Trying to quit smoking

[Helo]

I'm trying to quit smoking (lighting one up as i type now) I will be trying the patches (one for each eye so I cant see my fags) has any1 had any luck with patches?

[mattw65]

Helo said:

I'm trying to quit smoking (lighting one up as i type now) I will be trying the patches (one for each eye so I cant see my fags) has any1 had any luck with patches?

I've been trying with Nicotinell gum (it's the candy coated type, so it's a bit nicer than the other stuff)! But I'm not very successfully at the moment.

Goning to go to a hypno-therapist soon, but that's €80 a go.

[mjm800]

Good luck with that, I wish you the best of luck. I just never picked up the habit, just lucky I guess, I was a social smoker for a few years and somehow I just never developed an addiction.

You will live a longer, happier and healthier life for it.

You can do it!!!!!!!

[Starbuck]

I gave up 2 weeks before Christmas but I went cold turkey.

I still fancy one though.

[Helo]

I went cold turkey for about a month a yr back but then out of habit when i was paying for my petrol and for some reason bought a box without looking Doh! had to smoke em of course woops

[mattw65]

Starbuck said:

I gave up 2 weeks before Christmas but I went cold turkey.

I still fancy one though.

I previously gave up for five years, until I met my wife.

No that's not a dig at her, more my own stupidity for starting again.

But onto my point, it takes about 6 weeks plus to get all the nicotine out of your system.

And sadly, just like an alcoholic is only one drink away from being a drunk again, an ex-smoker is only one cigarette from being a smoker again.

There's no use trying to fool yourself with the just one puff will do me no harm, because by doing that the nicotine is back in your system.

And after that "one puff" it's another 6 weeks before it's out of your system again.

[Big Brother]

I've been officially "quit'' for a year now, thanks to the patch and a crapload of cough drops as an oral-fixation substitute.

But I still smoke occasionally.

It's darn hard to stay quit when you hang out with others who still smoke. Especially when your style of hanging out is mainly sitting on their porch, smoking like a chimney, and having long, rambling conversations on economic theory, current events, history, and a bunch of other liberal-arts geek topics.

For a while I stuck to using those Quest nicotine-free cigarettes as a placebo. I'd buy a pack or two when going to visit my buddy for a couple of days, and smoke those to stay sociable and assuage the habit of lighting up and so forth. Then one long weekend, I ran out, and the place we went to get more didn't carry them. So I bought a pack of my old brand...and since then, every couple of weeks or so, I break down and buy a pack, smoke it in about a day, then quit cold turkey again for a couple of weeks until I break down and buy another pack.

[RedSalmon]

We're going to give up when these books from Amazon arive. One's the Carr self hypnosis book, which I know won't work, so I'm going to relly on wil-power (yeah right!!), cold turkey and partner support. I'm not even sure I want to use those free patches from the NHS, I've used them before, but they make the hit of a crafty cigarette even stronger.

The second book is Carol Vordamin's detox diet, my wife wants to lose weight and cut the booze, so we're both doing it to help each other out.

I know it's not a good idea to come off every vice you have all at once, we kind of go into these sort of things, all guns blazing. Like the time we moved house on December 22nd, organised all our furniture, shopping, presents and both sets of direct family over for 7 days at Christmass, all 10 of us in a 3 bedroom house. Not the same thing, but it's our kind of mentality.

[Starbuck]

I gave up for 5 years once but started social smoking once a week. I did OK for about 2 years then it became regular habit again.

[ladyrheena]

Why not post on the board every time you feel the need to have a ciggie? That'll keep you busy and we can make this a support thread. I'm all for people giving up. No more nasty yellow fingertips! No more nasty staining of wallpaper and net curtains! Hurrah!

[ViperPilotMomma]

ladyrheena said:

Why not post on the board every time you feel the need to have a ciggie? That'll keep you busy and we can make this a support thread. I'm all for people giving up. No more nasty yellow fingertips! No more nasty staining of wallpaper and net curtains! Hurrah!

Excellent suggestion, LadyRheena!

No more stale cigarette smell on one's clothes, either!

Go, Helo!

You can do it!

[Xenu]

I really, really wanna get on board with you guys on this...I almost quit last year and then...things happened. Here's a little idea of how long I've been smoking, tho....



Yeah, that was a good 16-17 years ago...maybe we need some kinda 13th step.

[Darth Marley]

Looks like some delinquents hanging out at Hilsboro High School.

[lollywit]

Xenu said:

I really, really wanna get on board with you guys on this...I almost quit last year and then...things happened. Here's a little idea of how long I've been smoking, tho....



Yeah, that was a good 16-17 years ago...maybe we need some kinda 13th step.

So Slash... do you speak to Axl at all anymore? ;D

[Callipygian]

Quitting is easy. I've quit a million times! The hard part is staying quit.

The patches will help you get over the oral fixation habit, but you will simply transfer your addiction from the cigs to the patches. I went many months without a cigarette by using the patches, but you don't break the nicotine habit, and it's just as hard to get off the patches as it is to get off the cigs. The gum gives me terrible heartburn, so I don't use that. The drug, Zyban, made me feel too strange, like I was floating all the time, and you can't concentrate on anything. Nice buzz, but I couldn't go through life every day like that.

Most of the folks I've talked to who were successful in quitting did it by gradually reducing their cigarettes per day until they hit a point where they felt they could go cold turkey. It still wasn't easy, but they did it.

I've never smoked in my house or in my car (I hate the stink, and I would never subject my son to second-hand smoke), but I sure wish I could quit.

Well...I'm off to the garage for a smoke!