reaaaaalllly need help

i didn't start smoking until the day i turned 21. smoked for 7 years and quit cold turkey. had babies and nursed until 2001- then i went out to dinner with friends and they offered me a cigarette. i've been smoking ever since. my husband does too, but we never ever do it around our 3 kids, they don't even know.

ok, i need to quit. my health is really bad with allergies and asthma. i am a fool! my lungs hurt when i inhale! please someone kick me in the guts and tell me what to do!

oh, tried chantix, and it altered my mood in a creepy way.

i have tmj so gum kinda hurts my jaws

and patches always seem to fall off?

help!

HI I really understand where you are coming from. I too was a late smoker, didnt start till I was 25. Quit  a couple of times here and there. I also quit using chantix, but ended up with vertigo very badly, but did stay smoke free for 7 months, then went out drinking with some school friends, u know the rest. I tried the patches, had nasty dreams with them, the gum gave me kanka sores, even tried anti depressants! I havent had a cigarette since Tuesday evening (the 6th) at 6:00pm, 12 days , 3 hours, 15 mins and 5 secs ago! But this is how I did it, I had to quit smoking because I was having problems with my breathing at night, 2 weeks before I quit smoking everytime I lite up a cigarette I would say out loud I am not a smoker, no matter who was there. Yeah I got some looks, then I would say this tastes awful, ( when I was almost done). Monday  evening, January 5th I decided this is the last pack of cigarettes I am going to buy . Told the cashier I wouldn't be in his store anymore for cigarettes. I quit cold turkey. I havent had a drag, nothing. I really made up my mind.

There is a wonderful site "whyquit.com" which I have been going to quite a bit.

I wish you luck with it, I do know how hard it is.

Liz

its an evil drug. im visiting this group and smoking the last cig in this pack all at the same time. i guess its like lizstang's strategy of announcing publicly that she isn't a smoker, while smoking. I believe that. I'm not a smoker. I'm a friggen addict. 

i quit cold turkey in feb 08, and although there were slips in there, i'd put it down and go back to being a breather. until december/january, when i started getting more serious about weight loss. now i quit every thursday or friday, and in the past two weeks, haven't made it 24 hours yet! gosh thats awful. 

so i think there is something about an "oral fixation" going on. i'm substituting nicotine for food, something to put in my mouth and give me sensation that isn't caloric. i hate this addiction. I loved all those months being smoke free. I started when I was 11, so i've smoked for more than 3/4 of my life. that makes me sad. 

i should know how to support myself not to smoke, but monkey mind gets in there, and says "just one more pack" and then i find myself pulling over at the gas station and buying "just one more pack." its crazy. i want to be free of this addiction again. 

i have to find the place in myself that has the strength to do it, and it does not need to have anything to do with my relationship to food. infact, i lost 6 lbs when i quit in feb without trying, so what gives now? i dont know. its a hard thing. 

and i do love the whyquit.com site as well. it made the difference last time round. i read it for the first three days non-stop. maybe this time round i should try to research the medical journals. my personal version of "cognitive-aversion therapy" (i just made that up, but it) seems to be one of my keys to success, inundating myself with too much information about how damaging this addiction is. 

Hang in there! I too am an addict!  I didn't put in my post how many times I also said this is my last pack, and found myself sneaking out to the gas station after everyone else was in bed.  It has been over 3 weeks now that I haven't had even a drag. It has been 3 weeks that have gone by that I have  thought about having a cigerattee probably every hour that I am awake, well thats not true, last night I even dreamed about finding a pack of cigarettes on the ground and lying to someone that they were mine just so I could have a cig., now how bad is that to start dreaming of the damn things? So yeah I do think about them 24/7 but I am stronger then the addiction, I WILL NOT Give in!  When I see someone smoking I say to myself "I am so glad I don't smoke, I don't want that horrible smoke going into my body", yup I say that every time. I still walk around and say I am not a smoker, smoking makes me feel bad. 

All I can say is good luck to you, hang in there. I do know how hard it is, and I do know you can only quit when YOU want to, or should I say YOU ARE READY to!

i bought the book by carr, the easy way to quit smoking. i've heard and read good things about it. hope it helps. i'll keep you posted. 

Best of luck to you! Keep in touch.

Liz

This is day 1 for me. I have had a hard time concentrating and have been overly sensitive to everything all day.

I have quit twice before for a year, but I always go back. I started again on my honeymoon this time after 3 smoke free months. I hate it and I just don't want to do it anymore, but it has been very hard. Reading that someone else has gone for 3 weeks is really helpful. 

 I started when I was 15 and I'm 29 now. I was smoking over 2 packs a day last time I quit. I was only up to a pack and a half this time. The patch has worked pretty well for me but I am also using wellbutrin. When I want to smoke, I tell myself that I deserve a healthy body and a long life. Hopefully, this is the last time I'll quit.

I wish you the best, I really hope you can make it this time, I understand the part about having a hard time concentrating. I told everyone that I had just quit smoking and my brain cells were ambushing my addictive(nicotine) cells so I couldn't concentrate as well to please bear with me, and the sensitive, ( I call it irritable) does go away after a few days.

Good luck with you and keep us all posted how u r doing.

Here are my Stats as of 6:32 this am:

Your Quit Date is: Tuesday, January 06, 2009 at 6:00:00 PM
Time Smoke-Free: 19 days, 12 hours, 20 minutes and 36 seconds
Cigarettes NOT smoked: 390
Lifetime Saved: 2 days, 23 hours
Money Saved: $106.00

That blows my mind to see the amount of Cigarettes I have not smoked!
Good luck!
Liz

i'm on day three and having a hard time keeping my calories under control. napping seems the best strategy. if im unconscious, i will not eat instead of smoking. and i will not smoke. 

i went running today. i'm basically crazy without being crazy. its very odd. it doesn't hurt, there is no pain, just this weird "i need to fill it up" feeling, which if i can get conscious of, perhaps i wont try to fill it up and can just hang out with it. but most of the day i feel like i want to climb out of my skin. the other part of the day, i can taste the nicotine being released from my gums. how gross is that? gross enough! 

Hello all,

    I feel the need to respond to this. I was a smoker for over 20 years....don't care to remember how many years beyond 20, cause then I have to realize how much damage I did to myself. So, after about 10 times trying to quit, I was finally able to do it 4 years ago. What a sense of accomplishment. However, I do not wish to preach...but offer suggestion for quitting.  I am a Nurse by trade. But while in school, I wrote a paper for potential publication regarding quitting smoking.. it goes something like this.

   If you had to dive into water that is unknown to you, or unfamiliar, would you prefer to dive from the highest point or wading into it from the shoreline? Great metaphor. So.... first is to analyze your smoking material.  What brand do you smoke, what is the tar content?  what is the nicotine content? How are you smoking the cigarettes? Are you deeply inhaling and dragging hard on them or just puffing? There are holes at the end of the cigarettes that are for introducing air into the cigarette as you smoke....do you cover those holes with your lips or with your fingers...thus crushing or occluding those holes?

   http://www.erowid.org/plants/tobacco/tobacco_ nic.shtml This link lets you analyze how much is in your cigarette. Find your brand......then finish smoking whatever your current brand is and the next packs you buy are going to be half the nicotine content of your favorite brand... it will feel difficult at first--- like you are not getting enough.... let it.. you will adjust after three days... then half it again..... smoke those for three days...then again....then again.... it takes about four "steps" to decrease enough that the withdrawal is tolerable to manage for most people. Yes, breaking an addiction is difficult and takes time. God Bless those who have been able to quit cold turkey... I never could when I tried.  a little trivia for ya... did you know that most of the major brands add caffeine into the tobacco so that it is "smoother" and dilates your airway more to get the smoke deeper?  Look at the link.

   Okay.. so now you need to look at HOW you smoke... Has ANYONE---EVER shown you or told you HOW you should smoke a cigarette? Ask your doctor...after all, a cigarette is a drug delivery device... He/She won't know. Be conscious of how you smoke... hold the cigarette above the holes... between the holes and the paper.  And put it to your lips just enough to drag on it.. not wrapping your lips around the cigarette. Manufacturer's have studied smoking habits and put the holes at a strategic location, so that you DO occlude the holes. Concentrate on how you smoke, then by the time you reach the lowest tar and nicotine content cigarettes (Carlton) you will be smoking the lowest tar and nicotine, and smoking so that the cigarette works with the holes to decrease the smoke.  Yes.. it will feel like sucking air.... but you are trying to quit to breath better anyway.  

    After decreasing all the way down, and watching how you smoke..  count how many you smoke per day..ON AVERAGE... some days are going to be more, some less...especially at first when you switch brands... then once you have settled in to adjusting to the lowest... start substituting one cigarette per day for 1 peppermint (or strongly flavored candy/mint/gum) instead of that ONE cigarette for that day.

    This process is not short... and takes patience and adapting.... but after studying success rates among all smoking cessation aids ( about 35% successfully quit for longer than one year) then adding in this method will hopefully increase the success rates.

     I wish ALL of you great success and you are in the right frame of mind and on the right track. YOU WILL SUCCEED........

God Bless

Mike

Hi, I smoked for 18 years and have just found success for past two years after trying everything with a combination of the patch and wellbutrin.  It is the best thing I've ever tried.  My twin sister quit with chantix but it only lasted a few months.  She tried to just quit with wellbutrin script and couldn't do it.  She finally took my advice and put the patch on with the wellbutrin and she hasn't smoked in 7 weeks now!  If you can, see your doctor and get a script for wellbutrin, take that for a few weeks before you want to quit, pick your quit date, day of quit date = chuck all your smokes and paraphanalia, and then put on the step one patch and drink lots of water for your oral fixation and I swear you can do it.  It is virtually painless.

hi, i have smoked for 23 yrs of my 38 yrs on this planet.  if you really want to STOP  then the Allen carr way is the only way to go, other ways sometimes work but usually through very hard effort.   Read the book, smoke while you read the book, re-read the book untill it makes sense. then stop. thats it!!  i have smoked 20-40 aday for the last 20 odd yrs of my life.  its worked for me!  But you must want to stop.  it works... no patches or gimmicks,  you just have to understand that nicotine is a DRUG and smokers are DRUG ADDICTS!!  You have never smoked a **** because you want to or enjoy it! Do yourself a favour in life ....  buy the book, go to the clinic...  it is that easy.  There is no such thing as a confirmed smoker!!! 

Hi everyone, I have to brag here......I posted here 76 days ago and I am still not smoking! Haven't had a drag, have been in a room with a couple of smokers and just have no desire. I know that once I light up just once I will be back to smoking, who wants that? I am a nicotine addict and know it! Ok just had to share my good work!

Here are my stats

Your Quit Date is: Tuesday, January 06, 2009 at 6:00:00 PM
Time Smoke-Free: 76 days, 12 hours, 47 minutes and 46 seconds
Cigarettes NOT smoked: 1531
Lifetime Saved: 11 days, 16 hours
Money Saved: $408.10

aww lizstang1 - noone replied to you! how are you going with it still? I am on day 4 and flying through it so far :) (second attempt, quit for 7 weeks a few months ago... yargh!)

 

 

Thank you retrovert!

I am doing very well! I did have a slip up July 4th, I had a cigarette, other then that I haven't had a cigarette since, my husband says I can't say I haven't smoked for 9 months, (Sept 5, it will be 9 months), but that was only one and I was a pack and 1/2 a day smoker, so yes I am saying, It will be 9 months next week!!

The chantix altered your mood--so........it's only for a month. I think Chantix really does work--the craving for a cig is just not there. Weigh the outcome---bad health forever or crabiness for a month!! Ahh...3 kids, graduations, weddings, grandchildren---versus sitting in your living room on oxygen!! If you had cancer and the Chemo made you sick, would you not do that either!   The easiest, fastest way is Chantix.

HI Vsy,

Haven't heard from you since January was wondering how you are doing with the smoking issue?, Saturday will be my 9 month anniversary! I did manage to quit cold turkey, and I understand the dilema of all the products you have tried to quit smoking with, I tried them all as well. Chantix does work for some, it did not work for me, I had vertigo so bad, my Doctor refused to put me back on it again, when I went back to him about a year later to get another prescription. Yes I had quit for 6 months, and went back to smoking.

I honestly don't think I could go back to smoking. Let us know how you are doing.

With Love and Light

Liz

 

 

Hi there,

  I am  31 and I quit smoking about 2 months ago. I will tell you it is NOT easy. When I quit, I bought the gum. I used it for 2 days and couldnt do it anymore, it gave me bad heartburn and made me nauseus. So after the 2 days on the gum, I didnt use anything. The weirdest thing that I experianced during the first week, was CRYING!! I was an emotional wreck. I cried if the wind blew the wrong way.

 The hardest time in the whole 2 months, for me, was weeks 3-5. I was over the nicotine addiction, but the mental habit of smoking was not yet broken. I had my worst cravings through that period of time. I found a way to help ease that though, I bought a pack of herbal cigs. They have no nicotine or addictive additives. I only smoked maybe 1 every day or two just when I had a really bad craving. I know some will say that is the wrong way to go, but those herbals really helped me.  Once the pack was done, I didnt need them anymore. They helped me get through a crucial span of time, where I could have easily bought a REAL pack of cigs, but didnt.

Now I have been smoke free for a little over 2 months, and I feel I will never go back to it.  Yes, I still have a craving once in a while, but I control it, it doesnt control me anymore.

I wish you the best of luck. Just remember that it will be hard. You can do it