Quitting smoking

[SaraTherase]

Originally Posted by AngelBlue

Ooohhh but forgot to say, keep a glass or bottle of water near you and when you get a craving just take little short constant sips for about 20 seconds . It's impossible for the brain to crave nicotine whilst this is happening...

Hi AngelBlue,

Firstly I'm sorry to hear about your health. That's truly awful and I'm so sorry that your going through that, you must be so strong.

I've tried vaping and it wasn't really my cup of tea but I'm going to try sheer will power, nicotine replacement and quit smoking hypnosis audios. It's more of a Boredom thing for me as I'm going through a healing and recovery phase in my life so time to implement a routine and up the exercise I think as distraction will most definitely be key to get me through.

Thank you so much for all your advice. I'll take it on board and just keep trying. Bit worried about putting on weight but that should be the least of my worries as that's only natural with quitting smoking, kind of goes hand in hand.

Please do take care and be kind to yourself

[SaraTherase]

Originally Posted by Guillaume

I like smoking but I don't consider myself a smoker, I don't "need" it.

So the best strategy I found is to smoke as late as possible during the day, ideally only at night.

I've tried vaping for some time, to me it's worse than smoking because it seems to be harmless, but after some time I found myself vaping earlier and earlier in the day. Once you've started vaping your first puffs, you constantly get the craving for more.
You can see that in many public people, they get completely hooked on it.

It's harder to quit vaping than smoking, imo. They say vaping is harmless, but actually it messes up tastes and smells, sleep as well.
It's also a booster, I can't deny it.

Thank you Gulliaumel for your advice. I'll try to only smoke in the evening as I cut down. Will be a challenge but worth a try. Vaping wasn't for me found it didn't substitute for cigarettes very well but each to their own, less harmful than smoking though I hear so good on you for making the switch.

[SaraTherase]

Originally Posted by FairyCrystal

I've now been smoke-free for 8 days!
Have been a smoker for 37-38 yrs, bar for 3 years when I was around 31.
I am using nicotine patches which are covered by health insurance.
I was a very heavy smoker.
The reason I quit was 1) my health. My lungs were very unhappy and even painful at times. 2) I have a grandchild on the way, to be born any minute, and I don't want to be that 'smelling granny'.
3) I don't want to stink of smoke anymore, always having to wear specific clothes at home and keeping the good stuff upstairs for when I go somewhere. Meaning I also have to change clothes when I leave the house lest I smell.
4) I don't want a house that stinks anymore.
5) I don't want my beautiful crystals, paintings (made by me) etc. to get covered by nicotine yuk any longer.

Once I quit I used a pencil during the moments I really felt that oral need to suck on a cig. I did the same thing with the pencil, sucking, inhaling, blowing out. Really helped!
I haven't had to use it for some 3-4 days now.

I read every day, or several times a day, what is healing at that mo in my body. 3 days the cilia in your lungs begin to heal.
I was thrilled when I'd made 3 days! I made that milestone!!
I keep reading what is healing, it helps to not fall back into the smoking trap.

I set myself a goal, something I can buy with the money I'm no longer smoking, literally almost.
It was a dress. I bought it a bit early, but it was meant for an event. Unfortunately the dress didn't fit properly so I had to send it back.
Now I'm without goal, which doesn't help, so I have to find a new one.

I quit 2 yrs back and then each week I went to the ATM to take out the money I had saved by not smoking and put it in a pot.
Seeing the amount increase, fast!, was a huge help to keep going! I was saving up to go to Scotland. Unfortunately the pandemic ruined that plan :/
But it is a good thing to do: withdraw the money to save for some dream.

Stress... smoking actually triggers a stress response in the body. It literally gives you stress! As soon as you light a cig your heartrate goes up, blood pressure etc. If you haven't smoked for 1-2 days you can feel that really well as soon as you take a few puffs from a cig.
So it doesn't help relieve stress, that's what you make yourself think. It causes stress.

It helps if you can work out WHY you began smoking, and why you smoke when you light a cig.
You say stress, why? Can't you handle some turbulence? What other way could you cope with it? What else is behind it?
For me for instance it often was to have an excuse to withdraw from a group because I like some alone time.
So if I now have a group thing it's something I have to be mindful of.

Not saying it's easy, you really got to want to quit.
Like today was harder for me for some reason. But what helps to not smoke is to remind myself that a) the cilia in my lungs have begun to grow back!!! b) my lungs feel much better c) I already breathe a lot easier d) I know it will taste god awful if I now smoke e) I know I will be very very very very disappointed and sad if I light one. I will SO regret it!
Because I really want to quit! So I'm not going to disappoint myself.

You really got to find the reason within. Money isn't enough. I couldn't afford to smoke at all as I'm on wellfare and to be honest not within my limited budget. But you do it anyway when addicted.
Money isn't a good motivator as it isn't internal, it's an external thing.
You gotta find an internal drive to quit that can keep you going.

Congratulations on being smoke free for 8 days FairyCrystal! You are doing so well. Thank you for all the advice and information. I started smoking again after having quit for 7 years due to stress and partly kept on smoking cos my partner at the time loved to smoke even more than me, I know it sounds silly but it's even harder to quit when you live with someone who smokes. You have such great willpower and strength and it's admirable how your own journey inspires others to get healthy and quit too. Thank you for sharing and best of luck with everything

[AngelBlue]

To Sara, Thank you , but oh my goodness don't worry about me. I promise by the way that I wasn't trying to guilt trip you . I would never do that.
I also tried vaping twice and I just couldn't get to grips with it.
I have stopped 3 times and obviously on two occasions I started again. This time , I hadn't planned to stop but I ended up in hospital in agony and on all kinds of drips and oxygen for 2 weeks , so by the time I was well enough to actually have a cig I had been stopped for 2 weeks and the "worst" part of stopping was over.
I knew I would be silly to try again , especially after all of my test results !!!
It never bothered me in hospital .
Even when I saw the other smokers dragging their drips behind them with their bums hanging out of their hospital gowns to go in the car park for a puff, it still didn't bother me.
I knew the challenge would be when I got home , but I resisted. I just drink 5 bottles of vodka a day instead LOL..
You be kind to yourself too and don't be hard on yourself.

[FairyCrystal]

Originally Posted by SaraTherase

Congratulations on being smoke free for 8 days FairyCrystal! You are doing so well. Thank you for all the advice and information. I started smoking again after having quit for 7 years due to stress and partly kept on smoking cos my partner at the time loved to smoke even more than me, I know it sounds silly but it's even harder to quit when you live with someone who smokes. You have such great willpower and strength and it's admirable how your own journey inspires others to get healthy and quit too. Thank you for sharing and best of luck with everything

Thank you!
Currently it's 2 weeks, today is the 15th day :)
Last time I quit I didn't put on any weight. This time my weight has gone up a tad, which narks me tremendously!!
Now I have been eating a bit more of things that I shouldn't have been eating the time around Easter I think. But I want it gone!!
I lost 11 kilos last year, I do not want to put on weight again.
So as it is I'm trying to drink more -I tend to forget that of late- and probably time to pick up my at-home-fitness regime (1 mile walk).
I've been sitting a lot since Feb as I've been painting almost every day. My daily walk outdoors didn't happen often, so all in all not enough movement.

The good thing is, I breathe easier so it's also easier to exercise :)
I am single at the mo, hoping to find a partner, but I don't want a partner that smokes. Too tempting, and as it is I don't want the smell around me and in my home either.
I've smelled my rolling tobacco a few times, which helps to put me off smoking even more. It's so gross! I can always smell the chemicals in the tobacco, it doesn't smell nice at all. Not a plant/tobacco smell but a chemical stink.
When sniffing that I honestly cannot believe I've smoked that cr@p!!
It made me wonder how I could've done that as, when being honest, it never tastes truly great like for instance a piece of cake. So why do it? I don't eat something that tastes and/or smells off-putting either after all!

In any case, so far so good.
Hope you can get to the point of setting that first step as well!!

[Aldous]

I remember seeing this in a health class in college many beers ago.

The Feminine Mistake, 1977 anti-smoking documentary
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-BWM_Czlv0


The course was Drug Use and Abuse. I also remember discovering the misinformation about methadone where some people claim that methadone is easier to get off of than heroin. After I heard the teacher say its harder to get off of methadone than heroin, I brought the PDR in to show him what it said about this. The PDR said that methadone is easier to get off of than heroin. After this, we watched a film about heroin addicts and the addicts said that methadone is harder to get off of than heroin, so I believed the addicts and not the PDR. I think some people even say methadone is not addicting, which isn't true. That was an old PDR and I didn't check the newer ones yet.

[Aldous]

long lived radicals in cigarette smoke
https://tinyurl.com/mpwpv8vt

[Aldous]

I thought of the term Battle-axe (woman) for some reason today. The 3 Stooges used that term now and them and I looked it up and found this:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle-axe_(woman)
https://tinyurl.com/mtjaepfr
Carrie Nation was anti-tobacco, too.
https://www.oklahoman.com/story/news...n/62671616007/

[Aldous]

Apomorphine for addiction
https://www.theguardian.com/science/...ers-researcher

[kundalinikid]

“Cigarettes are a classy way to commit suicide.”
Kurt Vonnegut