Poll For Those Of You Who Have Quit Smoking

In My Humble Opinion
41

[QUOTE=Fritz]

1. Were you a heavy (1 pack cigs or more a day) smoker?
2. How long has it been since you quit?
3. What caused you to quit?
4. Do you still crave tobacco and smoking?
5. If you do still crave, how often do you think about it?
6. If you do still crave, what helps you get over it?
7. Do you feel that you may someday fall off the wagon?

[/QUOTE]

  1. Yes - just about 1 pack a day
  2. Since Oct 21, 2006
  3. Tired of smelling like an ashtray and being controlled by my addiction
  4. Yes
  5. Probably 2-3 times a week
  6. Deep breaths, gum, toothpicks
  7. It’s a distinct possibility I may fall off the wagon, but I can only see this happening if I was extremely stressed about something.
42

[QUOTE=Maastricht]
I just came in here to make the obligatory recommendation for smokers who are trying to quit: reading the book “Allen Carr’s Easy Way to Stop Smoking” Available for free in your local library or for 12 bucks at any bookstore.
[/QUOTE]

Thank you Maastricht, I had forgotten about that book. I am going to stop at the bookstore today and get this for my daughter and hubby. :slight_smile:

43

Good morning friends,

  1. Were you a heavy (1 pack cigs or more a day) smoker?
    Yes. on some days I would get into a third pack
  2. How long has it been since you quit?
    I quit at 11:00 pm on 11/30/1998
  3. What caused you to quit?
    Health. I had tried to quit many times. I was no longer enjoying the cigarettes, but nicotine addiction is a hard one to beat.
  4. Do you still crave tobacco and smoking?
    Not at all.
  5. If you do still crave, how often do you think about it?
    No cravings, but I do notice many positives since I quit. Pretty often I see a group of smokers huddled outside in the snow and am glad I am no longer among them. Last week I noticed how much a carton of Marlboros cost and calculated that I would be spending in excess of $250.00 a month to support the habit.
  6. If you do still crave, what helps you get over it?
    In the first few weeks, when the cravings got to me, I would mentally calculate how many seconds it had been since I quit. Math is not my strong suit, so this often took some time and distracted me enough to help with the cravings.
  7. Do you feel that you may someday fall off the wagon?
    Absolutely not. Despite the fact that I really enjoy being a non smoker, I remember those first couple of weeks and I never want to have to go through that again.
44
  1. Were you a heavy (1 pack cigs or more a day) smoker? YES
  2. How long has it been since you quit? 26 YEARS
  3. What caused you to quit? It aggravated things like common colds, was a bad example for my kids, detrimental to my health, made me smell like an ashtray.
  4. Do you still crave tobacco and smoking? Not at all
  5. If you do still crave, how often do you think about it? N/A
  6. If you do still crave, what helps you get over it? N/A
  7. Do you feel that you may someday fall off the wagon?** NEVER
45
  1. Were you a heavy (1 pack cigs or more a day) smoker?
    Yes, about 1-1/2 packs a day for 30 years
  2. How long has it been since you quit?
    Almost 5 years
  3. What caused you to quit?
    My boyfriend didn’t smoke
  4. Do you still crave tobacco and smoking?
    Sometimes
  5. If you do still crave, how often do you think about it?
    Maybe once a month
  6. If you do still crave, what helps you get over it?
    Just think about something else
  7. Do you feel that you may someday fall off the wagon?
    I don’t think I’ll fall all the way. I’ve gotten drunk and had a couple of cigarettes a few times in the five years - maybe 10-15 cigs in 5 years - I don’t count it. When I’m sober I don’t crave very often.

Stick with it, it gets easier!

46

[QUOTE=Mangetout]
It sounds obvious, doesn’t it, but apparently it isn’t. I’m sure my attitude is severely biased by the fact that I just understood this when I gave up, but I’ve seen so many colleagues and friends make all sorts of elaborate plans and schemes for how they were going to give up smoking, only to fail when they tried - often on the lamest of excuses.

Complex plans have more potential points of failure than simple ones. Not putting cigarettes in your mouth again is about as simple a plan as can be.
[/QUOTE]

Another believer in quitting cold turkey here.

In my (admittedly limited) experience, what works best is very simple - throw out cigarrettes, throw out ashtray, throw out lighter. Make it so that you have to actually work to get these things.

My answers to the survey:

  1. Were you a heavy (1 pack cigs or more a day) smoker? Yes
  2. How long has it been since you quit? 3 1/2 years
  3. What caused you to quit? Frequent bronchitis
  4. Do you still crave tobacco and smoking? Not really; I still remember smoking as pleasurable though
  5. If you do still crave, how often do you think about it?
  6. If you do still crave, what helps you get over it?
  7. Do you feel that you may someday fall off the wagon? No - but obviously I can’t trust myself to take even a puff again. Once an addict, always wary
47
  1. 2 packs a day (more on weekends)
  2. 7ish years
  3. Mostly because I have kids, but I got sick of it, and my lungs felt like crap regularly.
  4. With beer. Beer + smokey treats = Peanut Butter + Jelly.
  5. I finally have reached a point that I barely crave ever, except after that 6th beer.
  6. The certain knowledge that if I start smoking again, I would consider myself one of the dumbest bastards walking the planet.
  7. I have fallen off a couple times for a week or so at a time. Oddly, the ease in which I quit again made me more confident that I could quit for good. And I honestly can say that I think I’ve reached that point.
48

1. Were you a heavy (1 pack cigs or more a day) smoker?

Not really. If I hit a pack a day, I’d quit. I did go through a pack in an evening once, but beer was also involved.

2. How long has it been since you quit?

December, 1978. Going for my 30 year pin.

3. What caused you to quit?

My wife didn’t smoke, and hated the smell. We got a new apartment, 2nd floor of a 3 family house. “You can smoke on the front porch, or on the back porch, but not in the house.” I made it until December.

4. Do you still crave tobacco and smoking?

Not a lot. Very occasionally when I am having a beer or a drink. I always loved the first one with a coffee in the morning, but coffee doesn’t trigger that craving.

5. If you do still crave, how often do you think about it?

I will occasionally dream that I am smoking, and I kick myself for starting again after so many years smoke-free. Then I wake up, amused and pleased that I could take up the habit again without actually smoking. It’s just as pleasurable in dreams as in real life, and it doesn’t turn my teeth yellow.

6. If you do still crave, what helps you get over it?

NA

7. Do you feel that you may someday fall off the wagon?

Not now.

49

1. Were you a heavy (1 pack cigs or more a day) smoker?
About that much, yes.

2. How long has it been since you quit?
18 years.

3. What caused you to quit?
My husband and I started trying for a baby.

4. Do you still crave tobacco and smoking?
very rarely.

5. If you do still crave, how often do you think about it?
Once in a great while, if I drink whiskey.

6. If you do still crave, what helps you get over it?
Getting a whiff of people who smoke. I don’t want to smell like that. Plus the cost is just outrageous. Just thinking of how much a pack of smokes costs is enough to to dissuade.

7. Do you feel that you may someday fall off the wagon?
Not at this point, no. I’ve gone this long, there’s no reason to think I’ll backslide.

50

  1. Were you a heavy (1 pack cigs or more a day) smoker?
    Yeah - 2+ packs for a few years.

  2. How long has it been since you quit?
    About 23 years

  3. What caused you to quit?
    Wife wouldn’t marry a smoker. While engaged I had lied and told her I had quit. Then one time she came back early for a trip. THAT was a fun weekend! :rolleyes:

  4. Do you still crave tobacco and smoking?

  5. If you do still crave, how often do you think about it?

  6. If you do still crave, what helps you get over it?

Not crave, but once in a while someone will light up and I’ll think “Man, I’d like a smoke.” But it passes really quickly. I made 2 promises to my wife that I don’t intend to break - one of which is that I won’t smoke. Once you pile up a few years of not smoking, it becomes a pretty effective tool in helping you fight the urge, not wanting to toss away a lengthy “streak.” Hell, at this point I’d be 70 before I amassed another 23 years!

It is funny, because 99% of the time I really dislike smelling smoke - if I go out to a club I hate the way my hair and clothes smell afterwards, I hate when I can smell it on someone else. But there is something so fun and cool about so many aspects of smoking…

  1. Do you feel that you may someday fall off the wagon?

Not likely. Could imagine if I got divorced, I might go out on a bender. Oh yeah, I haven’t drunk for 4 years or so either. :stuck_out_tongue: But it isn’t the kind of thing that happens accidentally. I mean, it would take quite a few intentional steps to get a lit cigarette between my lips, with the chance to say “No” at each step.

51
  1. pack to pack and a half a day
  2. 4 years this week
  3. pulmonary embolism
  4. yes
  5. couple times a week
  6. find a distraction
  7. og I hope not
52
  1. Were you a heavy (1 pack cigs or more a day) smoker?
    1/2 per day max.
  2. How long has it been since you quit?
    3 months
  3. What caused you to quit?
    Long story, didn’t REALLY want to.
  4. Do you still crave tobacco and smoking?
    Not too bad
  5. If you do still crave, how often do you think about it?
    Driving home from work, actually driving in general is my main trigger.
  6. If you do still crave, what helps you get over it?
    Just grit my teeth and tough it out. Passes quickly most times.
  7. Do you feel that you may someday fall off the wagon?
    Yes, I could fall off pretty easy, because I really didn’t want to stop and I was mostly a closet smoker all along so I wouldn’t have to face the disapproval of others over my failure.
53

1. Half-pack a day.
2. I quit 34 years ago.
3. What caused you to quit? I nearly drove off the highway trying to light a cigarette.
4. No cravings. I still love the smell of pipe tobacco, though.
5. If you do still crave, …nope
6. …what helps you get over it? The last few times I thought about smoking again, I just thought about how dangerous it is. That was years ago.
7. …someday fall off the wagon? Not a chance.

54
  1. Were you a heavy (1 pack cigs or more a day) smoker? Yes, 1/2 to 1 pack for ~20 years
  2. How long has it been since you quit? December 18, 2003
  3. What caused you to quit? Fear of death. Had a child and knew how bad it was for me.
  4. Do you still crave tobacco and smoking? Yes
  5. If you do still crave, how often do you think about it? Once every two weeks or so, but only momentarily (the craving lasts less than 2 minutes.
  6. If you do still crave, what helps you get over it? Amusement that I still feel cravings.
  7. Do you feel that you may someday fall off the wagon? Never. I quit too many times and fell off the wagon too many times to ever make the mistake of putting tobacco in my mouth again.
55
  1. Were you a heavy (1 pack cigs or more a day) smoker?
    Yes, I most assuredly was. A pack to a pack and a half a day for probably 15 years.
  2. How long has it been since you quit?
    Just about 15 months.
  3. What caused you to quit?
    I’d been thinking about it since I’d hit 40; I was feeling pretty run down. The killer hangover on New Years Day made it impossible for me to smoke a cigarette that day. I figured I might as well see if I could keep it up the next day. Lather, rinse, repeat. It was tough at times, but just taking it one day at a time, one minute at a time if need be seemed to work for me.
  4. Do you still crave tobacco and smoking?
    No, hardly ever. Never any intense craving at all; more of a wistful memory.
  5. If you do still crave, how often do you think about it?
    once a month or two.
  6. If you do still crave, what helps you get over it?
    being able to do 4 miles on the treadmill three times a week, going hiking or mountain bike riding. Any number of physical activities. Eating well prepared food and really being able to taste it.
  7. Do you feel that you may someday fall off the wagon?
    I would never say I’m over smoking. I would say that I like my life much better without tobacco, and the odds are very good that I will not go back to cigarettes.
56

[QUOTE=Zoe]
(Hey, John Carter! Didn’t know we were suffering through this together!)
[/QUOTE]

Well I didn’t either! Cheers to both of us on one year.

57

[QUOTE=Fritz]
I am trying to help myself by asking others how they cope:

1. Were you a heavy (1 pack cigs or more a day) smoker?
2. How long has it been since you quit?
3. What caused you to quit?
4. Do you still crave tobacco and smoking?
5. If you do still crave, how often do you think about it?
6. If you do still crave, what helps you get over it?
7. Do you feel that you may someday fall off the wagon?

[/QUOTE]

  1. 1/2-3/4 pack/day
  2. 8 years
  3. Cigarettes became unbearably disgusting. My gag reflex was starting to trigger almost every time i had a smoke. My long term health was also a concern. I think I convinced myself, and truly made myself believe i hated it, and that’s how I was able to quit.
  4. Never once since I quit (patch worked wonders btw)
  5. NA
  6. NA
  7. No fear. I’m off it for good.

A little bit of advice… get into your own head. You need to teach yourself to honestly believe it’s not something you enjoy. Think back to a “bad” cigarette, and convince yourself that every cigarette is like that. Personally, whenever I had one of those mornings where I woke up all dry-mouthed, and I had a smoke, i gagged on it. It was a horrible taste and experience to actually have a cigarette. The patch worked wonders. You’re well past the point of needing it however, so I’ll spare you on why it’s easier with the patch, although I’m sure you already know how it works.

Once you’ve convinced yourself that smoking is something you truly don’t enjoy, you can easily get over cravings. It helps to fidget too. If you catch yourself fidgeting, find something good to fidget with, like a stress ball, or chew on a straw or something. I still chew on pens/straws, whatever, and make no effort to avoid doing so.

You may think it’s a hard thing to do to convince yourself you didn’t enjoy smoking, but it’s actually not that bad. It’s literally just a change of opinion about something. If I decided I wanted to like rap music for example, I could convince myself to do it. By now you should be over your nicotene addiction, and it’s a physical thing. So the combination of finding something else to fill that physical urge to do something with your hands/mouth, and getting in your own head is key. Of course, in your case, you’ve also got a past heart attack, and that’s a pretty good deterrent as well.

Do puzzles, read comics, chew pens, get a stress ball, fidget with anything in sight. Keep your hands busy, your mind off it, and learn to hate it. That’s the best advice I can give.

58

  1. Were you a heavy (1 pack cigs or more a day) smoker?
    -Yep, right about a pack a day, a little less, a little more sometimes.

  2. How long has it been since you quit?

  • 8 or 9 months now.

  1. What caused you to quit?
    Nothing at all, which is the funny part. I always used to smoke the the garage, where I had a couch and a lamp and a collection of books that I was reading, and would go out and sit and smoke and read. Last fall, when it started getting cold out, I walked outside (garage is detached), and turned around and went back in, not feeling like sitting in the cold nor feeling like digging out my 'outside smoking blanket." I never went back out.

  2. Do you still crave tobacco and smoking?
    A little bit. I bought a pack about a month or two after I quit, at the Cincinatti airport with a 5 hour delay until my flight, smoked two or three, tossed the pack.

  3. If you do still crave, how often do you think about it?
    Maybe once a day, but it’s usually very brief and I can sort of laugh it off. About once ever week I have a serious craving.

  4. If you do still crave, what helps you get over it?
    Usually smelling smoke grosses me out now, enough that I don’t actually want to smoke. Plus, I’m definitely feeling healther, and working out and working towards a goal of running 10 mi, and I know smoking would knock me right off that path. (

  5. Do you feel that you may someday fall off the wagon?
    Not really, but I quite probably a half dozen times before and always knew I’d probably pick it back up. This time seems a lot different because I felt no pressure (or desire really) to quit, I just stopped wanting to smoke.

FWIW, I’m a 35 year old female, and smoked for over 20 years.

59
  1. Were you a heavy (1 pack cigs or more a day) smoker?
    Yes - reduced to about 15 per day in the last couple of years, but well over a pack a day for 25 years.
  2. How long has it been since you quit?
    Five years on April 26th.
  3. What caused you to quit?
    Bad role modelling for my kid. Couldn’t breathe properly till my second smoke had numbed my lungs to the crap they contained. Moved to a new place with a rent increase the exact same amount as I spent on smokes.
  4. Do you still crave tobacco and smoking?
    Sometimes, it’s not a big deal, it passes within seconds.
  5. If you do still crave, how often do you think about it?
    Depends, in stressful times perhaps once or twice a week.
  6. If you do still crave, what helps you get over it?
    Thinking about the cost, smell and health issues.
  7. Do you feel that you may someday fall off the wagon?
    I did, during one drunken party about a year ago. Smoked half a dozen during the night and woke up with the shakes, nausea and a headache that took three days to shift. Haven’t really been tempted since, even back at the same friend’s place, even more drunker! Hur!
60

I didn’t smoke, I was a “smokeless tobbacco” user. I wanna play anyway.

  1. Were you a heavy tobbacco user?
    Constant, for 25 years. The only time I did not have a dip in was when I was eating or sleeping. I learned to swallow the juice so I could dip at work, church, etc. Friends who had known me for years were flabbergasted to learn that I used tobbacco. Since they had never seen me without a dip, and I never spit, they thought the slight lip bulge was normal!
  2. How long has it been since you quit?
    2 years, almost exactly.
  3. What caused you to quit?
    Role modeling, both for my kids and those in the youth group I work with.
  4. Do you still crave tobacco?
    Yes, but thankfully the cravings and dreams are becoming less common. The dreams are the worst. So real I wake up thinking I failed.
  5. If you do still crave, how often do you think about it?
    Once or twice per week, on average.
  6. If you do still crave, what helps you get over it?
    The thought that I have made it this far and to succumb now would be dumb.
  7. Do you feel that you may someday fall off the wagon?
    Not anymore. I did tell my wife that if I ever did pick up the habit again, forget another attempt to quit. This was the hardest thing I’ve ever done!