Quitting Smoking

I quit cold turkey after 15 years. Just remember that every day you stick with it, it gets easier and easier. Chug some water and chew some gum, but don't give in! You can do this and you will change your life. Good for you! I wish you all the best. :drinker:

I had smoked for 11 years. I quit on 1/17 of this year. I quit cold turkey. I will say thought that I started quitting on New Years Day. I was doing well then slipped up and had one. Then that one turned into two packs. On 1/17 I started quitting again and I haven't stopped since!

What worked for me is to not beat yourself if you laps on one smoke but don't make an excuse and say "oh well I had one I might as well finish the pack." It's a minute by minute battle the first few weeks but I PROMISE it gets better. I used flavored gum (regular gum not nicorete) to substitute for a smoke. I became a gum chewing freak. I thought I would become this person that always chewed gum but I bairly chew it now.

Another thing that helped me was to keep reminding myself that a craving will take place every 20 minutes and last for 5 minutes. If you can make it through that 5 minutes you can do it! Just focus on the 5 minutes not the whole day or the rest of your life. About three weeks into quitting I noticed that I really wasn't thinking about it as much as I used to. Now 8 weeks into it I might have a split second of thinking about it if I see someone light up but I just look away and toss the thought out of my mind.

It also helped that I have stayed away from smoking friends. And it was a very nice surprise to find out that my husband decided to quit smoking too! I wish you the very very best of luck and you are not alone! If you'd like to add me as a friend I'd love to support you on your journey. Take care!

I stopped smoking about [thinks about it] 7 years ago. I had been prescribed NRT patches, but after the second day, couldn't be bothered with them.

Drink lots of iced water. Much better than gum or cookies.


It's not so bad as they make out. The hardest part is having to deal with the uncomfortable feelings you used to distract from by going outside and lighting up.

Great job taking the first step! I quit cold turkey about 4 years ago. If I wanted a cigarette, I just thought to myself "this tiny little thing is not going to control my life anymore". I had to realize that as a smoker, I spent my whole day thinking about smoking - when to have one, when not to have one, do I smell like smoke?, do I have enough packs or should I stop at the store?, do I have enough money for another pack?, will there be smoking at this place or that? It just finally got to be too much. Life is so much better now - I can breathe, I'm healthy, and I never want to go back

You CAN do this!!!!

Congrats to all who managed to quit! I just joined today..and my next step is to quit smoking also. I have smoked for 30 years, and I know it will be hard, I have tried many times before. I am hoping I have the will power to follow thru this time!! Hoping tomorrow will be Day 1 for me....maybe we can do it together!! Good luck!!

Bump

This coming May it will be 2 years since I quit. I smoked for 30 yrs or more. You can do it. Hang out in places that mentally you know you can't smoke, like a library or a mall. Bottled water, I carred a container of water where ever I went. It helps that hand to mouth habit. Stay active and busy with projects.
You can do it.

Also - I read this on Quit.com. It made a huge impact on me and I thought about it a lot when i quite smoking. Hope it helps you too.

"My cigarette, My Friend.
How do you feel about a friend who has to go everywhere with you? Not only does he tag along all the time, but since he is so offensive and vulgar, you become unwelcome when with him. He has a peculiar odor that sticks to you wherever you go. Others think both of you stink.

He controls you totally. When he says jump, you jump. Sometimes in the middle of a blizzard or storm, he wants you to come to the store and pick him up. You would give your spouse hell if he or she did that to you all the time, but you can't argue with your friend. Sometimes, when you are out at a movie or play he says he wants you to go stand in the lobby with him and miss important scenes. Since he calls all the shots in your life, you go. Your friend doesn't like your choice of clothing either. Instead of politely telling you that you have lousy taste, he burns little holes in these items so you will want to throw them out. Sometimes, he tires of the furniture and gets rid of it too. Occasionally, he gets really nasty and decides the whole house must go.

He gets pretty expensive to support. Not only is his knack of property destruction costly, but you must pay to keep him with you. In fact, he will cost you thousands of dollars over your lifetime. And you can count on one thing, he will never pay you a penny in return.

Often at picnics you watch others playing vigorous activities and having lots of fun doing them. But your friend won't let you. He doesn't believe in physical activity. In his opinion, you are too old to have that kind of fun. So he kind of sits on your chest and makes it difficult for you to breathe. Now you don't want to go off and play with other people when you can't breathe, do you?

Your friend does not believe in being healthy. He is really repulsed by the thought of you living a long and productive life. So every chance he gets he makes you sick. He helps you catch colds and flu. Not just by running out in the middle of the lousy weather to pick him up at the store. He is more creative than that. He carries thousands of poisons with him which he constantly blows in your face. When you inhale some of them, they wipe out cilia in your lungs which would have helped you prevent these diseases.

But colds and flu are just his form of child's play. He especially likes diseases that slowly cripple you—like emphysema. He considers this disease great. Once he gets you to have this, you will give up all your other friends, family, career goals, activities—everything. You will just sit home and caress him, telling him what a great friend he is while you desperately gasp for air.

But eventually your friend tires of you. He decides he no longer wishes to have your company. Instead of letting you go your separate ways, he decides to kill you. He has a wonderful arsenal of weapons behind him. In fact, he has been plotting your death since the day you met him. He picked all the top killers in society and did everything in his power to ensure you would get one of them. He overworked your heart and lungs. He clogged up the arteries to your heart, brain, and every other part of your body. In case you were too strong to succumb to this, he constantly exposed you to cancer causing agents. He knew he would get you sooner or later.

Well, this is the story of your "friend," your cigarette. No real friend would do all this to you. Cigarettes are the worst possible enemies you ever had. They are expensive, addictive, socially unacceptable, and deadly. Consider all this and NEVER TAKE ANOTHER PUFF!"

Thank you for posting this. Really says it all. This is my 2nd attempt at quitting and I am much more focused and determined this time to stay quit free.

Also - I read this on Quit.com. It made a huge impact on me and I thought about it a lot when i quite smoking. Hope it helps you too.

"My cigarette, My Friend.
How do you feel about a friend who has to go everywhere with you? Not only does he tag along all the time, but since he is so offensive and vulgar, you become unwelcome when with him. He has a peculiar odor that sticks to you wherever you go. Others think both of you stink.

He controls you totally. When he says jump, you jump. Sometimes in the middle of a blizzard or storm, he wants you to come to the store and pick him up. You would give your spouse hell if he or she did that to you all the time, but you can't argue with your friend. Sometimes, when you are out at a movie or play he says he wants you to go stand in the lobby with him and miss important scenes. Since he calls all the shots in your life, you go. Your friend doesn't like your choice of clothing either. Instead of politely telling you that you have lousy taste, he burns little holes in these items so you will want to throw them out. Sometimes, he tires of the furniture and gets rid of it too. Occasionally, he gets really nasty and decides the whole house must go.

He gets pretty expensive to support. Not only is his knack of property destruction costly, but you must pay to keep him with you. In fact, he will cost you thousands of dollars over your lifetime. And you can count on one thing, he will never pay you a penny in return.

Often at picnics you watch others playing vigorous activities and having lots of fun doing them. But your friend won't let you. He doesn't believe in physical activity. In his opinion, you are too old to have that kind of fun. So he kind of sits on your chest and makes it difficult for you to breathe. Now you don't want to go off and play with other people when you can't breathe, do you?

Your friend does not believe in being healthy. He is really repulsed by the thought of you living a long and productive life. So every chance he gets he makes you sick. He helps you catch colds and flu. Not just by running out in the middle of the lousy weather to pick him up at the store. He is more creative than that. He carries thousands of poisons with him which he constantly blows in your face. When you inhale some of them, they wipe out cilia in your lungs which would have helped you prevent these diseases.

But colds and flu are just his form of child's play. He especially likes diseases that slowly cripple you—like emphysema. He considers this disease great. Once he gets you to have this, you will give up all your other friends, family, career goals, activities—everything. You will just sit home and caress him, telling him what a great friend he is while you desperately gasp for air.

But eventually your friend tires of you. He decides he no longer wishes to have your company. Instead of letting you go your separate ways, he decides to kill you. He has a wonderful arsenal of weapons behind him. In fact, he has been plotting your death since the day you met him. He picked all the top killers in society and did everything in his power to ensure you would get one of them. He overworked your heart and lungs. He clogged up the arteries to your heart, brain, and every other part of your body. In case you were too strong to succumb to this, he constantly exposed you to cancer causing agents. He knew he would get you sooner or later.

Well, this is the story of your "friend," your cigarette. No real friend would do all this to you. Cigarettes are the worst possible enemies you ever had. They are expensive, addictive, socially unacceptable, and deadly. Consider all this and NEVER TAKE ANOTHER PUFF!"

when i quit i slept alot for the first week or two. in the car was hardest for me. i also went cold turkey, it's been since October 5th for me. i slept a lot, then cleaned a lot. i painted my living room. keep busy, and try not to dwell on it. you'll do fine! good luck

I smoked for 5 years and quit 3 years ago. I had chronic bronchitis, so I really needed to quit. I started out with a rule that I could not smoke in the car. After a week or so I wouldn't allow myself to smoke around other people. Finally, I made a rule that I could only smoke sitting in my room in a corner in the dark. Needless to say, that is not very appealing and I quit pretty quick. You can set limitations and make them more and more restrictive until it's too much of a hassle to smoke.