I finally decided to do it. Several months ago, I picked a date, and decided that it would be The Day I Quit.
Now that day looms before me, and I wonder if I have the willpower. I’ve done a lot of thinking about what I’ll do once I’ve quit–take a long, brisk walk without getting short of breath, start a savings account with the money I’m not spending on cigarettes, Febreze my whole house to get rid of the smoke odor once my nose starts working again. But I didn’t give nearly enough thought to how I would accomplish the quitting itself.
So, Dopers, I ask of you–how did you quit? Did you use the patch? Did you get a prescription for something miraculous? I’m not above asking for chemical, medical, or divine help on this one. I really do want to quit (perhaps for the first time since I started smoking in junior high), but I have never been known for my willpower.
Different things work for different people. Personally there’s no way I could have done it without help.
I used the patch and it worked pretty well. It took the edge off. I did have strange, vivid dreams at night (which is a side effect they warn you about), but you can take the patch off at night if that bothers you. I carried toothpicks and straws around to substitute holding a cigarette, and I chewed a lot of gum. I also had to give up both coffee and alcohol for a few months, as they were huge triggers for me.
I kept track of my daily progress on a calendar and periodically gave myself little “rewards” for not smoking…a new item of clothing, bottle of perfume, etc. The trick is not to think about going the rest of your life without smoking, because that is too overwhelming a prospect. Just focus on making it through each day. It will get easier after the first couple weeks.
Don’t wonder if you have the willpower. You do. It’s just a matter of believing it.
I used the patch and it worked well. No jitters from lack of nicotine. I just had to deal with my head thinking it was time to smoke. My body gave me no trouble.
That is a good point. It was a scary thought. But once I got into it that didn’t matter any more. It has been 7 years now.
Patches worked well for me last time. I fell off the wagon last summer, and have just quit again in the last few days–cold turkey this time, but then, I’ve not smoked nearly so much as I used to.
The trick, IMO, is mostly in changing the way you think. You essentially have to think like a non-smoker again, which is to say not to think about having a cigarette while drinking, having coffee, etc. And whatever you do, don’t dwell on it when you have a craving. Think about something else and just ignore it. If all you do is think about how hard quitting smoking is, or how nice smoking was, you’re never going to get anywhere.
Also, and I know this goes against the conventional wisdom, I’m not sure if setting a ‘quit date’ is really all that good of an idea. You wind up with a lot of time to dwell on the fact that there’ll be no more smoking after that day, and you wind up making quite a big deal of it. Better, in my experience (of twice quitting, heh), just to get up one day, say to yourself, “OK, that’s it,” and slap a patch on.
I don’t drink alcohol a lot (although I smoke like a chimney when I do), so I don’t think that’s going to be a huge problem until well after I’m past the initial withdrawal stages.
But no one … no one wants to see me without cigarettes or coffee. :eek:
However, I think the strange vivid Patch-Dreams could be fun.
I quit about two months ago. Having a quitting buddy helped tons. I mostly went cold turkey, with an occasional patch for nights at the bar. The big patch (21mg?) was too much for me, almost made me barf, and I was a pack a day plus smoker. If I cut it in half it was about right.
I agree with SaharaTea about weird dreams on the patch, it also made the spot I put it on a little sore-I’d suggest shoulder blade rather than upper arm.
I was a pack-a-day+ smoker for about ten years. I tried everything - patches, gum, lozenges, zyban, chantix. All had varying degrees of success, but I always came back to smoking. I read Alan Carr’s The easy way to stop smoking and just quit. It was just as the title suggests - easy. I think the book was $15 at the local Barnes and Noble, which is cheaper than any other aid I tried.
I gave up using the technique taught by an Englishwoman, Gillian Riley. She wrote a really thin book How to Stop Smoking and Stay Stopped for Good that I had sitting around for years before I read it. She is an addiction counsellor and her technique is like no-one else’s.
Basically she explains that you smoke because you get a buzz out of it. You may have forgotten this and built up lots of myths about smoking but that is why you smoke.
Giving up involved accepting this and dealing with it. No aids are used. I carried a packet of cigarettes and my lighter with me at all times. I took cigarette breaks at work, stood around with the smokers and didn’t smoke. I kept going out to drink with friends who smoked. I told no-one I was giving up. When watching TV I would sit there with an ashtray, my packet of smokes and my lighter and during the ads pull out a cigarette to play with - to stimulate my craving.
It was actually fun giving up. I learned a lot about how my brain works and the system enhanced my sense of self control. Rather than feeling that I had to resist some urge, I learned that I could deal with it and choose what I want to do.
I tried the patch; it irritates the hell out of my skin. And makes me sick.
The gum is okay. The trick with the gum is to wean yourself down to a low dose. For me that’s about 1/2 mg every couple of hours (which means cutting the gum, of course; to make the piece big enough to bother chewing I mix in some regular gum). After the dose is low enough, it’s fairly easy to wean yourself off nicotine, though it takes a couple of weeks for me to feel normal.
I’ve had to do this a few times. I never managed to quit completely, although I’ve gone as long as seven years without smoking. So I can’t get into that “I’m a non-smoker” mindset: I’m just a smoker who’s not doing it.
Of course, you can always just stay addicted to the gum. There are some health risks involved, or so I’ve read (the lit is long on conjecture, short on studies) but they’re rather minimal compared to getting the drug through smoking, or chewing tobacco.
I tried nicotice replacements over and over again; once the patch came off or the gum went out, I always wanted a cigarette. I finally went on Zyban (it’s actually the anti-depressant Wellbutrin), and it did the trick.
My husband tried to quit several times. He finally managed to quit using patches. He quit in 2001, I think, or 2002, so it seems to be permanent now.
He says that he doesn’t really miss it much, though he dreams about it sometimes, and then in his dream he realizes that he is Dead Meat because I will kill him for taking it up again.
I’ll second this. I was a 2 pack a day smoker at the end of my habit, and my habit was 25 years old. It was easy to quit with no crutches after I read this book. It didn’t draw out the quitting process - it took me the time it took to read the book.
I’ve quit twice with Chantix and once with the patch. The Chantix worked best. It truly took away my desire to smoke. Unfortunately it also made me sick to my stomach to the point of vomiting. Since I’ve quit 3 times (the longest for over 2 years) obviously this is an issue I will deal with for the rest of my life. But I have another quit date picked and will use the patch again.
My roommate and I are quitting together, so I’ve got a built-in buddy. I’m going to be completely unsurprised when she has absolutely no trouble with the cold-turkey method and goes about her life without a thought of smoking or bitchy moment while I chew all my nails to stubs and burst into tears at odd moments.
I smoke about a pack a day, but I also smoke Ultra Lights, so I’m guessing that most of the full-strength patches are going to do nothing but make me sick. Q-Day is officially May 1st, so I think I’m going to try to make it through the day at work without a patch (and without killing anyone), in case there are any unfortunate side effects.
I think the hardest thing is going to be long drives. I drive from New Jersey to Maine at least five or six times a year, and sometimes the only thing that keeps my mind on the road is having a cigarette. But I suppose it’ll be nice to go out to dinner again and not have to leave the table in shifts so the waitstaff don’t take our food away.
I am 11 years sober from a severe drug and alcohol problem. I am now just over 8 month free from smoking.
What I learned form my experiences is that cold turkey is the only real way. The withdraws are hard yes, but the entire withdraw phase is shorter with cold turkey. Patches and gums and such just draw the agonizing process even longer. Tough the shit out and get though a week uncomfortableness and you are home free.
It will suck big time. It will cause pain and frustration and restlessness and grief and loss. You are an adult and have dealt with this before so just get on with it and deal. It will not last to long and within a few days you will become really proud of yourself.
The freedom is what motivated me. No looking for smokes, wondering where I can smoke, lighters, smells, cost. Getting that monkey of my back as fast as possible was best for me. I did not want to wonder and worry about patches and gum and pills and acupuncture appointments. The liberation I got from getting sober was amazing and the liberation from putting the smokes away was just as good.
Anther helpful hint is that it is OK to think about smoking. During my hardest cravings I read about smoking ill effects. It really helped. I would pick up a random non smoking book or read message boards or whatever. I would suggest it. It is motivation and gives you something to do during those times.
Really consider cold turkey. We are nicotine addicts . Cigs are just one way of getting it. Patches and gums are another. QUIT NICOTINE!
Stay strong.
Do not smoke for any reason.
There is no situation that a smoke will make better
