looking at the book and it seems to be a good purchase, sadly though I rarely have time to read a “real” book. I wish more people would sale ebooks Because I can read one of them on the computer during work without anyone batting an eye.
I, too, succeeding in quitting smoking without the aid of patches, gum, pills or anything similar. I quit over two years ago back in May, 2003 after having smoked between a pack and a pack-and-a-half a day for over twenty years. Once the first few weeks had passed, it was very easy. I can’t even remember the last time I had a craving for a cigarette. Good luck to you! You can do it; it’s all about willpower.
I was smoking about 2 packs a day when I quit cold-turkey on Thanksgiving Day, 1992. Okay, maybe it was over 2 packs…
I have not picked up a cigarette since. It is hard.
I loved smoking. I loved everything about it except for that persnickety cancer/heart disease stuff.
I just didn’t frigging smoke. No matter what. It was a nightmare, I was BEYOND cranky, I felt like I was actually going to DIE without a cigarette. But I didn’t smoke.
The bad craving only lasted a few days, maybe 2 weeks max. Then it was the habitual stuff- after meals, in my car, first thing before I got out of bed, etc. Breaking up my usual routines helped a lot.
It can be done, you just have to want to quit more than you want to smoke.
Debbie, smoke-free for 12 years and counting.
PS- Once you stop, stay stopped. If I picked up a cigarette now, I would be right back where I was before, and I do NOT want to go through quitting again. So smoking one just isn’t worth it (not that I ever smoked “just one” of anything, ever!).
If you don’t like the idea of nicotine replacement, you might try Zyban. It’s a pill, but does not contain nicotine. I’m on it now.
One great thing about Zyban is that you start it while you’re still smoking. It also makes your cigarettes taste like crap and, from my experience, cuts down on the cravings. I’m someone who smokes more when I’m anxious or stressed out. Zyban is actually Wellbutrin (an anti-depressant), so I think that has something to do with why I’m better able to resist smoking in those situations.
Today is going to be my last day of smoking. I gave myself until today, my wedding anniversary, to quit. Best of luck to you, and keep us updated!
Get yourself some bottled water with sport tops that you have to suck on to get the water out. They’re a great replacement for the oral fixation of smoking, while being extremely healthy and beneficial at the same time (as mentioned, water flushes the nicotine out of your system).
Also, don’t forget to BREATHE – DEEPLY! It may seem funny, but this is one of the reasons why smoking, in spite of the fact that nicotine is a stimulant, is actually relaxing – the deep breathing you have to do when you suck in a nice, long drag, hold it for a couple seconds, then release it slowly. If you make a habit of doing this without actually taking toxic smoke in, you get the same relaxation benefits without the threat of potential death.
And some people have found inspiration in tracking their progress through a “smoking meter,” such as the one at silkquit.org. I haven’t opened mine it ages, but it’s kindof cool to see that it’s been 3 years, 1 month, 1 week, 10 hours, 5 minutes and 49 seconds since I’ve had a cancer stick. 17,016 cigarettes not smoked, saving $2,977.85. Life saved: 8 weeks, 3 days, 2 hours, 0 minutes.
Because I can read one of them on the computer during work without anyone batting an eye.