Smoking...How to Quit?

nekomane

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I suspect this has been discussed here before, but how did you kick the habbit? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/help.gif
 

wasabe64

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That is a tough one. Every person is different, so there is no consistent method. I have a friend that has been through 6 treatments/courses to date and still has not kicked the habit.

The only common thing is that you must first come to the decision of wanting to quit. Most attempts fail if it is based around the 'I should quit because...' rationale (and/or confusing that as 'I want to quit'). It is a conscious decision.

I was a 2 pack a day smoker for 17 years, I suddenly stopped in 1998 (no plans, I just quit on the spot and have not had a cigarette since). What helped for me was that I had steadily reduced my consumption for two years. The first step in reducing the amount that I smoked was by not smoking in my home. This kept me from smoking as frequently in the evenings and weekends. That eventually set me up for going without a cigarette for two to three days at a time.

I hope this info is somewhat helpful. If you need to talk to someone, feel free to PM me. Quitting is a monumental task, but so very rewarding.

Best of luck.
 

BigHonu

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Realizing that the smoking was as much a part of a routine as a chemical dependency helped me out. I noticed that I would smoke at certain times: after meals, going out for drinks, etc. By keeping myself in a position where I couldn't smoke during these times I helped to break the routine, and made quiting easier.

Good luck and Aloha
 

Frenchyled

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Good question, and if anybody have the solution, I WANT IT !!
I am a smoker since I was 16 years, now 28 years ago /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif
I never stopped because I can't /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/icon15.gif
I smoke my daily first cigarette before my coffee when I awake me, and it's absolutely impossible to suppress this one !! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/banghead.gif
 

Lurker

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Good luck with your goal to quit. I am no expert on quitting, but there is a body of research out there on the subject and it might be worth looking some of it up on the internet. For instance, I understand that being part of a support group in addition to whatever method you use will increase the success rate. I would also guess that nicotine replacement (gum, patch, etc.) would be a big help. Good luck!
 

UK Owl

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Tried both patches and gum but no joy, heres how I weaned myself off the weed:-

Step 1 - decide you REALLY want to quit

Step 2 - For a couple of weeks start buying your weeks worth of cigarettes in one go when you go shopping. This really helps you notice the financial cost of smoking that you will not notice if you buy dailly.

Step 3 - Decide enough is enough you are going to quit

STep 4 - The actual quiting process -

* for two or three days check on your watch to see how often you 'light up' a new cigarette e.g. every 20 mins.

* for 3 or 4 days make sure you wait this long between putting out one cigarette and lighting the next. Stick with this waiting time for 2 or 3 days.

* increment this time by 5 minutes to get a new waiting time to be used for the next 3 or 4 days

* Increment by 10 minutes for 3 or 4 days

* etc... 20 minutes

* etc... 40 minutes

* you will soon get to the stage where you are only lighting up every 3 hours or so, yet because you have gradually reduced your nicotine intake over a couple of weeks will not suffer the ill effects of sudden nicotine withdrawal. NOTE - KEEP LIGHTING UP AND SMOKING WHEN CIGARETTE IS DUE OR YOU WILL SUFFER ILL EFFECTS OF NICOTINE WITHDRAWAL. (Headaches / dry mouth / short temper / Sleeplessness etc...)

* now you will not want a cigarette when one is due i.e. after 3 hours, so light up and only smoke half; again repeat this for 3 or 4 days.

* next step is when you light uo (note you will only be lighting 3 or 4 a day) take a puff or two the extinguish. Belive me this will be easy as you will NOT want the cigarette and will find the taste disgusting now your taste buds are beginning to recover.

* over a couple of days reduce the number by one a day, until the stage three or four days later when you light up a single cigarette and find out you hate it.

You have now given up.

A month or two later light up a cigarette (but not just after a meal or when out having a dring) just to remind yourself how foul they can be. As your taste buds will now be fully back to normal you will find the urge ro be sick is almost beyond control.

Good luck and best wishes. You will find it difficult but will be glad you did it.
 

xochi

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Dealing with craving is a difficult thing.
1. Be prepared for the 'desire' to smoke to arise. Objectify it as much as possible and realize that it will leave very soon. Do not identify with this 'desire' and start thinking that YOU want a cigarette.

2. Make it easier on yourself by not drinking alcohol or doing any other drug that causes you to crave cigarettes. I used to smoke pot and try as I might as long as I smoked pot I would get a huge craving for a cigarette right after indulging. Even after successfully quiting smoking cigarettes and pot for 1.5 years about a week after resuming the weed habit I resumed the tobacco habit. Wait at least a month before resuming your alcohol/other drug habits.

3. Keep in mind that THE CRAVING DOESN'T LAST FOREVER! In 3 or 4 days after quiting cold turkey the craving is 95% gone.
After 3 weeks I usually have only very rare stress induced cravings.

4. There were times when I felt like I was loosing my best friend and couldn't deal with the idea of never smoking again. This is more junk that your mind is throwing at you to get you to smoke because IT wants nicotine. Very quickly you will notice that you don't miss cigarettes and that those irritating cravings that kept you lighting are gone and like having a shackle cut off.

5. Once you get through the withdrawel don't be so foolish as to think that you can be an occasional smoker or smoke only when drinking/after sex/on new years eve/etc. This is a virtual guarantee to resume the habit, it may take a month or two but you will see the 'smoking occasions' get closer and closer together.

6. Stay busy.

7. Excercise. Makes you feel great once you're motivated to enough to go do it.

8. Don't panic if you put on a few pounds. Martial your resources to fight the nicotine battle now. Don't completely let yourself go but those few pounds can be gotten rid of once you've won the battle against smoking.

9. Be kind to yourself. Don't underestimate your achievement. Quiting smoking is a big deal, don't be afraid to ask for a little extra consideration from family friends during the first week or so.

10. Remember your anniversary. On your 3 month date go buy or do something for yourself that is really out of character, but do it guilt free cuz you deserve it (go to a spa, buy a surefire, go to the bunny ranch, big steak dinner, if you've got the dough a new ferrari comes to mind as well)

11. You'll ALWAYS be capable of getting re-addicted to nicotine. Most people quit many times before realizing that the habit starts with the first cigarette. So don't smoke it. Staying quit is the real test.
 

flownosaj

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Ask your doctor about Wellbutrin. It's a medication used to treat depression that has a side effect of making you not want to smoke /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/happy14.gif

Do a little internet research and see what you think.
 

Catman10

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Some good points have been mentioned here.
If I were to develop a cessation plan for a client who wanted to quit, some additional factors that I think are important that are independent of the specific technique used, are:
1. Before you "decide you REALLY want to quit", identify WHY it is that you do want to quit. This is THE most important factor. List the health and life benefits and costs that you would gain if you did quit (as well as the advantages and costs of continuing smoking). It is extremely important to link these reasons to your program. Being around longer for their family, and avoiding cancer are a couple that motivate a lot of people. If your reasons aren't that important to you, I don't think any program will truly work for you.
2. Understand that lapses (as opposed to relapse) are likely, and plan for them. The best predictor of smoking cessation plans is the number of quit attempts, with the average person taking 8 attempts prior to being successful.
3. Avoid environments that are conducive to smoking or make you think of it.
4. Reward yourself for succesful periods of non-smoking. Personally, a new flashlight is a good motivator :).

There are many good programs out there that you can find. Look up Behavioral smoking cessation interventions and see what you can find. These have been found to be the most successful in the long term. If anyone else needs help designing a program, they can PM me.
 

was_jlh

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Cold turkey is the only thing that worked for me, Nekomane. It's been over 15 years since I quit and I would still love to have one right now.

Good luck, it's a tough addiction.
 

javafool

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After almost 30 years of smoking, of which the last 10 or 12 years was spent trying off and on to quit, the patch and a lot of willpower finally did the trick. It has been 8 years and the first full year was the worst.

I quit smoking in the house first. That way I actually had to get off my a$$ and go outside or into the garage to smoke. That helped a lot to make me aware of each cigarette I would smoke and helped me to cut back to a degree. It also gave the house over a year to clear some of the smell that, no matter how bad or how stale it is, will trigger the desire for a smoke. I had set a goal to quit before my 50th birthday. I has already messed up #40 and again at #45. I finally set my sights on Memorial Day weekend, bought a box of high strength patches, and it worked. It was really hard at first and pretty hard for about a year.

I like saving money. I really like not rolling over during the night just to have the tar in my lungs shift and throw me into a coughing fit. But what has kept me going, when the urges got farther and farther apart and lasted for ever shorter lengths of time, is the freedom. I love the freedom from the cravings. My life is mine and no longer controlled by the desire for a cigarette that started within 10 - 15 minutes after I put the last one out. Freedom from the cravings is the best part of all for me.

Good luck to all who really want to quit. I hope I don't sound like I am preaching beacuse I don't mean it that way at all. It's a whole lot harder to quit than it ever was to get hooked. If you don't make it this time wait a while and set a new date, a new goal, and try again. Most people that are really hooked mess it up the first try or two or....or...

Terry
 

Luff

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Some great advice above!!! Did it all. Finally asked my doctor for help. This worked for me:
Wellbutrin for two weeks prior to stopping. Doc said this was critical to the drug being effective.
Went on the patch the day I quit & stayed on it for a month.

After 2 weeks of not smoking, I haven't wanted one since. Having stopped a few times before without success, I credit the drug more than anything. This makes 5 years without smoking.

TIN - only one answer to your question, of course: more sex!
 

_mike_

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I just kept trying. Did the, won't have a smoke until 7am, then stretched it to 8am, then 9am on and on. The hardest part was afer lunch or dinner, or if I was out with my buddies.

I also kept in mind that I was not going to let this little 2 inch bugger kick my tail. I'd say hey, I can whoop you, your just a wee butt. Not gonna let some little dinky thing like this beat me.

I know it sounds stupid, but it worked for me. Haven't had a smoke in 14 years.
 

gadget_lover

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I guess I AM and expert on quiting. I quit at least 10 times.

Naw, I'm not an expert, but I can tell you what finally worked for me. I've been clean for more than 10 years after smoking for 20. I've not had a craving in the last few years.

1) you have to understand what's happening. It gets real scary when the cravings hit if you don't know what's going to happen. I attended sessions with "Smoke Enders" and it helped a lot.

2) Get support from friends.

3) Don't hang out with pwople who smoke. They tend to "help you" by offering you one of theirs.

4) Use as many methods as you can. I used relaxation tapes, nicotine gum and the smoke enders group. I also checked out some anti-smoking self hypnotic video tapes from the library.


The two facts that helped me: The nicotine withdrawal causes the panic, anxiety and nervousness. Nicotine relives those symptoms by resetting the time till you start withdrawing again. When you are in a crises, the nicotine will not calm you down or relieve the anxiety because it's not caused by the withdrawal.

The 'nicotine fit' is usually over in minutes. The longest I've had lasted just long enough to get to the store. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif


The Technique that helped the most; Changing my routine so I did not hit the spots where I always lit up a smoke. I drove to work on different roads. I ate at other places. I left work through a different door. I did this for about 3 weeks. It's amazing how automatic lighting up becomes after a few decades.

The other technique, (also suggested by smoke enders) was every time I saw a cigarette, I envisioned the moldy, stinky jar of wet butts I had in the garage and recited "I'm glad I don't have to do that anymore." Reciting that matra when I was NOT feeling cravings helped ingrain the thought that I was, in fact, free.

Thankfully, since then the cigarette advertizing as gone way down. It was painful to see all the ads when a craving struck.

Good luck.

Daniel
 

BlindedByTheLite

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i wasn't very heavily into the habit, but i quit cold turkey, and found it almost easy.
i smoked from 14 to almost 18 (go figure), and i started out by cutting back. i'd have maybe one or two butts over a week. then after a month or so i quit completely. i'm now 20 years old and still get urges to light one up, and i haven't smoked in almost 3 years.

there is not one single reason to smoke cigarettes. not one. it's the leading cause of preventable death in the country.
 

nekomane

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Wow, thanks for all the advice.
I have smoked less than a pack a day for 20 years and used to think that I could quit anytime, that the addiction was just habitual. A puff after meals, with my coffee, or just when shifting gears throughout the day. But I have recently realized that it is also a physical/chemical addiction after trying to quit several times, only to feel incredibly empty headed and unable to concentrate on anything without the nicotine. (To you non smokers: yes, ALL smokers must look empty headed /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif ).

I don't need to live to be 100, but find no reason to shorten it, or make life difficult for myself and people around me.

The hands on advice and encouragement from all you ex-smokers is invaluable, thanks again...

but not you Pascal /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

nekomane
 

Lynx_Arc

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I have a friend that quit smoking and one thing he found out that helped was to not hang around near anyone that smokes. He went cold turkey and for weeks he avoided smokers like a plague because even after a week or two the urge was still there around smokers to light up... just one. Another thing that will help is doing something physically challenging with non smokers... sports etc that will keep you too busy to crave a cigarette. I have been with him through his withdrawal and noticed more often when he was *bored* he was craving a cigarette more than when he wasn't.

Watch the diet when you quit smoking so you don't get into nervous eating habits and gain a lot of weight, that happens to some smokers that quit.
 

geepondy

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Is the addiction level different for everybody? Case in point, I dated a very health conscious girl, really in shape, ate right etc. She had quit for seven years and said she still had urges to light up. Worked summers in high school and college at a restaurant. 64 year old life long smoker, boss owner quit during first year I worked there after getting pneumonia pretty bad. Next summer said he never felt better, had no urge to smoke and couldn't stand the smell. My parent's both smoke heavily, really affecting my father's health in particular but none of us kids ever did.
 
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