Did you quit smoking more than one month ago? -
Perhaps you can tell us how you achieved it.
I quit smoking about six years ago (I honestly don-t remember -- it will be six or seven years this November). I had been smoking for about 15 years or longer, with a couple of periods thrown into the mix when I-d quit for a few months.
A friend of mine -- and co-worker, important because we spent a lot of time together smoking -- wanted to quit and wanted to start with the Great American Smoke Out. I basically agreed to stop for that one day to keep her company -- I was leery of the whole thing but we agreed that we would not smoke on that day and just...give it a whirl if it went okay. Basically, I figured if I thought in terms of quitting I would sabotage myself, but if I thought in terms of -I-m not going to smoke TODAY- I would be okay. I used the patch (as did my friend -- doing it together was probably key) -- after a couple of weeks of the patch I stopped using it. I was very low-key about it, to the extent that I really didn-t say anything at all about it -- and because I didn-t put pressure on my husband or even really mention it at all, he upped and quit about two months later. A few months into not smoking I went out with some friends for dinner and drinks and to shoot some pool -- they were smokers and I had a cigarette that night, and was fine with it -- didn-t particularly enjoy it, didn-t get any craving to start smoking again, and that was the end of it.
The keys for me:
*Not* thinking in terms of -this is it....forever.-
Doing it with a friend.
Being very low-key about it -- I didn-t go around announcing that I was quitting, or even that I was -not smoking today.- For me, that helped, because there were no issues of pride, or being perceived as a success/failure, no matter what happened.
The patch -- honestly, I have no idea if it helped in any physiological way, because I really never felt that I was having a *physiological* craving, but even if it didn-t help in that respect I do believe it helped psychologically.
Incidentally, the friend who quit with me -- and who pushed the whole quitting idea in the first place -- started to smoke again a few months later. Our other good friends at work continued to smoke, so there was certainly the usual -pressure- created by that kind of environment (we had previously taken a lot of smoke breaks together, believe me!) but I never did go back to it.
As another aside: my husband quit entirely cold turkey, no patch, no cutting back first, no nothing. He didn-t even tell me he was going to (I noticed New Year-s day that he wasn-t smoking and commented on it -- it had been a resolution apparently.) It worked for him, and he-s never gone back.
GOOD LUCK!!
ETA Wow I didn-t realize this was so long -- sorry. Hope it helps though.
ETA Another tactic that can help if you throw it into the mix -- especially if you-re also feeling/aware of the financial drawbacks of smoking -- put the money you would have spent on cigarettes aside every day, keeping a special jar or whatever for just that money, and watch that special savings grow. Use the money on some treat for yourself that you would not have ordinarily done. Or use it to get, say, your teeth whitened after you-ve been a nonsmoker for a while. (Not saying your teeth are bad, but you know what I mean!) It-s rather amazing, especially with the high cost of smoking now, to actually *see* how much money you-ve been spending on smoking that could have gone to something else.
no since i do not smoke..my uncle who has been smoking for 20 years plus quit a couuple of months ago..he did it cold turkey and he is glad the he did it after all this time.he gaine some weight but it is better than lung cancer..
Yep, 10 years ago as a matter of fact. I got tired of having to go buy them. Strange though, I quit one vice for another. I developed a taste for beer. Go figure.
good for you!! you want to quit!!! lol
and yes I did 4 months ago=]
I feel sooooo much better!!
Its amazing!!
I did it by slowly, slowing down on how much I acually did smoke.
when you get down to say 3 ciggs a day, the next just quit all together.
you-ll have the urges but they won-t be as bad as they would if you just quit all together.
good luck!!
=D
Quit smoking 2 months after smoking for 12 years. Started taking Chantix. It is kind of expensive, but well worth it. Good Luck!!!
nope, almost a year, i don-t actually like smoking thats why its easy for me to stop it, my reason of smoking is to be in with my friends and to have an impression that i rebel for something coz that time im really depressed with a family prob.
i guess, finding new and better non-smoker friends will really help, and finding a specific hobby, like sports or martial arts that will encourage you to be healthy, as of now, im enrolled at a martial arts thing and it really helps, i already stopped smoking before i got enrolled, but in stress management it helps, stress is the main reason of smoking, usually those people who are out of touch and out of time
this vice should be stopped before it got worst, a chain smoker have a strong possibility to be a drug addict, iv-e seen them turn into that
No, but I did quit smoking officially a week ago...through trial and error over the past month, I found out that the patch and an arsenal of sugarfree gum is the best way to go. It kicks cravings to the curb (more or less) while you work on your psychological addiction, which is the meaner of the two addiction aspects. Gum was a pain in the butt because you had to chew -em every hour and they tasted terrible. Cold turkey is great, if you have the willpower and the tolerance to deal with the physical and psychological withdrawal symptoms....definitely not me though. CVS has their own brand of nicotine transdermal patches now, and the same step-down program as Nicoderm CQ does for about 25% less money...I-ve been using them for the past week and they are a GODSEND!! Other things that seem to work with me are message boards; the American Lung Association has a great one, and so does quitnet.com.
PS: You don-t need to report the b*tch...I did it for you. Consider it your quit present. LOL
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