Quitting Smoking or Chewing...HELP!

Seriously, it's been 61 hours and I'm ready to eat my own hand!  How do you control the urges for not only nicotine but for food?

I read a little Q and A article about quitting.  The one question was:  Will I gain weight when I quit?  The answer was:  It would take you gaining 75lbs to equal the health risks of tobacco.  The answer almost sounded sarcastic...like "yeah, but who's going to gain 75 lbs"?

Do they not know who I am?  I could gain 75 lbs by this time tomorrow.  I'm starting to think that I'm better off with the tobacco.  I'm going to continue trying but if I keep eating, I'm going to stop.

Questions?  Comments?  Concerns?  Opinions?

Don't get discouraged.  It does get better.  Hang in there a little longer and your cravings will subside. 

You already know the conventional therapies - patch, gum, etc.  Try them if you like.  But I think the most sucessful quitters go cold turkey.

I am a classic serial quitter and I have always tried the different therapies.  They all work - but they are all still pumping you with nicotine.  Of course that is the stuff you want to get off - so cold turkey might be the most maddening and the hardest but for a lot of people it works best.

Please know that it is one day at a time.  EVERY DAY.  I can not tell you how long this madness will last.  For some it is over quickly.  My husband was like that - he smoked a pack a day and quit in a few days and never looked back.  I have struggled with it for years, on again and off again.  Worst mistake I have ever made was to smoke.

Any way, walking, drinking water, gum - these all help.  But I think the most helpful thing is realizing you can NEVER EVER EVER have "just one".  If that means never going to a bar again - so be it.  You will thank yourself later.

For me smoking is something I have always done alone.  That makes it harder to avoid my triggers.  I try to be around people - all the time and make situations where I can not smoke.  But that is not always easy.

Still, I have not given up even though I did back slide.  I hope you can hang in there and it is easier for you. 

YOU CAN DO THIS.  It does get better!!! 

If you are struggling, shout out again.  I am right here pulling for you!

my husband has been dippin for years & smokin as well but not for as long.  its really hard on him to quit [but so am i!]

he buys these lozenges for quittin in a blue tube.. and chews regular gum even tho he hates gum.  and yes he does snack a lot.

after 72 hours nicotine is out of your system.  course that doesnt mean you arent still addicted & cravin, but that is why the 1st 3 days are the worst.  i havent smoked since christmas and it is still hard some days.

i guess just try to stay busy, and find ways to pass the time, take it one day or even hour at a time.  if you stay busy all day itll be time to sleep and then you are startin a new day!  and as more time goes by, it really does get easier.  you are weening yourself off, time is really the only way to be done with it totally.  just remind yourself how far youve come & that "relapsing" only sets you back & starts the hell all right back up again.

reward yourself for however many days/hours you can go.

and try to just not think about it.  i hope some of that helps, not sure if it will but it has for us.

good luck!  and congrats

I'm so terrified of the snacking and the weight gain that comes with quitting (for some people, not all) that I keep making excuses not to quit. I need to. This is getting ridiculous.

A friend of mine tried Chantix and I know there's a lot of people that hate it and a lot that love it. She sings it's praises every day. I'm thinking about it. Maybe look into that?

This might start a contoversy....but I quit smoking and was feeling like crud....untill my husband found "snus". It is a way to get nicotine without smoking (and the quit smoking aids gave us both so many side effects...like bad dreams, and tummy issues that they weren't helping...and Chantix for me made me depressed). It is like a pouch you put in your mouth that you don't have to spit with. The tabacco they use in it is steamed instead of dried....which is a less cancerous way to treat it. I don't think it is "healthy"...but it is better than smoking. I did lots of reseach on it...and decieded it was a good alternative for me....but I am not advocating it for everyone. They have it in Sweden and the people who "snus" do not have any higher risks of cancer than those that do not. It is something worth looking into anyhow. I have about 3 a day, and it keeps my mouth busy....so I don't over eat...it is discreet....you don't stink with it.....and it saved me from going back to smoking. I do plan on weaning off of it in the future...but I am taking baby steps off my addiction.

I've read advice that two weeks before you quit smoking you should start taking a good dose of vitamin B complex and then after two weeks, continue with the B complex but don't quit cold turkey, just reduce the # of cigarettes gradually until you're down to one a day and then when you stop smoking that one cigarette, it's a lot easier and you don't have the powerful withdrawal symptoms.

Maybe that would help?

I strongly recommend Chantix. I am on day 13(you can smoke the first week if you want) and after smoking for 16 years, I really couldn't care less about having a smoke. Occasionally I get bored and miss the whole hand to mouth habit, but as far as insane cravings and withdrawal-, I have none.

When I started, I set my 'Quit Date' for day seven, as I had 6 packs of ciggs left in the carton. I thought I would run out by then and that would be that. On day seven, I still had 2 packs left (which is really something for me). I noticed that smoking was not doing anything for me; no buzz; no satisfaction...not only that, they were starting to taste really bad. It took me from day 7 to day 12 to finish the rest of those 2 packs, and the only reason I smoked them was out of habit, and because hell, I paid for them. LOL.

I should mention too that I was not 'ready' to quit. I did not want to. I did it because I knew I needed to. I was concerned going into this because I figured it would be difficult, but it has been so amazingly simple and easy. The only side effects I have are very vivid dreams, which I kind of like.

I could seriously be a spokeswoman for this drug. It is a miracle.

I smoked for thirty years, I tried patches and gum, cold turkey (a real treat for all who graced my orbit), but all failed.

I went on chantix and after a week wasn't smoking, after two months I stopped taking the pills and haven't had a cigarette almost two years.

Chantix gave me awesome dreams, way better than nyquil (original formula)ones...I miss those, but not the butts.

Hang in there!! I quit on May 13!!  I am in Canada and used Champix (Chantix in United Stated)  I don't even think about a cigarette. You can do it!  If you really think you need that cigarette, go get the nicorette inhaler.

Best of luck to you.

I quit 15 months ago. I quit cold turkey...but I also had a reason, because I had just found out I was pregnant, so that might have given me a special reason to quit.

I chewed on gum, pens, whatever I could get my hands on. And yes, I gained weight (not just pg weight!) but it was only like five pounds, which is easy enough to exercise off. Drink LOTS of water. Keep your hands busy...I took up Sudoku puzzling :)

It has been 15 months and I don't MISS smoking. I don't like the smell of it on people who have been smoking, and I can't go into restaurants/bars that allow smoking because it makes me want to vomit. But I do get the longing sometimes when I see someone light up and that first puff...ah. But I am so much healthier now!!

I've also had friends that have used Chantix. It literally took being told I have cancer to quit for good. Lets hope you are able to quit before then.

Thank you so much too all of you.  I'm on hour 66 of cold turkey.  I'm doing okay but when I struggle I will have your advice to fall back on.

Quitting smoking is one of the hardest things I've ever done.  I used Chantix and it was amazing.   I didn't gain weight.

The worst days I managed five minutes at a time.  "I need to make it through the next five minutes, then I'll re-evaluate."  Then when I got a few days under my belt, there was no way I was going to start all over. 

For snacking, I kept fresh vegetables on hand.  I washed and cut up broccoli, cauliflower, peppers, carrots and cucumbers and put them in a huge bowl.  When I felt the urge, I grabbed some.  It satisfied my snacking urge and kept my hands busy. 

I also took it really easy on myself.  I read a lot and took bubble baths.  I got plenty of sleep and drank lots of water.  I was careful to avoid stressful situations if at all possible.    Be nice to yourself.

Good luck and hang in there.  Just think of how awesome you'll feel when you're over the hump!  (And you can go around bragging about it!)

Going into the hospital with chest pains (not a heart attack, thank goodness) was enough to get me to quit. 

It's hard.  I used the Nicoderm patches to quit.  I couldn't wear them at night because they gave me nightmares.  They really helped.

It does get better and as others said, hard candies and gum help.

But most important for me was that someone told me that if you can ignore the urge for 5 minutes it will subside.  Find something else to occupy your mind and really after a few minutes you won't even be thiking about it anymore. 

Yo - here's a link that a friend left in my journal comments yesterday.  I'm one month smoke-free and I basically did this method, but without reading this advice first.  I think it's right on.

I quit because my smoking was hurting my sister.  I think the best way to make tobacco unappealing is to think of the effects of your tobacco use on those who love you.

Try http://www.whyquit.com an awesome site about cold turkey quitting.

There are a ton of articles and specifically some that deal with food cravings and how you don't need to gain any weight.   Don't use any excuses to go back.  You have already completed the hardest part and it only gets EASIER from here.  If you have even one puff - you will have to start from square one.  Do not ingest any nicotine what-so-ever in ANY form.

The advice above to use snuss - it is totally WRONG!  Check out the above site and see the awful things that happen to snuss users as well as smokers.  Nicotine is nicotine and whether you smoke it, chew it, snuss it, it is BAD!  I quit using the above site over a year ago and I am FREE!

I would adjust your eating habits so that your daily intake is what it should be but that you are eating it little but often.

Good on you for going cold turkey when i do it i intend to take everything the Dr will give me.

I quit in March and I gained 8 pounds!  I did quit cold turkey and didn't really have any cravings for the nicotine...just food.  I miss it!  I guess I miss it mostly because my drive to work is 45 minutes and I get bored.  But I am healthier and I really do feel better about myself.  I am working on those extra 8 pounds!  At least when I exercise I am not huffing and puffing...as much!  Good luck!

FDA probe of Chantix

Food for thought.

Hey there...CONGRATULATIONS on quitting! Me and my husband quit exactly 2 weeks ago! I thought it was going to be a nightmare....turned out it wasn't! Have you read Allen Carr's Easy method! Anytime I think a cig. would be what I want I think about what he writes...easiest way for me is to read about how much big tobacco laughs about the billions  they make by killing people every year! I will NOT pay them anymore money to be happy over...

It is possible to quit smoking and not overeat but you have to keep yourself VERY busy all the time, as soon as you are idle cigs will come to mind again. I did quit for one year and then just started again, it helps with stress management.