Topic: How likely is it for me to stop smoking? (Read 746 times)

I don't have any from back then but I can send you a recent one. We're a little older now - do you have a strong stomach? I ask because I caught a glimpse of us doin it in a motel closet mirror a few months ago and had to change rooms because the carpet smelled of vomit.

I am a recent quitter, less than four weeks in after nearly 25 years of smoking.   My wife and I both went cold turkey.   With two small kids at home on summer vacation.  And I work from home.  And my wife doesn't work.  And no one was murdered, or even injured.

Here's the real skinny of it:  Days two and three were misery, as the nicotine starts to work its way out of your system you become incredibly cranky and short-tempered.  But on the other hand, I put off quitting for years because of anxiety over how bad it was going to be, whether or not I'd succeed, etc. etc. etc. and the anxiety was far worse than the week or so it took getting used to. 

Being relatively recently quit, I am still finding triggers, and having what are commonly referred to as "cue-induced episodes."  Just last night, a terrific storm blew in around midnight.   I wanted nothing in the world more than to turn off the lights, go sit on the porch with a smoke and a cup of coffee and enjoy the rain.  Something I've done who knows how many times since I started smoking.  I went out with just coffee.  Not the same, almost insulting actually.  It aggravated me almost to the extent that I was glad it was midnight and the only place in town that carries my brand was closed, because I might well have gone and bought a pack.   However, the rain was nice, I went to bed and enjoyed the sound of it there instead.   

Almost dorky sounding, but there's a point to it, which is that the anxiety and wondering about how bad quitting is going to be seems to almost always be worse than actually quitting will be.   Give it a shot, and good luck to you.


Frank

I should try that.  Do you have a pic you can send first?   

That quickly became grim..

But yes, chewing gum or doing something similar should help if you start having trouble.

I quit long ago by screwing my wife whenever I had the urge to smoke. She wanted me to quit so she was ok with it. That gave me 4 kids. Now that the kids are older and I see my bills I want to die so I started smoking again. Never mind I guess that really doesn't work.

Things that helped me:

-Try not to get too drunk. I always (and many others) want to smoke more when I drink. 99% of my lapses were because of alcohol reducing my inhibition to smoke.

-Get a vaporizer. If you absolutely can't resist use that. It is healthier for you and is a good crutch to remove the toxins first before you can manage to break the habit.

-If you catch yourself smoking again don't focus on how good it feels to get your buzz! You are programming yourself to associate pleasure with the addictive substance nicotine. If every time you light up you focus on how much it hurts your lungs, how nasty it tastes, how it smells bad, how it makes you feel like crap, how expensive it is, etc. and REPROGRAM yourself by conditioning your body to associate these negative images with smoking. This helped more than anything.

I haven't smoked for over 5 years but I will occasionally still use a vaporizer. Have your cake and eat it too!

workout, it helps.

I quite 76 days ago (smoked for 22 years), chewed gum for the first week or so, decided to go with the patch instead.

You can do it, just take it one day at a time, tell yourself that you cannot smoke even 1, just don't do it.

Good luck!

Once stop the smoking it will be easy to loose this habit permanently.




gold coast computer repair

I hadn't even noticed. BRILLIANT!

Your activity was 420 when you posted this, made me chuckle.

Okay, I quit cold turkey more than 7 years ago and haven't had a single puff since. In my experience the hardest part were the first few days, where I had difficulties concentrating and getting things done, but you should be over that stage by now. For the first 2-3 months beer and coffee would taste like shit and I had to fight the urge to smoke when going out with friends. All of this gets better very quickly, you just have to remember that if you feel the need to smoke just wait for a few minutes and decide then. Cravings tend to go away quickly if you don't give in.

Now, after 7 years I never have cravings and I can't even stand when others smoke around me. Ultimately, it is about how hard you hold on to your decision. I took the decision to never smoke again and I will never go back, there is no other way for me.

I want to congratulate you on your decision. You should be proud of yourself for not smoking for 18 days and know that every new day is an achievement. Things only get better from now on!

I quit by smoking pot whenever I wanted to smoke. Eventually just forgot all about wanting a cig.

I've decided to go cold turkey on cigarettes, and by this time I haven't smoked a cigarette for 2 weeks and 4 days.Any experienced advice would be very welcome!