anyone trying to give up smokeing?

[ghostman11]

anyone else currently giving up the fags? i gave up 11 days ago and i am using a nicotine spray and a inhaler thingy!! its not been too bad untill today where i have had more craveings but i think thats because i am running out of the spray so havnt used it much today.
anyone got any tips for giving up smokeing?

 

[strantor]

I gave up smoking for 8 months once. Just quit cold turkey and stayed quit... until I started again.

 

[ghostman11]

i wont be starting again!!! NO WAY.
Actualy what prompted me to give up was a wake up call by my little girl who is nearly 3, i am ashamed to say this but 12 days ago she put a crayon in her mouth like it was a cigerette and said " Look at me, I'm smokeing like Daddy!" it shocked me to the core to see my little girl copying me smokeing so i gave up the following day and hopefuly she wont be trying to smoke crayons again!

 

[KG4MXV]

I never smoked a single cigarette in my life, I had a good reason not to start.
My father had lung cancer and he didn't make it past 50.
I would say every time you think of having a smoke think of your daughter.

Cheers.

 

[canadaelk]

Good for you and good voyage on this road! I gave it up 40y ago and, once in a while, the graving just comes back, powerfully! You don't quit, you only stop.
You owe it to your kid, wife and yourself. In a few months time you will find food and drink tastes better, worth the work! Just think what you can do with the money you safe!
Good luck to you! E

 

[DerStrom8]

Good for you, Ghostman! I congratulate you on your work. My father was a smoker, but he managed to quit. I have never had any interest in smoking, personally. I just can't picture myself putting that junk inside of me. I guess that's my OCD talking, though. I can certainly admire people who don't smoke, and especially those who used to smoke and have quit. I know it takes a huge amount of willpower to do so, so congratulations for your efforts! I hope things continue to go well, and I support you every step of the way!

Best wishes,
Der Strom

 

[Mr RB]

Habit changing can be hard, and even harder when there is a highly addictive substance involved. I wish you the best with it.

Chewing gum may help, it at least fools parts of the brain that you are doing something with your mouth, I know it helps bodybuilder who are really craving for food when dieting for competition.

If you are using a substitute I think you should treat it like medicine and not be sloppy or intermittant with the dosage, then slowly and systematically reduce the dosage over a long enough time.

Other than that with trying to change any habit you need to always keep it in your mind what you are working towards (ie keep a vigilance) and try to avoid other people who have the habit (ie avoid social reinforcement of the habit) and associate with people who don't have the habit (social reinforcement of the right type).

 

[ghostman11]

thanks everyone for the support

Habit changing can be hard, and even harder when there is a highly addictive substance involved. I wish you the best with it.

Chewing gum may help, it at least fools parts of the brain that you are doing something with your mouth, I know it helps bodybuilder who are really craving for food when dieting for competition.

If you are using a substitute I think you should treat it like medicine and not be sloppy or intermittant with the dosage, then slowly and systematically reduce the dosage over a long enough time.

Other than that with trying to change any habit you need to always keep it in your mind what you are working towards (ie keep a vigilance) and try to avoid other people who have the habit (ie avoid social reinforcement of the habit) and associate with people who don't have the habit (social reinforcement of the right type).

interesting you should mention about treating it as medication! when i first got the inhaltor thingy i asked around a few mates that have given up how they did it etc, i was shocked to discover that out of the four people i asked all of them are still using NRT ! and most have stopped smoking for more than a year. so when i began i decided i would give myself two weeks of using the inhalator capsules as and when i wanted (upto the max allowed of 12 a day) and after two weeks i figured that would give me a bench mark of how many i needed a day.
The idea was then to decrease by one capsual a week so if i was using 12 a day i would drop to 11 day then the week after 10 and so on. i assumed i would need all 12!! well two weeks is up on monday and i happy to report that i was way off infact i am only using around 5-6 a day so with luck it should only take me another 6 weeks or so to give up completely wich is a bonus as the capsuals cost nearly as much as cigaretes cost! wich is annoying seeing as i used to smoke cheap tobbaco so its actualy costing me more to give up than it was to smoke still whatever happens i am now a ex smoker

 

[cr0sh]

Have you thought about electronic cigarettes (I think they have pipes and cigars, too, now)? Many of those have cartridges that can be stepped down, if you are trying to get off the nicotine (and if not, they are better for you than regular tobacco because nothing burns, which is the source of the majority of the carcinogens, etc). Initial outlay for a kit isn't too expensive, and the cartridges can be as cheap or cheaper than the equivalent in packs of cigarettes (barring RYO machines).

 

[Pommie]

I found that NRT (nicotine replacement therapy) was as hard to give up as cigarettes were. When you think about it, you are just changing the way you get your nicotine, not stopping it.

I eventually gave up 12 years ago after reading a book called "The easy way to stop smoking" by Allen Carr. I got up one Sunday with no intention of stopping, read the book and quit that evening.

Either way, good luck. The end result is worth all the effort.

One thing I've noticed that I've never seen mentioned is that my memory is infinitely better now than when I smoked. Has anyone else experienced this?

Mike.

 

[KeepItSimpleStupid]

I would not be surprised that the closer you get to almost quitting the harder it will be. Reducing initially is easier than letting go.

I'm not pre-disposed to addicting behavior, but:

1. When I was a kid, I used to put sugar in everything. Weining from sugar in iced tea and hot tea, the actual removing of the last was the hardest. I had to have sugar in coffee. Now, it's even rare for me to drink coffee because I don't know if I will end up with a headache. The major coffee and donut supplier merged and adopted the "bad coffee", so that made the choice easy. There was a time when I got coffee and a donut nearly every weekday morning.

2. I do have this thing for Pepsi, though.

3. I did end up, I guess what you might call addicted to a prescription pain reliever by accident. I did not recognize that my migraine trigger was not present and I kept taking the med for the migraine. Well, the body decided that it wanted more meds, so it fabricated a headache for me to feed it more meds. Oops. Turned out, I really had a sinus headache and thus a decongestant was in order. Once my brain figured out the solution, my subconscious didn't buy it. It kept creating these horrible headaches and I did not take the meds because their was no trigger. It probably too 4 to 6 weeks to kick it, but I did it totally on my own. I'm still on that same med for 35 years that I take as needed.

I have other meds at my disposal too. One of the docs managing my care said to me that it's probably good that you do have other meds at your disposal because then it's difficult to get dependent, addicted or whatever.

What it always comes down to is that to be "addicted", you really can't stop on your own. When your "dependent", you can.
Your not really addicted if you can say no and change your behavior. I do believe addiction is part genetic.

I had a friend that generally had one cigarette a year. Personally, the smell does me in and smoke bothers my eyes.

Good luck!

 

[Mr RB]

...
One thing I've noticed that I've never seen mentioned is that my memory is infinitely better now than when I smoked. Has anyone else experienced this?
...

No (I've never been a smoker) but I'm not surprised. Tobacco is a mind altering and toxic substance. Give some to a non-smoker and test their mental performance... They have confusion, dizzyness, lack of ability to focus etc, none of that condusive to good mental function.

Of course experienced users develop some ability to cope with the decreased mental performance but it seems logical that their performance would be better without the drug induced impairment.

 

[large_ghostman]

your doing realy well dad!!! nearly three weeks can i have a signal generator with the money you save????

 

[DerStrom8]

can i have a signal generator with the money you save????

Hahahahaha!

 

[Mr RB]

That's awesome! So many kids around the world trying to get money out of dad to go and then go and spend it on smokes...

 

[audioguru]

I quit smoking when I was 50 by strongly thinking about living longer and being healthy.
Yesterday my lung x-ray was absolutely normal, 16 years later, and I can breathe much better than when I was smoking every 15 minutes. I have gained all the time every day that was wasted when I was smoking.

 

[JMW]

Best regards, 11 days super. When you think about it, you have probably experienced all of the reasons you commonly grab a butt. Therefore you have no excuse to pick one up now. It is really easy to quit, the hard part is to stay quit. As for the various remedies, they just prolong your dependence. I like the disclaimers where they say thoughts of suicide, never had thoughts of suicide, homicide yes, many times, but never suicide.
No alcohol, it reduces your inhibitions, plenty of OJ etc. The nicotine is out of your system, just the metabolized left overs.

Keep it up, Just remember you are helping to bankrupt your local government.

 

[ghostman11]

its actualy proving easier than i had thought it would!! i am slowly decreasing the use of the NRT but so far no real problems as for having a signal generator............NO!

 

[DerStrom8]

its actualy proving easier than i had thought it would!! i am slowly decreasing the use of the NRT but so far no real problems

I'm very glad to hear it, Gman! I hope it continues to go well

 

[JMW]

Do something different today!!. Detail the car, so that you can go for a ride tomorrow in a smoke free car.