I don't know if this is of any interests to you or not, Tim, but if so send me a smo... er PM. :)

Let's make sure I actually stay quit first.

I didn't figure you would be ready for that at just this point. But I'll be sure to hold onto a couple of my ISs just in case.

Fraz clean out your PM's :cuss:

i smoked from 1962 to 1987, up to nearly three packs a day at times...

i had quit several times, once for as long as 6 months, but i couldn't stay quit...

i finally went with the nicotine gum and finally quit for good...

i used it at first to replace cigarettes with the gum and then to reduce the nicotine by reducing the frequency of the gum...

also, i found it very important to treat the gum more like chewing tobacco than gum...

if you chew it up like gum, it can make you sick to your stomach (too much nicotine at once)...

i would take like one or two chews on the gum and then stick it between my gum and my lower lip and keep it there for a minute or so...

you can experiment with how many chews and how long to keep it in until you get the hang of it...

once i had quit using the gum regularly, i kept some on me for another year or so and every time i felt like i had to have a cigarette, i would pop a half a piece of gum, chew once, and hold for about a minute...

no more nicotine...

and, btw, it's my understanding that nicotine is as addictive as heroin (in terms of the likelihood of a relapse to use again)...

it sure was for me...

now, 18 years later, i still get the urge to smoke now and then...

oh, btw, i don't agree with avoiding smokers...

it's like a diet, you do good while you're on the diet but when you start eating normally again, you gain back all the weight and more...

if you quit, sooner or later you'll return to your old haunts and your friends and you'll start smoking again...

i say quit while you are around smokers...

after a few weeks, when you smell cigarette smoke, it will be unpleasant instead of alluring...

sorry i went on like this, but it was incredibly hard for me to quit and nothing worked long term until i started using the gum to susbstitute for the cigarette as a source of nicotine...

took me the better part of a year before i was able to go without using the gum at least some of the time, but i doubt it would be that long for a younger man in better shape...

good luck with it... :toast:

you'll be glad you did... :D :D :D

By this one post alone, I have the same amount of faith in you as you do in yourself. Not a whole helluva lot. Heh heh.

Spend some money. Make it PAINFUL to go back. Turn a new leaf. Go get your teeth cleaned/whitened. Make it financially impossible to buy another pack of smokes.

When I quit the Copenhagen, I started paying at the pump. Less face time with the enormous racks of tobacco staring at me.... begging to be purchased.

Dude those are not even in your lungs. Its your nose and throat they are talking about. Cilia are what your body uses naturally to move mucus out of your lungs. Smokers burn off that layer. Thats the main reason why they cough, no cilia to remove mucus. Nothing to do with oxygen exchange at the cellular level.

yuck you used to chew? Thats grosser than smoking, my dad used to chew copenhagen and I remember the spit cans or cups or whatever, but I'm glad you quit. I would also like to quit smoking the price is redicilous even for the cheaper kind, which I cannot smoke cause after a few they make me couch my head off (i was gonna say brains out but I know I'd hear some crap over that ROFL ) but anywho, I think I'll pick a day to quit and give it a try.

Toothpicks. My dad quit smoking almost 20 years ago. He quit cold turkey. But he chewed the hell out of toothpicks. To this day he keeps a couple toothpicks in his shirt pocket to chew on.

The gratification of knowing that you are doing society, your family and loved ones, and most importantly YOURSELF a huge service by quitting really should be motivation enough to help people quit. But it's not, and thus it's important to recognize that. This is a minute by minute battle in the beginning, then hour by hour, then day by day, month by month and before you know it it will be year by year until you are at the point of revulsion at the thought of a cigarette. It is then that you know you are home free...(hubby has been there for four years now)

So, in the early minute by minute stages just realize that every step you take away from cigarettes is a step closer to being free from them. You need to reward yourself for your successes (seemingly small as they might be in the beginning, they are HUGE) and feel free to indulge yourself in other guilty pleasures while you are quitting.

My husband put the money he'd spend on cigarettes into a jar. In the beginning he rewarded himself with ice cream (oral gratifcation) or a different kind of treat at the end of the day. Then after he could make it through a few days he'd save up the money and at the end of the week by a book or CD. After a couple of weeks a really nice dinner to celebrate, etc. Pretty soon he got to the point where he could just save the money as the reward. But until he got there he needed to indulge himself in other ways that not only rewarded his good choices but kept him tangibly focused on what he was trying to do long term.

In the end the material rewards meant little compared to those that he got from quitting to benefit society, his family and loved ones, and himself.

Thank you Stuart Smalley

that is WAY too dramatic. Frazod, don't let the daisy picker over blow the whole thing. That's what those folks do. Stretch out every single minute to make it seem like it's impossible and you need help to make it.
Rewarding himself with Ice Cream? WTF, is your 'husband' a girl? Or a 8 year old?

God, please go find yourself the nearest self help group and feel free to spend the rest of your life there.

Frazod, you can do it, and you don't need to buy an ice cream cone to make it easier.

Willpower my friend, willpower.

Hey Tim, your thread inspired me, I am going to do it to. NASA could have used the crap I coughed up this morning to glue the tiles back on the Space Shuttle. :Lin:

Well, I hope this goes better then your diet did!

Morphius
Motivation through sarcastic pokes with sharp pointy sticks.

How about a little shock therapy?

I think I'm going to have to try hypnosis. I've tried quitting several times, but the bottom line is that I just like smoking. I'm only about a 1/3 pack/day guy and it hasn't really affected my health since I'm still a big runner and workout guy. I would imagine if I felt like crap or coughed a lot, it might be easier, but that's not the case.

Anyone try hypnosis and been successful with it?