I Quit Smoking!...Need a bit of encougragement (I'm jonesing!!!)

[Jack Daw]

Cat, good luck on staying off the coffins nails. I'm an ex-smoker and have been off them since 1977. One thing that may motivate you is if you go visit a nursing home, none of those that ever smoked live there unless they are on oxygen tanks. All others are pushing up daisies.

[Pleater]

My father smoked - he burnt up money that would have given his family a totally different life, he smoked even when he was told he could not have an operation that would have changed his life completly. Smoking made him unemployable, it made him an invalid, and he still would not stop. He said he had to have his smokes, he deserved them.

Then he started to have 'brown outs' where he slowly slid into unconsciousness and they frightened him so much that when he was told that they were caused by smoking he stopped overnight - no patches, no support, just pure terror.

For the rest of his life he mourned for the money that he'd spent on cigarettes, he thought of all the things he could have done, all the things he could have had, even all the things his wife and children could have had.

He'd never had more money available than in those last few years - but all he could do was let it accumulate in the bank. He could feel himself becoming healthier, he looked like a different person, but it was all too late for him.

Cigarettes are not your friends.

[bikeolounger]

I don't have time today to read all the pages of answers, but:

Good for you! Quitting smoking was a great thing for me in my own life--some twenty-three or twenty four years ago. The first thing I noticed was the freedom: when I left the house, I didn't have to think to myself, "Do I have my lighter and smokes?"

I sometimes did habit switching to help me quit. When I wanted a smoke, I went for a drink of water. When I wanted to go get a pack of smokes, I went to the bathroom...

[Ancienne Alliance]

Good for you ! Courage !!!

[Cat]

I was a pack a day for years and years and I managed to quit smoking cold turkey (also after several tries with Zyban, the patch, the gum, etc). It's been over two years now.

Mike is dead on. Are you bigger than the addiction or is it bigger than you. Lesser people than you have quit.You can do it Cat. It does get easier and easier.

Just remember that is it a lifestyle change and one that will help in the long run. If it makes it easier, avoid the triggers (alcohol, coffee, bars, etc) for a little while. It will make it easier to transition from smoker to healthy and it is just a short period of time.

Dude, did you used to smoke while you were asleep? No need to wear the patch while you are sleeping. I did that when I tried the patch and ended up getting more nicotine than when I smoked. Not fun to be curled over in a ball on the couch for a day with nicotine overload.

Patches and stuff are great, but remember that you and your will power are the one doing the quiting. The patch doesn't do it for you it just takes the edge off. Don't become too reliant on the patch.

Stay strong.

No, I didn't smoke when I slept But I have the controlled-release patches: it's less overall nicotine per day than you'd get with cigarettes, but it's released over the course of 24 hours. I can take them off before bed if I want, but then I have really bad cravings when I wake up (and the morning was always the worst for me when I smoked!) You're right though, it's still mostly willpower...but I love the patch for taking the edge off! I can deal with the cravings, but I always felt bad for being such a snotty person when I tried to quit cold-turkey! Besides, the dreams don't really bother me (they're actually kind of entertaining.) I did have one last night with me in a kilt though: I was at some music festival or something, and I kept slipping in the mud and snagging my kilt on everything. I have no idea where that dream came from, but towards the end of the dream, I had realised that I had left all the basting stitches in my kilt while I wore it! (That part I understand, because I basted my pleats last night so I could press my kilt today.)

Anyway, it's the early evening of day 4, and I'm doing really well! No cigarettes or anything, and I already feel tons healthier than I did just a few days ago! I haven't been eating too much, but I have been eating more than before (which is good, since I was one of those people that usually skipped a meal or two every day!) Cravings are WAY down and very short-lived, and I can tell that I'm breathing better and I can take deeper breaths!

[Jock Scot]

Well done laddie,keep at it.

[Bugbear]

Keep hanging in there.

[elrond]

I stopped smoking last september after 24 years of cigarettes (50 winston red every day and more hand made cigarettes, Toscano cigars ecc.)
A friend of mine told me that a doctor (that helps with natural methods) had helped a lot of our common friends to stop smoking. I told him I did not care to stop.
After some months I started to have some little problems with my breath, I started coughin a lot and so I decided to try.
This doctor made me smoke three cigarettes with no pause, at the end I was in complete saturation and my body started to reject nicotine.
I've never smoked again since that day and I don't feel the need to smoke anymore.
It is possible, my friend and the world is a lot better after stopping!!

[Colin]

Glad to hear it is going well. One of the things that really helped me was signing up here http://www.quitnet.com/

It helped to see that everyone was going through the same stuff. I really liked the Quit Wizard which regularly told me the progress I was making. As of today I am:

779 days, 13 hours, 19 minutes and 55 seconds smoke free.

9355 cigarettes not smoked.

$4,680.00 and 2 months, 11 days, 11 hours of your life saved.

Now if I can only figure out where that cash went!

Keep up the good work.

[Raphael]

Take it one day at a time.