How To Stop Smoking

My mum decided to stop and just stopped.

And never started again.

Will power I suppose.

Dave
I still don't know what let me give up this time. It has been 4 years now.I went to the nurse at my doctors surgery and she help with information i.e. talked through the various "assistants" available gum,patches etc.
I used patches for 3 or 4 weeks and then just will power.
Support from the nurse and my family were invaluable. My wife put aside the money I would of spent and after a relatively short time told me there was £150 so I bought a bass guitar.
Like an alcoholic the urge to smoke can raise it's head,but this does lessen with time. Down the pub and after a meal still can bring on some pangs.
I'm better off but fatter and now have diabetes. They say no good turn goes unpunished.

Go for it and good luck.

Howard

I smoked for a period of 17 years. Three years ago, my car was being repaired so I had to take the bike to get some fags. As it was raining I was sort of too lazy and said to myself that I could actually stop until I become so toxic that my GF tells me to start again.

She did have to roll her eyes for a few days but from then on everything went well. Just say no. There is some willpower needed but it's nothing really exceptional - I find it far harder to lose weight for instance.

The greatest thing about quitting is the comeback of the taste sense. The effort is really worth it just for that.

3 Years clean thanks to patches and willpower. saved the money and took the family to Greece for a week.

I gave up on April 1 1980. I was onboard a ship which sailed on a three month deployment and I was sharing a cabin with non-smokers.

There were no aids to giving up in those days, just sheer willpower. I dealt with the cravings by eating pickled onion monster munch. For years afterwards I needed the occasional monster munch binge, but when the manufacturer changed the recipe, I also kicked the monster munch.

The key for me in the first weeks/months was to occupy myself by running my life to a different agenda - which the deployment helped. I think it helps to disassociate yourself from the activities in which you currently smoke, and replace them with alternatives; as your resistance grows, then you can add those activities back into your life.

Cheers

Rob

I would like to add that I was in Oz back then. And down there, it's forbidden to smoke nearly everywhere - smokers really get the impression of being persona non grata carrying around some kind of sickness. I am otherwise not keen on such harsh laws but in this particular case it did motivate me to quit that awful dirty habit. I shudder when I think at how nauseating I must have smelled for so many years !

Dont start!

Perhaps after july it will help that its banned - hopefully the ban will lead to a wider ban as well.

I want it banned in public places completely -


Peter

When my wife got pregnant with our baby I decided to give up. One day my baccy was a bit dry so I put it in a cupboard and its been there ever since. Heading towards 2 years now.

I have put on a little weight, but I don't put that down to not smoking, just being a greedy bastard. I am 12.5 stone so not massively heavy any how.

Do not regret giving up for a minute, do not even miss weed which I enjoyed the occasional puff of.

My daughter wanted to give up and for a birthday present I paid for her to visit a hypnotist. The deal was £60 for a two hour session and a couple of 'motivational' tapes, and then an extra two hour session if that did not work. She had tried a number of other methods without success and one session with the hypnotist did the trick.
David

I found Allen Carr's Easyway book extremely good. Not preaching and you can still smoke while you read it. Last cigarette 4pm 6th August 2004. Bought a bike the next day and haven't looked back.
Gary

I have tried a couple of times and used gum etc. and always went back to smoking as I was still taking nicotine effectively.

Last May after reading the Allen Carr book and deciding that I'd really had enough I stopped. No gum or patches. I didn't even change my lifestyle. The first evening I came home and had a few beers and after a week I had effectively overwritten a weekly cycle with the same behaviour, but not smoking. After that first week it's been easy and only really the first few days are hard.

I smoked 20-30 a day for 15 years. Just remember, nicotine withdrawal doesn't actually hurt, it's just rather annoying.

quote:

The key for me in the first weeks/months was to occupy myself by running my life to a different agenda - which the deployment helped. I think it helps to disassociate yourself from the activities in which you currently smoke, and replace them with alternatives; as your resistance grows, then you can add those activities back into your life.

Cheers

Rob

When I gave up 6 years ago, sfter a fortnight I went on Holiday for a fortnight and broke my usual routines. When I was back in my routine I had done a month without the cigarettes and it seemed easier.

Will power was all I used, some people have reccomended a book by some fellow but I could not be bothered with that.

As an interesting aside. I gave up in the August and the following February I was diagnosed with Diabetes. My consultant hinted that giving up might have been such a hormonal shock it brought on my diabetes.

Bugger! I was screwed either way

Tony

Firstly you have to want to give up...

I took up smoking at the age of thirty five with exactly the aim of preventing myself living into my nineties, and not the least because I enjoy it, and enjoy being round people who also smoke. I don't smoke in restaurants, or in non-smokers' homes, and not in work, or even in front of children, but I have absolutely no intention of giving up. If it becomes illegal then I shall continue in private, "against the law."

I will also say that in no way would I go under the knife for life saving surgery, whether smoking related or not, and would refuse radio or chemo for any cancer, related or not. I see no point in having a long miserable life, rather than a shorter but more satisfying one. Clearly I have no reason to revisit my decision made in the light of all the evidence.

ATB from Fredrik. [Ten roll-ups a day man, Smiley]!

Smoking becomes routine (well, it did for me) and I used to smoke as a reward a lot of the time. The after a meal smoke, the smoke during a break, the smoke with coffee etc. So, changing routine completely - which often happens when on holiday or away from home - was a good time to give up for me because I didn't notice the lack of cigarettes as much.

Also, as my mother's third husband attests, the withdrawals are not nearly as bad as all that. Watch "Trainspotting", or even better, get an opiate habit, go through morphine withdrawals and give that up - and then after that, giving up smoking will seem easy...

Heck Deano!

Don't give me ideas! Fredrik

The patch didn't work for me, I used the gum. Last cigarette smoked: June 14, 1997.



BB

Hypnosis worked for me, 2 1/2 years now, do not even think about it. Most of my friends that smoked have also given up. Smoking is the new drink driving, it is simply not acceptable anymore.

Regards

Nic

Dear Peter,

In the public space I am sure you are right, but in private there is a lot worse you can do legally...

ATB from Fredrik

i quit cold; not sure i would call it "will power." it's been 19 years, and i smoked heavily for 20 (macdonald's, canadian cigarettes). i think deane suggested getting a glasgow-style heroin habit for contrast. don't bother, quitting nicotine is worse than kicking dope. i don't have any theory about it, but have noticed that most of my friends who use the patch or the gum go back to smoking eventually. anyway, the first few days / weeks were interesting. i gained 60 lbs. in the year following. i think one reason i haven't started again is i just don't want to go through quitting again. when the asteroid comes, all bets are off.

my mom, who is 86, smokes a pack a day, and she's in better shape than i am.

good luck.

Well done to all those who have given up. I'm not a smoker myself, but my Aunty loved her cigarillos so much we never thought she would quit. But one day she just decided not to and hasn't since. Must be 5 years or so now, we we're all completely stunned!!
I once saw a video of a smoker's heart being cleared out of "porridge" at school, it was foul, enough to put anyone off for life.....

Frederik, I admire your attitude. I would add to your contribution the following thoughts:

I think, like just about everything else these days, that the whole issue of tobacco use has suffered from "dumbing down". We are told from on high that "smoking is bad", without any kind of qualification or analysis of the sub-habits within. It seems to me that the content (harmful or not) of any smoke produced will depend quite a lot on what is being burned, and there is singularly little attention devoted to the actual content of "tobacco products", most of which I suspect contain very little actual tobacco, and probably a lot of stuff to increase the impact of what little there is, accellerate combustion, fill space and maximise profit for the manufacturer. Some attention paid to regulating the product, rather than simply banning its use, would go a long way. Our local pub has had a "pipes & rollups only" policy for years, as this effectively combats the nauseating, chemical, "next morning" smell produced by pre-packed, GM cigarettes.

Naturally, banning smoking in pubs will cause people to drink more, so keeping happy our government's donors from Big Drinks, and panders to the desires of those who are just viscerally opposed to other people having a good time (and there are plenty of those). There's a great deal of sense in Joe Jackson's essay (http://www.joejackson.com/pdf/5smokingpdf_smokingissue.pdf ).

Of course, if we are to ban smoke completely, in the interests of consistency it will also be illegal to enter a pub with a log fire, have a barbecue or bonfire, or indeed attend Mass.

Cold Turkey is the only way to go, or at least it was for me.
And additionally try an execise regime. When you're gas[ping foer breath, the last thiong you want is a ciggy.

My whole family smoked except for me (well in truth I got their second hand fumes). Then when I met my wife she smoked and hey presto I started then about 5 years ago I just gave up one day through will power. She had stopped about a year previous to that. But to say it has been easy would be a lie. I put 20 kilos on in the first year so gone is my sylph like figure.

quote:

Originally posted by PJT:

Cold Turkey is the only way to go

I agree with this. Titrating dosages downwards is a bit of a nonsense because the step from the last dose to zero dosage is always 100% of the last dose. Also, most drugs are missed by the abstaining addict for many more reasons than just the absence of that drug's effects. I missed the "reward" smokes the most.