The Quitting Smoking Thread

[Bostaevski]

ok one trick i've used a few times is this:

when you really REALLLY have a strong craving and you're about to break down and smoke, you light up an imaginary cigarette. Well... don't go through those motions but just pretend you have a cigarette in your mouth and take a deep drag just like if it was really there. Purse your lips and inhale with the same force and everything. Imagine the feel of the smoke and whatnot. Then do a big exhale - pretend you're exhaling out a billowing cloud of smoke. Take a few drags of this invisible cigarette and the craving is gone.

[wet work]

I've been hearing alot of good stuff about Chantix as well.

[Chomp]

I curse the bloody day I ever saw bastard cigarettes. Christ, talk about a love hate relationship.

As for giving up, I tried it once. Worst half hour of my life.

[dvh]

I quit smoking 7 months ago after 10 years at a pack a day, really no desire to smoke again- unfortunately I now use Skoal Apple Pouches. Bad theory, but I justify it with the thought that I have 10 years to quit them

[demon102]

I smoked for like 8 yrs. and wanted to quit. I read a book about affirmations and how u can use them to break addictions and other bad habits and did an affirmation to quite smoking and after a while it worked. Then I did the same for my addiction to smoking weed and taking other random drugs and did that successfully. Now I am down to my last vice the sweet alchoholic beverages.

edit: I have an aunt that smoked for like 20+ yrs and went to a hypnotist for smoking and hasnt been a smoker for like a decade now, figured I might at well throw that in there.

[Duke]

If people put as much effort into trying to find a way to smoke that didn't screw your lungs up (need smoke + nicotine delivery) as they do into quitting, we'd all be happy smokers.

I really miss it. I just always liked it. Some people like drinking. I tried to make myself into an alcoholic, but never really liked it at all. I am very down with smoking, though.

Oh, and as far as quitting, just quit? I don't understand how you can want to do something and have a hard time doing it. I hated quitting because I didn't want to, so it sucked for me. Doing it for someone else kinda sucks.

[GeraldGiraffe]

Duke,

I was going to post along the lines of this last part of your post. Giving up was fairly easy for me because I was motivated to do it. I went cold turkey and have been successful, so far, in maintaining my status as a non-smoker - though my sample size may be too small for these results to be trustworthy.

Basically, I quit just before I came home for the summer and I really think the change of pace and location and generally everything else really helped me to give up. I ate a lot of oranges too, so who knows.

Good luck to everyone who is either quitting or trying to maintain a non-smoking lifestyle, because not smoking is entirely worth it.

[stigmata]

I have smoked for nearly 15 years. The route I have taken to managing the problem has been unique and original - and somewhat debatable. Like all smokers, I like smoking. Like most, I love to have a drink & a smoke at the weekend to unwind from the stresses & strains of modern living.

I allways thought I would be happy being a light social smoker. This seems to be a reasonable balance of health risk versus personal short-term enjoyment. However, as every smoker knows, this is easier said than done. Our relationship with cigarettes is so well formed that reshaping our addictive pattern is perhaps harder than stopping altogethor.

However, I have successfully sublimated my addiction from a ~20 a day habit to being a social smoking. I have achieved this by giving up cigarettes entirely, for around 2 years now. Instead I smoke cigarillos, with a drink, at the weekend. I probably smoke around 10/week.

Moreover, I will only smoke expensive, difficult to obtain brands. They are nicer. If I can't get hold of them, to bad, I can go without. I don't go down the shop and buy cafe-cremes - I don't like them. My habit is reformed to an occasional one, by the method of replacement with a different tobacco product.

One thing to note is that many people quote that cigars/cigarillos are worse for you than cigarettes. However, the evidence does not support this , and the anti-smoking lobby would appear to be mis-representing the facts to support their agenda. I don't inhale, and the risk is lowered (through smoking less) and rebalanced to less deadly forms of cancer.

For me, a personally formed approach seems to be capable of managing and balancing the competing psychological and health needs. Think of it like a heroin addict taking methadone [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img] It's not great but it is the lesser of two evils. With the smoking ban in place I may be able to make the final step anyhow.

[Tigermoth]

I've been considering moving to pipes. The tobacco actually smells good when burned and is much tastier and less harmful than cigarettes.

Unfortunately, I'm 5'3 and female. I just couldn't pull it off. Maybe in 30 years, when I can be an eccentric old woman.

5 days now! I've cracked a few times and had drags off friends' cigarettes, but not a whole cigarette. The quitting smoking book is in the mail, and I haven't had to resort to the patch yet. I've gnawed off two fingernails, but that's the worst of it so far.

[DeathbySuckout]

[ QUOTE ]
I've been hearing alot of good stuff about Chantix as well.

[/ QUOTE ]

I just got a script for this. Starting it this coming week. Trip report to follow soon.

I have been smoking 1 to 2 packs a day for ~25 years. When I was a young teen, they did not press the smoking age law very much, and at 10 & 11 years old, my parents would send me to the corner store to buy their cigs, so I just started to buy some for myself also.

From what the Dr. told me, you have key slot type things in your brain, and when the nicotine enters your system, it fits into these key slots, and releases endorphins into your system, which is why it feels good when you light up a cig. Chantix blocks these key slots so that the nicotine can't get in, and at the same time releases some, but not as much endorphins as the nicotine would. After a little time, you lose the craving for smoking because it's not doing anything for you now, and the amount of endorphins released by the Chantix decreases, as to ween you off of it. it's like a 4 month process I think.