I'm quitting smoking tomorrow. Wish me luck!

YOU'RE GONNA NEED IT.

If you can give up for three days it's easy to stay a quitter. Just don't put yourself in the 'cheap cigs, what I'd really like is a joint but can't have one because nobody has any weed they'll part with, ahhh cigarettes!' situation or you will do like me and fall off the wagon like I did in Barçelona.

unfortunately this year has been unseasonably warm so far. shit.

best of luck chris v. here's what i do to stem the craving: squeeze the juice of half a lemon into about 400 ml of water, stir and down it in one sip. then smoke some pot. then do the lemon water thing again.

I have not felt healthier. I have not been less short of breath when running up stairs. I have not been able to taste my food better, and anyway I cook for myself mostly, so this would be a drawback anyway.

best of luck! i think patches are definitely the way to go. remember, if you smoke while you are using the patch you will DIE INSTANTLY!!! don't let anyone tell you otherwise

this thread reminds me of a favorite Frank Zappa story -- FZ tried to quit, but went back after a week or so. he claimed that after he stopped smoking, he noticed that everything smelled really bad. so he went back to smoking.

anyway, i agree with aaron -- when i've tried to quit, it was always the habit bit, not the nicotine bit, that got to me. anyway, i'm such an asshole that no-one notices any difference when i nic-fitted ;-p

i only lasted a month when i quit and was apparently a monster the entire time. was told when i started again that "you are the only person i know who not only looks happier but actually looks healthier with a cigarette in his hand" hope yours goes better.

(vividly, because i DIDN'T SMOKE, yay)

YAY

(Eaten: a LOT, including some eggnog cheesecake, but I'm underweight at the moment anyway so FUCK IT.)

I'm doing this entirely on my own -- sans gum, patch, book, etc. -- after having smoked steadily and medium-heavily for years. In case anyone was thinking about saying (for example) "w00t" but wasn't sure whether it was truly warranted.

Why did I ever smart smoking again? I mean, I know why I did, but it was a fucking retarded move and I am fucking angry at me and just angry...fudge off!

What is my fucking problem?

quit on 12/25/07

still can't believe I don't smoke 'cause I fuckin' like smoking but I've kinda been thru hell this year & I'm still smoke free

fuck yeah

So when I quit that job and gave up drinking, it was easy to ween myself off of cigarettes for the most part, and later to quit completely.

;_;

I'm still doing good about not smoking when I'm not at a bar... but I've been up at a bar five out of the last six nights.

I am talking to some natl cancer association 'cessation support' chat person & god they are pissing me off by being such ridic-ass Pollyanna cheerleader dipshit:

SM_118892 : Oh, for starters, the main reason I'm quitting is I don't have money for cigarettes. I've told myself I should quit for a while, and now that I am, I'm worried when I have more disposable income I'll just start smoking again.

SM_118892 : Also I feel a seething undercurrent of anger every moment of every day. (Today is day #2)

SM_118892 : Feeling guilty and retarded for ever having smoked in the first place.

Smoking Cessation Specialist : Well that’s great that you’ve been able to make it for two days without smoking! That shows you are very committed. Every step counts, and even though it may seem very difficult, you can quit for good.

Fucking A lady! Can't you say, "Wow, that must be tough" or something?

I want to call some hotline but now I am thinking they would be this nauseating, too.

I found last time I quit that instead of displacing all of my overwhelming self-loathing onto being a smoker, and my horrible trashy smoking ways...well, it had nowhere to go but actually loathing myself! Tra la la.

I'm srsly thinking of offering to a buddy to be surrogate mother for her so I will be forced not to fuck up someone else's baby.

And you should prolly quit a few months ahead of time, anyway.

Don't get down on yourself - its fucking hard to quit, man. Very.

Abbott are you white-knuckling it?

Yeah, pretty much.

Well, I don't know whether it'd work if you're already not smoking, but I read that Allen Carr book "The Easyway to Quit Smoking" on the recommendation of a friend. I smoked for about twenty-six years with a couple of year- or two-year breaks-with-periods-of-cheating prior to reading it. It is fucked up. He tells you to smoke while you read, insists that you not cut down as you read, etc. By about the 3/4 point of the book I wasn't smoking them all the way down and when he told me "go smoke your last cigarette now" I did.

I know this sounds like culty preaching but it really was like "oh, wow, cure."

hey j0hn

i just got done with the book. i quit about 2 weeks ago. but i have cheated. i think i have had 10 smokes in 2 weeks.

i really liked the book. but something still bothers me, like having a mental toothache or something. i worry i'm going to go back. i bought a pack yesterday and smoked two last night and two today, then i threw them in the dumpster...

was is just effortless for you like the book says?

probly sounds insane but when i quit for a while i actually found it easier having a couple of cigs on me than not at all - i put a rubber band round the pack so i'd always have to like, make the conscious decision every time i reached, and every time it then seemed too ridiculous to bother. when i didnt have any cigs they were literally all i could think about so i ended up backlashing hard.

im about 3.5 years away from my last smoke... chained for 10 years, pack a day. wasnt easy but if i could do anyone can. abbott be strong and dont be mad at yrself for relapsing, most everyone does!

quit on 12/25/07

still can't believe I don't smoke 'cause I fuckin' like smoking but I've kinda been thru hell this year & I'm still smoke free

fuck yeah

-- J0hn D., Thursday, July 24, 2008 9:48 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Link

year i quit smoke was one of the hardest of my life and not because of the no-smokes. still not sure how i made it thru.

Aargh.

So yeah, it's time to do this, starting tomorrow. After a solid 12 years of smoking it must come to an end, for all obvious reasons like health and money. And I'm very sensitive to the notion that I'm nothing more than a slave of the fucking gigantic tobacco corporations living off of me and keeping me addicted like a labrat.

So why does today feel like the last day on earth? I feel like I must write three novels, read all the books and poetry I still want to read and do everything else I still want to do in my life today. Because come tomorrow, I can't do anything anymore, right?
It's the creativity-drain I fear most. Which is obviously bullshit, I know all that, but knowing doesn't seem half the battle right now. And I won't even get into the waving goodbye of my smoker identity, the image attached to it, and the smoking attached to all those beautiful things and euphoric moments.

Abbott, are you still free of the cigs? Was it the sheer habit of it, or something like my worries about quitting that threw you back once?

I know I want to quit, that realisation is in my head somewhere. But it's shrinking to a stupid idea you wave away, fast. Like I said: Aaargh. I think I'll start writing those novels now...

I know I want to quit

Then quit. NOW. Not tomorrow, NOW.

So why does today feel like the last day on earth?

Because you KNOW. That makes it worse.

I suddenly decided: I'm out, I should go to the store to get new ones, but you know what, I'm stopping NOW, at this instance, immediately. I'm going to the pharmacy to get those Nicotine pills and I'm going to do what's in the manual that's in the package, I'm going to follow it to the letter.

That way, I surprised myself and I didn't have the situation where my final cigarettes tasted good/better because I knew they were going to be my last.

I'm not saying the effects were less, but this "I'm going to stop on day X and today is X minus 50" doesn't work. You're making it harder by doing that.

Good luck!

After 50+ years of smoking and several attempts to stop gradually, my mother finally managed it cold-turkey.

I indeed KNOW, but I won't drop it today. Today is for fear and trembling I guess, and for seeing how ridiculous this all really is. And perhaps also noticing how odd it really is to light up again and again. I'm gonna write some more as well later on, probably noticing that it does, and has always, annoyed me to see how I type slower when there's a cigarette between my fingers, yet have this notion that I draw (no pun intended) great creativity from it. I've got teh crazies, man.

StanM, thanks for the inspiring and supportive words. I need them and they are of great help. I'll post some updates as well the upcoming days, if only to re-read this thread and remind myself. That is, obviously, if I survive ;)

How many novels did you finish yesterday?
How many cigs have your started today?

Quit cold turkey 11 years ago this month. Last incidental cheat is about 7 years ago I think (they all tasted bad). There are still moments I miss it though..

Willem, didn't finish any novels (though I did write up a blog piece, after months of free-writing silence). And yeah, up till now I smoked three cigs today, and there will most likely be some more tonight. Which is a lot less than usual, but it's still not quitting, obviously.
I couldn't 'wake up' today, with stare-eyes and my mind dozing off, even in the middle of the line at the cash register.

But I'm not in despair yet. Today is a 'getting used to it'-day, fine. Tomorrow will be for reals.

you just gotta stop dude. easing off doesn't work because you'll always stop tomorrow.

^true. At least for me (not wrt quitting smoking, but rather wrt getting things started on occasion - another thing entirely). But I guess to each his own and maybe this is the way a drunken boat sets sail for that smoke-free island :)

Quit cold turkey 10 years ago this month! Second week seemed harder than the first, actually--the first week I was still all pumped up and motivated. Remained very hard to stay smoke free for a couple of months. But then it all just--went away. I still had the odd craving once in a while, but plenty easy to deny (and as with willem, the odd incidental cheat tasted nasty and made me unpleasantly lightheaded).

While it was distracting for a while--it took mental energy to keep on the smoke-free path, and perhaps I was somewhat less productive for a couple of weeks--on the balance there was no question that it was BY FAR the smartest thing I could possibly do. I mean, it is kind of a pretty good accomplishment in and of itself, to quit smoking!

Willem ;)

Quincie, good for you! Seeing it as the accomplishment it is can be a real stimulance to keep free of them, I gather. I'll keep that in mind.

And each to his own: yeah, that's true. But I've never (really) tried to quit smoking before, so I guess I'm still to find out just what my own is.

You can do it! You're stronger than this! (you'll need to tell yourself this, even though you'll want to feel sorry for yourself - but it's true, you can do it. We believe in you, do you believe in you?)

(I know, I felt ridiculous, like I was talking to a little child or a dog during my worst moments, but I just kept repeating these motivational things in my head and it somehow worked. "I AM stronger than this and I CAN stop" - read up on small tips & tricks people have for stopping: someone told me I needed to take a small bottle of water with me at all times. Every time you think about smoking, drink a little water and it'll pass. And it did. (for instance) )

If I wasn't breastfeeding, I'd be downstairs with my husband smoking. I fear the day I do quit breastfeeding. Maybe I should keep it up until she graduates from uni?

i thought he quit??

He quit breastfeeding so he could smoke again?

Hell, I'd start breastfeeding if it made me stop smoking! (if physically possible)

In all seriousness though, I know exactly what you mean StanM. I've always hated all that self-motivational crap. Knowing there are way more bad than good people who write those self-help books about whatnot, only strengthening my believe that 99% of them are nothing but utter frauds.
But I will have to tap into that "I think I can"-well of my own, if I find it not to be dried out already. Justifying smoking is like giving up smoking: the mind trickery works in very similar ways. I know I'll probably want to feel sorry for myself, or come up with an endless list of excuses as to why I can still light one up ("only one") etc.
But that just doesn't cut it anymore. And since I'm probably half delirious anyway after two days of non-smoking, I might as well tell myself anything that will get me through it. If it makes me, indeed, sound like a ten year old, then so be it. I'm not afraid of that. I'm more afraid of totally 'forgetting' to tell myself these things. But that's will power for ya, I guess. Tomorrow's d-day!

Good luck!

SS, for about a month. Even less I think. I'm astounded you remembered cause I had forgotten. :-)

Le Bateau Ivre, how are you doing?

"I did not have sexual relations with that cigarette."

Inhaled some smoke off of some stumps just now, shame on me, but that's all it was really, and wasn't all that. So quite nearly a smoke-free day. Which was... odd.
Part chagrin, part goofy, but in the end the day feels kind of wasted. A real 'nothing'-day, being weird and occupied by more than the occasional craving. My gf - who's quitting with me - seems to be bothered much less by this (although she's quit before, I must say).
Tomorrow is a day I'll be confronted with smoking again, workwise (not meaning I work at a tobacco company, rather meaning I have colleagues who smoke as well). There's really no telling how that will go, but I'm hoping I'll pull through. It still feels 'too close to call', if I'm to be honest.

My friend has been saying that he'll quit for the past three months now. You need to be militant about it or else you might as well shush. I agree with Le Bateau Ivre; fuck a self help book I think they only confuse you or attempt to turn you on to weirdo psuedo philosophy or a certain lifestyle. Just follow the medical guide.

Last one around 6am today, now dealing with residual hangover & cigarette urges.

Tempted to go buy a pack and start the Allen Carr method if I can find the book tomorrow.

Four and a half years since I quit and I find myself craving a cigarette. I made the mistake of having a wee cigar last week and since then I've been thinking about smoking every day. I've even started dreaming about it. It's possible I decided to have the cigar because I'd already subconsciously decided to try to get myself back on the ciggies.

Onimo, my dad after all these years (about 15 yrs?) still craves cigs now and again. Definitely dreams about smoking.

I smoke about four a day. I like to pretend that's not really smoking. heh

Oh dude, I'm so sorry. Please don't give in to the urge.

I was walking through the train station this morning and there were some people smoking outside. Something about the smells of the smoke and the train station activated some nostalgia circuit in my brain. I think that the train station must use the same floor cleaners as my elementary school or something.

For a few years after I quit, I thought I was totally free and clear, but it's becoming evident that being an ex-smoker is going to follow me the rest of my life.

I suppose its like being an alcoholic in that strict sense.

I am suprised I've never posted to this thread. I was a non smoker until I was at least 30 (occasional borrys aside). Somehow, and I really cant work out when or why or how, I became a close to pack a day smoker in the space of months.

I now don't even entertain the idea of quitting. It's ridculous, I realise on a logical level. But still.

In the space of months = in my early 30s, to make that clearer.