Has anyone here ever tried to quit smoking?

[Pompal 09.]

Do you have any useful tips? Can you relate your experience?

 

[hareswar]

I tried couple of times, but I couldn't, so I gave up on it.:frown:

 

[i gotta question]

There's only 1 thing you need to do to quit smoking... It is how I quit 6,178 days ago.

DON'T EVER LIGHT IT! :shock:

Seriously. Once you make up your mind to quit... that, in its purest sense, is the only thing you need to do. I quit nearly 17 years ago. The first 2 weeks were the hardest, after that it became progressively easier.

 

[Adviser! :)]

Today is my first day of this attempt (there have been soooo many) so thank you for reminding me that it's really very simple.

In a couple days I'll be playing mindgames with myself that will make it all seem very complicated, but it's not.

Still, though, I'm afraid. It's a dark, dark place in my head sometimes. :frown:

 

[DaMan]

Around 20 years ago the price of cigarettes was going through a big price jump so Dumaurier came out with a snack pack to test the waters . This was a pack of 15 cigarettes . I decided I was going to quit for the 10th time but this time I would need to reduce from my 2 large packs a day to something manageable .

Each morning I would buy a snack pack on the way to work and when it was finished I was done for the day . Some days there was no after dinner smoke but it didn't take long to adjust to spacing out my puffs .

After 6 months of reducing my nicotine dependancy I went to the patch and haven't smoked cigarettes since . I still love the smell and enjoy second hand smoke , unusual for an ex smoker I know but there it is .

I took up cigars about 5 years ago , mainly when golfing and this hasn't prompted me to go back to gigarettes . I don't purposely inhale the cigars .

Cutting back and going to the patch worked for me . Good luck .

 

[Katie O]

Several times. I'm currently smoking. But I have quit for more than a year on more than one occasion.

I really recommend the patch. I find the Nicoderm ones, and the non-transparent (tan) house brand that Shopper's Drugmart has to be the best. Nicoderm costs a lot and works well, and the non-transparent (not the transparent) house brand that Shoppers has work very well. Be wary of cheap patches, they aren't all equal. Most patch programs are for 12 weeks, but one hard lesson I learnt was to take my time. A couple of extra weeks won't kill you. The patch has 3 tiers of patches. ALWAYS keep a week of the higher dose of patches when you step down, and keep a week of the lowest dose patches for when you go off. Anything but smoking. You can also cut the high dose patches in half, to simulate a lower dose if cost is an issue. The mg doses are listed so use your fractions. (The patch is cheaper anyway.) If you sweat buy some medical tape and tape the bastards down.

When you first quit (regardless of how), I'd strenuously advise keeping busy, but minimizing things you did while you smoked. After you've settled in a bit transition back to your normal routine. Gum, carrots, and celery should become your friend. Watch the eating but that's a secondary concern.

I also quit of the pill that's the low dose Wellbutrin anti-depressant. While one of the side effects is supposed to be 'horny', I didn't get that but I did get chronic inability to concentrate, dry mouth, and nightmares when I could sleep. It felt like I was living an out of body experience. It was so bad I couldn't even maintain and erection. It cured me of the desire to smoke by tuning me into a zombie. Not cool.

 

[Bill]

Look into the drug options such as Zyban. I never made it to lunch when trying to quit without. They seem to take all the joy out of smoking and dampen down the worst of the side effects. Good luck. As much as I love smokes, it is better not.

 

[mariobro94]

Thanks. The post is not for me, but rather for a friend who reads the board.

 

[echinopsis .]

Yes, Zyban is the low dose Wellbutrin. Be careful with that-- Me, and a few other people I know had very negative experiences on it. Mind you, it's worked well for others. Zyban builds in your system, so even if you go off things don't get better for a while.

Like I said above, I very much Nicoderm patches or the non-transparent (tan) house brand from Shopper's.

But YMMV.

 

[Destiny & Kaylee]

don't quit, someone has to support the economy!!!!

Just think of the billions of dollars of tax revenue that is collected from smokers, then imagine where the government would go if they didn't collect those taxes?

When I was travelling for business sometimes I'd be on flights 5 hrs or more and sometimes with a connection for an hour for another 3 hrs flight. Halfway through I'd be ready to kill someone (literally) and if I was that way after 8 hrs?

I can't imagine the condition I'd be in after a couple of days.

As my doc says: I don't eat fried foods, I don't eat meat, I don't drink, do drugs, or any of the myriad of other unhealthy things. Smoking is bad, and she said we have to work on it sometime, but considering all the other unhealthy things I don't do? It's not that bad.

Frankly, until the government steps up and puts forth as much effort to help people from stopping smoking as they do with heroin, crack, meth and all the other drugs of choice, and provide cessation programs free of charge, I'll continue.

I've quit in the past, but it was more due to financial constraints than anything else. The ONLY way anyone can quit is if they really want to. There is no use trying unless the desire is there. Any attempt will be futile unless you really really want to. There is NO half assed way to quit.......

BTW: nicotine is proven to be far more addictive than all those illegal substances and yet the government doesn't support tobacco cessation programs, but does for all the others......and that pisses me off!!!!

 

[Fonz]

I've been hypnotized twice...patches, Zyban, acupuncture...now I'm on my third time around with Chantix. Which does help, even though the side effects are terrible...trouble sleeping, which I'm already bad at...when I do sleep, I have really intense dreams....which is sometimes awesome (is it bad that the best sex I've had in a year happened while I was asleep? :tongue and sometimes intensely sad and scary. Also I feel sick all the time, which I'm hoping will help keep me from getting fat.

I went to the grocery store, and the only unhealthy thing I bought was a box of swiss rolls. I'd like to tell you all that I walked by them and just couldn't resist, but the truth is they had moved the display and I had to go out of my way to find them.

Which seems silly since I have real concerns about gaining back a lot of lost weight...but there could be trouble ahead, and sometimes a girl has to choose between chocolate and felonies. :roll:

 

[DennisH (No emotions)..]

Nicotine gum when you travel. Trust me, it does wonders. An interesting thing I've noticed is that the nicotine gum people have even started advertising it that way... For when you can't smoke as opposed to help with quitting. The fact that I chomp the gum when I travel is why I can't use it to quit. I associate it with 'not smoking right now'.

 

[Pompal 09.]

Oh I hear you. I eventually stopped taking Zyban after about 3 or 4 weeks. The side effects were not pretty. By that time though, I'd managed to actually stop smoking and it was enough to cut the ties.

Still, yes, not for the faint of heart.

 

[FoulgeVossess]

I was a smoker for nearly 15 years and tried to quit several times because of other ppl's wants; I simply wasn't ready. I smoked 2 large packs a day. When prices started going up, it wasn't a deterent. I actually cut down to about 10-15 per day at this point without purposely thinking about it. The day that I quit is when my 2 yr old daughter started to imitate the motions of smoking (btw, I never smoked in the house and always stepped outside, but she still observed me). It was enough of an impact on me and brought back memories of me telling my father to quit because I loved him and didn't want him to die....it was my last pack for the last 10+ years and I've never looked back.

Like a couple of the members have said, YOU have to be ready to quit.

 

[Micol]

Remember hearing a report that it makes you suicidal. Is that true?

 

[Katie O]

My motivation was similar... I quit shortly after the birth of our first child. I just finished my carton and that was the end. I've had 2 cigarettes since that day- 1 about 2 weeks after I quit... I was at a backyard wedding for my sister-in-law, EVERYONE was smoking, and I was going nuts! The groom gave me a cigarette just to shut me up (I was bugging him repeatedly)... I had 2 big puffs from it, and got VERY light headed. The groom looked at me and said: "Dude, you're turning green... I think you're cured!" I nodded yes... (I would have puked if I started to talk), and handed the cigarette to him. The only other cigarette I had was at a golf tournament 10 years ago... with similar results. I'm cured.

At the end of the day, the ONLY person that can help you quit, is you. :arf: The various methods there are out there are simply a means to that end, for those that need it, but ultimately, the decision is yours and yours alone to NOT light up.

 

[Taniya A]

Example, Go see Mizz Martinez, she will help you quit smoking. Then again you will get another habbit

 

[xxdrzchulaxx]

Yeah I did use it, but that only helps with the nicotine craving, not the actual physical habit.

The thing about smoking is, you get into the "habit" of doing it whilst doing other things. ie: when I'm doing accounting, taking a dump (can't have a good one without a smoke lol), right after eating, right after sex, and when I'm working, if I can't smoke in the house, going out for a smoke is really the ONLY time I stop work. If I can smoke in the house I'm working on? I go and go and go and go until whoop, it's 6 o'clock.....

I think to fight the physical habitual urge, do things that you don't associate with smoking. Ie: if you smoke a lot chatting online? Don't chat online. If you like to puff away while having a bubble bath? take showers. If you smoke a lot while driving? buy a motorcycle, the ashes hurt like a bastard when you get em in the eye......Like most, if you have a smoke after eating, instead of sitting there, get up right away and do something different. Basically change your life.......

 

[R. P]

I'm not sure. I'm surprised at the negative side effects given that I think it's just a pretty plain Jane anti-depressant. I did have one friend who blew up like the Michelin man, seriously, balloon hands and feet. Sure it was an allergic reaction, but yeah.

Either way. If it works for you, it can be a fantastic aid in the quitting process.

 

[Gitane Demone]

The first time I was shacked up my GF broke me of the habit of smoking indoors. It might be the best thing that was ever done to me, because that cuts down the real habitual smokes. The things that kill me are TTC bus stops, after meals or sex, and anything resembling a patio... or drinking. (I still don't smoke indoors as it keeps the incentive to quit there, and I'm not sitting in a cloud of my second hand smoke.)

When I was a teenager, I used to always sneak smokes in the bathroom at home. It took me years to be able to stand in front of a toilet with a window above it, and not want to light up.