NEED ADVICE FROM EX_SMOKERS

I used the patch for a while, but I have to say...really WANTING to quit is the biggest motivator.

I was just really, really frickin' tired of having a smoker's cough, stinky car and clothes, chronic bronchitis and that ever-present anxious feeling where you're always worried you might run out of cigarettes......not to mention the constantly rising cost of of cigarettes was really getting old.

I'll have my one-year anniversary in less than two weeks and couldn't be more happy! Good luck..you CAN do this..you just have to want it bad enough. :drinker:

I'm on day 20 no smokes. Some days are easier than others. Was craving this morning so went to the gym instead.

Hi,

I am an ex-smoker and I DID quit cold turkey. What helped me was my sister showing me pictures of smokers' lungs, livers and throats. That was nasty and sadning. I just droped my cigarrete and moved on without thinking about it twice. I think that what you need to do is not think about how smoking makes you feel, rahter how they are destroying your organs and your looks! I quited in 1989 and never looked back....BUT this is not about me but you instead. Feel free to add me as a friend and I will provide as much support as I can to help you.
Nins

I started smoking at 14 and stopped 3 years ago. I smoked 2 packs a day; but in NYE 2010 I decided to quit smoking and binge drinking on regular basis, and I've made it so far. Go one day at a time...the first month you will feel the abstinence syndrome, then it gets better. If someone in your group is smoking, go away. Try to avoid similar situations. It's your health, it's your life.

First you have to really want to quit, if you don't want it bad enough you will most likely fail. What helped me was the patch.

^^ this If you don't really want it you will fail. I tried the patch several times and hated it. I finally quit cold turkey because the thought of wearing the patch again made me ill.

I quit on March 29, 2011. I didn't quit because I wanted to, or because I chose to. I quit because I went to the doctor (I had been uber sick with what I assumed was another bout of bronchitis) and after a look at my chest x-ray the doctor said that not only did I have pneumoni but I may have tumors in my lungs as well. That was pretty much a sign that I was not going to smoke. I was only 25 at the time. I, thankfully, didn't have cancer, but I do have an auto-immune disease in my lungs. Smoking is so not worth what it was doing to me.

I do crave them still but if I do try them they taste nasty. All in all I am greatful that I no longer smoke.

...and best wishes darlin'!

I got pregnant and then breast-fed lol. Not something I guess you can try!

I may have a night out literally once a year where I get a craving and give in but the next day I quite happily continue as if I hadn't.

Try looking at this calculator to look at it from a financial point of view seeing we all know the health benefits:

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/shopping/demotivator/

I quit 7 years and 5 months ago I didn't do it cold turkey I was smoking a pack a day- I started smoking outside on the porch or in the garage. Then I switched to American Spirit Cigarettes they don't have the additives in them just pure tobacco(at least they didn't back then when the tribe still owned them don't know bout now) -those cigs really cut back my gotta have one in 15 minute cravings... before I knew it I was smoking a pack a week and went like that for quite a while then when we moved here to Texas I left them in Oklahoma didn't want to bring them with me lol.... we moved next to a chain smoker who smokes outside so it was tough always smelling it... this last 8 months are the first I haven't had cravings for it even after all these years lol.
Good luck

I agree with everyone else first and foremost you have to want to quit, once you make up your mind to never do it again then it becomes easier. After 32 years of smoking I quit moving to an e-cig off and on for about 3 months, then quit that too. Just didn't want it anymore. I have not had a ciggerette going on 7 months and never crave one anymore. I actually can't stand the smell of it now, I can smell it on someone else that smokes and it almost nauseates me. I am ashamed that I walked around smelling like that as I never knew how bad it smelt while I was smoking. I guess it was denial when someone told me how bad it smelt. Physically I feel so much better, food tastes so much better (which can be a bad thing if you have weight isues like me), you sense of smell improves, but the best part for me is I can exercise without gasping for air after 5 minutes. I also don't kid myself, I know if I picked one up I would probably be back to smoking, so it is a frame of mind with me now and I really don't miss it. Good luck with quitting, you will do it when the time is right!

I used the patch about 15-16 years ago. I had tried many time before but always failed. I think the last time I was just ready to quit. I haven't looked back since.

I smoke two packs a day. Have for most of my life. I have quit several times but it never sticks. I am trying again cold turkey. I could use advice and stories of how you did it, what it took to make that decision. I hope this will help and inspire me.

Cold turkey is the only way, as long as someone keeps smoking he is still hooked. Only way to free yourself is not to smoke for as long as possible.
I smoked for 15 years before I quit. I knew the dangers of smoking and I felt bad every morning but I told myself that lung cancer is relatively rare compared to other cancers and that I only smoke half a pack so I'm at a lesser risk than the average one-pack-a-day smoker.
One day I was lying sick in bed with the flu. That was very common for me, two, three times a year and each time took longer to recover - 12-14 days on the recent ones. So I looked up online about it a bit when I stumbled upon a thread in a health forum about lung disease. That's when I found out that cancer is not the only lung disease, there are many worse diseases, caused by smoking of any amount. People have no cure, quitting will not reverse it. The treatment can only slow it down. Every flu damages your lungs, leaving a scar. First you can't run, then you can't climb stairs, then you can't walk without an oxygen bottle. Finally you just sit and wait for death.
I decided to use the flu as a jumpstart to quitting. When you have the flu your smoking crave subsides a little, and I used that push to quit. I also decided that to make things easier, I am allowed to whatever I want as long as I'm not smoking. Any food any candy, whatever. It's all better than smoking. I kept that for a year until I realized I'm gaining weight and considered changing the "everything goes" rule.
And it takes a year. It takes more than a year, it took maybe 18 months until I could say I don't need a cigarette after a meal. There was also the problem of ending a meal. There was no need to stop eating and my appetite got bigger so I ended up eating more. For me that was a blessing maybe, I was very underweight.
It's a struggle, but every day it's a tiny bit easier. There is only one rule, don't smoke. Whatever you do don't smoke.
It's been almost five years and the last thing I want to do is smoke, the smell is terrible, can't stand it !
Best of luck.

I quit smoking over a pack a day when I was 23. I am now 65 and have not looked back. My husband did not smoke so that was a tremendous help, but back then at least 85-90% of the population smoked. I was smoking just over a large pack a day, 25+ cigs. I quit cold turkey as many here have done...it was one of the hardest things I had ever done but I knew in my heart it was the best decision for me. So I used Nicorette gum way back then when I needed it. I kept the cigs. in my desk for a month (I was a secretary back then), they were totally dried out by the time I finally threw them out, but never touched one. Guess they acted as a security blanket for me.

But during that month, my mother was diagnosed with lung cancer...she smoked two packs a day. My mom was only 48 years old. She had surgery to remove one lobe from her left lung and lived another five years when the cancer reappeared and spread through every organ of her body. I was three months pregnant with my first son when she died...she never saw her first grandchild. This was the hardest thing for me and frankly, It was twenty-five years before I totally got over losing her. My boys are now 36 and almost 38, never having met their beloved grandmother. I have spoken to them many many times about what a beautiful kind loving person she was but it is not the same as her being there.

I was determined to never start smoking again. So please, think about your loved ones before you take that next cigarette. Quit smoking is not easy. It is an addiction which needs to be broken and replaced with something else. I did put on about 10 lbs. after stopping but for me, it was well worth it just knowing my lungs were clearing(ed) up, I could breath more easily, my hair and clothes did not stink, for lack of a better word, any more and I was healthier as a result.

If you are interested in friending me, please feel free. I feel we have a kinship here. Good luck.

I used the patch...all 4 levels of it and stuck with it till the end....my mind set was "I'm only going to quit once" and the patch worked for me. I was smoking close to 3 packs a day for most of my life and on Aug. 13, 2001 my right lung collapsed. Went to the ER spent all day there on oxygen and the threat of putting a tube in my chest, lucky for me they didn't have to do that. But after I talked them into letting me go home, I had kids to take care of etc etc I left against medical advice. I tried to smoke when I got home cause I was wanting one so bad, but it hurt too bad to finish. So I lit one got a couple of puffs and then put it out and repeated an hour or so later. The pain was pretty bad and it was extremely hard to breathe. So the next day on the 14th I told my then husband to go and get me the patch. (he wanted me to quit for years and couldn't wait to go and buy them) I put the first patch on that night before bed so that when I woke up I'd have at least 8 hours of nicoteine in my system, so my official quit date was August 15, 2001 and I never smoked another one. Best decision I ever made, and I think saying that I was only going to go thru that once has made me never second guess it. Good luck to you!

I just made up my mind one day that I was not going to smoke anymore (after smoking on and off for 20 years), put them down and put the price of a pack of cigarettes in a jar every day and then bought myself an elliptical with it. I've been smoke-free for 3 years now.