I quit smoking many years ago, and at that point it was one of the most stressful times of my life. It was less than three weeks, after quitting, that I ended a long term relationship and became a single mom. What helped me the most was to be very active. I went for walks, I started new projects, and my house sparkled. Staying busy also prevents another side effect of quitting smoking, gaining weight. I also chewed gum a lot, to keep my mouth busy (since I didn't have a man around anymore.)
Good Luck, being smoke free will be worth the short time you have to deal with these cravings.
Get and read the book:
THE EASY WAY TO QUIT SMOKING by Alan Carr
It's been 29 years since I quit. It's one of the hardest things I ever did, but after the first month it got easier. The first week, I left a jar of cigarette butts and water on the coffee table, it looked so disgusting, and I would think about that nasty stuff being in my lungs. The hardest time for me was at work, on my breaks. At that time, smoking was allowed almost anywhere, and there would be other people smoking in the employee lounge. I started taking walks on my lunch break, keeping active and away from other smokers helped.
I have found nicorette gum is the only way I have been able to quit. I chew the gum for a while, but eventually the cravings stop, as the gum makes me feel a little nauseous.
What is really needed is not a crutch but a target.
My father smoked heavily for years, until he decided that he really wanted a pleasure boat, and the money he spent on cigarettes could pay for one, so he stopped dead overnight. He didn't have patches, books, hypnotism, support group, or any other crutch to lean on, but he DID have a very specific reason for stopping.
It's definitely not easy but so worth it. I didn't realize until I quit a few years ago, how bad I smelled and the things I was around while smoking smelled. I breathe so much better. I've had people tell me I look better as well. Keep your hands busy. If it's the oral fixation that was a big thing for you, chew gum. I've seen some people chew on straws. It's important not to dwell on it and to keep busy. It's not the nicotine you're fighting now, it's the habit and the ritual of the act of smoking. You can do it. Stick with it. And if the money thing was an issue with you and you smoked 2 packs a day, stick $10.00 in a jar everyday. After a month take what you've saved and splurge on something you really want.
It's one of the more difficult things to do. Everyone is pretty right on with their advice. I only smoked for 4 years, and I quit in 2005. You have to really want to quit. I stopped drinking alcohol for almost a year because I so strongly associated the two.
Also, it helped me to know your lung capacity gets better over time. They can repair themselves, so to speak, after you stop. Good luck.
Well done for making a start , I quit five years ago. I viewed it as binding contract with myself to never smoke again , you have to be ready in your mind and really want to stop smoking . Also told friends never to offer me a cigarette or refuse if I asked for one. Good luck , you will enjoy being smoke free.
Just a follow-up post to one I made earlier - the following list details the incentives I used. This list is, apparently, only valid for those giving up cold-turkey, although I never eat turkey, cold or hot lol, but I digress ...
As an incentive, I found it invaluable to realise how quickly parts of my body started repairing as soon as I stopped smoking. One other thing, you aren't giving up anything, you are gaining a healthy body and an improved bank balance.
I hope this has been of some help and I wish you all the very best
hugs xx
20 minutes: Your blood pressure, pulse rate, and the temperature of your hands and feet will all return to normal.
8 hours Remaining nicotine in your bloodstream will have fallen to 6.25% of normal peak daily levels, a 93.25% reduction.
12 hours Your blood oxygen level will have increased to normal and carbon monoxide levels will have dropped to normal.
24 hours Anxieties peak in intensity and within two weeks should return to near pre-cessation levels.
48 hours Damaged nerve endings have started to regrow and your sense of smell and taste are beginning to return to normal. Cessation anger and irritability peaks.
72 hours Your entire body will test 100% nicotine-free and over 90% of all nicotine metabolites (the chemicals it breaks down into) will now have passed from your body via your urine. Symptoms of chemical withdrawal have peaked in intensity, including restlessness. The number of cue induced crave episodes experienced during any quitting day will peak for the "average" ex-user. Lung bronchial tubes leading to air sacs (alveoli) are beginning to relax in recovering smokers. Breathing is becoming easier and the lungs functional abilities are starting to increase.
5 - 8 days The "average" ex-smoker will encounter an "average" of three cue induced crave episodes per day. Although we may not be "average" and although serious cessation time distortion can make minutes feel like hours, it is unlikely that any single episode will last longer than 3 minutes. Keep a clock handy and time them.
10 days The "average ex-user is down to encountering less than two crave episodes per day, each less than 3 minutes.
10 days to 2 weeks Recovery has likely progressed to the point where your addiction is no longer doing the talking. Blood circulation in our gums and teeth are now similar to that of a non-user.
2 to 4 weeks Cessation related anger, anxiety, difficulty concentrating, impatience, insomnia, restlessness and depression have ended. If still experiencing any of these symptoms get seen and evaluated by your physician.
21 days Brain acetylcholine receptor counts up-regulated in response to nicotine's presence have now down-regulated and receptor binding has returned to levels seen in the brains of non-smokers.
2 weeks to 3 months Your heart attack risk has started to drop. Your lung function is beginning to improve.
3 weeks to 3 months Your circulation has substantially improved. Walking has become easier. Your chronic cough, if any, has likely disappeared.
1 to 9 months Any smoking related sinus congestion, fatigue or shortness of breath have decreased. Cilia have regrown in your lungs thereby increasing their ability to handle mucus, keep your lungs clean, and reduce infections. Your body's overall energy has increased.
1 year Your excess risk of coronary heart disease, heart attack and stroke has dropped to less than half that of a smoker.
5 to 15 years Your risk of stroke has declined to that of a non-smoker.
10 years Your risk of being diagnosed with lung cancer is between 30% and 50% of that for a continuing smoker (2005 study). Risk of death from lung cancer has declined by almost half if you were an average smoker (one pack per day). Your risk of pancreatic cancer has declined to that of a never-smoker (2011 study), while risk of cancer of the mouth, throat and esophagus has also declined.
13 years Your risk of smoking induced tooth loss has declined to that of a never-smoker (2006 study).
15 years Your risk of coronary heart disease is now that of a person who has never smoked.
20 years Female excess risk of death from all smoking related causes, including lung disease and cancer, has now reduced to that of a never-smoker (2008 study).
Thanks, p4ml. I am in the throes of trying and backsliding. It was gonna be my birthday present to myself, but is terribly hard. I also vow not to yank anyone's head off and jamb it up their butt, just for practice. :-)
"There's only three tempos: slow, medium and fast. When you get between in the cracks, ain't nuthin' happenin'." Ben Webster
I smoked at least 15 a day from the age of 15 until I was 30.
I gave up using the patches on my first attempt. This was mainly due to the hubby giving up and so we were in direct competition with one another so neither of us wanted to back down and give in. The patches were great but they gave me really vivid dreams for the first month. I found it was habbit rather than the ciggies that I found hard to overcome.
Best thing I ever did.
I was a 50 year smoker at 2 packs a day, now a 3 year ex-smoker.
If you want to understand your addiction and conquer it, read the book. Nothing like you think it will be, no doctor horror stories, tells you to keep smoking while reading.
THE EASY WAY TO STOP SMOKING by Allen Carr
Also has internet course, seminars etc.
Firstly i hope you are still off the ciggies, i f you have not smoked untill now "YOU DONT KNEED ONE, YOU HAVE GIVEN UP" this iss what i kept telling myself every time i get the urge to light up. I'v now not smoked for over 6 years, and when i gave up i was smoking about 60 a day, i did try the patches for a week or 2 but had a reaction to them, but they did help to start me on the right road. Hope this helps. It's hard but it will be worth it.
I, and my aunt, found it easier to just be on a break.
It's easier to keep free from smoking when you put up a smaller goal.
I started my break little more than a year ago and I am still on it.
If you find a cigarette in your hand, just for a taste, don't suffer through the whole cigarette. After the first disgusting taste, put it out. Anything that taste bad should be kept away from your mouth, no matter how good one knows it will feel for the soul.
Smoking is a very hard addiction to break. I tried smoking as a kid and it felt like someone hit me in the chest with a sledgehammer so I never picked it up. I have taken care of people who are so controlled by the cigarette that they forsake breathing to smoke, they remove their prescribed oxygen to smoke, they'd rather struggle to breath period to have a cigarette. COPD and emphezema are two of the worse conditions to have and mostly they are the result of long term smoking. I don't proclaim to know everything but I do know that quitting smoking is a hard thing to do. I am not one of those non-smokers who think those who cannot quit are still smoking because they "want to." I've seen the pull that smoking has on a person. If you have and can quit then WONDERFUL. For those who are trying, please keep up the fight. YOU CAN DO IT!!!
Smoke free since 1985.
I'm 100% sure that I have gained years and most important quality in my life.
My body tells me so. No more coughing, phlegm and sines problems
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Why would you want to stop anyway? Money? Health? Cool not to smoke?
If the motivation is strong, Than you can. You may start again , but just keep getting back on track till you succeed.
That's how I did it, no patches, gums or others. Hey anything that works is OK, but for what I see with some peoples that I know.. is like they ask please patch make me stop smoking. So when they don't work they say.. Hey I tried anything.
What you didn't try is to stop smoking.
Choose n Practice Happiness
Life is simple; we are what we eat and what we read. Talk is superfluous.
Here's how I quit. One day I finished my tobacco, I didn't buy any more and I stopped. I just flicked a switch in my brain and said "no more". I've been smoke free for about 3 weeks now and I'm loving it. Sometimes willpower is the only way to go.
I quit last year after smoking all my life... I could not imagine giving it up forever.
But I knew I could quit for a day, just 24 hours.
So I did...
and each day since.
I don't worry or make promises.
And I still have not smoked since last year.
i have smoked for nearly a long time,like a chain smoker in college,just thought enough and quit it,its been 3 years since,even now,i get the cravings,i stopped drinks since a year before downing huge loads...i still feel the cravings ofcourse,but now it is my ego,that keeps me going,every time,when i want to quit this quitting,i would just say to myself"I AM NARESH"too much of an attitude to go back...lol,i know i cant go back
well i stoped smoken 9 years ago ,, just went cold turkey ,, was setting at work , got hot and caughed one good time and was like wtf am i smoken this junk for ,, so i thew the pack i had opend in the trash and gave my wife the new pack i had just incase she needed it and i quit smoken , i wanted a cig really bad the first 3 days ,what i did was just started worken and doing stuff to keep me busy and my hands moveing ,, i had a few dreams of smoken for the first few months but that was it ,, if i can stop smoken any one can ,, i think its all about will power ,,, and wanten to stop smoken just my 2 cents ,,
