Help me quit smoking

[pickup]

I would like to start a separate thread for tips on quitting smoking. Some valuable tips are being given in a separate thread and while they are good for those who are following that particular thread, some who could benefit from these tips may not be reading because the issue isn't being overtly addressed.
I hope that it will be of use to future members of browncafe as well One caveat: if you are not a smoker or ex smoker , thread lightly here. If you can offer a story of how a relative or friend quit, great. If you just want to post simple platitudes of how stupid the habit and user are and how smokers lack willpower, well go ahead but you won't be helping anyone.

I hope someone smarter than I , can import the few postings relating to this issue from the "Help me lose weight" thread. If not , I'll figure it out later.

 

[pickup]

I'll post about my interest in this thread later, I gotta get some rest. But suffice to say, I smoked for a number of years, quit for a year and had a relapse and now quit for a few days and then I smoke again for a week before quitting for three days again. I am currently practicing a tip from the other thread with some modifications and I'll post more about it later.

 

[kingOFchester]

Pickup,
I have been off and on the wagon for years. Don't let past slips affect your spirite. Here is what I am doing this time around.

1) I told EVERYONE that I was quitting. This alone is helping as I really hate having to tell my loved one's that the nicotine is winning. Comunication with others who have gone thru withdraw and the like has also helped.

2) The last pack of smokes are right here with me now. On each remaining smoke I have written diffrent names of my loved one's. If I ever smoke again, I made a promise that I would smoke one of the cigs. It would be hard to smoke it knowing that these are the people I want to be around when I am older......which is why I am quitting. I want to be there for (and or with) my family.

3)I have it in my mind that at any point I can become a smoker. With in minutes I can be smoking. So when I get an urge, I think to myself, ok you can have a smoke anytime you want......by why not wait a few minutes and be sure that is what I want to do. I also tell myself that it took a month before I considered myself on the road to being a nonsmoker. It less then a minute i could throw all that away.


So far it has worked for me!

 

[moreluck]

I too have a pack of unopened cigarettes and a bunch of lighters in the cabinet. I can light up anytime I choose. I choose not to light up.

 

[blue efficacy]

Buy a big bag of dum dum suckers. They are extremely cheap and relatively tasty.

Whenever you have a craving for a smoke, grab a dum dum.

Helps with the oral fixation thing.

 

[UPSERNOJ]

I personally never smoked and do not like being around people that do because they literally "stink".

I do know many people who after many years of smoking quit cold turkey. They just lost the taste for it. My father who smoked Pall Malls for over 50 years quit in his 70's and his replacement for the cigarettes became doritos. He is now 83 and still eats doritos like they are going out of style.

A coworker of mine who quit over 10 years ago still carries around the last pack of cigarettes they had when they quit.

 

[Livin the Dream?]

I personally never smoked and do not like being around people that do because they literally "stink".

I do know many people who after many years of smoking quit cold turkey. They just lost the taste for it. My father who smoked Pall Malls for over 50 years quit in his 70's and his replacement for the cigarettes became doritos. He is now 83 and still eats doritos like they are going out of style.

A coworker of mine who quit over 10 years ago still carries around the last pack of cigarettes they had when they quit.

Spoken like someone who has never been addicted.

I have smoked for 30 years - and hate that I do. I have tried Chantix, gum, cold turkey. I applaud anyone who has been able to quit - I guess I can't.

The withdrawals are unbearable to me.

 

[PassYouBy]

Spoken like someone who has never been addicted.

I have smoked for 30 years - and hate that I do. I have tried Chantix, gum, cold turkey. I applaud anyone who has been able to quit - I guess I can't.

The withdrawals are unbearable to me.

The Chantix worked for me...I just wished that health insurance would cover some of it!

 

[over9five]

The Chantix worked for me...I just wished that health insurance would cover some of it!

You would think insurance would cover all of it. Think of the money it must save them down the road!

I have never smoked (cigarettes), but I'm there for you with moral support and good wishes.

Good Luck!

 

[MonavieLeaker]

I'm pretty close to quitting...My heart cant take it anymore....Anytime I light up my heart seems to beat faster.....So I've got 2 or 3 more packs and im done

 

[kingOFchester]

The Chantix worked for me...I just wished that health insurance would cover some of it!

My UPS insurance paid for all of it but 5 bucks. I was on it for a week about 6 months ago. Stopped taking it. This time around no meds.

 

[City Driver]

You would think insurance would cover all of it. Think of the money it must save them down the road!

I have never smoked (cigarettes), but I'm there for you with moral support and good wishes.

Good Luck!

did u hang out with these guys in the 70s?

 

[grami72]

You have to really want to quit to be successful. If you are just doing it to please others, it won't work. On New Years Eve, 1981 I told my family I would quit smoking on the Fourth of July. They reminded me weekly of this. At around 11:00PM on the Fourth I stubbed out my last Winston. I was ready. 28 years later I still haven't cheated. Even now, a cigarette may smell kind of good when someone just lights it, but the craving is long gone. I'm still working on losing the weight I gained, but I will be successful there also. Keep some mints or small candies around to keep you occupied.
Good luck. It's the best thing you can do for yourself.

 

[pickup]

It would be too burdensome to reply individually so let me cover the bases in maybe one posting. first thanks to all you have posted and to those that will. I really didn't want to make the thread about me( I don't want any pressure) and based the title on the "help me drop weight thread".

About a year ago, I went to a laser therapy smoking cessation session that costs 400 bucks. They apply a laser to points on your wrists, earlobes, nostrils for about 40 minutes. This supposedly kicks your dopamine levels up. It worked and for ten months I was off the cigarettes (after smoking for about 10 years, how I started at such a late age is a long story). The urges would still attack me once in a while but not enough to make me want to buy a pack . One day the urge hit and at the same time I spied unsmoked cigarette on the ground of a ups terminal. You know the rest . I was able to quit but something brings me back again. The laser therapy paid for itself many times over and I guess I will do it again but I want to have more weapons in the bag the next time I do it.

I also have some STUG issues right now ( too many parents real, natural, foster, adoptive) that need to be sort out right now that really have me on an emotional and mental rollercoaster and they seem to be triggers but I can't use them as an excuse but I'll try to settle them in the next two months or so). I also have some siblings that I have yet to meet and have to decide one way or the other soon just for my own sake of mind.

Again, thanks to all who have posted and to all that will. But know when you do so you are not just helping me but others as well. Thanks again

 

[finaddict]

I smoked by last cig two months ago. At least I hope it was my last. Insurance paid all but about $10 of the Chantix and I personally don't think the stuff did a damn thing to ease the withdrawels. I still want a smoke but it is easing slightly. I used hard candies, tootsie roll tootsie pops and toothpicks. I still carry the toothpicks like a pack of cig's in my shirt pocket and use around 20-30 a day. Alot cheaper than cigarettes. I had to quit due to severe eusophogeal erosion from acid reflux and blood pressure was too high to keep my CDL. Best advice is NEVER START

 

[iowa boy]

Pickup,

The hardest part of quitting smoking is the mental or emotional side of it. I smoked for 15 years, decided one day to quit, had my best friend at the time go buy me a pack of nicorette gum, chewed that for a month and was done.

You have to be emotionally and mentally ready to quit. If neither one of these are ready, you are not gonna quit no matter how hard you try. You cannot let your mental state at any one time dictate to you whether or not you need a smoke. You must remember that smoking is used by your body as a crutch to get you through the tough times in your life and if you quit smoking, you will have to find another crutch or addiction to lean on to substitute for the cigarettes. By addiction I mean candy or dum dums or beer or whatever you can think of or use to your advantage.

Just remember, the physical addiction to nicotine is gone after about 5 days or so, (according to my doctor), but the mental addiction to the cigarette will last for the rest of your life. When I quit, I was working in a bar and couldn't sit at the bar for 2 months after quitting because of the mental aspect of it. I ended up chewing on swizel stix from the bar and holding an old pen between my fingers until i got past the mental aspect of the habit.

Only you will know if you are ready to quit or not, no one can tell you one way or the other, but just make sure you have things in your life in order before you even attempt it.

Good luck to you on your quest, you will need it.

iowa

 

[over9five]

did u hang out with these guys in the 70s?

I knew them very well....

 

[PassYouBy]

My UPS insurance paid for all of it but 5 bucks. I was on it for a week about 6 months ago. Stopped taking it. This time around no meds.

Please tell me how you got it covered! I looked on Medco, but it tells me that it is not covered. I even called about 6 months ago and they told me no.

 

[pickup]

I'm pretty close to quitting...My heart cant take it anymore....Anytime I light up my heart seems to beat faster.....So I've got 2 or 3 more packs and im done

from your mouth to god's ears my friend, good luck!

 

[pickup]

Pickup,

The hardest part of quitting smoking is the mental or emotional side of it. I smoked for 15 years, decided one day to quit, had my best friend at the time go buy me a pack of nicorette gum, chewed that for a month and was done.

You have to be emotionally and mentally ready to quit. If neither one of these are ready, you are not gonna quit no matter how hard you try. You cannot let your mental state at any one time dictate to you whether or not you need a smoke. You must remember that smoking is used by your body as a crutch to get you through the tough times in your life and if you quit smoking, you will have to find another crutch or addiction to lean on to substitute for the cigarettes. By addiction I mean candy or dum dums or beer or whatever you can think of or use to your advantage.

Just remember, the physical addiction to nicotine is gone after about 5 days or so, (according to my doctor), but the mental addiction to the cigarette will last for the rest of your life. When I quit, I was working in a bar and couldn't sit at the bar for 2 months after quitting because of the mental aspect of it. I ended up chewing on swizel stix from the bar and holding an old pen between my fingers until i got past the mental aspect of the habit.

Only you will know if you are ready to quit or not, no one can tell you one way or the other, but just make sure you have things in your life in order before you even attempt it.

Good luck to you on your quest, you will need it.

iowa

I came up with an idea a few days ago that in connection with trplnkl's comment about pretending to smoke a cigarette , I decided to implement today.. I bought these bic pens. 2 dollars for 10 in a pack. I remove the the pen part leaving a hollow tube. I then saw off part of it so the remaining length is about the size of a cigarette (looks like one too because it is opaque white) You could use this thing to shoot a spit ball but I am pretending to use it as a cigarette. Made ten of them so I can have them around my apartment and in my pockets so I can have one in my hand real quick if I need it. Seems to be helping. I am going through my pack a lot longer. I will wait for the weekend to go cold turkey so that I can have two days without driving to go through the withdrawal pains.