| Help - Giving up the smoke __~ ~
Posted: 10/14/2009 3:17:23 PM | Are there any humble real life quitters with helpful advice on my fears of giving up smoking?
I have finally dragged my head out of the sand and honestly desire to quit for all the right reasons.
I have a plan which I have started (but not stopped yet).
I have read loads of leaflets full of helpful advice but haven't found much on my biggest fear.
For a start I know its not going to be plain sailing, I rely on "them" too much and am the worst addict, but I do know that I will be able to cope well with most of the pitfalls as I am very determined.
My biggest fear is "how will I cope with stress when I find smoking such a crutch during stressful times.
The fact that smoking helps me cope with stress, as daft as that might sound. But it does in reality calm me enough to think straight and deal with "it".
Not a pretty sight - me all stressed out feeling an emotional and physical wreck.
I really need help with this as I am not a coper of stress.
I can hardly tolerate myself when I am stressed out with bad moods etc..
Weak I know, I am who I am.
That is the main reason why I smoke, or excuse to anyway.
I dread turning to food and gain another bad habit for me to kick.
The cause of my stress is 9 times out of 10 out of my control so it will be difficult to remove the stress from the equation.
I do have too much stress in my life compared with what I am able to cope with.
I always see a plan through.
Please help me find a better excuse for coping with stress, I don't want to go completely insane.
 | |
|
| Help - Giving up the smoke __~ ~
Posted: 10/14/2009 9:37:17 PM | hi as A 50 a day addict i try ed about all the methods .
The one that worked for me was called laser theory/acupuncture.
it is a laser they use on the acupuncture points.
its been 5years now and have smoked two cigs in that time when very drunk.
i felt very little cravings and am living a better life.
good luck | |
|
| Help - Giving up the smoke __~ ~
Posted: 10/15/2009 4:43:10 AM | Well first off, I wish you all the best sucess, I cant really relate to giving them up as i never started, but when stress gets to me I work out. I know its quicker to have a fag than an 40 minute session in the gym but once your body get used to working out it really makes you fell better.
I also have a friend who started a money jar...........when she was giving up (along with patches) she would put the money she wounld have spent on smoking in a jar....that way she could auctually see the money build up. Worked for her | |
|
| Help - Giving up the smoke __~ ~
Posted: 10/15/2009 11:32:38 AM | Thanks so much for the encouragement.
Agree with you, justlittlestaryme, on the benefits of exercise, might run up and down the stairs at work for 3 mins, the time it takes to smoke a fag, they all think I am a loony anyhow! Probably will kill the oxygen rush that the brain is usually denied of too.
Don't trust myself to have a money jar so I have set up a monthly direct debit to a notice account of my fag money. God it sounds so "sad" having fag money!
It's the stress thing and how I will deal with it that really concerns me! Will try the stairs and walks etc.. during stressful times at work. And am borrowing a friends treadmill for the winter while they are away so I have no excuse there!
Would love to be able to jog again without coughing up a lung!
Thanks again | |
|
| Help - Giving up the smoke __~ ~
Posted: 10/15/2009 9:20:30 PM | I quit smoking back in April this year having smoked for 20 years. [since I was 15]
I had no help or gimmicks or anything like that. I just decided I'd had enough and stopped buying them.
To be honest, I found it really easy. I had a few cravings, but they weren't so bad. My advice? Put up with the cravings and resist teh temptation to buy them. I think that not buying them was the key for me... More often than not, I wasn't experienceing a craving whenever I passed a cigarrette counter, so the urge was pretty easy to beat... then later, when I did get a craving... I had no cigs in the flat.
I have put on a little weight since - but the gym is helping to keepthat under control.
Ooh... and the playstation really helped in keeping my mind of it all,.
Good luck with it and remember... all you have to do to stop smoking is to stop smoking. It's all about the willpower. | |
|
| Help - Giving up the smoke __~ ~
Posted: 10/16/2009 5:10:41 AM | | fair play to u and the very best of luck to u in giveing up smoking as for me been amoking since i was 11 years old now 42 and still smoking its a love hate thing some times i hate them and some times i love them i have tryed lots of times to give them up but its fails me its the stress that gets to me each time if i can get over this i will be able to give them up anyway will keeping trying have u picked a day yet for stopping smoking | |
|
| Help - Giving up the smoke __~ ~
Posted: 10/16/2009 8:10:00 AM | | Best of luck to you on giving up.....I used to be a 20 a day man myself until last June but decided enough was enough and gave up. My one panic was what will i do under a stressful situation whaen i dont have cigarettes to calm me down????????? But to be honest after giving up I actually didnt stress as much. Looking back on it I was never relaxed when smoking. I could never sit down and enjoy a smoke......Well hope it goes well for you. | |
|
| Help - Giving up the smoke __~ ~
Posted: 10/16/2009 10:22:52 AM | Thanks guys for the support.
I hope that happens to me, rustelli1, not actually getting stressed as much! That would be great.
I haven't actually got an exact date yet, still waiting to hear back from Doc . But, I have never been more ready and willing to stop. I am trying not to over think it and just get on with it when I get the off, want to have my eyes open though and no more excuses.
I can't wait for the change and only thinking positive. | |
|
| |
| Help - Giving up the smoke __~ ~
Posted: 10/20/2009 4:56:38 PM | I gave up smoking many many times , ince for 11 yrs.
i tried every possible concievable method .
3 Years ago , i went to paul Goldins clinic in Dun laoighaire, i have been to 3 other hypnotits , they did not work. The goldin clinic clinic helped me with smoking. Alas their efforts to help shift the 2 stone i put on since stopping haven't been as sucessful. But i do feel grateful , id rather be a fat ex smoker than dead or blue from lack of oxegen ! Good luck , and never say die  | |
|
| Help - Giving up the smoke __~ ~
Posted: 10/21/2009 6:47:04 PM | Hello Everybody, my name is Dreamacre and I'm a nicotine addict!!!! 
I was smoking since the age of 13, that's 50 years give or take a month or two.
At one very stressful point in my life, my marriage break-down, I was smoking 60 a day and never got my intake down below 40 a day after that....
they were killing me, they were destroying my body, not just my lungs but every other little bit of me was being affected.....couldn't walk further than a couple of hundred yards without stopping and I had been a schoolboy athlete!!!!.... medals 'n trophies to prove it!!!!... but sadly that was all I had to prove it, my health was gone, my strong and virile body was a shambles long long before it's time, my skin was dry and wrinkled way beyond it's years..........................
Last Sunday week, 17 days ago, I smoked my last fag at midnight, I had saved it 'til bedtime, there were no more in the house, 'twas the first time ever I had gone to bed without having cigarettes for the morning............this was unthinkable before that night,,,,I had often gone out at 2/3/4 in the morning to buy cigs, couldn't go to bed without cigs for the morning....
All the ash trays were cleared out that night, no way was I gonna be able to salvage butts in the middle of the night.......
.....it hasn't been a piece of cake, I won't try to cod you, but....it was a damn sight easier than I thought it was going to be once I had made up my mind....
I am putting on a bit of weight but I am able to walk further, the difference to my health and fitness in these 17 days is phenominal, and it just gets better day by day......
I would still love a fag now, even as I write this, but I know it's the last thing I need, I don't need it.....
Good Luck to anybody trying to stay off them, just stop buying, you and your home will smell better, you will start to sparkle again, your non-smoking friends won't find your presence quite so offensive any more, you'll be more popular....
just say to yourself, I Am a Non-Smoker and keep saying it.
There is no one successful wat to stop but by putting a whole lot of little things into your plan you can win, you will become a non-smoker.....quicker than you have ever believed possible......and it is possible. | |
|
| Help - Giving up the smoke __~ ~
Posted: 10/23/2009 4:33:13 PM | I stopped smoking on 4th Feb this year.
I had thought about stopping for a few years but had always found reasons not to set a date. I made an attempt about 3yrs ago but lasted 2 weeks.
I had dutyfree ciggies in Jan and I told myself, when they are gone, thats it, no more....
I had bought Niccorette gum but it was disgusting so only used it a few times.
I was off them a week when I bought Allan Carrs book, Easyway. It helped reinforce in my mind why I stopped smoking. It advises you though to read it before you stop.
One thing I made sure of was not to turn into a complete antsmoker who complains about smokers. I can still go outside with my friends when they go for a smoke, except when we go back inside my breath doesn't stink. 
When your time is right you will find a way to give up. Feel free to PM me if there is anything I can do to help. | |
|
| Help - Giving up the smoke __~ ~
Posted: 10/28/2009 4:52:22 PM | | Hi - trying the same myself....am buying a different brand that I really don't like to distance myself...have cut it in half in one week and am going to move on to one I like even less... I quit easily when I was pregnant- didn't smoke for 23 years, then went back 3 years ago..I think the less I like it I will put it aside again...good luck! | |
|
| Help - Giving up the smoke __~ ~
Posted: 10/30/2009 7:20:25 AM | Wish you the best of luck to quit smoking and well done to all that succeeded thus far. Nothing better to inspire quitting than to hear from those who have done it and succeeded.
I'm a smoker too. 3-months ago was at 40-50/day, since halved to less than 20/day. I know thats still a lot to smoke daily but reducing intake by 50% was pretty easy to be honest. I am working on my PhD so stress is continuous. Spend a lot of time alone too so consequently find yourself looking for distraction and cigarettes are it. The biggest thing was to give up smoking in my house completely which I did, what a difference. Not reaching for a smoke every 20-30 minutes radically reduces intake.
My own plan is to reduce to 10/day come November 1st and by Jan 1st to have quit completely. Attempted to stop smoking completely a few times but didn't work for me, constant downsizing seems to work tho.
For anyone who smokes heavily, along with the health benefits and everything else, think about this. In my case if I were to stop buying smokes now, would save over 300,000 euro by time I am 65. Us smokers really do need our heads examined ;) | |
|
| Help - Giving up the smoke __~ ~
Posted: 11/27/2009 10:51:46 AM | Hello All, was just wondering how ye're all doing without ye're fags....
I'm into my 8th. week now without the weed.....
If I can do it so can you...............I'm no Superman, the thoughts of no more of my beloved ciggies terrified me, I honestly felt like life wasn't worth living without my fags, I felt I couldn't cope without my fags, my fags were what was keeping me going....my reason to live..!!!!!!!.....such f*****g stupid thoughts.....
I have survived thus far without, 8 weeks...??????
The amazing thing is that I haven't used any nicotine replacement therapy, no patches, no gum, no dummy cigarettes...........
I'm not gloating or boasting....this is just to let you know that you can do it, you can stop!!!!
I was one of the worlds worst nicotine addicts, still am, .....smoking for over 50 years, consumtion up to 60 per day at one point....more recently I was doing 40 a day, so so sooooooooooo f*****g stupid!!!!!!
On the morning of my last day smoking I bought 40, thinking to myself that they would just about get me to bed that night and that they would be my last........
.....I left them behind me in thwe shop.....
Rather than go all the way back to the shop to get them I bought 40 more locally, with the same plan in mind...tonight would be my last night on the weed...
As it transpired, I had to rati0n myself later on in the evening to keep one last one for going to bed.
In the morning it was tough, no fags, first time in 50 years!!!!!!
Now, picture this, I am dying for a fag.......I go back to the shop where I had previously left 40 which I had paid for, €15.40, the girl remembered and was handing the fags to me.....now that was a tough moment....do I take the fags and run outside to satisfy these mad cravings, who was to know, it would make no difference to anyone else......
.....I said "No Thanks, Can I Have the Money Instead"?
 
Good Luck to anyone else trying to stop, you can do it.....I was a hopeless case, had tried umpteen times, never thougtht I could go a day without....... | |
|
|
Home
login 
