Any one quit smoking successfully?...help!

1235»

Replies

  • Pattimck001
    Pattimck001 Posts: 1
    I smoked for 40 years and at the end was up to a pack a day. I really wanted to quit, with the help of Chantix and support from my Doctor, Family and Friends - I got thru it. It has been since December 2011 and it is the best thing I could have ever done for my health and my skin. I started running - signed up for some 5 K races where I knew I had to train. Another thing that helped me was Google the images of smokers lungs and see what they look like. UGH - disgusting.

    It changed my life for the Best!

    Good Luck and Go for it! It is nice knowing that you are in control of yourself....
  • jennie_mummy
    jennie_mummy Posts: 3 Member
    I also quit smoking after many years and too many cigarettes. One day I stood up and took the pack I was smoking and every ashtray in sight and dumped them in a trash bag and walked it out to the garbage bin. For 7 years I never looked back. Then on a trip to visit some high school friends I had a couple, which turned in to one every once in a while. I kept thinking "what am I doing?" After 7 years smoke free this is ridiculous! But its funny what stress can do to someone. So I had to decide what it was that I wanted for my life. My children were a huge motivator. So I stopped. But I have read through many of these posts above and it is clear that you have to really want it. I had tried to quit many many times before and it wasn't until something inside of me snapped and realized that I didn't want this anymore. You will feel much better after you do quit and the cravings do pass. Its hard when you have a lot of friends around you who smoke though. I have to admit - social smoking was the hardest part for me to give up. But you CAN get through it. And you will...when you are completely ready! Thinking about it is the first step though so good for you! You can do this!
  • Mayor_West
    Mayor_West Posts: 246 Member
    I'll be hitting the 10-year mark since my last cigarette this coming November.

    I was a pack-a-day smoker for about 10 years, and at the time the decision to quit was an easy one. But, having seen friends and co-workers try to quit unsucessfully over the years by going cold turkey, I knew that wouldn't work for me, especially after reading that it takes the average smoker between 5-7 seperate attempts to successfully quit. Since I wanted this to be my ONLY attempt in doing so, I realized that if I wanted different results, I'd need to employ different methods.

    The first thing I did was decide to keep things open-ended. In other words, I didn't give myself a timeframe or "quit date" to be done; rather, I knew this could take some time and I didn't need the pressure or stress of a deadline making this process any more difficult.

    Secondlly, I took the steps to educate myself on smoking and why it's so addictive. In addition to the chemical dependency on nicotine, we also have a mental comfort level with the routine that comes with smoking. Having one after a meal, with beers, taking smoke breaks at work, etc- all of these mental associations need to be changed. Furthermore, there are additional mental associations with both the oral fixation and the taste of cigarettes as well, and these too would also need to be changed.

    Third, while the patch and gum systems work using a gradual decline, they fail to address the aforementioned mental associations we have with the act of smoking. So, I decided that instead of using the patch to reduce my dependency on cigarettes, I'd simply scale back my smoking gradually over time.

    So, when I started, I immediately went from a pack-a-day to 10 smokes per day. I also loaded up on lollipops and chewing gum, which helped with my cravings. After a week, I cut down to 8 per day, then 7, then 6 and so on until I was only down to one smoke per day.

    After I smoked my final cigarette on a Sunday night before bed, I had planned to go on the patch, but because I never had any cravings of any sort, I never had to. It's been almost 10 years and I've not once had even any cravings of any sort.
  • tracied22
    tracied22 Posts: 8 Member
    BUMP
  • PammyJay91
    PammyJay91 Posts: 25
    well it took forever for me to gather about my witts, but today is a new day! my house is now smoke free and i'm cutting down from 20 smokes, to only 5 today:) Let's hope tomorrow is even better!!
    THANKS TO EVERYONE WHO SHARED STORIES AND GAVE ME MOTIVATION! much love<3

Categories