Kicking the habit - any suggestions?

[RedRed]

OK, I have decided to stop smoking.

I rekon patches for the addiction for a week or two, then stop them too. Likely to be a grumpy old fart for a week or two, but the improving weather migh help that.

It worked before - I had stopped for a year a few years ago, but fell off the path on a Stag weekend and never fully recovered.

Apart from never getting drunk again, has anyone got any success stories about giving up tobacco and staying off?

[NetSnake]

Apart from never getting drunk again, has anyone got any success stories about giving up tobacco and staying off?

you just might have gotten yourself into a trap with this last question
i've, hmmm, "paused" twice for one and two months... the only stories i've heard about quiting smoking is from some 50-60 y.o. ppl that quit it at their mid 30s - 40s. So, from where I stand it seems like age is important.
note: Greeks are heavy smokers and I guess environment is important

good luck!!!

[az]

I've quit smoking about four and a half years ago and didn't smoke for more than four years. It was quite easy: I told my girlfriend how easy it was to quit smoking - and quit, just to prove my point

You just need something to motivate you, something better than boring better health, better taste and smell (both in the sense sense and in the sense of scents), more money...

(Note: I "started" smoking again a few months ago, after quitting with said girlfriend. Then I realized I had to pull the emergency break if I didn't want to become addicted again. I now smoke a fag every now and then when I'm out having a beer with friends and am offered a smoke. To me this is like the difference of having a wine with friends occasionally and being an alcoholic. Doesn't seem to work for most people though, so I don't recommend it.)

[Brian Ellis]

I gave up cold turkey from 3 packs/day in 1969. Bear with a sore head for a few weeks, but have never looked back.

Prior to that, in '63/64, I had a job in a no-smoking establishment. 8 h/day without a gasper was HELL. I tried nicotine gum (patches were not available then) and various other recipes, but I swear they all made things worse. I think cold turkey with sufficient will power to WANT to suffer to give it up is the only solution and my advice is using props like patches and gum makes it worse because they prolong the agony, so save your money.

My wife helped a lot by giving it up at the same time. I think it essential to tell your entourage of your intention and ORDER them not to tempt you into a relapse and, preferably, not even to smoke in your presence at least in the first month or two.

Monsieur Nicot did not do us a good turn when he discovered the weed.

Be determined to not relapse. You are the only person who can help yourself. I know it can be done but only with determination. Turn smog into smug!!! Best of luck, you won't regret it.

[Sasq]

Aye, brian has the correct idea, sadly I feel off the wagon when I came out here, had mangaged to quit for many years back in Oz.
Tried the gum, tried the patches, no go. Cold turkey is the only real way to do it.
And if I as I suspect, you have done cold turkey before, I understand your reluctance to try it again.
In and of my self I can do it, its the fact that I am scared I will rip small people to shreds. But It really is the only way to do it. It is also the quickest, lots and lots of water, and lets say about 4000mg of vitamin C a day.
Nicotien and vit C have a wonderful ability to cancel each other out. flush it out from your system as soon as possible, then get on with the withdrawl.

[Gurm]

Sasq just said what I was going to say. DETOX your system. Antioxidants, vitamin C, etc.

Go to your local fruity health food store, get some tea or herbal pills or whatever that is listed as "clean out your system". Chug them, and quit cold turkey.

Then drink a boatload of water, take the detox tea/whatever, vitamin C... and be prepared to suffer for a week or so. That's about it.

Oh, and hope you don't have any underlying mental conditions. ROFL. My dad quit cold turkey, and it brought out his OCD, hardcore. That was 20 years ago. *sigh*

[Brian Ellis]

Oh, and hope you don't have any underlying mental conditions.

Goes without saying that he has a mental condition! All of us on this forum are stark staring bonkers, or we wouldn't be here.

[jms]

It is also the quickest, lots and lots of water, and lets say about 4000mg of vitamin C a day.

lol, 4000mg=4kg a day? Thats a lot of vitamin C and wil prolly be tough on the porcelain

[Brian Ellis]

Nah, it's 4 g, not 4 kg.

[jms]

Nah, it's 4 g, not 4 kg.

ouch

[Whirl-Secret]

Stopped in 2000 after a bet with my mum (she had to lose weight, I had to quit)

Has been easy until recently with exam stress, now I have a link between stress and needing cigarettes. I am half way through a very intensive course of MCSE exams (Microsoft) and I am smoking maybe 5 days every week, 1-2 cigarettes a day. I can feel my resistance slipping a bit, before I could just cut them off easily for a week or 2 if I felt myself wanting one.

Exams finish in mid June, then I will probably be pretty addicted again, but I am utterly determined not to become a full-time smoker (ie before work, lunchbreaks etc).

So my advice would be, try to not smoke at all for as long as poss, even forever. Don't let your body / mind associate cigarettes with any fun, stress relief, going to bars... etc etc

[KvHagedorn]

I would imagine the best thing is never to start. I have never even tried it, since smoking has always been a particularly vile thing to me, having grown up with two parents who smoked, and smoked inside (my dad smoked a pipe.) I would wake up physically ill every morning, pulling the covers over my head in a vain attempt to filter out the pollution. My mother died of metastatic lung cancer in 1998. I was never able to get her to quit. Unfortunately, I heard some stories from my aunt about her as a baby chewing on my grandfather's pipe stem when she was teething. Apparently she got a taste for it way back. If you do quit, the biggest beneficiaries are your kids, because they do as you do, not as you say. It would be a great positive thing for them to see happen.

[Fat Tone]

I know its not much help, but I agree with KvH. I've never smoked, not even once. My parents somked until I was ~8, then went cold turkey. I hate smoke, and can't wait for all the pubs and restaurants to totally ban it here.

What I don't get is those who smoke around their kids...if someone wants to give themselves cancer its one thing, but their kids? Totally irresponsible in this informed day and age.

So RedRed, I wish you all the very best When you feel yourself weakening, think of your kids. Think of them breathing second hand smoke and what is does to them, think of them nursing a sick parent in a few years time, or greiving a lost parent. That should give you strength.

Good luck!

T.

[Jessterw]

I stopped smoking about 6 years ago, and save for partaking of a few while in Japan (on one trip), I've never relapsed or had a problem quitting.

I quit 'cold turkey'. Your body will hate you if you go that route, and it does take some willpower. Of course, you also run a risk of picking up an alternative addiction. Mine is caffeine.

I think the key is yearning to quit or having a strong reason for doing so. In most cases, the health reason just isn't enough, as most of us, while we want to be healthy, don't truly feel strongly about it. It's just not enough to want to quit, you have to be wholly vested in doing so.

I did it because of my kids.

[Claymonkey]

Goes without saying that he has a mental condition! All of us on this forum are stark staring bonkers, or we wouldn't be here.

I hear that!