Quitting smoking - give me tips!

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
101

You just totally fucking ROCK!!!

You’ve got this thing, you can do it!!!

Attitude is everything and yours is going to keep you strong.

I haven’t smoked tobacco since I quit. I’m like you, I know that just one will make me have to start all over ago and I’d be so mad at myself that I wouldn’t enjoy it.

(I know what you are doing is one of the hardest things in the world to do. After you have gotten through this, we can have a mutual "OMG, I suffered so much! session, but I don’t think its wise at this time. You are strong, you can do this!)

102

Yesterday was really hard! No idea why, I was grumpy all day. Monday blues, obviously. But I didn’t smoke.

Today is day 7 - nearly reached the week mile-marker.

103

Just remember that if you’re ever in your life going to quit smoking, you’re going to have to go through the process of quitting. So it can be now, or it can be after a major medical incident/diagnosis, or what-have-you. You have to go through this process at least once.

And right now makes sense, because:

  1. Right now you’re the least addicted you’re ever going to be for the rest of your (smoking) life, and

  2. Right now you stand to gain the most benefits from quitting

So keep on keepin’ on - now is the time.

104

YES!!! You got through the hard part, you are such a big quitter, such a winner!!!

I’m not going to tell you that its going to be easy from now on, but I can tell you that it will be easier.

I have honestly thought more about smoking this week than I have for the last year. I’m not wanting to smoke, I’m remembering how hard it was to get to where you are now and how great it is to be where I am now. You will get here too!

105

So one week ago today I stopped smoking, (and had my last smoke the night before that). Still getting several pangs a day - when do these properly ease off? I know it will be different for everyone, but I’m looking forward to the time when I just don’t think about it that much.

106

A standing ovation for you!! :raised_hands: From my personal experience, the pangs take a while to totally leave, but they will. As you said, everyone is different. I don’t remember how long it took, but that was when I found that a few deep breaths took the urge away. After 20 yrs, I still get those pangs 2-3 times a year. Not strong, but definitely there. You can do this.

107

What’s several? Give it an honest estimate, and check back in a week - I bet they are fewer and milder. And even moreso in a month.

Like I said before, for me it was just a matter of saying “No” ever time I got an urge. 35 years later, there are still the occasional time when someone will light up a cig and I’ll think I’d like to bum one off them. But that thought is only fleeting and easy to ignore.

Does it feel ANY easier today than it did over the past week? For me, the first couple of days were pretty intolerable. In fact, I don’t even remember them much, and my wife tells me I was basically pretty “sick” for a couple of days. But as I recall, it just got progressively easier and easier after that.

Stick with it, man.

108

Oh, certainly, the first couple of days were horrible. For some reason, so was Monday (day 6), perhaps because work days have more triggers for me. Today isn’t so bad.

Am constantly looking for something to eat though, maybe I should start chewing gum.

109

I always thought raw veggies were good - sorta satisfy the need to do something w/ your hands and mouth.

Not sure how much you exercise, but this might be an opportunity to kickstart any fitness regimen. Hard to want a smoke while you are running/biking/swimming/lifting. And if you make any gains, you might be less eager to counteract them w/ smoking.

Just go on w/ your life which no longer includes smoking. Maybe calculate what you woulda spent on smokes and treat yourself or your SO to a nice meal or present…

110

A woman I knew with high-functioning autism sometimes use to do things with her hands, like flapping, that looked “autistic,” and she wanted to find a way to keep for doing those things, so she kept her hands occupied with puzzles-- those little ones where you try to free a piece, or a Rubik’s cube, or the ones where you slide squares around and try to get numbers in order. She didn’t use them all the time-- just in situations where she might need to control her hands, but that was at work a lot. If people gave her funny looks, she’d say she was trying to break the habit of nail-biting-- which was partly true, because she did that sometimes.

You can occupy your mouth with gum or sugarless candy; if you need to occupy your hands as well, you could try puzzles.

Another possibility is “fidgets.” There are all sorts of little things people make to keep your hands occupied. They make them for kids with AD(H)D, but also for adults who have a lot of meeting at work. Try online office supply stores. Really. Sometimes when I make Purim bags, I put things like these in them, just to have a non-edible.

In fact, I’ve got a bunch of leftover fidgets from Purim last year (didn’t do bags this year-- COVID). Give me your snail address, and I can send you some.

111

Tiptoe around here. I got a grab bag of ‘fidgets’ from here and put them in care packages I sent once a month to my kid trying to survive medical school’s all or nothing-make it or break Step exams.

https://www.therapyshoppe.com/https://www.therapyshoppe.com/products/1690-desktop-desk-office-toys-gadgets-fidgets-sensory-stress-balls

112

Umm, got a 404 error on the link, also, what does the “Tiptoe around here” comment mean?

113

When I say tiptoe around in here I just mean wander in, look around, like a kid would in a toy store or a grownup would in a bookstore or library.

Sorry about the 404-I am very tech-daft. The web site is therappyshoppe.com. A fun place for all kinds of desk toys, stress relievers and fidgets for all ages.

114

Extra p. therapyshoppe.com.

115

Thanks for the fix :upside_down_face:.

116

AFAIC, the pangs never leave. Not a day goes by that I don’t want to smoke. I hope you are luckier than I. Do you have a quit-o-meter on your phone? There are several apps that give you info such as how many cigs you haven’t smoked and how much money you have saved. I’ve saved enough to go on a 2 week trip to England…

117

I am so sorry this has happened to you. I get a pang now and then, but not daily. I don’t think I even get them monthly anymore. Its gotta be tough :frowning:

@SanVito You should be very proud of yourself. You’re kicking it and winning! The physical addition is pretty much over, now you are just fighting with your habits. Keep up the good work!!!

118

I don’t know what the actual mechanism was, but my step-MIL 25 years ago was a fairly heavy smoker, and checked into the hospital for a hysterectomy. She brought two cartons of cigarettes. They asked her not to smoke before the surgery (not sure why), and she didn’t, but that was a couple of hours, and they’d given her Xanax, or something.

She said that after the surgery, she never wanted a cigarette. She never opened either carton. She ended up leaving them at the hospital “For anyone who wants a pack.” She has never smoked again. FIL was quite happy, because he’d been ordered by his doctor to quit the year before, and was struggling. Now that sMIL wasn’t smoking, he found it much easier.

sMIL stopped taking a blood-thinner, and started taking low-dose hormones replacements-- but was still at a lower dose than before the hysterectomy.

Like I said, I have no idea what the mechanism was, but something happened that flipped off a switch.

If this is a known phenomenon, maybe there is some kind of treatment for “pangs” derived from it-- I don’t mean a hysterectomy-- but maybe something peripheral to the surgery, like a course of gabapentin. I won’t sit here and guess. But you could ask your doctor.

@SanVito Something I just remembered someone mentioning that she did when she quit “The time it worked,” her words, was to hire a professional cleaning service to come in and do a really thorough job on her house-- wash down the walls, and everything. She meanwhile, laundered ALL her towels and sheets, curtains, and so forth. Got rid of every trace of lingering tar, tobacco, ash, etc. in the place, made sure there was no lingering smell.

She said it helped her in two ways: one was that there wasn’t the smell of smoke in the house making her crave a cigarette, and two was that after spending the money to de-smoke her house, she was really motivated to keep it that way.

119

Will it help to remind you that none of those pangs are physical? That you are well past any physical nicotine withdrawal so you won’t need to fight with that anymore.

120

Just wanted to say that this is what the Allen Carr method is so good at countering. No matter how you quit you still get the same primary benefit of never smoking again. But if you’re especially concerned about these pangs and how long they might last please look into Carr.

I know it’s hard to believe but with that simple way of thinking about being a non-smoker the pangs disappear pretty much instantly. You don’t “quit” so much as you become a non-smoker like anyone else who doesn’t smoke.

Non-smokers don’t sit around dying for a cigarette. The very idea is disgusting.