Quitting Smoking and Staying Quit

[Road King]

I've smoked since I was 14 off and on. I will smoke 7 years, quit 7 years. smoke 5, quit 3. I quit 6 months ago but stress is a trigger and this economy is really picking on the building industry. Picked them back up a few weeks ago and seriously hacked the wife off. Anybody else on this roller coaster or anybody find the way off. HOW???????:jo

BA

[gkoelling]

I have no magic answer for you. I quit in Feb. and still regularly find myself jonesing for one.

[rattles]

One day at a time.

Don't you feel better when you don't smoke? You can only do it for yourself. It's like losing weight. You have to make your mind up once and for all.

Good luck!

[elkym]

I was a missionary once (let's not go there on the board, shall we?).

While I was, I helped several people quit smoking, I including a 60 year old who had been smoking since he was 6.

4 suggestions:
1-- Talk about things when it gets stressful
2-- find a 12 step program, and stick with it.
3-- find something spiritual to support you, be it music, scriptures, etc. (I'm not trying to say you don't have anything in that direction...)
4-- avoid coffee and alcohol as much as you're able. (everyone I saw quit-- quit those, too)

Good luck, bud.

[gkoelling]

I was a missionary once (let's not go there on the board, shall we?).

While I was, I helped several people quit smoking, I including a 60 year old who had been smoking since he was 6.

4 suggestions:
1-- Talk about things when it gets stressful
2-- find a 12 step program, and stick with it.
3-- find something spiritual to support you, be it music, scriptures, etc. (I'm not trying to say you don't have anything in that direction...)
4-- avoid coffee and alcohol as much as you're able. (everyone I saw quit-- quit those, too)

Good luck, bud.

:D

1-- I live alone but the dog pretends to listen sometimes
2-- 12 steps?
3-- there's never been anything remotely spiritual in my life
4-- you'll have to pry my coffee and beer from my cold dead hands

I quit 2/9/08

EDIT: I'm 52 and started when I was 10.

[Midnight Lady]

Road King, it's a very tough thing to do. I too started at 14 and smoked most of my life. When I quit 12 years ago, it was my third try.

But when I woke up one morning (after a party) and felt like an elephant was sitting on my chest - so hard to breathe - I decided that I had to stop. It's a very personal decision about your own health and you're the only one who can make it.

Sadly, while people try to encourage you, the "need" to quit has to come from within. You can try to do it to please others, but that won't work. When you finally decide that you just don't want to do it anymore, it will work, but not unless, and not until.

Good luck to you.

[halorealm7]

I had professional help with mine called a heart surgeon. I'm 44...how cool is that? :dunno

[Seditious]

I've smoked since I was 14 off and on. I will smoke 7 years, quit 7 years. smoke 5, quit 3. I quit 6 months ago but stress is a trigger and this economy is really picking on the building industry. Picked them back up a few weeks ago and seriously hacked the wife off. Anybody else on this roller coaster or anybody find the way off. HOW???????:jo

BA

I quit a year and a half ago, and haven't had a true "craving" since. I did a semi-hypnosis thing to quit though. I do still like the smell of someone smoking a Marlboro light, I don't want one, but it smells good. (I've been that way since I was a small child)

I'm 34, started when I was 13.

[screamtone]

I quit this year. I sometimes have very vivid dreams in which I smoke. They're so realistic that I wake up and I'm afraid that I actually smoked. Whenever I think about picking one up, I remind myself how proud I am that I was able to quit after so long. I don't want to throw that accomplishment away. That said, I'm less than a year in this time.

If you need some help quitting, read this (http://www.thegearpage.net/board/showthread.php?t=458991&highlight=smoking) recent thread on TGP. Chew some nicotine gum or use a nicotine lozenge. Take a walk. Hit a punching bag. Go to the driving range. Ride out the cravings however you need to. I wish I had some magic advice other than that. It's really freaking hard, but it can be done.

It's a very personal decision about your own health and you're the only one who can make it.

When you finally decide that you just don't want to do it anymore, it will work, but not unless, and not until.


I believe this is the absolute truth.

Good luck!

[kovachian]

I quit approximately 7-8 months ago and my primary motivation were my co-workers at my old job. Most of them were smokers, so it's a bit ironic in that they unintentionally became my motivation. I'd be sitting back in the break room chillin', people shooting the breeze and whatnot, the usual. Well every time a chain-smoker would start laughing, they'd start their usual coughing 'n' hacking and you could just hear thirty years' worth of chunky lung butter sloshing around in their lungs.

http://img168.imageshack.us/img168/70/barfduosw9.gif

Not wanting to end up like that as I get older is exactly the motivation I needed at the time.

Maybe most smokers don't see themselves as motivation for non-smokers but that's the way it works for some folks. Nowadays I stay smoke free just out of habit.

[Prodigy]

Will power. I quit cold turkey. Anyone who thinks they need a patch or gum or anything else is kidding themselves. It's the same thing as someone who wants to train for the Boston Marathon. It's all about having the self discipline to get up at the crack of dawn each morning ready to run for miles. Keep your eyes on the prize and you'll be fine.

[siore]

I've smoked since I was 14 off and on. I will smoke 7 years, quit 7 years. smoke 5, quit 3. I quit 6 months ago but stress is a trigger and this economy is really picking on the building industry. Picked them back up a few weeks ago and seriously hacked the wife off. Anybody else on this roller coaster or anybody find the way off. HOW???????:jo

BA
I smoked since I was 13, about half-pack to a pack per day. Smoked til I was 17 or 18, then quit. Tobacco free til about 22, when I got my first job. Smoked for another 2 years, then quit again. Clean for a year, then got re-acquainted with the habit for a month. Thankfully, I got off immediately. It's been 7 months clean since.

Same thing with my girl, she gets mucho frustrated when I pick it up again. :D

You my, friend, are what I would call a "one-stick-trigger" smoker. Just like me. I just can't be the occasional smoker like some friends I know. That one stick just leads to damnation. :dunno

[cry of love]

Went through the hardest pain of my life last month. Quit bro!
http://www.thegearpage.net/board/showthread.php?t=458991

edit: sorry, didn't see you had posted that screamtone.

[phoenix 7]

Nicotine lozenges.

[roomservice]

I agree with Midnight Lady - it's a personal thing but, when you finally want to stop for good you will.

I was always stopping and starting (smoked from 13 to 39 and I'm 41 now) and giving myself pats on the back for stopping (...if I stop now, then in one month I can buy an iPOD ....then just went and bought the iPOD before I made the month out and started smoking again anyway....:jo).

I did stop for two years in my late 20's but I wanted a fag every day....

Big turning point for me was a couple of years ago. I was feeling very ill, stressed etc (I'm never ill...so that got me down too lol!!) and, for the first time in 15 years took some time off from work. Drove home, felt awful, went to the doctors, he scared the daylights out of me thinking I had some kidney problem after the tests came through (turned out he was a crap doctor and it appears my body was saying stop you idiot - get a life lol!! so I'm all good now).

Anyway.....one day I was laying on my sofa in the living room, lit up a ciggie, put it in the ashtray on the floor and, next thing I knew, I woke up. It was 4 hours later and I looked over the side of the sofa and the ciggie hads burned all the way to the nub, but was balanced on the side.......absolutely sh** myself that I could have burned the house down and me in it and I wouldnt have known a thing.........decided then and there to not smoke again until I felt better.

Usual story from there on, made a week not too bad, got back to work stikll managed another week and it jsut got easier and easier.

40 - 50 a day to zero cold turkey (or should I say sh** scared turkey lol!)

I wouldnt recomend this therapy to everyone but it worked for me:)

[StevenS]

I started at 14 or so and smoked til I was 39. I swore to myself that I would quit before I was 40. I'm 46 now and haven't had one since.

I tried quiting many times and what finally worked for me was just digging in and going cold turkey. Nothing against how anybody else wants to quit, but I personally think the patch, and gum and stuff just prolongs the torture. That's the way it seemed to me anyway, cause I tried all of them myself and they didn't work. Maybe I just was kidding myself and didn't really want to quit but that's how I saw it.
When you quit make sure you never ever have another one. Don't kid yourself that you can have one now and then and it'll be ok. It'll creep back into your life.

Good luck!

It's the best thing you'll ever do for yourself!

[proreverb68]

Think of something that you want more than smoking....

Picture yourself at a beach in 20 years...with working lungs etc...

focus on that each time you get a craving.

[Mikey2201]

I've smoked since I was 14 off and on. I will smoke 7 years, quit 7 years. smoke 5, quit 3. I quit 6 months ago but stress is a trigger and this economy is really picking on the building industry. Picked them back up a few weeks ago and seriously hacked the wife off. Anybody else on this roller coaster or anybody find the way off. HOW???????:jo

BA


I know how you feel i have not smoked since 2001 and now with my business down 52%, problems with family, back pain, some kind of lump in my midsection and oh yeah the audit i find myself smoking again. Some days i win some i lose but i am still trying , don't give up. In 2001 when i quit i used water, everytime i wanted to smoke i would drink water instead and it did work.

[dharmafool]

I smoked heavily from 13 to 37. I'm 51 now. I say this in the spirit of trying to be helpful:

1. Most longtime smokers who successfully quit and stay quit, had tried many times previously to quit and lit up again. So keep quitting until it sticks.

2. There are many, many methods people have used to quit successfully. Devise your own regimen, one that suits you best. Give it your all.

3. There is research showing that some anti-depressant medications can help people get through the initial months or first year of tobacco withdrawal. This may be a more effective treatment for people not already taking anti-depressants before they quit smoking.

4. Quitting smoking is a way of saying YES to life.

[Road King]

Thanks guys and gals, great advice and certainly some motivational fodder too. Prayers and best wishes to those of you fighting smoking related illness. Most of us who smoke understand completely the stupidity of the decision to start or continue. Honestly everytime I smoke I have to wash my hands because I hate the smell. I even have a pedal for sell on the forum that the only reason I don't want is because it smells faintly of smoke from the previous owner. Its crazy eh? I guess what has impacted me most is the truth you have all put forth. Successful quitters (theres a country song in there somewhere) have done so for their own personal reasons and not for anyone else. I just have to find that inescapable reason and quit letting the "one-stick trigger" syndrome win out. My grandparents both died of smoking related illnesses so that may be as good a place to start as any. My wife of 23 years and my two sons should also help.
Thanks again for taking the time to help.

Brad

[mprvise]

I smoked from age 14 until about 7 months ago (I'm 39). I think every other time I tried to quit there was someone or something forcing my hand. This time I made the decision for myself. There have only been a few times I've been tempted, and each time alcohol was a factor. But that temptation passed and I really haven't had a strong urge in some time. I do still have those smoking dreams though.

It sounds to me like your wife may be large factor in your quitting. If that is how you see it quitting and staying quit may be difficult.

Good luck!

[52ftbuddha]

It will get easier. I am one that started when I was prolly 7 round back of the ATC hut when the prefects weren't looking. Anyone from England knows how it can be, they used to sell cigarettes in packs of 10 just perfect for a child's pocket money. At first it was about rebellion later it was just because I loved to do it. We don't speak much about the act of smoking, like yourself I find the aftertaste and smell foul but I love the act of smoking and in some way there may still be an element of rebellion in it. What better when all of society is thumbing its nose at you. So for me the cure was threefold, one find some other way of rebelling at what was pissing me off. Admit that though I loved to smoke It was incompatible with everything in my life. And finally put some physical activity that serves as a reminder, I now try to run at least 15 miles a week.

rob

[JoeP]

I quit over 15 years ago. Cold turkey. Quit, and haven't smoked one to this day. Don't have any cravings, don't have the problem with it smelling good.

After you've been quit for so long, staying quit is very easy.

Just don't smoke one. It's simple for me.

For me, everytime early on that I wanted a smoke, (the first 6 months or so from quitting), i just realized that what I was telling myself, to smoke one, was just an excuse to justify me smoking again, so I just didn't buy in to my own head tricking me into doing it again.

It's the best thing I've ever done for myself in my lifetime. I smoked 2+ packs a day at the end, and smoked totally for about 16 or 17 years.

Been quit for 15 or better now, and to this day, my only regret, was in ever starting to smoke in the first place.

Good luck, hang in there. Just don't buy in to your mind tricking you into smoking again.

[tomr63]

I smoked from the time I was 15 until I was 29. I was able to quit cold turkey. That was 16 years ago and I've never had another cigarette. From what I've read, nicotine effects everyone differently. Some people have an easier time than others breaking nicotine's hold on them. I guess I am one of the lucky ones. My wife on the other hand, has been smoking for 30+ years and hasn't been able to stop for more than a day at a time.

I wish anyone trying to quit the best of luck with it, stay strong.

[mge80]

I never started (although I'm sure I inhaled a lifetime's worth of second hand smoke from my mother)...but I'm a little surprised at all those in this thread that started at such a young age (14 or less).

Was the need to be rebellious or cool that strong? Not passing judgment at all, just genuinely curious as to the reasons to start so young.

[52ftbuddha]

mge80 all of those things you suggest and many more. North America and North Americans in general are a lot more hopeful bunch than the rest of the world. All of you remember that as we take on this recession. A long life in 70s, and 80s England really didn't seem like such a good thing that was clear from an early age. I would suggest thats why we had the Sex Pistols and many more disenfranchised, I just sodded off to the US. The luck of my life.

Strategem is part of my recovery, thank you.

[Mr. Kite]

I kept a pack of tooth picks in my cigarette pocket. I'd put a tooth pick in my mouth when I had a craving. When it got real bad I would have to get alone and get on my knees and pray. I smoked a lot and it was hurting me. Pain can be a mighty motivator for me.

[Notverysuttle]

Similar story for me, smoked for years and started young--20 plus years total.
What helped me to stop: recognize the triggers that caused my cravings; develop an alternative strategy to minimize the triggers; and finally, I avoided bars and heavy drinking for several months to avoid smoking pressures I could not resist.

Exercise and having some one to commiserate with helps exponentially also.

[recto-robbie]

Today is day number 32 for me. It is the second day without Chantix after one month of using the stuff. For me, Chantix has been a blessing,, honostly there have been very little side effects and quitting has really been on the easy side. Hardest part was getting over the ritual parts of smoking,, after meals, driving, with a drink and so on. The actual physical addiction to tobacco hasn't really bothered me too much.
Of course I would love to go out side and smoke one right now but I have made up my mind that that will not happen. I also find that it seems to help if I somewhat grasp and attempt to enjoy the pain (for lack of a better word) because I have it set in my mind that my body is healing and the unpleasant aspects of quitting is what my body needs to recover. I know, its always easier to walk outside and light one up,, but that isnt going to happen. It just isnt. Might as well try and enjoy the recovery,, it WILL get better.
Ive been smoking since the 7th grade,, but really a full time smoker since I was 18. About a pack a day and plenty of pot in between. Im only 37 now and glad that ive made up my mind early enough.
Im tired already of all that damn smoke.

[Flux]

I've been quit (again) for about 18 months. There's two things to remember: you will always be a cigarette addict, so never give in. And secondly, it gets easier to resist, so hang in there.
There's no 'best' way to quit. I've used a different method each time: cold turkey, cut down to nothin', self-help book - though I've never used substitutes like gum (yech) or the patch. Seems to work well for other folks though.
Here's the kicker. Everyone seems to focus on the quitting bit, but I figure the trick is to get your head around staying quit. Lastly, always keep on quitting. If you fall off the wagon, climb back on. It's the journey not the destination that counts.

[GuitarsFromMars]

I had a stroke 7/5/06(28 months).I lost every motor neuron on my right side.I quit that day.I was drinking a fifth,to a quart,of Jim Beam each week,and smoking two packs of Marlboros a day.I will never go back,to smoking or drinking.

[JoeP]

I never started (although I'm sure I inhaled a lifetime's worth of second hand smoke from my mother)...but I'm a little surprised at all those in this thread that started at such a young age (14 or less).

Was the need to be rebellious or cool that strong? Not passing judgment at all, just genuinely curious as to the reasons to start so young.


You have to have lived in the 60's and early 70's, but smoking was ''cool''. It wasn't rebellious, although some i'm sure did that, but it was portrayed as glamourus, cool, and a way to be looked at as ''grown up''. That's why so many started early in those years. It just wasn't ever discussed about the ''bad'' side of smoking, it was "look what the stars are doing, James Dean, Marlon Brando, Frank Sinatra, so on, so forth." Man, they were cool, and the kids then were just emulating what the perception of ''cool'' was.. Because the repercussions of smoking weren't as readily known.

Back in the day, alot of smokers died from what the doctors said was emphasema. Truth be known, it was more than likely lung cancer.

It was a huge social statement back then. It was the essence, of ''cool''....

[bigkahuna2u]

Takes willpower and determination to quit and stay quit. Having smoking related health issues and hearing stories of people with lung cancer gave me the determination I needed to rid the habit. Takes a good 5 weeks to get over the bulk of the physical and mental addiction (and you have to be careful not to pick up substitute addictions in the process like sugar and alcohol). It gets significantly easier after that.