mj

I have now stopped for 12 hrs - or since last night when I ran out of ciggies.

I am just starting to gag for a cig now and wondered if anyone could offer any advice.

I am realistic about stopping smoking,I am getting more and more to a way of thinking that It is a a foul ,harmful habit and deep down I want to stop, Although I do thoughrouly enjoy the old tabs.

I have smoked regularly now for the last 16 yrs, most of these years have been 20+ Embassy Filter or Regal filter lungbusters a day , ( the short strong ones )

I think if I try to stop all at once without "leaning off" so to speak I can see me failing, Work is quite hassle free at the moment, however If I try and stick at it the first bit of stress will send me off to the newsagents for some tabs.

Has anyone tried just cutting down the cigs at first, as opposed to patches, chewing gum etc?

I was going to "reward" myself this evening with a cig ( perhaps 2 ) when I get in - I will give the pack to the GF to hide and let her ration them out to me. At least that way I know that I can have a ciggie at some point in the day.

Anyone tried this approach??

SiPie

Reward approach not a good idea

The above will give your 'precious cigarette' such psychological importance that it will become MORE difficult to stop in the long run

Go out at lunchtime and buy "The easy way to stop smoking" by Allen Carr... @ £6.99

Best thing I ever did

Good luck and hang in there .... in a few weeks time you will feel brilliant and wonder why the hell you ever smoked

PS Loads will disagree with the above method so I guess it's each to their own but if you truly understand the above book it becomes rather easy



[Edited by SiPie - 7/7/2003 11:17:55 AM]

Puff The Magic Wagon!

iTrader: (2)

Don't "reward" yourself - as you'll find you "reward" yourself more often and a "just one now won't hurt" & b4 long you'll be back up again.

I gave up after about the same time as you - 25+ Rothmans per day & I just stopped - dead.

The first couple of days were bad but after 3 the effects were less so & I could spend whole stretches of time thinking about other things. After a week it was just the habit times - 1st of day, after meal, in pub, after sex etc that concerned.

Try & keep mentally busy, don't brood & stay determined.

The one thing that made some difference was the fact that if asked was I a smoker, I could say "NO - I'm a non-smoker"

Good luck & keep it up.

RRH

yhm

Leslie

It is hard, I stopped while I was in hospital after a bad fall and at least had 10 days out of circulation. I had to really force myself to stick with it,but as Puff says-it gets easier the longer you stave it off. You must stop completely though.

It is well worth it in the end and you will be amazed at the extra money you've got.

Good luck. Les

andrewdelvard

Get the Boots, Nicorette or Nicotinell chewing gums!
Honestly mate they rock! You get a really nice hit from them! I used them to give up last August for about 2 weeks or so, haven't smoked since and have no intention of doing.
Buy the chewing gums before you go out and buy a packet of ****!

SiPie

Hey ... I'm a nicotine addict.... please can I have some more nicotine.. thank you

Works for some.... but didn't work for me.....

Cold Turkey

Lord Of The Bling...

well you should be so impressed with yourself after 24 hours with out a cig, if you can go a whole day, then you can stop forever, like i did, with the help of patches. i also changed my routine for the first few days, so to lessen the times that i would of thourght about having a smoke.


the best of luck to you mate,,,you can do it!

aaron.

andrewdelvard

Giving up the nicotine isn't the problem. That can be done in a matter of days. However combined with the created habit of smoking e.g with a drink, after a meal, when you get to work etc etc it's a very difficult combination to get over. The chewing gums help you forget, get over this habit. Worked for me brilliantly and a far better option than having a 'cig or two' as a reward when mj gets home.

Carlos The Jackel

I just stopped also - 20 a day then none. If you have the occasional one it just starts up again. It was my 3rd attempt - I also took up excercise and the two dont mix - my first game of indoor footie (while still on 20 a day) resulted in my being sick Thats when I stopped.

mj

I won't miss the majority of the **** I smoke, it seems like most of those are just being smoked for the sake of it.

It will be tricky I think after meals, I don't do breakfast so by lunchtime I am starving, the ciggie afterwards is always enjoyable, as is the one after dinner.

I don't go out to the boozer that often anyway but not smoking in the pub will be trickest, I can easily avoid the pub this weekend, the next social gathering is on the 19th - a BBQ birthday party - I'll have to see how I go on.

Thanks for the encouragement, I suppose it would be rude of me to light up now wouldn't it

mj

Have taken the plunge and made an appointment with the hypnotherapist for this wednesday.
Its only down the round, nothing to lose for 50 quid.

I'll stop on Wednesday now

NACRO

Allen Carrs book is deffo worth a read- it reinforced everything I'd already worked out for myself and it's been 10 yrs since I last bought/smoked a ciggie. FYI they cost £2.10 for a pack of 20 Marlboros when I gave up, just out of interest what do they cost these days in the shops- I bet they are around a fiver!!!!!

Puff The Magic Wagon!

iTrader: (2)

MJ

Oi

That doesn't mean you can smoke until Wednesday - just keep it up from NOW!

Johnny50

My dad says giving up smoking is easy...

He's done it loads of times !!

Seriously though, i'd just do it now, no waiting.

My gran smoked for 65 years, and stopped smoking 2 years ago.
A bit pointless after all these years, but you never know.

Shows you it can be done though.

C h a z

Being ill is a good way of giving up. I was smoking about 20 rollups a day. Then I had proper flu, none of your bad cold rubbish, temp of 104 for 3 days, ill for about 3 weeks. Didn't smoke all that time and have kept it at bay ever scince.

Tim-Grove

I used patches and can recommend them, I used them for 2 weeks to get over the initial craving and then went cold turkey. And it has worked 100% I use to smoke 20-30 Marlborough lights a day, now 2 years later still haven’t touched one.

mj

so far so good - one thing I did notice this morning though - My van absoluteley stinks, and thats after 1 day.

To a non smoker passenger, it must be like driving round in a n ashtray.

SiPie

Stick with it mj....

You'll start to feel the benefits pretty soon

andrewdelvard

Same here.

Infact If I was smoking and one of those adverts came on I'd just stub out the ***. They really got to me.

Old_Fart

Haven't read the whole thread so forgive me if it's been covered but... smoking makes you smell bad and indicates a weak character.
Just show some self control/willpower and quit.
Regards
Chuck

bennyboy

I stopped once - went from 20 down to 2 for a day the none. I truly beleive if you have a good enough reason then you can stop without any assistance. I gave up for a year before slyly being drawn back to them DOH! but will be stopping again soon lol...

Ben

jazzyjeff

Keep up the good work mj and please post after your visit to the hypnotherapist tomorrow and tell us whether it did any good and what you thought of it etc.

I quit smoking a few years ago (luckily with relative ease as I never smoked very heavily anyway) less the odd few on special occasions which I banished when we found out we were having our baby daughter. Jeff, however, (this is Jazzy's wife speaking) does smoke heavily and is having a tough time quitting like yourself.

He was doing really well at the beginning of the year but when he does manage a day immediately falls back into it. He's tried patches which resulted in him nearly collapsing due to an allergic reaction to them and now my little girl has arrived (4 weeks tomorrow) I am desperate for him to kick the habit.

Although he makes a concerted effort to smoke outside so Gabi isn't affected, he doesn't seem to take into account that it will affect her anyway if the smoking eventually catches up with him. I find the adverts on TV really heartbreaking as above but are at a loose end as to finding something that will make him stop?

This is why I am really keen to have a bit of feedback on hypnotherapy as anything's worth a try.

Hope that you are not craving too much mj - I appreciate how difficult it is but remember, it'll definitely be worth it and again, would be obliged if you could tell us how the hypnotherapy went.

Cheers,

Jazzy Jeff's Wife,
Mish.

mj

Thanks for the encouragement, acually a guy from here private mailed me and suggested the hypnotherapist - I looked at the website and just phoned for an appointment - he is only 10 minutes away, and for 50 quid I have nothing to loose.

It gets a bit tricky at times - I am in the office at work on my own today so its a bit boring - I am now halfway through 1/2lb of chocki eclairs & starting to feel a bit sick

I am quite looking forward to it tommorrow - never been hypnotised before - I might even ask him if he can do anything about my total lack of ability to get up in the morning - although people I have spoken to say this will improve when I kick the abs into touch.

Whatever happens I'll let you know.

cheers,

Mike.

Peanuts

iTrader: (15)

I gave up on 27th May 2003,
ciggie money was the difference between me having a scooby and me not having a scooby because it more than pays the insurance.
Everytime I think I want a ***, I go and look at the car, simple choice.
**** or car.
Stick with it, I was 20 a day man, although about 3 years ago I moved over to silk cut so maybe the weening helped in the long run, the important thing is that you seem to want to give up, so dont be too hard on yourself if you crack and have a puff, keep going at it you will succeed in the end.
I ate so many sweets and gum I regularly felt sick but last week my mate came round and had a smoke in the garden. When he came back in he smelt stale and I realised that I used to smell like that, things taste better and smell nicer after a short while as well.
Good luck and dont give up (or rather DO )
Andy..

LeeMac

iTrader: (1)

my mate went to someone like that in Ashton, he said it didnt do him any good.

sexy wrx69

i just stopped one day. that was 3 years ago now and i dont miss it in the slightest.

one thing to do is to keep busy. if youre busy you wont get bored and boredom is normally why people smoke.

if you do get a craving...have a lollypop or a stick of gum or liquorise (red or black ) cause it will substitute putting something in your mouth.



[Edited by sexy wrx69 - 7/8/2003 1:43:05 PM]

scoobynutta555

I stopped 18 months ago, just stopped straight with no patches, books, gum or anything.

Think i was nearing 30 and an advert I saw on tv brought it home. Like an ordinary guy, 34 years old, saying he smoked for x amount of years, caption came up underneath 'so and so died 3 weeks after this film was made'

I dont miss it, and find that lots pf people i know have given up.

SiPie

Sounding like a stuck record here....

Go buy and read Allen Carr's book "The easy way to stop smoking"

In his own words, 'You've got nothing to lose and so much to gain' and you can smoke as much as you want until you've finished reading the book

He claims to remove the psychological dependency to smoke whilst you are reading the book

Worked for me and I'd previosuly tried:

Patches
Chewing Gum
Lozenges
Will Power / Cold Turkey
Hypnotherapy x 3
Nasal Inhalator
Herbal cigarettes
Death in family due to throat cancer
Microtabs

Just please go and try reading the book for £6.99 prior to spending £100's on hypnotherapists and types of NRT and you'll actually enjoy quitting as he puts you in the perfect frame of mind for succeeding

Everyone's different and loads of you have stopped using other methods but don't get caught in the trap of thinking "it's only a book, how can that help with cravings" as you'd be amazed

mj

Sipie,

no, no stuck record, the advice is appreciated. I'll see how I feel after Ive seen the hypnotherapsist - and if I am not convinced I will stop/have stopped I will go and get the book.


To be honest, I did a wee search for the book on kazza, I was hoping it had been released as an e-book - no luck though

cheers,

mike.