Has Anyone Here Quit Smoking?

Here is some info I found on the internet - there are tons of support sites out there....
This coming from a smoker, lol.
Good Luck to you!



What are the immediate benefits of stopping smoking?

The health benefits of smoking cessation (quitting) are immediate and substantial. Almost immediately, a person’s circulation begins to improve and the carbon monoxide (chemical carcinogen found in cigarettes) level in the blood begins to decline. A person’s pulse rate and blood pressure, which are abnormally high while smoking, begin to return to normal. Within a few days of quitting, a person’s sense of taste and smell return, and breathing becomes increasingly easier.

What are the long-term benefits of stopping smoking?

People who quit smoking live longer than those who continue to smoke. After 10 to 15 years, a previous tobacco user’s risk of premature death approaches that of a person who has never smoked. About 10 years after quitting, an ex-smoker’s risk of dying from lung cancer is 30 percent to 50 percent less than the risk for those who continue to smoke. Women who stop smoking before becoming pregnant or who quit in the first 3 months of pregnancy can reverse the risk of low birth weight for the baby and reduce other pregnancy-associated risks. Quitting also reduces the risk of other smoking-related diseases, including heart disease and chronic lung disease.

There are also many benefits to smoking cessation for people who are sick or who have already developed cancer. Smoking cessation reduces the risk for developing infections, such as pneumonia, which often causes death in patients with other existing diseases.

I'm another 30 year smoker and am pleased to say that I have been smoke free since Aug.1. Yeah!!!!! I also used Chantix and I feel like it was a wonderful tool. I did not follow the program exactly so by my final smoke date I was down to only 2 cigs a day. I have finished the Chantix prescription now and feel great. I am tempted at times, and use a nicotrol inhaler that I had gotten on a previous quit attempt. The worse times for me are when I'm out with friends or commuting to and from work. I have an hour drive. I have found that keeping my mouth busy with water, gum and the inhaler have been a great help. The main reason that I joined this site was to try and keep track of what I am eating to be sure that I don't gain additional weight since I have quit smoking. So far so good. I haven't lost very much but at least I haven't put on any extra. Try the Chantix and see if it helps. From my experience, if you don't REALLY REALLY want to quit, nothing will do the trick. You've got to have the desire first and foremost. I think that was always my problem before. It took my father battling lung cancer (not a smoker) for it to really hit home. The treatments and sugeries have been extremely painful for him.

yes I have, smoked for 25 years, tried it all, same like you, , tried about 8 - 10 times , best thing for me was " cold turkey" and simple perserverance, if u get past the first month, you actually start to forget, about looking for a cig, you simply need to want to quit bad enough to keep on going, after about 2 weeks, I started feeling better, I quit because I would wakeup from a dead sleep, gasping for breath,
that was enough of a deterent for me, chewed on coffee strirsticks and chewed on Halls cough drops, the mint taste soothed my throat, when inhaling, giving me a fix, best thing to do is become a "hermit" for a couple of months, so you wont have to bite anyone's head of that says hello hehe.

now it doesnt bother me anymore at all, simply dont care to anymore, and feel sorry for people who smoke becouse it is one heck of an addiction to overcome, ...... but you can, and you will.......

So Good Luck and Hang in there

I smoked for 25 years and quit cold turkey 10 years ago. My husband and I did it together and that was a great motivator. After the first week it got easier; after a month I could walk up stairs and not be out of breath. For the first few months I would dream about smoking. And after a six months I stopped thinking about it. I had all my carpets, upholstery ,drapes and my car cleaned. I burned candles and my house smelled nice for the first time ever.

My husband just said the other day how happy he is that we don't smoke.

I had a friend who quit a little after I did. He would bum smokes off other people and eventually started again after quitting for two years. I never took so much as a puff once I quit; I knew I couldn't. If it did I would have started smoking again.

I have not had any tobacco for 6 years now. I first started smoking at age15 and smoked about a pack day until I was 21 when I quit cold turkey motivated by the church group I was associated with at the time. I left the congregation and began smoking about 1 1/2 packs a day about 2 years later. I smoked steady from that time until I was about 40 years old. By then I was smoking over 2 packs a day. I used nicotine patches and nicotine gum to stop smoking for a short time, maybe 6 months to a year, but could not stay stopped. That was so frustrating. For the next 7 years I kept trying to stop but could never learn the lesson that the first cigarette will take you all the way back to 2 packs a day no matter how hard you try to deny it. But I never stopped trying. Finally I decided to use the nicotine gum but not by the standard 1 or 2 pieces every hour or so and gradually cut back. No, I chewed 3 or 4 pieces at a time and when the nicotine wore out I chewed more. My theory was to get hooked on the gum and then go cold turkey quitting the gum. That was easy because after 3 or 4 months of that damn gum it was no problem stopping. And the gum does break the smoking ritual of carrying cigarettes and lighters and reaching for a smoke after eating or while driving That was the harder than nicotine withdral .

.
My Stop-Smoking Story

I smoked for twenty-five years. I have been a non-smoker for eleven years. The last few years I only smoked at work. I was a waitress and it was how I escaped the stress and annoyances of the job.

In the last few years, I did the following:
I didn't allow myself to smoke around my family - and when on vacation I could easily go a week without a cigarette.
I wouldn't smoke in my car - hard to get rid of that smell.
I wouldn't smoke in my condo for the same reason.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
And then, something unexplainable happened, which can only be described as spiritual. I had begun going to church, and had been going for a month or so to an evangelical church. Hadn't been to church in years. I'm not going now....I'm not going to preach - just my experience.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The youth group did a skit during a Sunday morning service.
There were maybe five teenagers. They came out on stage. One very tall boy was holding a magazine like Hustler or some such thing. He also was holding a bottle of Jack Daniels. His friends were silent as he flipped through the pages. Then the friends picked up a very long and very big chain - like a tow truck chain. They began to wrap it around the boy. As it became heavier and heavier, he finally dropped to his knees - clutching the magazine and the bottle.
The friends backed away. He began to scream in a way that was so primal and so disturbing, that even now I am getting goosebumps and tears in my eyes.....he continued this scream for probably the longest 20 seconds I can remember. Then a new person came out. He handed the boy a Bible. The boy put down the "vices" and openned the Bible. The remaining kids came out and gently, tenderly removed the chain. He was crying, I was crying, it was wrenching.

I never picked up another cigarette after that.

Two weeks later at work, I really hit the wall with everyone smoking and me being stressed. I had stopped going to the back area where employees were allowed to smoke, so I would not be around it in the old familiar way. A girl I worked with was in AA at the time, and she and I were friendly -- I didn't drink either. I told her my cravings and she said, “Well, yeah, you don't have your familiar coping tool-cigarettes."
That was a light-bulb moment as well. She pointed out to me that TRUTH. If I was bored, stressed, mad, unable to cope with any emotion, I smoked. It caused me to get away from whatever was going on: and smoking causes deep breathing which is the part that calms you, (nicotine is a stimulant.)

I continued to dream about smoking for several months after I stopped, and sometimes would wake up and think it was real, and that I had ruined it all. The dreams and cravings tapered and I finally "GOT IT"

I wish you luck, thanks for reading this.

RicCraig & clynpaint -

How are you two doing? I have a good feeling that this is the time you will put those cigarettes down for good. Anyway, I'm pulling for you both. Let me know how it's going...

~Cheryl

my husband and i were smokers for about 10 years (i was on and off). we will be non-smokers for 2 years in mid-january...and neither of us have any desire to go back. throughout the course of smoking, i quit several times, but would start up again using my husband's smoking as an excuse. we made the decision to quit together. we did it by using the patch...but not the way it recommends on the box. we each bought a pack of cigarrettes. for the first 10 days of quitting, we allowed ourselves2 cigarrettes per day. we went through the first box of patches as recommended, but we were both doing so well, we ended up splitting the second stage (we only used those 2 stages). it worked well for us.

i think the biggest thing was mental preparation...set a date a week or two in advance. mentally prepare yourself up until that point. be proud of your decision and GOOD LUCK!!!

good luck you can do it!!
I quit cold turkey after 11 years of smoking I was afraid to go to a bar because i knew if I had a beer I would want to have a smoke as someone said before get away from the element or situation that makes you want to smoke. After a while you wont even think about it anymore.

I did not have a beer for three months -boy that beer tasted good after that. Still smoke free 20 years later. The physical feeling after about three weeks was almost as if my face tingling. I think it was actually blood returning to my skin.

Hi,

I quit smoking last year after 17 years. For me it was a combination of things that worked. I used Zyban, slept a lot when possible and started doing crafts so I could keep my hands busy.

The hardest times for me were break times at work. What else do you do on a cigarette break but smoke!! I just stopped taking breaks altogether until I was stronger. Also, this is gross but I chewed on a straw all day. Not very lady like but it worked.

Hope that helps and good luck.

I quit a few years ago. Honestly for me I just got sick of how this nasty, stinky habit was controlling me rather than me having control of myself. I don't let people control me the way I seemed to be controlled by the cig. So, I personally decided that I wasn't going to have some little pencil thin, harmful thing get the best of me anymore. I put myself in control and then I quit. But also to be perfectly honest, even though it has been 7 years I still find momemts when I think "a smoke sure would be good right now" - then I go jog!

hello there; i was a 3 pack a day smoker for 21 years. i quit 10 years ago on 6-26-1997. i used the nicoderm patches. we had just lost a family friend to cancer in 1986. i was constantly in the hospital e.r room with pnemonia. the last trip they told me if i wanted to see my kids grow up i needed to quit now! they said i was getting emphsemia. at the same time my son was studding lung cancer in school and i had a hard time getting him to go to school as he was afraid i would die of lung cancer.i never smoked in my house or car. so, for my kids and husband i quit. i can remember sitting there listening to the training tape that comes with the patches laughing as i was smoking. it wasnt so funny the next day when the patch was on my back and i no longer had my ciggaretts.it was hard as i quit for my family , but still wanted them! i will be honest the third week was the worst! to this day ciggarett smoke still smells good to me but there is no way i would ever smoke again! i gained 100lbs after i quit and keep telling my doctor i would be skinny if i was still a smoker. he says, no- you would be dead! and i'm only 47 years old! in 2002 i got pnemonia from one of my day care kids and lost 35% of my lungs. i have asthma and copd now. i wish i had listened to the docs warnings sooner. now i'm working on my weight. find something to do and stay away from places and things that you used to smoke.we smoke by habbit and association so remove yourself from things that remind you of them.hang in there as you can do it! angelicangels

I smoked for 15 years and I tried several times to quit but never could win that battle, while I was pregnant I cut down to around ½ a pack a day. But soon after birth I was back up to 2 packs a day even though I tried to not do it in close proximity to the kids. In February 2005 my pastor and close friend came to the house and talk to my husband and myself about it and we prayed and ask our church family to pray for us, my husband quite in march 2005 but I was more stubborn than that. BUT I made rules for myself that made it very hard to actually smoke and I stuck to them. Such as do not smoke around the kids or my husband so I got down to maybe 5 or 6 a day. Then started asking my husband each night to pray with me. And in July of 2005 I came to a time were if I followed all my rules I was to busy to smoke I would only be able to have on in the morning, one after work and one before bed, for a week because we were holding Vacation Bible School and I was working in it. and the following week I would be going to my moms and she doesn’t let us smoke in her house. So that was when I said “that’s it” , I told everyone to pray extra for me and I made it and it has been 2 years and 4 months. Yea ME!!! But the biggest Yea is “YEA GOD”