Quitting Smoking
 

Both the wife and I need to quit, and since we've tried to quit at the same time before, and THAT REALLY SUCKED, I took the plunge first.

Haven't had a cigarette since last night. I've quit several times in the past, sometimes for up to three months - quitting ain't the problem - it's staying quit that kicks my ass.

Any advice on non-smoking methods/products or encouragement would be appreciated.

Scientology

Good luck man, I've never had the addiction so I can't give advice. Just wish the best for you and your wife.

OK, I will fix mt errors...

I smoked 2-3 packs of Marlboro "Reds" daily, for 11 years (from 14-25) woke up one morning coughing up blood and quit.
I started smoking again 7 years later for 2 years. I simply tired of it and quit.

Here's what my experience taught me:

You will quit when you are strong enough and ready to quit. You can't win a fight with your body, it's a fight you can't win.

Frazod, you seem like a pretty strong willed dude from what I read on here. It's all about your will - power. Do you believe your will is strong? It is the only thing that will keep you from starting again. Think about how you would like to wake up tomorrow morning coughing blood, or unable to walk 2 blocks. Consider the punishment and IF you are ready inside, you will be successful.

Good luck dude!

P.S. As I have mentioned plenty of times here, I am a cancer survivor. Be strong!

He's also pretty good at stretching time itself:

HA, sorry, I will say it myself...Frankth and Beanth!!

I started when I was 14, quit when I was 25...11 years.
I apologize. thank you for correcting me

It helped me to make small commitments to not smoke. Like in the morning I'd say I wouldn't smoke 'til lunch and then at lunch I'd decided again if I'd commit not to smoke to dinner and thru the evening. I couldn't promise never to smoke again but I could agree not to smoke for a 4 hour period. Then one by one my days added up and I didn't want to ruin my success of not smoking for however many days it was. Also I would add up the number of cigs I'd usually smoke in a day and multiply that number by the # of days. After a short while, that # really got large, like for me it was 25 cigs a day, so after 4 days you'd see I didn't smoke 100 cigs. That was another thing to be proud of and not want to mess up. Hope this helps.

Wow. That's a fucked up story. Glad you made it through and stayed quit.

I'm not coughing up blood yet, but that greenish-brownish-yellowish shit that greets me every morning is bad enough.

I was strong willed enough to quit coke cold turkey, which was tough. The advice you gave above is pretty much how I felt about that.

Of course, I won't have to walk past people snorting lines outside my office building tomorrow. The hardest part is getting away from smoking, and what's got me everytime I've quit in the past is being around a bunch of smokers at a time when I though I was over it. Unfortunately, several of my friends smoke. Guess I'll be steering clear of them for awhile.

Good luck, Tim.

After a month or so, you'll be able to breathe easier and actually smell things. So I'm told.

On a disgusting note, if you want to see the results as you go:

take a empty bottle of Cola or beer, but make it a clear one. You know where I am going with this?
First time I quit I looked at the results after 7 days...egads dude, fuggin sick! That also helped

The sense of smell actually starts to improve almost immediately. The breathing will take quite a bit longer (I've been doing this for almost 21 years).

One immediate benefit is no more chronic heartburn (direct result of smoking inflation). I generally pop about 20 tums a day. Haven't need to take one yet today.

Here's the National Library of Medicine's Smoking Cessation page, which is full of useful links:
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/s...cessation.html


http://transit.metrokc.gov/prog/poet...1_fewster.html

I use probably know I'm a former smoker of 13 years and worked as a Respiratory Therapist for 10 years. I use to teach classes on quiting smoking.

The most important thing is the "want to". Every individual is different. If you are quitting smoking because you cough up phlem and "need to" you will fail. It's just too damn hard. What works for one person doesn't work for another.

For me it was seeing myself as an addict. It altered my moods. Made me happy when I got my fix, made me irritable when I needed my fix etc etc. Just because society says its legal didn't mean it was okay with me. I don't like to be told what to do. The nictione was telling me what to do. Quit cold turkey first time. Had a craving for a cigarette 8 years later. Go figure.

The first 48 hours are the worst. Get by that and your odds increase 38% in being successful in the long term.

You can use the gum but try not to use it too much. Its a crutch that if you need it to walk okay but if not don't use it.

Quiting smooking is about changing your life habits more than weining yourself off of a drug. Try to drink a diet coke or something after meals. Drink water with meals. Do something and more importantly plan something for when you would normally smoke. After sex take a shower. Eat some peanuts when you are drinking a beer. Have a beer where theres no smoking. Instead of a smoke break take an internet break. Buy your new pony or the wife something instead of smoking.

But the bottom line is the "want to". You are either ready to quit or you are not.
PM me if you like.

Every single person has smoke in their lungs. Its easy to prove. This is for anyone whether you smoke or not.
Press your hand against your mouth and spread your hand out and blow against your closed mouth. This forces air from the bottom of your lungs. Take your hand off and breathe out. Smoke will come out.

Just tried it and nothing came out. Let me get this clear, you take a deep breath, close your mouth with your hand and blow out as hard as possible (against your hand) and then release the hand and blow out?

Anyone else fall for this? :redface:

yep, just let the air out that you just blew out of your lungs escape out. Everyone has it. Its mainly second hand smoke but its also smog for the non smokers

There's no advice that will help, Tim. It's a decision you have to make.

That said, sometimes it's helpful to replace one habit with another. Maybe you can take to toothpicks instead of cigs or chewing on gum or something.... I'm unsure it was ever about the nicotine for me. It was simply a habit.

And "the reefer".

We show people this all the time as Respiratory Therapists to show them the smoke that is still in their lungs. No trick. No BS.

I haven't been around a smoker or even in a place that allows smoking for at least a month, probably longer. I also meditate, so I do lots of deep breathing every day. Could that cause the results to be so minimal that I couldn't see anything or am I going to die because of lack of smoke? ;)

Now my ears hurt.

Gaurantee you have some there. Meet you at B5 some time and remind me and I'll show you how to do it. But maybe the deep breathing gets rid of it?:hmmm:

If it gets you laid you have to share the details. I'm an old married geezer now I need to remember the way it was....:deevee:

I actually did get a little puff of smoke the first time I did it. :hmmm:

I heard also that if you take one of those ear droppers and fill it with water and drop only 3 drops in your ear directly, you get a buzz

:clap:

That whole bit made me laugh my ass off, good comedy

I did! ROFL

Phobia has a good point Frazod, but I still say that it comes down to willpower, and you can't quit until you are truly ready to.

The good thing is that lungs regenerate. It'll take you a while to get your healthy lungs back, frazod, but if you stop smoking completely, eventually you'll have a set of new, healthy lungs (might take a while, if you smoked a lot fr a long time, heh).

Its not a joke. Its real. Your not doing it right.

We don't have any second-hand smoke out here in California. If you want to smoke, you have to go to Nevada or Mexico.

Try this. It REALLY does work.
http://cigarrest.com/

Sorry to rain on the parade but thats not true. Once the lung is damaged thats it. Done. Kaput. Fuggetaboutit.

What happens when you quit smoking is the exsisting lung tissues that are not damaged return to a normal functioning capacity. Because you have been operating at a sub par capacity because of smoking it will feel great when you quit.

If you want to speed up the return of your lungs to normal have your Dr. proscribe an Incentive Spiromentry. You probably have visited people in hopitals that have them. You suck into the mouthpiece and make the ball go up. It will help you get back to normal quicker.

Actually, after you stop smoking altogether, your lungs will be, ahem, pink and healthy in just a few weeks or so. They begin repairing themselves almost immediately. Good news!

Weird, I distinctly remeber learning they regenerate in my Bio class. Some kid asked whether they eventually regenerate and he said yeah, but it takes time.

Also, my grandpa was a chain smoker until he quit cold turkey. Later when he got intestinal cancer (non related), his lungs were checked and the doctor was amazed at their condition when my grandpa said he used to smoke as much as he did.

Its damaged lung tissue thats effected. Your oxygen in your lungs goes all the way down to one cell and then jumps onto the bodys boats (hemoglobin) that carries the o2 around your body. When the cells are damaged they won't let the o2 cross over to the hemoglobin.

My roomate is quitting smoking... I should try to quit too as I heard somewhere that it helps to quit with someone else so you can keep tabs on eachother... But I'm too much of a wimp... I smoke a pack a day, Marlboro Menthol Lights... started when I was 16 and I'm 23 now...

I quit for 6 weeks once in basic training...

Get some Chewlies gum ;)


Seriously though good luck to both of you. Its really difficult whenever you drink.

Thank you Metro, I don't mean any offense here Big Red but your lungs do regenerate themselves. We could wrangle around with semantics with regards to lost lung 'capacity' but they do regenerate...
see below:

In three days cilia start to regenerate and usually within 6 months the normal cilia function is returned. Also over time, the extra layers of cells will be sloughed off and the lining tissue of the bronchus will return to normal.

Unfortunately, if a smoker waits until a malignancy has started, the outlook is grim. The overall 5 year survival rate for lung cancer is only 14%. Lung cancer, is a disease that while once uncommon, is now the leading cancer killer in both sexes.

Yeah, but what I meant is that these healthy cells eventually multiply and replace the damaged/dead cells. I'm no expert on this though.

I was at a confernce with a coworker last week. We had some down time and time to kill. I asked him what he wanted to do, to which he replied "Smoke". I really admired his sense of self-direction, the fact that he knew exact what he wanted to do. That was enough to get me to consider taking up the habit myself.

I half expected you to tell some sort of story about talking him out of having a smoke by offering him a bacon samich.

:D

ROFL

I'd rather take up smoking than ruin a good bacon sandwich with cheese.

Heh. My Dad is an old RT, managed a couple of small departments in Nebraska and new Mexico. It would (and still does) blow his mind at how many RTs smoke. He says they are the worst. He tried to hire therapists that didn't smoke, couldn't do it. Just not enough quality therapists out there who do not smoke. It's crazy.

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?

comeon...:shake: Until you are ready you will fail. As long as you like smoking you will continue to smoke. You can't be successful if you are quitting because you should quit. Running and working out ain't no bullet proof shield either. You just use your lung capacity to its full extent. The damage is still being done.

I got some meds.(wellbutrin) to help me quit. Went to the doctor and asked about quitting, told him Ive tried alot of other methods:Patches, gum, ect.. he told me this had a high success rate! Seems to be working for me. And it helps that my work pays 100% for meds. to quit!

Like Soupnazi, I enjoy smoking. I'm not quitting because I really want to - I'm quitting because it's an added expense I can't afford right now with my wife not working. Even at Missouri prices, $2.50 x 2 x 30 = $150 per month for both of us to smoke, and that goes up quickly if we buy cigarettes locally. We're really screwed right now financially, and cutting pretty much every corner.

So no, I didn't wake up yesterday and think "I'm done with this shit." I woke up yesterday and thought "Time to embrace the horror." And yes, I know that doesn't do much for my long term changes of staying smoke free. But there's no point in lying about it, to myself or anybody here. If my dumbass wife could hold a job, I'd still be smoking, and that's the truth.

But I'm doing fine with it so far.

Good luck to me, and Ed, and everybody else who is trying to quit.

THIS IT IS WHAT NOT TO DO....


do not drop the habbit in one day. sick, you will get sick, i got pnemona now cause i dropped it in one day



YES I KNOW I SPELLED IT WRONG

That sounds hokey to me. I'd like to hear what BRC has to say about that.

You can roll your own ciggies for about a third of what you pay for marlboros. Doesn't have the gunpowder or rat feces in it, either.

about now is the time to screw that last one in

:sulk:

A big bunch of green coughed up flem is all that is. What a croc. Your health starts to improve from day one of quitting. You are less inclined to become a home for bugs because you are moving flem out of your lungs instead of it remaining stagnet and attracting also sorts of bacteria. Thats why people get pnemonia in a hospital. Laying around not moving lets those pneumonia bugs get a hold in the lungs and viola you are really sick now.

The actual reason I brought up the diet thing is that maybe now might be a good time to start doing some sort of workout at night, 'cause working out good way to spend some of that time at night when you get bored and would light up. Which may just lead you back into the diet again...

Hee Hee ! REEEEEP ROFL

I WAS AT THE DOCTORS OFFICE YESTERDAY MY LEFT LUNG IS FULL OF FLUID MY RIGHT ABOUT HALF FULL AND ALL OF THIS STARTED AFTER I QUIT SMOKING

Well, this worked for me: 5 Years later, and not 1 cig. Went from 2-3 packs a day to none in 1 1/2 months.

1) Set your "quit date".
2) 2 weeks before quitting, switch to an all tobacco (no additives) cig. like Winston or American Spirit. This will let you get over the initial withdrawl symptoms from the additives, while still getting your nicotine fix. There is a damn good reason there are 700+ additives in a cig. and enhancing withdrawl is (IMO) one of them.
3) On your quit date, switch to the "patch" at an appropriate dosage. Reduce this over time, per patch instructions. this lets you deal with the mental aspects of the addiction (holding a cig., etc.)while still fulfilling the physical crave for nicotine.
4) Once you've tapered off the patch, with the other aspects of the addiction dealt with, it should be considerably easier for you.
-It doesn't hurt to drop your daily "cig money" into a jar/account/whatever for a few months afterward as well, and have a nice little chunk of cash to blow after a few months.

-Going this method still cost me less than I was spending on Cigs.

Granted, I was aided in this by an even better motivation. My dentist, a few hours before I decided, told me "that white spot concerns me, let's do a biopsy". Thankfully negative, but among the longest fortnight in my life.

Hope this helps. If you are both quitting, I also recommend step 1.5- Lock up all sharp/lethal objects in the household. :)

Good luck man. My advice would be to sequester yourself for a minimum of six weeks away from your smoking friends. (If your wife is still smoking than this is impossible.) after six weeks, then you can go hang out with your smoking friends, but only for 1 hour, no more. the following week, maybe make two hrs. if you go to a bar or place where people smoke, try and limit your time there to minimize the temptation for relapse. I did the gum for three days to get me over the 48 hour hump. then quit cold turkey. I was ready, just as you will be someday, hopefully now. Exercise helps some. I tried zyban another time, which did cut down the cravings, but I had to step down off of that because of the dizzy side effects I was having. hope this helps.

Okay you are now an official idiot. I'll notify AliChiefs to have your status made "Official".

To be fair you had a couple other motivating quit factors, right?

7/16 of one inch Turn It Off! :p

why you neg reping me i will never know, calling me stupid for stating the truth, i dont get it man

Use your brain. You have one lung thats useless filled with fluid. The other is half filled with fluid. But your not in the hospital? If this is true you need to go see another Dr. and or head to the hospital ASAP.

There might be a few things here to help you out -

http://buzz.yahoo.com/buzz_log/entry/2005/08/15/1700/

I didn't really look it over, just saw it and passed it along for you.