Who has successfully quit smoking? Put in your own stats in the way I have for comparison.? -
My quit date: 15th June 2005
Method: cold turkey
Reasons: Shortest withdrawal suffering time and nicotine replacement didn-t feel like I was really quitting.
Time taken where I feel I succeeded over the addiction: 3 months
I set a goal unrelated to quitting smoking, and promised myself if I met that goal, I would quit smoking. As I approached my end date, I could see my goal would be reached easily. So I switched to ultra lights a few months before I expected to quit. I made sure that I didn-t smoke any more cigarettes than I did before. Once I adjusted to that, I started poking extra holes in the filters. This reduced the amount of inhaled smoke even further. As time went on, I poked more and more holes, cutting the smoke to the point that I could pull a drag and exhale, and no smoke at all was coming out of my mouth. On the day I reached my goal, that very minute, I threw away my cigarettes and lighter. I didn-t have any withdrawal symptoms at all, and never have. And, no matter how stressed I-ve gotten, I-ve never felt the need to puff on one of those nasty things again. Been about 15 years now, and I-d smoked for 20.
Method: exercise and avoiding people that smoke/ smoke areas
Reasons: To quit it was easier to not see it at all but after awhile I did have to face my demon and tell my brain NO!. Pushing myself during exercise made me realize how weak nicotine made me become. I had to rise above it. Doing it slowly by using patches was ridiculous because it just gives you the potential to smoke again. When I started to quit I did smoke on avg of every two months but one day it just couldn-t happen anymore and that was the day I turned away and never looked back. Pretty much cold turkey but I went off little by little first.
Time taken to succeed: Two years to completely absolutely stop. Now cigarette smoke makes me sick and I can-t stand it at all. People that smoke stink to me and I can-t stand them. I realize how nasty it makes you and how your look and appearance is overcast with dull colors. Running was a big factor in helping me because I ran hard enough to feel the pain of abused lungs and body. Nowadays I keep going strong with vigourous exercise and running. I-m proud of this and I-m proud of not supporting some rich, fat, useless, money hungry corporate dude that-s sitting there laughing while people are dying. Sad to say it-s not really his fault though........
I quit smoking about 30 years ago and when I did, I quit cold turkey without any drugs, patches, hypnosis or anything else like that. I was smoking 3 packs a day when I did quit.
The hospital in my town has a quit smoking plan that they presented. It would tell you each day from the day you quit what you felt like and what was going on and how you were reacting and what to do.
If I could remember it all I would be glad to relate it to you but it was too long ago. All I know is it worked and I haven-t smoked a cigarette since then.
Several things I do remember are, stay away from acidic foods, they enhance the craving for a cigarette. Drink plenty of water to flush the nicotine from your system.
The normal craving for a cigarette lasts approximately 2 minutes so when you have a craving, tell yourself that you -chose- not to smoke that cigarette for 10 minutes, and generally during that 10 minutes you will be distracted and find something else to occupy your time and forget about the cigarette.
Smoking is also a habit that is tied to other habits. If you drink a cup of coffee and have a cigarette, then don-t have the cup of coffee and you won-t have the cigarette. If you eat dinner then sit and watch tv and smoke a cigarette then don-t sit and watch tv, do something different. In other words change the routine that makes you smoke.
If you slip and smoke a cigarette, that-s okay but next time make sure you get back on track. Never say I -quit- smoking. Quit has a negative impact, you should always say you -choose- not to smoke, that is a positive attitude and works much better.
If you want more information then you need to get in touch with your local hospital or someplace like that and see if they have any classes on helping you to quit smoking. It worked for me and with 3 packs a day, I thought it would be impossible to quit. Back then there weren-t any patches and stuff. I didn-t have much choice of how I was going to quit.
Congratulations for sticking it out so long, you are over the worse part of it, keep it up and good luck.
May 1 2004 cold turkey...only way that really works is to stop putting them in your mouth..still working on it. One smoke away from a pack a day.
I decided to stop smoking on the day that I went to visit my mother out of state. It was a five day trip and I didn-t like to smoke in front of her. My kids (15 and 20 at the time) would make fun of me and said that I would not be able to do it, well I did. When we arrived back home, I decided to get a pack of smokes. The kids had a fit saying that I had just gone five days without one, why would I want to smoke now, I saw the logic and haven-t smoked since.
It-s been four years and I feel great. Smoking is just a habit you can quit. Replace your nasty habit (that will kill you) with another habit and go from there.