Two months and a half, cold-turkey smoke free and counting. Tried this before, but I cheated every time, and subsequently went back to it. This time it seems to be working.
The main difference this time is that I stopped weed at the same time as cigarrettes, and found I don’t crave either as much as I feared I would. Every other time I tried, I’d use joints to replace the cigarretes I wasn’t smoking: problem was, as soon as I finished the joint, I wanted a cigarrette to follow it.
Hey, it must be working! I seem to have forgotten even how to SPELL cigarette!
I caved. Big time. But my other choice was decking my General Counsel in front of the Board of Directors, so I’m trying to be philosophical about it.
::sigh::
Day 1: No cravings so far on account of the nicotine overdose I gave myself last night.
Oh dear. Well Manny (can i call you that btw?) - the door’s open - come back on in. You know what i think we should also do? Use this thread as a i-have-to-rant-or-i’ll-punch-someone thread.
Nothing i or you can say will make yesterday’s slip-up go away, so put it behind you and move on. You don’t have to smoke today - the nicotine demon is evil and lies. Grab your patches and get rolling again.
Fran
I’m not making any sense am I? brain addled
Don’t give up the ship, Manhattan. Some of the best hunting dogs are gun-shy the first time out in the field (or something like that).
Stay with it. Don’t give Philip Morris any more of your hard-earned money. We’re all rooting for you.
To everyone else who is trying to quit–Hang In There!
No, no. I’m back on the wagon.
As opposed to prior attempts, which I made because I ought to quit, or my company’s health plan offered a quitting bonus, or I was dating a non-smoker or whatever, this time I really want to quit. And I’m going to, dammit!
You guys rock for making it as far as you have.
I quit 4 years ago, for 3 years. Last year was a very rough year: My mother died, I turned 30, and my SO and I broke up. All in about 4 months time. After the last event I said to hell with it and started smoking again.
I knew I had missed smoking, I had just forgotten how much. I smoked a pack that first afternoon and didn’t even get sick. I quit again Feb. 18 at 9pm. I did it the same way I did back in 97: cold turkey.
It’s not the nicotine that really gets me, it’s the physical act of smoking that I miss, that I crave. I lovingly inhale when walking by someone smoking (still do this), I open my co-workers packs and take a deep whiff, I’ve even found myself getting up from my desk at work to go have a cig, remembering a few jarring seconds later that I don’t smoke anymore!
For me the craving never went away when I quit the first time. I don’t expect it to go away this time, it does lessen though. Instead of craving one every day, I’ll crave only once a week, then once a month, then only when something stressful happens.
Good luck to all of us!
It was turning 30 that actually made me want to quit. Not consciously, I don’t think, like on March 16 I just suddenly said, “I’m 30. I think I’ll quit smoking.” But I do think that it was that double digit rollover that made me seriously think “I don’t enjoy this anymore. Do I really need it?”
Well, one physically incapacitating vice down, one to go. I guess I’m still waiting for the turning point for the weight…40, maybe? 
I hope it’s sooner…
My best friend and I quit when her mother died (28 months ago) of lung cancer. One thing we found was that if you can manage to get through one of the serious high-tragedy periods of your life, it makes the rest so much easier. After that you always think “Look, if I didn’t smoke at the funeral, I can’t smoke now.” It puts all the other temptations into perspective. I honestly think that if I were to start smoking now, the me of 25 months ago would find away t ocome forward thru time and kick my ass for causeing her so much pain and then wasting it.
Well, three weeks ago, I could’ve counted myself in with y’all, but unfortunately, I succumbed to stress and pressure and started smoking again.
My goal is to quit again by my birthday two months from now.
This assumes a lot.
Robin
MsRobyn, please realize that a slip is not a slide, when it comes to rejecting cigarettes. There is no penalty for a “do over”. Put those cigs down, and don’t let “stress and pressure” allow you to believe that you are not stronger than the cigarettes.
BTW…I define stress and pressure as "having to walk down to the unemployment office, praying to God that I can find a temporary muscle job that will give me cash now, so I can provide for my children"
So, quit smoking cigarettes.
WC…
I define “pressure” as “cross-country move, living with parents, and a marriage that’s not in very good shape”.
I can say that I’m adjusting to life in Texas, the 'rents and I have worked out our differences, and the marriage is still up in the air, but we’re working it out. So, I will quit again just yet.
Robin
good morning friends,
i quit a 35 year habit. at the end i was smoking three packs a day, usually lighting one with the butt of the last one.
i had tried cold turkey a few times, but couldn’t seem to get past the first week. determination won out though.
sunflower (mrs. longhair) and i quit the same day. we put the money we had been spending on cigarettes aside, and spent the week of our 25th wedding anniversary at a resort hotel with an ocean view balcony in san juan puerto rico.
I have been cigarette free for:
Two years, four months, three weeks, 9 hours, 16 minutes and 44 seconds.
this means 52343 cigarettes not smoked, saving $7,197.19.@ $2.75 a pack
Life saved: 25 weeks, 6 days, 17 hours, 55 minutes.
get your own smoker’s quit meter here
I realize my attempts at quiting were quite feeble, one week or so because it’s a dumb, filthy vice but a lot of things don’t help, mainly mindset of course, but the fact that I’m still young and reasonably healthy (18), my best friend smokes, the odd joint here and there (free for a month for no special reason), the stop over at the bar with friends, etc.
I’ve been smoking for 2 years and I would happily quite if it were just like that. The withdrawl symptoms are there but I also think the worse is the psychological/physical aspect of the habit, not the addiction itself. I’ll manage 1 week without smoke reasonably well and then feel a real craving, nothing new here I guess.
Something that I MUST do when I really go about quiting (soon I hope since my girlfriend doesn’t smoke and that’s a lot of support) is quit beer and mostly coffee… there’s are few things better than a smoke after a good meal and a expresso coffee and that’s a major pain in the ass, dropping it.
Anyway I enjoyed reading this thread and best wishes to those trying to quit. Like a friend of mine said “it will always stay in the back of your head” but it really is worth it.
I have been made an offer I can’t refuse.
So I’ll continue my weaning (I’m down to 7 a day) and will be clear by the time finals are over for this semester. In 3 weeks.
I’m surrounded by chain smokers so staying off is going to be the hardest part. That’s what made me start again after both my kids were born.
But, like I said, it’s an offer I can’t pass up.
To MsRobyn for my extremely callous previous post on this thread. I honestly did not mean to make light of the pressures facing you or anyone else in this community. I honestly didn’t mean for that remark to sound as jerky as it came across. I resolve to make better use of the “preview” button in the future.
Having said that, I hope everybody trying to quit is still hanging in there. Stay with it! 
Checking in for Sunday evening. Still nicotine-free, so that’s now 10 days and 3 hours since my last cigarette. It’s also 4 days since my last bit of gum. Hurrah for me. I think it might be getting easier and i’m thinking about it less constantly now, although weekends are easier for me anyway since i spend them with my SO and i’ve never smoked around him so i’m used to that.
I know i’ve got a difficult week ahead since it’s my first week unemployed and therefore i shall be unoccupied. So i shall be trying to keep myself busy - obviously, i’ve got to jobhunt, and i’ve also got the gym and The Sims to entertain me.
I was quite impressed on Saturday night when down the pub with SO and friends who were viciously smoking at me. I used this trick (and yes, i know it’s a bit lame but it helped me) - I was picturing each of the people sat there with cigarettes in their hands as having an invisible chain linking them to the cigs. They are chained! I am free! I concentrated on the ludicrousness of sitting there inhaling from a small white stick and blowing smoke out of your mouth. If you think about it, it’s really quite a bizarre thing to do. So i’m telling myself.
Manhatten how’s it going? How was your weekend?
Arden Ranger how’s the cutting down going?
Hope we’re all funkalicious.
Fran
Well, Francesca, all I can say is bribery is a strong motivator. I’ve been up since 7AM and have only had 1-1/2. Way down from the 14 I would have normally had.
I’m impressed. Going out to the bars is going to be tough for me. I always smoke alot when I drink!
No offense taken, WC. Friends?
Robin
I’ve been “quit” for a while, but I still have the occasional relapse, especially when drinking.
I do have the occasional cigar, and I don’t really count them, as they don’t make me want to have a cigarette.
But the last time I had a cigar, the taste was so crappy that I couldn’t smoke it all the way through. It was fresh, and of the better variety, so maybe I’m leaving even this habit by the wayside.
Most times when I cave and light a cigarette, I get a few puffs and put it out 'cause it tastes so @#$%&* nasty. A good reminder of why I quit in the first place.
Unlike most people I lost weight when I quit, as I took up regular exercise at the same time; and while I did eat more, I managed fairly successfully to keep it healthy.