Quitting smoking.

[dr. klopek]

I am a smoker. I wish I was not a smoker. Well, I wish that I didn't want to smoke. I know that the physical dependency goes away after about a week or so, but it's the habit that I have a problem with. Has anyone quit smoking? Anybody got any suggestions about how to satiate the urge to smoke (the physical habit)? Or do I just have to tough it out and have it constantly on my mind for years?

[WEASEL45]

Uncle bucks five year plan. i think chewing tobbacco is next.

[SomethingClever]

You need to create an unpleasant association with smoking.

Every time you get the desire to smoke, also rub a cheese grater vigorously across your forehead.

Sure, you'll look funny for a few weeks, but then the smoking should clear up.

Actually, that's a tough one, to give you a serious answer. I like to smoke when I drink (as you know), even though it makes me feel like crap the next day.

My best recommendation would be to pick up another hobby you can become addicted to that's healthy. Like basketball. Dude, we need to start playing basketball more often.

[dr. klopek]

I'm very down. Let's hoop.

[craig r]

I have not smoked for 3 months. I am 26 and since i was 18 had smoked 2+ packs a day. And from 13-17 about 1 pack a day. I don't know if you have to have it on your mind for years, but I know that not an hour goes by where I don't want to smoke. But, I don't want to go through this again. The first week was very hard with constant cravings. But, now the cravings only come every hour for about 2 minutes. Both my parents smoked and told me that it would get easier. But, both claimed that I would always want one.

I have a very addictive personality and am very impulsive. I am still in shock that I don't smoke anymore. But, if I can quit anybody can.

I wish there was something i could tell you that would make you not WANT to smoke, but I can't. I just think about how much better my body feels, how at least i am not quitting heroin, etc...

[wacki]

[ QUOTE ]
You need to create an unpleasant association with smoking.

[/ QUOTE ]

That is the best idea I've heard so far.

Zyban (Bupropion) will reduce the cravings and make it easer.

Stop by a cancer ward to help you associate cancer with smoking. Make sure you get to see the nastiest of the nasty people dying of cancer.

You can add flavoring to cigarettes. Add flavoring that tastes horrible. The nastier the better.

Or you could smoke real tobacco till you get sick and quit cold turkey. (that might backfire though)

Physical addiction should be 100% gone in 6-8 weeks. At that time all of the receptors have returned to normal.

Psychological addiction lasts a lifetime. Make sure you change you cigarette associations. I quit a long long time ago, and I don't look back, even when I'm plastered.

[scrub]

You just need to want to stop.

Really want to stop.

Trying all sorts of gimmicks won't work. Just decide to stop and stop.

scrub

(Used to smoke 1.5 packs/day of reds)

[namknils]

[ QUOTE ]
Like basketball. Dude, we need to start playing basketball more often.

[/ QUOTE ]

You guys in Chicago area by any chance? I love basketball, play a ton, used to play more but now find myself saying "ah, I don't feel like going out, I'll just play some poker."

Anyways, I'll play. /images/graemlins/smile.gif

[jasonHoldEm]

I quit back at the end of May. I agree with the previous poster who said you just have to WANT to stop. I was a pack/pack and a half a day smoker and I'd tried (half-assed) a dozen times before and it never worked. Finally on 5/28 I just said to hell with it, got some patches (which I only used for like 4 days) and quit. I'm not saying that to be macho, but the addiction is mostly psychological and unless you are 100% behind quitting it's likely you'll go back to smoking.

good luck,
J

[wacki]

[ QUOTE ]
the addiction is mostly psychological

[/ QUOTE ]

Agreed, and after 8 weeks it's 100% psychological.

[InchoateHand]

I just quit. I am not a habitual quitter--this was my first serious effort in years. I have tried various nicotine replacement programs in the past, and again tried that method. This time I used the mints, and I must say they broke the association and let me down the gentlest of any method I have tried. Studies show that long-term nicotine replacement is the singly most successful method for quitting. Consider a 16 week replacement program. I wish I did. After 12 weeks, I began cutting down the mints. Then for some stupid reason I quit them cold turkey. A couple of very bad things happened. And now, one week later, I'm back at a pack and a half a day. If I didn't screw up, it would have worked wonders. I'll give another try someday.

[Piz0wn0reD!!!!!!]

Start running with me. That will own your lungs good.

[2planka]

Regarding nicotine replacement:

I started chewing tobacco in college on the baseball team. Did it for six years, then tried the nicotine gum. Took me three years of that before I was nic free.

Actually, nicotine free is a bit of a misnomer. I still play baseball, and the association between playing and dipping is deep. So I buy a pack of the gum and bring a couple pieces to my games, just in case the urge strikes.

I guess I'm a "recoverying" nic freak. Still, I haven't had a dip in four years.

Guess what I'm saying is that replacement works but you have to choose to make it work.

[juanez]

I quit around Thanksgiving last year. I smoked up to 2 packs a day for almost 20 years. Like you, I didn't like the fact that I was a smoker, but I was addicted. Addictions don’t give a crap what you like or don't like.

A tried a few half-hearted attempts over the years to quit but failed. Last year I really decided to stop for good. I was so fed up with the smell, ashes in my car, fog on the inside of windshield, standing in the cold to have a smoke at work, etc. It was a decision to DEFINITELY quit.

I also decided to try one of the products out there to assist in quitting. Cold turkey, bravado attempts failed in the past, so I admitted to myself that I needed help. To make a long story short, I decided to try "Smoke Away" after a bunch of research and asking around with folks who have also quit. I'm sure you have seen the commercials on TV for Smoke Away.

Well, it worked great. I started the program and the very next day I ran out of smokes. I’ve never bought another pack or smoked a single butt since. And yes, I'm pretty damn proud of myself.

This is why I think this program worked for me:
1) It’s an herbal product that's supposed to help with cravings and cleanse your body of the toxins associated with smoking for years and years. I'm really not big on herbal remedies, but the routine of taking a few herbal capsules a few times a day reinforced the fact that I was actually on a " program " to quit. It was an ongoing, 6 or eight week effort, not a single decision sort of thing where you just go cold turkey and deal with nic fits, the shakes, etc. like a man. I took the Smoke Away program as a serious challenge that would reward me with a decade of extra years on the end of my life if I was successful.

2) There are these little things, sort of like tic-tacks, that you can suck on if you are really having a nic-fit and need a fix. These were the "replacement" for a smoke. Oral fixations are pretty tough to get away from. These helped me tremendously (and I didn't eat all of them the first day /images/graemlins/grin.gif)

3) Smoke away comes with a CD that has some good psychological stuff on it, like considering the program to quit a challenge. I popped this into my CD player every day for the few week or so. It kept me focussed on the challenge of QUITTING - NOT TRYING TO QUIT.

I also saved the butt from my last cigarette, pasted it on a piece of paper with the words “NEVER AGAIN” printed on it in huge bold letters and posted this on my refrigerator. A visual reminder. I still have that, but it's not on my fridge anymore.

Basically, I became obsessed with quitting for a few weeks. The first week or so was really tough. I would sit next to a smoker in the poker room and would want to ask him for a butt soooo bad. After the first week things became easier. Now I can't stand the slightest smell of cig smoke and I can't imagine putting one of those things in my mouth again.

Look, I admit that quitting wasn't exactly easy but nothing worthwhile ever is. Living an extra 10 years or whatever is certainly worth the effort. I’m also not saying that "Smoke Away" is the only solution, but it worked great for me. Good luck Doc!! /images/graemlins/cool.gif

[Ray Zee]

three more people i know died this last week from smoking. long horrible painful deaths, in their 50's and 60's. when i was younger i thought that was old and i didnt worry about things either. then i found myself at that age watching all my friends that smoked, drank, ate bad food, dropping dead or having major operations.

put your name on that list for the future. each puff brings you closer.

good luck you will need it.

[chabibi]

im in the same boat as you. ive been trying to quit for some time and even got really close once 16 days without a smoke i didnt feel the same cravings but i still had the oral fixation and started again im on another atempt know and it seems to be working what i do when i need a butt is just roll a joint /images/graemlins/crazy.gif but its really tough in the casino cause everyone is smoking and i dont play cards high

[cnfuzzd]

I smoked an entire cigarette while reading this thread....

peace

john nickle

[MMMMMM]

"I wish I was not a smoker. Well, I wish that I didn't want to smoke."

I think you need to wish harder.

[Lawrence Ng]

[ QUOTE ]
Anybody got any suggestions about how to satiate the urge to smoke (the physical habit)? Or do I just have to tough it out and have it constantly on my mind for years?

[/ QUOTE ]

Visual stimuli where you see people dying horrible deaths with a tube down their throat because their lungs have collapsed to the point where they no longer are able to function on their own will do it.

[dr. klopek]

Well thanks for all the confidence and encouragement. The hopelessness of it all is the best reason so far to smoke a cigarette. A couple years ago I quit for 11 months and one day I said to myself: "If I'm just gonna want to smoke this bad for the rest of my life, then it's not worth not smoking." I rue that day, and that terrible, irreversible moment of weakness. I guess I'll just have to wait til I want to quit so bad that quitting is my only option.

[ilya]

Read "A Question of Intent." It might make you angry enough at the tobacco execs that you'll want to quit just to spite the mofos.

[adios]

My Dad and now deceased Mom quit smoking about 30 years ago and did it through hypnosis. So you might look into hynosis as it turned out to be a miracle in my mind. They quit and never relapsed once. My Mom lived to be 77 and my did is still going at 78. My Dad had 3 brothers and 2 sisters as he was the 4th youngest of the siblings. Eveyone of his siblings was a heavy duty smoker and never quit. They've all been long gone for quite some time, something like a decade or so. They all died horrible, cancer ridden deaths.

[dr. klopek]

I'm sorry if it seems like I'm taking lightly something that has caused you and your family so much pain. In light of all of these stories of tragedy and pain, it seems trivial that I've smoked for six years and can't seem to quit. To be perfectly honest, I recently realized that it's out of my control. I guess I really did think "I can quit anytime I want" and now it scares me to think that I can't.

Oh, and who was the author of that book that was mentioned?

[snakehead]

you're wrong. you can quit. you just have to realize that you are going to have a bad week or two, just like you would if you were sick. after that it get easier and easier.

if you've only been smoking for six years, it should be easy. I used the patch, but I only used it for the first two weeks. once I was off of cigarettes, it didn't seem like I needed it anymore.

of course the health reasons are important, but other reasons that motivated me were: cigarettes controlled my life, I was always thinking about not running out and when I could have another one, I couldn't sit through a movie without going out for a smoke, long airplane trips were torture, and you are treated like a second class citizen in general.

no one who has quit regrets it.

[Sponger15SB]

[ QUOTE ]

no one who has quit regrets it.

[/ QUOTE ]

an excellent point.

[ilya]

[ QUOTE ]

Oh, and who was the author of that book that was mentioned?

[/ QUOTE ]

David Kessler

[shawn_p]

I suggest you begin a nicotine replacement regiment and include an aversive stimulus to help combat cravings. Follow the manufacturers instructions and where a thick rubber band around your wrist.

Each time you have a craving snap your wrist with the rubber band. Over time your subconcious mind will begin to associate cravings for cigarettes with accute wrist pain. Eventually the association should strengthen enough to where your psychological cravings will begin to subside, posibbly to extinction.

Do, or do not there is no try.

[balkii]

[ QUOTE ]
You just need to want to stop.

Really want to stop.

Trying all sorts of gimmicks won't work. Just decide to stop and stop.

scrub

(Used to smoke 1.5 packs/day of reds)

[/ QUOTE ]

thanks scrub you have this exactly right. Its exactly how I quit smoking cold turkey the first time I ever "tried" to quit.

the way I thought of it was, I wanted to be a non-smoker. So instead of smoking, I didnt smoke, cause thats what non-smokers do. They don't smoke. it doesnt get simpler than that.

[SomethingClever]

[ QUOTE ]
chicago

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm always up for a game, but we're in rainy Oregon... so that'd be a little out of the way for everyone involved.

Maybe we could meet somewhere in Montana for a pickup game.