Ive quit smoking, now what?

Ive smoked since 03 as part of a solution to dealing with my chronic pain. I would self medicate with it as Ive always felt calmer around smokers when waiting for the bus or getting some air between classes.

I smoked anywhere from none to almost a pack a day. Lately before I quit I smoke half a pack a day and 3 units on the weekend.

Smoking anywhere at work was banned, including the sidewalks and I hope to drive soon and didnt want my car to be full of smoke, so I decided to give it a try.

I did it last Wednesday March 8 as I had a job interview that morning. I just didnt smoke that day. I came down with the flu, puked in the waiting room after the interview and crapped on myself before catching the bus back home than heading that afternoon to work. (good thing I quit smoking?)

I came down with the worse flu ever and missed the rest of the week at work. I was in pain from my hips to hair. Hot and cold flashes, running to the bathroom to puke and use it. Ive lost 4 inches around my waist and still do not have anywhere near the hunger I use to have. I managed to go to work Monday and am slowly getting better.

For the most part, I cant wait til I get a new job where I can smoke without too many rules or regulations.

It seemed a great way to keep anxiety down. Where i use to stand and smoke, I now walk and pace. I pace at the bus stop than stand and smoke like the rest and I pace the block 3 times a day where I use to just step out into the garage and smoke on the way to and from the garage bathroom. I had planned on walking the block to smoke, now I do it to control the anxiety I feel.

Man, I am still coughing, blowing my nose, taking cold medicine. I am sure Ive spent the money I would have saved in smoke on flu medication for the next month or two. I hope my case of quitting is an extreme one.

I expected to gain a lot of energy, have lots of spending money, women to throw themselves at my feet, led flashlights to arrive in the mail and many other unrelastic things Ive been told i would experience when I quit smoking. Instead I was rewarded with the flu and another false hope of a better job.

The job was for a small engine mechanic. Its in Chesterfield outside the bus line. Its for a disabled person. So, if I get my license, I can drive there, but wont be considered disabled. If I do not get my license I am still disabled, but cant get there to work it. Great world we live in huh?

Worse of yet, I want to smoke. I think nothing but about smoking, I dream about it, I catch myself trying to take a puff off my pen and everyone around me outside of the work place smokes and near me of all places. I was the only one on the bus the other day and the drive lit up. WOOHOO, way to go world, rub it in my face.

Congrats on quitting smoking. Your friends and family should appreciate it. i

Trust me, you are still heavily in the withdrawl stage. The flu was of course just a bad coincidence. But you may still feel bad for a while and you will likely have strong urges to smoke for another week or two, maybe longer.

When I quit I wanted a cigarette all the time for about 3 weeks and then it slowly improved. I still got strong urges but they came less often.

As for health benefits, it will take a while but I think you will be able to get them. The best thing for that is to start moderate exercise (I think you mentioned this on another thread but I forgot what you were doing). Quitting smoking should help you to have more energy to exercise. Exercise is the same in that you will feel worse at first but eventually have more energy.

My own experience with exercise is that I push myself too much then get hurt or discouraged and stop. Consistently doing light exercise every day or every two days is a good way to start. Then increase the amount or intensity very slowly.

Good luck! I hope it works for you!

Someone did a study once which concluded that smokers helped pay the bills for pension and social security payments to those who didn't: they'd contribute during their working years and not stay around as long after their working years were past to collect.

Sounds like you're half way toward being one of the ones who'll do the collecting, later, so it's probably worthwhile to stick to it and go the rest of the way.

Three things helped me.

"The urge to smoke will pass whether you have a cigarette or not, and it passes in the same amount of time."

"Smoking does not calm you; the anxiety is the result of withdrawal. Smoking just resets the time till withdrawal starts again."

"Change your patterns. Drive a different path, enter a different door, eat different foods. Lighting up is a habit, and is often triggered by the same things/places/circumstances every day"


And last, my mantra. I uttered it every time I saw a smoker for a year or so. It was especially effective when One was hacking, or standing in the rain, or standing next to me in the elevator reeking of smoke.

"Boy I'm glad I don't have to do that anymore".

It's been around 15 years since the last one. Been about a year since the last time I dreamed I was sneaking a smoke. I used to get the flu every year. Now it's not even once in 7. I used to cough and hack constantly. I almost never cough now.

So hang in there Cobb. Find a support group if you need it. Use anything you can. It's worth it.

Daniel

That "cold" you're having is probably the symptoms of the lining of your lungs and sinuses growing back. Your body's realized it's gotten a break, and is trying to purge the crud, and repair itself.

Sure you want to take it back up again?

Keep saving the ciggy money for a car, and set a smaller portion aside for yourself, for flashlights or whatnot.

Cobb-

Hell yeah dude, congratulations! Keep up the good work.

Cheers. :buddies:

Hang in there Cobb, I quit smoking almost 7 months ago. (after 14 years of smoking). Still going strong...

The feelings of withdrawal are the worst in the first 3 weeks. Trust me, it will get better. Just keep your mind on not smoking. I still feel the urge to smoke everyday, but all I have to do now is just say to myself, I've come this far, why start again now?? That usually does the trick. All my direct colleagues at work smoke, so temptation is alwas around. And to torment myself even further, I keep a box of my favorite cigars on my desk at home.

Everyday it becomes just a little bit easier to resist the urge to smoke. And everyday I notice just a little of the benefits of not smoking. My stamina has gone up, my sense of smell has improved very much and I don't smell like an ashtray anymore...

Keep it up! it's hard, but it'll be worth it in the end!!

Getting to my age and not having smoked for 25+ years I can't remember it being that bad but maybe it was;
what I can remember was the last time I quit--
My wife and I played cards with my nephew and his wife until the wee hours of the morning. When I got up in the early morn to clean up our mess (being a nice guy) I picked up the the single ashtray (remember those old smoke brown jobs about the size of the feed pan for a large dog) and it had a literal MOUNTAIN of butts in it !!!!!
sad thing is I WAS THE ONLY ONE THAT SMOKED---that was it; I was so disgusted with myself that I called a halt;--havn't had one since and usually it doesnt bother me when other people do but with the road behind getting longer it is starting to be an irritant.
It's hard to see when you want a smoke that bad, but it REALLY is better on the other side.
Good luck and I wish you well.

Karl

Watch a parent die of lung cancer as I recently have. It's a horrible debilitating desease that robs you of self control and diginity. My mom's last days were spent in a hospital with a full face oxygen mask stuck to her face and intravenous needles stuck in her arm which included a morphine pump. She wanted to die four months before she actually did. So give that a bit of thought when reminiscing about the glory days of smoking.

Congratulations, hang in there. Maybe try some of that nicotine gum if you feel you may be breaking down. I've read that if you can tough it out for 3 weeks, you're past the worst of it. Think about how nice it will be not to be a slave to a pack of cigarettes. Not to mention the $ saved, health benefits, and not being considered a pariah by much of society.

Companies are already firing employees for smoking even when they are not at work, because of the increased insurance premiums and worse attendance records of smokers. The handwriting is on the wall. Read it.

That Great! Good to know ppl actually quitting their smoke making habbit.

Really, looking forward on the quitting of the heavy smoke making habbit that choke the planet Earth - e v e r y d a y!

over the last 10 years all but one of my close friends have quit smoking. it's amazing when I think back how almost everybody I knew smoked. Even my dad quit smoking his pipe.

Those that I was around when they were doing it certainly opened my eyes to how difficult it was! You have our moral support Cobb! I'm sure that the good folks around here can find some other interesting things for your to spend you r money on

Nice work!!
The withdrawls suck, I'll never forget all the things that I thought we're going wrong with me when I quit 3 years ago, but I always remembered my buddy saying "it's easy, just don't smoke". It gets better, much much better.
However I do still dream about it, more often than I like. I wake up and think "I shouldn't have smoked last night", then feel like a million bucks because I didn't.
I told this story before here when someone quit, but I'll do it again..
When I quit (one week before I found out we we're pregnant with our first) I socked the cash I would normally spend, bought a boat, my wife bought me the motor to match as her way of saying thanks.. It adds up.

gadget_lover said:

Three things helped me.

"The urge to smoke will pass whether you have a cigarette or not, and it passes in the same amount of time."

"Smoking does not calm you; the anxiety is the result of withdrawal. Smoking just resets the time till withdrawal starts again."

"Change your patterns. Drive a different path, enter a different door, eat different foods. Lighting up is a habit, and is often triggered by the same things/places/circumstances every day"


And last, my mantra. I uttered it every time I saw a smoker for a year or so. It was especially effective when One was hacking, or standing in the rain, or standing next to me in the elevator reeking of smoke.

"Boy I'm glad I don't have to do that anymore".

It's been around 15 years since the last one. Been about a year since the last time I dreamed I was sneaking a smoke. I used to get the flu every year. Now it's not even once in 7. I used to cough and hack constantly. I almost never cough now.

So hang in there Cobb. Find a support group if you need it. Use anything you can. It's worth it.

Daniel

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Great post, Daniel! Cobb, that flu was your body immediately trying to rid itself of toxins. It's an indication of how much you really want to quit. Health first requires cleansing, then strengthening. Too many expect that simply adding something else, like vitamins, will compensate for unhealthy lifestyles. If you're ready to make this and perhaps other major changes, like dietary, I'd be happy to help. Phone calls are pretty cheap these days or we could email. Believe me, it's worth the effort...life or death actually.

I'm not a smoker, but i've heard that people who have quit were so used to having something in their hand, the cigarette. Now you are empty handed. Try sqeezing one of those stress balls to keep your hand occupied.

that flu was your body immediately trying to rid itself of toxins. It's an indication of how much you really want to quit.

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How is catching a virus related to his body wanting to rid itself of toxins? He caught a virus more easily because smoking dries out, irritates and damages the lining of the lungs and nasal passages making it easier for viruses that get sneezed in his general direction to get into his system. Just keeping the humidity up in your house and workplace in the winter time and keeping your sinuses from drying out will help you not catch so many colds too. But if someone shedding virus comes up and sneezes in your face you're probably sunk regardless

Too many expect that simply adding something else, like vitamins, will compensate for unhealthy lifestyles.

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I've got to agree with you 100% there I've seen so many people take a mostly pointless multi-vitiman with their breakfast when they should just have ordered the veggies instead of the fries with the dinner they had the night before Eat right and you don't need much in the way of supplements at all. No amount of extra pills are going to keep you well if you're rundown, stressed out and wasting all your energy with constantly repairing the damage from smoking or excessive drinking or whatever else. The stressed out part is really important!

Congrats on quitting, cobb! Keep it up, you can do it.

nerdgineer said:

Someone did a study once which concluded that smokers helped pay the bills for pension and social security payments to those who didn't: they'd contribute during their working years and not stay around as long after their working years were past to collect.
.

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That didn't stop the lying slime in the government from taking billions of dollars from the cigarette manufacturers and putting an enormous tax on cigarettes. Their "reason" was that smokers were putting a burden on their disgusting socialized medicine.

So I'll ask again. Why do we seem to elect only lying slimeballs to the government? I guess most of the electorate are pretty decent but ignorant. They get what they know from those strange perverts that call themselves news reporters, and probably spent 12 years in those government propaganda mills we jokingly call schools. There ain't no hope. Resistance is futile.

The cost of medical care from smoking is one thing. The cost of watching people suffering an dying form smoking related diseases is another. Been there, done that way too many times.

Find a support group if you can. Friends who have smoked and quit say that they helped a lot.