Posted on 04/01/2009 11:47:55 PM PDT by borntobeagle
Have you wanted to quit smoking or you're just beginning your venture? If the taxes are enough to push you to the edge, you've just decided to make the change, or you have some history of smoking and quitting, we'd love to hear from you.
You can check out scoots969 page or we can even have a discussion here.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/bloggers/2218675/posts
It would be great if we could have a weekly thread, Either scoots969 or I will have to ask about that.
And remember, this isn't about preaching, it's about quitting.
I should say that I am on day one...trying to go cold turkey this time. My entire family has avoided me all evening.
This, by far, is the hardest thing I’ve ever tried to do.
Best of luck! If you can stand it you will have a month of hell and then you start to forget about it till you hardly ever even think about them.
After that incident I felt as though I could really relate to how a heroin addict must feel. Very embarrassing!!!
Just survive 72 hours. Sleep as much as possible and keep telling yourself that you only have to get through 72 hours. Count ‘em down if you have to!
After you hit hour 50 or so, you’ll be determined not to let all that suffering go to waste!
Then you get through the two week mark. It’s not as bad.
The danger zone comes between weeks 4 and 6. You actually forget about smoking and you have no more cigarette cravings. But you’ll get hit with bouts of the crazies out of nowhere.
Don’t give up! Punch through to week 8 and you’re home free! Remember, each phase is much easier than the last.
My advice is to keep fighting smoking and keep planning to quit and when that perfect inner moment arrives embrace it, embrace it hard and totally, determine that you have become a non smoker and don’t play any mental games, destroy your cigarettes, don’t tell anyone about it and when someone offers you a cigarette tell them no thanks, I don’t smoke, or if they know you and think that you do smoke then simply say no thanks.
If after a few days someone catches the change and asks you about it just tell them “look, I don’t smoke and I don’t want to get into it”.
Once you become a non smoker then all the mental games and inner conversations related to “quitting, I quit 3 days ago, I quit a month ago, I’m trying to quit, quitting is hard, I tried to quit but I just lost my job and my girlfriend, one won’t hurt me,this is a special occasion, I am so stressed now, etc, etc, etc” don’t happen.
After trying many, many times to quit a pack a day habit (for over 10 years) I ended up chewing that stupid nicotine gum for almost a year before I finally got over the whole habit of doing something every 45 minutes, not to mention the nicotine addiction. It was cheaper than smokes but still expensive.
It was long and slow but it worked and now, about six years later, I’ve had only ONE very mild craving. I never smoked again.
Hang in there, the addiction is different for everyone but even tough ones like mine can be licked.
Good luck, everyone.!
Thanks to you both. I guess it will be baby steps for right now. And yeah, the mind is very creative at finding reasons TO SMOKE.
I’m hoping that if this thread will help just a few people, it will be well worth it.
Federal Tax Raise = .62 cents
Kentucky Tax Raise = .35 cents
All official April 1st.
Place a loose fitting rubber band around one wrist. Whenever you think about smoking, snap the band once hard enough to sting. That sting will immediately take your mind off the cigarette urge.
wow that book has a five star rating with over 500 reviews. That might be worth looking into. Thanks!
Another great idea!!!
Yep - it is hard. I quit drinking too, and quiting smoking was a LOT harder.
I used the Cigarest thing. It sat in my desk drawer for about three years. (It said “only use this if you really want to quit smoking”).
The first thing you do is smoke at times you would not normally. Alarm goes off in the morning, and before getting out of bed or wiping the sleep out of your eyes you have a smoke. In the shower? Have a smoke. In the middle of a meal? Have a smoke. The idea was “YOU control your habit”.
After awhile of that they wean you off, some gum I think, maybe some pills. But - it worked for me. (Three packs of Camel straights a day, and a half tin of Copenhagen, or a half a pouch of RedMan if I was outside working). (Or sometimes drinking too much it would be Copenhagen AND a smoke at the same time!?)
That, and the fact that I didn’t quit for good. On my 80th birthday I get to start smoking again!!!
Good luck. And I also took the advice of a buddy who told me - “NEVER think that you can have ‘just one’.”
Have tried many times and thinking of tryimg again. While the money aspect is a small concern health is the biggie. Blessings and prayers to all giving it away.
Mel
Have tried many times and thinking of tryimg again. While the money aspect is a small concern health is the biggie. Blessings and prayers to all giving it away.
Mel
Good luck. Smoking cigarettes is ridiculous these days. It is slavery. It was not always this way. My father lived a long life despite smoking most of it. I could never do that. The older generations were stronger and could pull it off
“A wise man knows his limitations”
Cigars and pipes have more class. I’m a non smoker but like the smell of both. Cigarette smoke disgusts me though. I was with a smoking friend yesterday and could barely stand it. Life is too short to put up with it
LOL, Being a three pack a day smoker I used soft packs so that I could keep a pack in each sock along with the one in my shirt pocket. For a long time after I became a non smoker I would sometimes catch my hand going to my shirt pocket as I entered a party. It is amazing how much of it is truly habit, the meals, the coffee, the measure of minutes of time, the filling of the hands and gesturing, it seems like some left wing 1984ish nightmare once you drop out from it.
“....the filling of the hands and gesturing...”
Keep talking like that and I may start up again! Yes, that was part of the whole thing. No chance of me ever starting again though. On the news the other night they said here in the state of Washington, just the combined TAX on ONE pack of cigarettes would be $6 !!!??? Is that possible!? (It’s been 15 years since I last bought a pack).
LOL, and yes, I think it is about $6.00 here in California also.
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