Trying to quit smoking.

[cyprant]

Listen man. I had a hard time quitting smoking a few times...I was a huge nicotine addict.


Then I decided to stop feeling bad for my self about not being able to have a smoke. Instead I tried really hard to feel good for self about it... I stopped thinking about how I was being deprived of something and started thingjng about how much easier it was to breath and that I wasn't hurling any loved one directly or indirectly do to my old habit. It worked wonders...


If you keep thinking about how hard it is and that its going to be the hardest thing you will ever accomplish, you will fail.

Change the way you think in order to change the way you act.

You can do it. Your not quitting eating, your quitting suffocating your self... think about it...then stop thinking about it and go on with your life.







I am not trying to be rude and say its easy at all... but stop making it dramatic in YOUR MIND and it will work. Pm me for any support.

 

[churchmouse]

I've wanted to quit smoking for the longest time, but I never really felt ready to until now. I picked up an E-cigarette to help me get off of the real stuff and it's working wonders with me. Has anyone on here ever quit smoking? How did you do it? What was it like? Any experience with e-cigs? Any advice will be helpful, if quitting smoking is as hard as they say then I have quite the battle ahead of me.

My darling wife dropped the habit cold turkey. She started at 15 and dropped it at 52. Just said it is time and that was that. It can be done if you want it badly enough. I have never smoked so I am not in tune with the issue but I have seen a few just toss the butt's and go on. Headaches and irritable for a time of course but better off for the effort.


The hardest thing we do in this life is parenting. Compared to that....everything else is minor.

 

[MisterChester]

Thank you all so much for the kind words and advice. I haven't had a cigarette in almost 48 hours and I already feel great.

 

[wildddw]

I used Chantix! I loved it. It is kind of expensive but my insurance covered it 100%. But I do know for a fact there are lots of ways you can do it for cheap if your insurance wont cover it! For instance there are about a billion coupons out there for it! also free trials exist as well! I only took it for about a month and it was easy as pie! I have tried to quit half a dozen times or more in the 6 years that I smoked, VERY unsuccessfully! But honestly chantix makes you not even want a cigarette and before a month is over you will be thinking "why did I even smoke in the first place"?

 

[lucky4034]

I quit cold turkey 2 years ago... but I did try one of those e-cigarrettes recently for the hell of it, and its AWESOME. I actually bought one to use as an "occasional cigar".

Its cleaner, cheaper and better for your health than a Cigarette.... I'd urge anyone who wants to quit to try one. My guess is that these thinks will eventually put the tobacco industry out of business.

 

[donnie1581]

My wife and I both quit using E-cigs. There are many online stores you can order from. We mix our own liquid now which saves a ton of money. For $25, the liquid will last us about 2 months.

 

[JasonB]

I've wanted to quit smoking for the longest time, but I never really felt ready to until now. I picked up an E-cigarette to help me get off of the real stuff and it's working wonders with me. Has anyone on here ever quit smoking? How did you do it? What was it like? Any experience with e-cigs? Any advice will be helpful, if quitting smoking is as hard as they say then I have quite the battle ahead of me.

Absolutely is a battle... Chantix if possible is one of the best options... Honestly say after initial week from a craving standpoint I had no desire to smoke... Was a gum chewing fool for 2-3 months...

Worst part for the longest time will be habit of having something to do with hands and mouth while driving or after you eat... I lapsed due to family/job emergency after 2 yrs just by walking outside with a couple co-workers and smelling a cigar again after avoiding them so long... New insurance won't cover Chantix ($140-$150/mo) at moment but I'm going to start back on it later this fall...

I felt so much better not smoking and still kick myself every time I light up for picking one up again after so long...

Best of Luck...

 

[MisterChester]

Yesterday was my first full day of not having a cigarette, and I had huge cravings. Seemed like I was hitting my E-cig practically all night. Is this normal?

 

[MisterChester]

I used Chantix! I loved it. It is kind of expensive but my insurance covered it 100%. But I do know for a fact there are lots of ways you can do it for cheap if your insurance wont cover it! For instance there are about a billion coupons out there for it! also free trials exist as well! I only took it for about a month and it was easy as pie! I have tried to quit half a dozen times or more in the 6 years that I smoked, VERY unsuccessfully! But honestly chantix makes you not even want a cigarette and before a month is over you will be thinking "why did I even smoke in the first place"?

I looked into taking Chantix myself. I've heard that for some people it made their lives miserable.

 

[sgreen3]

I looked into taking Chantix myself. I've heard that for some people it made their lives miserable.

I tried it about a year before I quit cold turkey and I was one of the few that I guess was not meant to take it. but I had most of the negative side effects that you hear about. The suicidal thoughts as well as wanting to hurt other people an not just a little but a lot. Not to mention the very weird an vivid dreams. So needless to say after about 2 weeks I stopped taking it an started smoking again. But the main thing is try it. Its helped a lot of people just be cautious your first week or so on it to see how you will react to it.

 

[Apriliaguy]

Chantix is the only thing that worked for me. Then we drove on a twelve hour trip with our one year old. First trip together. Started smoking again. Wanted to quit again. Wife hid chantix from me. She said id rather you smoke, apparently I was not very nice. But it did help me not smoking.

 

[sb0]

I've wanted to quit smoking for the longest time, but I never really felt ready to until now. I picked up an E-cigarette to help me get off of the real stuff and it's working wonders with me. Has anyone on here ever quit smoking? How did you do it? What was it like? Any experience with e-cigs? Any advice will be helpful, if quitting smoking is as hard as they say then I have quite the battle ahead of me.

As someone who has yet to quit (I'm working on it), maybe I'm not the one to give advice, but here goes. These are all things I've tried, and they've helped, but I haven't stuck with them for the most part.

1. Delay your first cigarette of the day as long as possible. I've found that smoking first thing in the morning causes me to smoke twice as much during the rest of the day without even thinking about it. Not sure why this is.

2. Slow down. The health impacts of smoking go up exponentially. So you've still drastically decreased your risk just by knocking off a few cigarettes a day. More than you'd think.

3. The e-cig is good. For me, it's important to get a good flavor, as I'm picky about my brands. YMMV. And smoke it as much as you want.

4. I'm sure you've heard this before, but make a habit of chewing gum or something to replace smoking.

5. Stay the hell away from dip. That's like giving up on cocaine by getting on crack.

If you want to go cold turkey, more power to you, you'd be better off skipping #1 and #2. Really, don't feel guilty about puffing away on the e-cig all day. It's not nearly as bad as a cigarette, and much easier to quit.

Chantix makes me nervous for the same reason you mentioned. I'd make it a last resort.

And make a point to remember how good you felt after going a couple of days without a cigarette. To me everything feels brighter and more cheerful, sense of smell comes back, more energy, better sleep, the list goes on.

I have two aunts who quit smoking after about 30 years. One of them just up and quit cold turkey. She still has her last pack, unopened. That was about 15 years ago. The other did some type of hypnotization therapy and hasn't touched one since. I thought that was pretty much useless, but for some people it works apparently.

Edit - Also, maybe order a few different e-cigs to see which works for you. I have a v2.

 

[cyprant]

DO NOT cut back on cigarettes or delay smoking one at any time... when you do this, you are giving your brain an even better reward when you do have the nicotine later... which makes you even more addicted and makes it harder to quit.

You MUST either be a smoker, or be a non smoker. Period.

The nicotine replacement company's are in business to keep you hooked on nicotine...do not use the gum or patch...

I also disagree with replacing the smokes with chewing something or whatever after the first 72 hours without nicoti e... after 72 hours with out nicotine, your body is free of the drug and now its time to heal your body and retrain your mind... please don't start a new habbjt that reminds you of quitting smoking. Just enjoy not being a slave to nicotine...

They have actually proved that slowing down your smoking does nothing in terms of reducing premature death... you must quit to beat this statistic...

Cutting back on smoking doesn?t help longevity - Washington Post

 

[sb0]

From your source.

THIS STUDY involved 5,254 smokers, in two separate groups, who were 40 to 65 years old at the start of the study. During roughly the next 30 years, 4,439 of the participants (84 percent) died. Those who quit smoking after the study began were more likely to live to at least age 75. They also were 25 to 35 percent less likely than the others to have died. But there was essentially no difference in the mortality rate for people who had reduced the number of cigarettes they smoked daily and those who had continued smoking at the same rate. The only participants to see any benefit from reducing the number of cigarettes smoked were the heaviest smokers (more than 21 cigarettes a day) in one of the two groups; their mortality rate improved when the number of cigarettes they smoked daily was reduced.

This study started at age 40, these people had probably been smoking for 20-45 years beforehand. It also doesn't mention to what degree they "reduced the number of cigarettes they smoked daily". If you slow down for a couple of years after smoking for say 30 years, it'll make much less of a difference, for obvious reasons.

The difference may not be as pronounced as I have been told, but there is no way anyone will convince me that someone who smokes 1-2 cigarettes a day is at the same risk as someone who smokes a pack a day, short of a study directly analyzing those specific scenarios in a statistically proper manner.

Worst case scenario, you'll feel better, and there will be less nicotine in your system.

Like I said, you're much better off going cold turkey, or just doing the e-cig and dumping the cigarettes completely.

As far as your point about nicotine, I'd rather get heart disease than heart disease combined with lung cancer and emphysema. Substitutes aren't perfect, but what is.

 

[sb0]

Based upon further research, I'll concede the exponential point. I guess it's one of those things that's just repeated often enough to become true.

But it still can't hurt to cut down.

 

[cyprant]

Good points, but if you are going to go through the hell of quitting nicottine and smoking, why prolong it for months or years with substitutes when you can just love on with your life...

I quit with an e cig but tapered from high to 0 nicotine within a few days. Its nice to be free of addictikns

 

[sb0]

Good points, but if you are going to go through the hell of quitting nicottine and smoking, why prolong it for months or years with substitutes when you can just love on with your life...

I quit with an e cig but tapered from high to 0 nicotine within a few days. Its nice to be free of addictikns

I don't disagree - cold turkey is about a thousand times better.

Just offering what I can. We're all at different stages of determination here.

Reading this thread, I think I'll go find my e-cig and give it a shot. Only had 3 cigarettes today, lowest I've done in months, and even that feels pretty good.

 

[missamberruth]

I quit cold turkey 10 yrs ago....my advise is to drink a lot of water to flush your system of nicotine...what my Dr told me to do and I to this day have never had a craving!!

 

[upalot]

My wife and I, both life long smokers in our 60's, quit with the help of Chantix. We have been smoke free for about four months now and we are off the Chantix. The craving still come during stressful times but we can manage them and they don't last long.
Why did we quit, I have lost both parents and 3 brothers to cancer. 4 of the 5 was lung cancer. I have spent the last year caring for the last of my brothers and it hasn't been nice. Just this past Sunday I found him laying face down in a pool of blood on his front porch, he had been trying to reach my house as we live close. Do not put your family in this position, quit now !

 

[jrogers]

I smoked for a decade. Patches, lozenges, and Chantix all failed. I tried dip, but it was ay too disgusting and gave me a much better nicotine hit than smoking ever did. I'm pretty sure that if I had stuck with dip I'd have a wad of tobacco in my mouth right now. Healthwise dip isn't necessarily that much better than smoking anyway.

Vaping nicotine wasn't popular enough to be on my radar when I quit. Instead I used this:



Swedish Snus gave enough of a nicotine hit to keep me from needing a cigarette, and one pris lasts almost an hour once you overcome the drool reflex. It helped that after the first couple of times you use it you learn not to salivate all over the place and there is no need to spit, which allowed me to keep a baseline level of nicotine in my system even at work and other places where smoking isn't an option. Once I was used to the snus the urge to smoke vanished almost completely. Then over a period of several months I tapered my snus usage until I finally ran out. Since few stores carry Swedish snus (the disgusting camel/marlboro attempts at snus don't count) the only reasonable way to get it is via mail order, which removes the impulse that leads smokers to find themselves buying a pack of cigarettes without even really thinking about it.

I'd be surprised if vaping quality juice isn't less harmful than snus, but they're both pretty high on the harm reduction scale. Snus is still fairly cheap. These days skruf stark lös can be had for $4.50/tin before shipping, although before the tax bumps a few years ago you could get it for less than $3/tin. Even so, when a tin lasts two or three days it's clearly less expensive than smoking.