Given up smoking

[col]

The main thing that is going to help me stop,( Iv set my date ) is copd( cronic obstructiive pulminary desease), which I see a lot of in my work. One poor guy had what looked like a space helmet on to get oxygen into his bloodstream as his o2 sats ( oxygen saturation in the blood) were so low. Scary thought and its more common in the 40 plus age group with the majority caused by smoking.
My son even had me thinking, he just came out with" but one morning you might wake up with cancer" what more motivation do I need when even my fifteen (yesterday) year old son can just come out with this?

 

[Wolf04]

Best of luck with it RT, nobody smoked as heavily as me and I managed to quit with the help of patches. I used the 24 hour large ones for a month and was high as a kite. Switched to the medium for a month with some withdrawl symptoms in the first week. During the third month I used the small patches but to be honest they may as well have been elastoplasts, I'd cracked it by then. Hope cold turkey works for you but if not then don't forget there are other ways.

 

[grhm]

I gave up about severn years ago (I tried several times and have forgotten exactly when). I now chew pens. I've nearly always got a biro sat on my keyboard that doesn't actually work - I believe I never used to chew my pens at school, so I'm fairly certain I unconciously adopted it as a replacement for cigarettes. I don't notice I'm doing it and don't seem to be able to stop - but I figure it's ok as I don't do it all the time (only in the office) and its healthier!!

I'd also suggest avoiding situations where you smoked. I had to stop going to the pub for a while as the temptation to have 'just one' after I'd had a couple of pints was too great - didn't stop drinking, just going to pubs (with their vending machine convenience). Took years before I stopped feeling tempted when in a pub - but only a couple of months before I felt I could go and resist the urge.

Try the liquorice if you think it might help. But keep up the good work.
Maybe try putting the money you would have spend on fags in a jar - it builds up very quickly. Then you can reward yourself with new bits for your bike, a takeaway/meal out, whatever takes your fancy.

 

[Arch]

I don't think I will, this time.

There, now you have to succeed, to prove Bonj wrong (again). Way to go bonj, BTW, why not just shut up if you can't be helpful.

RT, well done. If it gets difficult, sit in your cab, in silence and listen very hard, and you'll hear a tiny knitted chimp voice encouraging you. After all, less money on ciggies is more money for bananas.

 

[tyred]

Well done and you sound as if you have cracked it. One day I might even try and join you (again).

 

[bonj2]

It's not that it was affecting my cycling, just that I'd found myself more bothered about the fact that my girlfriend didn't like me smoking

Well just smoke when she's not around then, in your lorry.
You DO know that that's the "official" reason why king size rizlas exist, not for spliffs but for lorry drivers to have long fags in their lorry?

and I was beginning to be unhappy with the affect that it was having on the rest of my life.

e.g.?

I would still enjoy a rollie, and I'll always like the idea of being a cyclist who smokes, but I've decided it's not for me.
It wouldn't affect the sort of cycling I do, much - I was never interested in going particularly fast anyway.

much? but some? How?

 

[Landslide]

Stick with it RT!

As regards the liquorice thing, I did that when I gave up. It gave my hands summat to do, and kept "the ritual" going. I don't know if that helps or not - is it better to just make a clean break from all the aspects of smoking (nicotine, rituals, nervous habits, summat to turn to when stressed), or is it easier to crack each aspect on its own?

Of course, if you like liquorice anyway, then why not take it up as your new "vice"?

 

[upsidedown]

Well done RT !

I gave up on New Years Eve and doing ok with no patches etc, still get the occasional bad craving, but the two things that keep me going are:

1 The craving will last for 3 minutes on average, just sit it out.

2 The thought of going through the first week to ten days again if i was to smoke again is too bad to think about.

I'm now beginning to think of myself as a non-smoker, will need to check with mortgage life insurance company when you can declare yourself so, more money saved


Hope you succeed, good luck.

 

[Rhythm Thief]

I'm now beginning to think of myself as a non-smoker, will need to check with mortgage life insurance company when you can declare yourself so, more money saved


Hope you succeed, good luck.

Cheers. I think that if you've had anything at all to smoke over the last year, you're legally a smoker. But of course, there's nothing to stop you thinking of yourself as a non smoker from day one.

 

[Rhythm Thief]

Cheers, everyone (except, possibly, Bonj, who seems to want me to start again). I'm fine again today, not missing them at all.

 

[swee'pea99]

Smoked heavily for 20 odd years - strong Dutch tobacco rollies, plus daily spliffs - then stopped. Didn't 'give up' as such, just stopped. Stopped putting things in my mouth and setting fire to them. Simple.

Everyone's different. I know my wife found it a lot harder - patches, zyban, plastic cigs - and even then, backsliding. Whereas to be honest, I didn't find it hard at all. I was a bit ratty for a day or three, then that was that. Didn't touch another smokey thing for a year or more. (And now, four or five years on, I do cadge the occasional fag or spliff of an evening - rarely...no more than once or twice a month - but am never even slightly tempted to go back to being 'a smoker'.)

But I think you're right - it's a mental thing really. If you've made the decision in your head - for real - the rest is (relatively) easy. And it sounds like you have. So well done for that.

 

[puddleglum]

11 days and you've broken its back. What always got me was having a few drinks afterwards, and I'd be tempted to 'just have one'. I had to go on the wagon for a couple of months as well. But the patches really helped me.

+1.
Everyone has mentioned spliffs, and I have never met a non-smoking weed smoker who wasn't in denial about really being addicted to nicotine. If you see what I mean.
What can really hammer your resolve is drink. I have recently become nicotine free after doing the full 10 weeks on patches. If I slipped up in that time, it was the beer.
By the way, congratulations. Everyone who packs it in finds their own way to do it.

 

[bonj2]

Cheers, everyone (except, possibly, Bonj, who seems to want me to start again). I'm fine again today, not missing them at all.

Just don't come crying to me when you try to think of the reason you gave up smoking and can't!

 

[goo_mason]

Keep at it, RT.

I quit over 5 years ago after smoking for 18 years. I started talking myself into it about 6 months before my quit date (1st Jan 2004), told everyone I was going to do it and then basically gave myself lots of good reasons WHY I was stopping:

• I'd worked out that if I hadn't quit in 2004, I'd have been smoking for approximately half my life by around the March of that year.
  
• I'd been incredibly guilty about smoking and putting my health at risk when I had a young daughter to look after.
  
• My daughter used to start crying because I'd nip off into the kitchen for a smoke, when she wanted me to stay with her in the livingroom and play.
  
• I'd sometimes wake up after nodding off on the settee at night watching TV and find myself wheezing pretty badly with quite a tight chest.
  
• My fingers had quite bad patches of nicotine staining on them, which was embrassing.

Things like that helped. When I quit, I binned my rolling tobacco and Rizlas and threw away my ashtrays and lighters. I changed my routine at home and at work in the early days to avoid the situations where I'd normally be stopping for a cigarette. I sucked a lot of mints. I did a lot of deep breathing.

But I did it without any patches or gum, and I've not missed it at all. I've never once been tempted back to smoking.

Weird thing is that I now have nightmares where I'm smoking when I'm supposed to have stopped, and the guilt is immense !