Quitting smoking.

[Llava]

Topic: Quiting smoking.

[OcellotJenkins]

Regarding the respiratory problems, throughout my twenties I was completely fine.  I even smoked when hiking mountains.  Then I turned 30 and my body got fed up with it.  Mild asthma set in followed by a lung infection that I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy.  Took several months to get over it and even then I wheezed off and on for a year afterwards.  Quitting has been wonderful in that regard, not to mention improved taste and smell. 

[Xanthippe]

I've quit twice.  Well, 3 times, I guess.

The first time, I'd been smoking for about 12 years.  I stayed quit for 3 years but in a moment of weakness I smoked a cigarette while enjoying the sunset, because I thought it would somehow make the moment perfect.  I smoked for another 11 years.

Then I got pregnant and quit.  Then I had the baby and one cigarette a few months later and started again.  Quit when I became pregnant again, and have not had one since.

I loved smoking, even though it made me stink, cough, none of my friends smoked anymore, and I couldn't smoke when I went out to a restaurant or a bar.  I loved it even though it killed a friend of mine (emphyzema) too young (62) who still couldn't quit, even though her mother had died at roughly the same age from the same thing.  I loved it even though my grandmother got mouth cancer from it, and it contributed to my grandfather's demise before he was 70.

I dreamed about smoking during the first five years I quit.  I also fantasized that the first thing I'd do if someone told me I had a few months to live is to go out and buy cigarettes. 

Now, though, I'm just glad I don't smoke.  I'm not happy with the weight I've gained since smoking, but I'm not nearly as unhappy with being overweight than I was being a smoker.

Good luck to you.

[diivox]

i quit for nearly a year and a half. it involved a ridiculous amount of sunflower seeds, a bonafide MMORPG addiction, and really being in love with the girl who said she was sick of making out with an ash tray. oh and the nicotine patch.

and every single day i wasnt smoking, i thought about it. i missed it. i dreamed about it. it's like that line in sin city. when the chips are down, a smoker is still a smoker. i broke up with said girl, bought "just one pack" and at this point i will be sitting at my pc, cough, and then curse at the fact i have to get up and grab a rag cuz i coughed a piece of lung onto the monitor again.

[Signe]

I'm secretly glad I stopped, too, even though I still crave them.  Badly, sometimes.  I'll take fat over nasty coughing and getting winded walking up steps any day. 

SMELL MY HAIR!

[Soukyan]

Cold turkey.

It's the only way to fly. If you are committed to stopping, just stop. It does help to clean anything that reeks of smoke as a part of the process, but overall, just stop. The stench of stale smoke may not bother you now, but a few days after stopping, that scent on your clothes or hair is probably going to be repulsive to you. There were fleeting moments when I have thought of starting to smoke again, but it has usually been at a bar where smoking is still allowed. However, the awful stench that ends up stuck to me keeps me from wanting to touch the damn things again. These days, I try to go to places that do not allow smoking. I don't miss it in the slightest. And from a health perspective, I've never felt better.

Good luck. I hope you succeed in quitting.

[Reg]

You're lucky. Not a day goes by where I don't want a cigarette and I don't find the smell of them repulsive in the least. A doctor told me that the cravings do eventually go away after about 5 years.

[UD_Delt]

I quit cold turkey... 4 times.

The latest time so far has stuck and is going on 4 years now. I used to be a 2+ pack per day smoker. Back in college the 15 minutes between classes was enough time to hotbox 3-4 cigarettes.

The first two failed attempts involved alcohol and the bumming of cigarettes from friends. The last failed attempt was due to work stress which killed almost a full year of not smoking.

The last time I quit my wife and I decided to quit immediately after our honeymoon. We (I) burned through two cartons of cigarettes in a little less than a two week trip to Jamaica. Quitting together wasn't exactly the best thing for a new marriage but we got through it mainly because my wife is awesome and was able to deal with me being a complete asshole for about 3 months. She was only ever a part time smoker anyway and would have half a dozen or so on nights when she was drinking so it wasn't that tough for her. I on the other hand was a complete fiend when it came to smoking.

The first time I tried to quit on my own after we were already living together but she was still doing her part-time smoking. As soon as I even smelled smoke on her I'd be rooting through her purse and ripping up the house trying to find where she stashed her cigarettes. It was sad and realizing how pathetically addicted I was is part of the reason the last time was successful.


The only advice I can offer is to first figure out why you want to quit smoking. Unless you have a real solid reason it won't happen. You might quit for a while on just general willpower but unless you have a solid reason for not starting back up you will fail.

For me it was financial. I had just gotten married, we just bought a house, had some of the wedding to still pay off, 2 student loans now instead of just mine, and we had all sorts of other expenses. When I started looking at things I could cut out of the budget cigarettes were one of the bigger leaks and something that could and should be cut out. And me being the cheap ass that I am was able to use that and quit for good.

[Signe]

You're lucky. Not a day goes by where I don't want a cigarette and I don't find the smell of them repulsive in the least. A doctor told me that the cravings do eventually go away after about 5 years.

This is me, too.  I always want a ciggie.  Even breathing in second hand smoke makes my lungs want to run away in horror so it would actually take some pain to start again, but I still want a ciggie.  I still smoke when I dream, too.

[Moosehands]

I still smoke when I dream, too.

I hate those dreams.  I don't get them for cigarettes but I do still get them for something I've been completely clean from for almost 6 years.  Every once in a while I'll wake up in the middle of the night and realize that what woke me up was that I was breathing like I was taking a hit.

[UD_Delt]

I hate those dreams.  I don't get them for cigarettes but I do still get them for something I've been completely clean from for almost 6 years.  Every once in a while I'll wake up in the middle of the night and realize that what woke me up was that I was breathing like I was taking a hit.

I didn't know they called unprotected anal sex "taking a hit"...

[Moosehands]

zing! 

[naum]

It's now 10 years since I quit smoking.

And I used to be a heavy smoker — a pack and a half to 2 packs per day… …and started at a young age ~12 years old…

Tried many different schemes, but the one that finally worked was just going cold turkey.

* It was very tough the first few days and weeks.

* It got easier thereafter but within a few months, though infrequent, incredibly strong urges would strike at certain moments — i.e., after meals, after leaving office, etc.…

* After a few years, not even an afterthought or desire though once in a while I still get a dream where I'm puffing away…

* Do smoke an occasional cigar…

[WayAbvPar]

and started at a young age ~12 years old…

Did you get your smokes here?

[Dash]

Quit cold, it's been over 7 years now.  Ran out of cigs one night and was too damn lazy to go out and get some more.  Next day the corner grocery store was closed and before I knew it I had gone about 24 hours without one. 

Tips that helped me:

- Your body starts repairing the damage from smoking after 4 days.  Read that somewhere, doesnt even matter if it's true it helped me stay off ;)

- Lots of gum.  Regular gum.  Helped me. 

- Keep in mind the longer you go off, the easier it gets.  Which from personal experience is true.  First few days can be rough, then it gets progressively easier.

- Dont fall into the trap of "having just one".  I did that and was back to a half pack a day in no time.  Had to quit again heh.

Good luck!

[Special J]

1. Don't hang out with smokers.
2. Don't go to places where people smoke.
3. Don't shop at places that sell tobacco.
4. Don't hang out with smokers.
5. Have your wife viciously berate you whenever she finds out you smoked again.

It's easier to stop eating than to stop smoking.

1 and 4 are going to be really, REALLY hard to do. about 80% of my friends smoke. My girlfriend does not. I'm sure you can imagine the situations that makes.

I appreciate the link to the other thread, and all the comments.

If you can't past 1 and 4, you're really in for an uphill battle.  For month I pretty had to tell me buddies "sorry, too busy" when I quit.

Eventually, you'll have to go cold turkey.  There are a few things I did before stopping altogether.
1.  Stop smoking indoors. Ever. Espescially at home.  Your gilfriend will love you for it too.
2.  Break yourself of the 'habit smokes': like waking up, or after a meal.  Some cravings come just out of habit rather than an actual nicotine withdrawal.
3.  Stop smoking at work.  Skip your smoke breaks.  If that's too hard then try to hold out to lunch.

I didn't find any of these things too hard to do; and before I knew it, I had cut down by two thirds and wasn't having my first smoke of the day until after 6pm.  I found after the first week it gets easier.

[naum]

and started at a young age ~12 years old…

Did you get your smokes here?

Haha.

When I started smoking, it was the 1970s and cigarettes were $.55 a pack at the local gas station where my friends would work at soon (yes, even as teenagers). Nobody was ever carded for buying cigarettes back then and even if they were, cigarette vending machines were plentiful.

It seems eery now, but this was a time long before anti-smoking crusades and MADD and Nancy Reagan's "War on Drugs" was in its Nixonian infancy… …one could catch a buzz by just walking into a high school bathroom and concerts were filled the sweet scent of ganja… …even at my first post-graduate jobs in the work world, people smoked at their desks and conference rooms were filled with cigarette, cigar and pipe smokers. Today, it's nearly a crime to light up a cigarette and in Arizona you can't even smoke inside a bar…

…so I'd say it's easy to escape and elude other smokers now.

And this concludes this grandpa moment and I return you to your regular F13 content programming…

[ribuld]

I was smoking 2+ packs a day for years and quit using Zyban and nicotine patches. I started taking the Zyban two weeks before I quit and then added the patches. 

It worked so well I didn't even think about cigarettes after about 5 weeks and quit taking the Zyban/ patches after about eight weeks.  Still frigging amazes me.

[Nerf]

Started taking chantix again on sunday, hopefully I stick with it this time.

[voodoolily]

Started taking chantix again on sunday, hopefully I stick with it this time.

And by "it" you mean the suicidal lunacy, or the homocidal psychosis? 

Good luck, man. It's been two months for us, and I don't think it was so bad, really.

[Salamok]

1. Don't hang out with smokers.
2. Don't go to places where people smoke.
3. Don't shop at places that sell tobacco.
4. Don't hang out with smokers.
5. Have your wife viciously berate you whenever she finds out you smoked again.

It's easier to stop eating than to stop smoking.

I quit 2 years ago:

1st day of nonsmoking I went to the bar with all my smoking friends, now I actually enjoy being around smokers, 2nd hand isn't really smoking is it?.  It was tough but it is also something you need to confront head on or you aren't really quitting.  It's more like you are avoiding smoking for awhile but you can't keep that up forever.  

I was a pack+ a day smoker (Marlboro red 100's (used to be gold)) for 15 years, here are my smoking revelations:

#1 - If you aren't ready to quit don't quit!  Every time you "quit" and fail it gets much harder to quit.  Don't fuck around with quitting if you aren't going to take it seriously don't bother trying.  I attempted to quit 3 times in my life.  Each time was exponentially harder than the previous attempt.

#2 - Use the god damn patch.  It helped me TREMENDEOUSLY to separate the addiction from the habit.  1st you kick the habit then months later you kick the addiction.  I read the instructions and warnings then threw that shit in the trash.  I didn't dangerously over do the patch like some people I know (wearing multiple doses at once) but I did extend the stages until I felt I was ready.  I think I went 6 weeks on stage 1 instead of 3 weeks and maybe 6 weeks on stage 2 instead of 2 weeks, when I got to stage 3 I went 2 days and experienced some withdrawal so said fuck it lets get this over with and went off the patch entirely.

#3 - Cool turkey doesn't work it's either cold turkey or no turkey.  When you quit you have to quit, no cheating no drag off another persons cigarette, if you are doing that then you didn't really quit.  This is what the patch should eliminate the need for.  The date and time you actually quit coincides with the date and time of your last drag off of a cigarette.

#4 - It does help to set a future date (the farther out the better actually) and continually tell yourself and anyone who will listen that on such and such a date you will quit.  This is almost like subliminal reinforcement plus after boasting of something for a year or two you will look like a tard if you don't follow through.  So by all means draw a line in the sand and leave the cigarettes behind when you cross it.

#5 - Don't be a pussy!  I suppose you could go to a support group and get a hug or something but this is a god awful process and like Dante it's your own little journey through hell and no one can do it for you.  So digging deep, getting mean and hating every moment of it is a great way to get the fucking job done.  Apologize profusely to everyone around you before and after you have completed your task but while you are in the process fuck them you have a job to do.

#6 - Smoking and finally quitting smoking has scarred me for life and it sucks.  I have lost the ability to focus for extremely long periods of time and my patience for relatively minor inconveniences has simply evaporated.  I suppose one day these scars will disappear but I don't see it happening soon.

#7 - Cheat if you have to, I know I did.  Forget the facts above they are meaningless, in the end the true reason I quit 2 years ago and know I will never start again is because I now have an 18 month old daughter.  So if having too many players on the field is cheating then I guess I cheated but after her cigarettes simply don't have a chance.

good luck.

[Salamok]

Just don't smoke.  I've never really been more than a half a pack a day smoker, but I alternate 2-3 years smoking and 2-3 years not smoking.  Been doing that for the past 15 years or so.  Whenever I quit, I just stop cold turkey.  Never really thought about it before now but I guess I just don't get cravings.

That doesn't help you, though.

I hate you.  I know a few people like this, their minds just don't acknowledge addiction.

[Moosehands]

I hate you.  I know a few people like this, their minds just don't acknowledge addiction.

Well, like I said on this page I do get cravings for stuff (okay, it was smoking meth not unprotected anal which probably would have been less unhealthy) just not cigarettes.  Don't hate me!   

[Salamok]

Don't hate me!   

Okay, I'll just envy you instead ;P

[Sky]

The only thing I occasionally crave is a nice tasty doobie of kind bud, lovingly tended over several months until it's a big gooey mass of THC. But I love my job.

Goddamned puritans.

[Reg]

Do they give you random drug tests at the library or something?

[MrHat]

Do they give you random drug tests at the library or something?

Thought all Gov'n jobs were subject to random testing.

[Reg]

Do they give you random drug tests at the library or something?

Thought all Gov'n jobs were subject to random testing.

Not in civilized countries. I've never understood why you Freedom Loving Americans are so willing to put up with that kind of crap.

[Sky]

No, I mentioned elsewhere here that every minor infraction is listed in our local paper. Jaywalk? You're in the paper, with all details. God forbid you are charged with an actual crime, you'll have multi-page full color spreads you will never live down, regardless of the verdict. Sucks.

So, we have a conservative board, so if I get popped for buying a half-ounce (which is just a violation and small fine, no biggie), I lose my job. Because it'll be in the paper and we can't have that.

Eh, I like the job. But seriously, legalize it already.

[Teleku]

Do they give you random drug tests at the library or something?

Thought all Gov'n jobs were subject to random testing.

Not in civilized countries. I've never understood why you Freedom Loving Americans are so willing to put up with that kind of crap.

Because 99.9% of the population doesn't have to?  Government jobs are suppose to be held in higher regard, thus more stringent checking on whether you've been breaking federal law or not (since, you know, government employees really shouldn't be doing that).

[Moosehands]

Blockbuster video used to do hair testing.  Just saying.

[Merusk]

Blockbuster video used to do hair testing.  Just saying.

And those are some fine quality employees there.


That said, Americans don't like freedom. We just like spreading it around and saying we do.  There's too much danger and uncontrolled activity in freedom.   Plus there's little profit in it.

I've been hating over the last few days. Hush.

[Reg]

My brother had to prove that he didn't smoke before he was hired by an American company. And this was in Canada. They knew perfectly well that they had no right to ask him to do that but they let him know that if he refused he wouldn't be hired.

So don't tell me about how it's only government employees that have to put up with that kind of crap.

[Llava]

That said, Americans don't like freedom.

Of course we don't.  We're one of the most religious nations in the world.

[Moosehands]

That said, Americans don't like freedom.

Of course we don't.  We're one of the most religious nations in the world.

sssshhhhhhh

America is a schizo, yo.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwDr8PxRrIo