Can anyone tell me why today is the hardest yet? How come things have only gotten worse as the day has progressed? Why I feel I “need” a cigarette?
Fuck, today sucks…
Yer pal,
Satan
http://www.raleighmusic.com/board/Images/devil.gif
I HAVE BEEN SMOKE-FREE FOR:
Five days, 15 hours, 35 minutes and 52 seconds.
225 cigarettes not smoked, saving $28.25.
Life saved: 18 hours, 45 minutes.
It’s all in your head, dude. Look at your stats. You haven’t smoked for nearly a week. In reality, today is no different.
Find something else to think about NOW. Make a call. Go hang out at the water cooler. Start a new project.
You can beat this, man. At the very least, I will have quit longer than you, and I will never let you live it down. 
The SDMB Smoke-Out Continues
Delta-9 Stats
4 Days, 14 hours, 54 minutes and 54 seconds
92 cigarettes not smoked, saving me $18.48
Life Saved: 7 hours, 40 minutes
Satan, It takes about 4-6 weeks before 99% of the urges go away. It’s tough I know, but keep it up.
For every action, there is an equal and opposite criticism.
Honey, if it helps…
Take a look at that impotence comment up there. Read it real hard and real long.
Think of how old you’ll be when you hit middle age. Think of how old I’ll be. Think of how old women are when they hit their sexual peak.
Do it for me. Please.
I love you, I’m proud of you, and I have the utmost faith in the fact that YOU CAN DO THIS.
Bump.
You hanging in, Satan?
*GO BRIAN
GO BRIAN
GO BRIAN
*
You can do it man, I know you can!
Peace.
† Jon †
Phillipians 4:13
DAY SIX
Well, I did it. I didn’t smoke. Thanks to all for your encouragement. I hope to do all of you proud…
I know if I can get through to next weekend, when I will be in Columbus with Drain Bead, I’ll be okay.
Yer pal,
Satan
http://www.raleighmusic.com/board/Images/devil.gif
TIME ELAPSED SINCE I QUIT SMOKING:
Six days, 5 minutes and 34 seconds.
240 cigarettes not smoked, saving $30.02.
Life saved: 20 hours, 0 minutes.
I didn’t read thru all the posts, but thought you’d like to hear from another recent ex-smoker. It’s now been two weeks for me. Gawd, the 4th & 5th days were awful -felt like hell mentally & physically, even though I’m using the nicotine gum, but feeling good now. Still craving the smokes of course. Gained a few pounds too, but better that than emphysema, or worse. I’m going to make it this time and I know you are. BTW, your countdown (or is a count-up?) in all your posts helps me too. Thanks!
Satan,
I don’t know you, except those aspects accessible via your posts to this board. This also applies to others utilizing this thread as one component of their stop-smoking mission.
My parents both faced the struggle in which you are now engaged. One of them has emerged from the struggle in a much more healthy and vigorous state. The other, tragically, did not.
I, for one, look forward to the day when I see:
DAY (N+1)
Today is different - I think I have beaten it…
On the other hand, if I see:
DAY (N+1)
I have something to admit today …
I will post the following: “Well, regroup, start another thread (this has gotten SO long,) and keep us posted on your progress.”
The more things change, the harder it is to finish this sentence.
I KNEW this thread had to exist somewhere but somehow I kept missing it. Haven’t had time to search for it at work this week.
Something seems to be going around here…I quit 3/20/00 - 26 days now. And guess what - I had to go get a calendar to figure that out! I’ve gotten past the day-counting stage. WHEE!!!
I tried the Zyban thing, but just felt too weird all the time and had to quit taking it. I took it for 2 weeks before quitting & cut down a bit (but never got the “bad taste effect” that some do). Only took it for about 3 days after quitting. Fortunately my nicotine addiction has never seemed to be as bad as my smoking habits addiction (the hands, the mouth, the lung orgasm). It does help that all of my friends have quit smoking already; we were the last holdouts.
19 years; 2 packs a day. I’ve never tried to quit before - wasn’t ready. I LIKE to smoke, dammit. But it was just time.
So far it’s not been too bad. Going through a LOT of gum. Had to switch to Trident - I was afraid all my teeth would rot out before I was through. I still often want a cigarette, but it’s not the knock-you-over craving kinda thing. Just a lingering, irritating itch kinda thing. Ignorable.
Anyway. Just wanted to say HI to the crowd. And Congrats - you’re doing great! And keep up the good fight! And all that stuff.
Gotta go - my bed is calling.
Some things I have learned from my experience:
Find a good motivation to quit. Quitting for my own health wasn’t enough for me, my reason was to try to encourage my daughter not to smoke, but she’s hooked now, and will have to go through her own quitting process now. But, I quit because of that reason.
Plan your quit. Buy your stop smoking aid about two weeks before you stop, read the instructions, and follow them when you decide on your quit date.
Your sense of smell will increase in power beyond what you thoughtpossible. I can smell a smoker more that 50 feet away if ther isn’t any wind. It makes you think some about what you used to smell like. If you are still a smoker, believe people when they say that they can smell you, even if you can’t smell a cigarette if you’re smoking it yourself!
You will probably have cravings for years after quitting, they just get farther apart and easier to deal with.
Sometimes, you still feel like you are being treated unfairly because you can’t smoke, and other people can. Do your best to feel superior, but it probably isn’t good to verbalize those thoughts.
One year, three months, two weeks, 10 hours, 49 minutes and 4 seconds. 16465 cigarettes not smoked, saving $2,222.88. Life saved: 8 weeks, 1 day, 4 hours, 5 minutes.
I am a nonsmoker. I don’t know what it is like to have an addiction and what it is like trying to break that addiction.
Just for grins and giggles, I did the SilkQuit, it wouldn’t allow me to go back to my birthdate (1966) so I entered the closest year, 1970.Since I wouldn’t know what the cost of a cigerette pack was if it hit me on the head, I put in $2.00 per pack at 20 cigs a day. (How many cigs in a pack and how many packs in a carton?)
I’ve “saved” $10,732.00
Life Saved: 1 year, 1 week, 1 day, 15 hours and 20 minutes.
Cigs not smoked: 107320
If you want a visual of just why I didn’t cave into peer pressure or the image thing when I was a teenager ( and yes, for a millisecond, I was tempted. A millisecond in teenage time lasts as long as a football minute.), just envision a nine year old girl standing by her father’s coffin the day after Christmas.He died on the 25th. He was only 52 and hadn’t smoked in over 10 years. Yet, both his lungs were black. He was diagnosed in August and died four months later. I would give all my money and five years off my life just for an hour with him just so I could get to know him.
Learning about someone by hearsay and stories is no way to fill the gaping hole inside of you.
I would give ten years off my life if my mom could spend another day with him so she would be happy again like they were before he died and her life really started getting crappy.
I wish everyone who has quit the strength to fight the demons inside and overcome the nicotine addiction. Do it so you don’t become a photograph on your (future) childrens fire place mantel and a hazy memory.
Shirley, that story made me cry. If that doesn’t make people think very hard about quitting, nothing will.
DAY SEVEN
One week. This means I am about half-way home, since I seem to recall things getting a lot easier after the two week milestone last time I quit.
Today wasn’t bad. Watched the NFL draft on TV, hung out, never left the house except to check mail.
Last night I had smoking dreams. I forgot all about them. At about this point last year, I started having dreams where I was smoking. They were so vivid, I swore - even after I woke up - that I started smoking again!
The dreams last night involved Drain Bead. We were together and I smoked her cigarettes, which is funny because she doesn’t smoke!
I was worried the last time I started having smoking dreams, but a co-worker of mine who had quit also described this phenomenon to me as a positive thing. It ws the brain’s way of doing something to get that fix since I was not doing it iin real life. And that this would help me because my body would think it smoked. Strange thing the mind, but I do recall things getting easier when I started having the dreams last time, and that they lasted a couple of weeks until the cravings almost totally went away.
Any other quitters here ever get smoking dreams?
Except for a dry mouth from hell, the side-effcts from the Zyban seem to be subsiding. I slept like a baby last night for the first time in some time.
I really feel strong now. I think everyone for their encouragement about this. It helps, trust me!
Personal note to Drain Bead - Thank you as well for your personal encouragement. I’m doing this for us, not just me, and that alone is giving me the strength I need. I love you, angel.
Yer pal,
Satan
http://www.raleighmusic.com/board/Images/devil.gif
TIME ELAPSED SINCE I QUIT SMOKING:
One week, 1 hour, 31 minutes and 35 seconds.
282 cigarettes not smoked, saving $35.32.
Life saved: 23 hours, 30 minutes.
I’ve been away from the board for awhile. I was in the hospital about three weeks ago and since I got out, I decided to continue not smoking. I tried to smoke the day I was released and it tasted horrible. I’ve had a couple here and there, but they haven’t been satisfying.
I feel like an outcast, since everywhere I look, people are smoking. But now that some fellow SDMBers are quitting, too, it’s just more encouragement for me to keep it up. The cravings are fewer and further between and I’m feeling better and better every day.
I wish everyone else the best of luck. It’s hard, but it’ll be the best thing we can do for ourselves.
DAY EIGHT
This day was really easy! I can’t believe how easy it was! Immediately after I treated myself after church for a Char-Grill burger (them’s good eats!), partially to celebrate my week of smoke-freeness, I got the urge to smoke. And then, it just went away. That was the first and last time that happened today.
I think I’m going to make it… knock on wood
Yer pal,
Satan
http://www.raleighmusic.com/board/Images/devil.gif
TIME ELAPSED SINCE I QUIT SMOKING:
One week, one day, 22 minutes and 11 seconds.
320 cigarettes not smoked, saving $40.08.
Life saved: 1 day, 2 hours, 40 minutes.
I never started smoking, because before the age I would have started, my father had his first heart bypass surgery and gave up smoking. Even the thought of dying wasn’t enough to make my father quit smoking. What finally gave him the incentive he needed was being told that he would never be able to pick up another child if he didn’t stop smoking.
I lost my father two years ago to a heart attack. He probably lived 10 or 15 years longer than he would have if he hadn’t stopped smoking, but he also probably died 15 or 20 years earlier than he would have if he had never smoked.
I think I smoked one or two cigarettes back in high school. The frightening thing is, I don’t remember coughing or thinking they tasted particularly nasty. Had I cared less about what my parents thought, or if they would have not cared, I probably would have become a smoker. As it was, they would have killed me if I started smoking.
Here’s another thing that frightens me - Satan, I’ve had smoking dreams. And I wake up from them with a certain longing that dissipates as I remember the reality of smoking. Smelling nasty, coughing, knowing I’m going to die from a heart attack (My grandfather and great-grandfather died early from heart attacks as well.)
Because I care about this, I tend to accumulate information about risks associated with smoking. So, here are some more reasons to stop smoking:
Increased susceptibility to upper respiratory illness.
Increased chance of kidney stones.
Increased supragingival calculus (ask your dentist, I just found it in an article - I think it’s that nasty stuff they have to scrape off your teeth or you get gingivitis)
Smoking lowers oxygen in the blood and slows healing - bone breaks especially take twice as long in smokers to heal as in non-smokers.
For women - while there is some research that theorizes a genetic component to smoking addiction, there is other research that theorizes that people develop a taste for smoking by being exposed to it in the womb and through nursing. You may not care about your own health, but do you want your children to smoke?
Second hand smoke intensifies asthma and allergies, and increases susceptibility to upper respiratory diseases.
Finally, there is also some evidence that second hand smoking causes cancer. I don’t know what you do about smoking around Drain Bead - but you do not want to feel the guilt
my father felt when my mother was diagnosed with breast cancer.
I know how hard it is to break an addiction. I had to quit caffeine several years back because of health problems. I tried twice before succeeding on the third try. Even then I cheated - I quit the day I had major surgery. Lots of nice painkillers and it didn’t matter if I couldn’t stay awake. I didn’t have anything better to do than sleep anyway.
I do NOT agree with the idea of “just quit now”. Jeez, can you think of anything else that drastic you would do without planning? This is what I advocate:
[ul][li]Set a date in the near future to quit[/li][li]Make a list of the reasons for quitting. Try to make some immediate. If necessary, blame all of your current problems on the addiction (yes, lie to yourself)[/li][li]Spend the time until quit date hating the addiction for everything that is on your list[/li][li]Inform yourself as to what to expect in the way of withdrawal. Plan on feeling miserable[/li][li]When the quit date comes, quit. Everytime you get cravings, review your list of reasons for quitting.[/li][li]Rejoice whenever one of your reasons for quitting is validated.[/ul][/li]
It saddens me to know that some of my friends here smoke. It makes me very, very happy when I hear that someone here has quit.
I do not merely dance. I bewitch. I seduce. I enchant and I bewilder. Throw money.
(Gee, Wally must have seen me dance!)
Satan,
I’ll bet those Char Grill burgers will start tasting even better when your taste buds recover. That’s what I’ve noticed, anyway.
Now I have to get my eating under control. Oh well, one thing at a time, right?
DAY NINE
It’s getting better…
Yer pal,
Satan
http://www.raleighmusic.com/board/Images/devil.gif
TIME ELAPSED SINCE I QUIT SMOKING:
One week, two days, 1 hour, 12 minutes and 24 seconds.
362 cigarettes not smoked, saving $45.25.
Life saved: 1 day, 6 hours, 10 minutes.
Satan:
Please accept my hearfelt congratulations. Speaking as an expert on drug dependence, (specifically tobacco dependence and cessation), I’d like to welcome you to the ranks of the ex-smokers of the world. Success stories such as yours are always an inspiration and I thank you for sharing yours with us.
Please take a moment for a few relapse prevention exercises. Remember that there are a variety of factors that can cause you to “crave” a cigarette unexpectedly in the weeks and months to come. These include stress at work, personal issues, alcohol, and boredom. You may want to spend some free time now to plan for those events. What will you use, besides cigarettes, as a stress reducer when work gets overwhelming? (Exercise is a good stress-reliever!) To whom will you turn, besides Phillip Morris, if you and Drain meet a small obstacle in your lifetime journey? When you drink, what will you say, besides “Yes, thanks” to old/new acquaintances when they offer you a cigarette? What other activities, besides smoking, can you do on a rainy Sunday when there is nothing on TV?
Please plan for these events and practice your responses. I promise you that, with some forethought, you will be better prepared to handle these situation.
Again, thanks very much for the inspirational thread!
Eissclam.