Looking for FReeper Idea on Quitting Smoking

2/26/03 | myself

[realpatriot71]

As part of a small group project on "behavior changes", I've been asigned how to help a patient who wants to quit smoking, quit.

What I'm looking for here are ideas that you've used to quit smoking or people you know have used to quit smoking. Anything from cold-turkey, to patches/gum, and also any spiritual aspects like prayer/fasting. How well did it work, and dwere you or friends able to keep from not smoking in the future. How many attaempts were made. What would you have liked a treating physician to do, say, or listen to.

[Howlin]

Did Zyban make you DIZZY???

[johncatl]

Well first the person has to really want to quit.

I used hypnosis which helped to turn a craving into an urge. That first week after my first session was really rough. I searched under the car seat and underneath the sofa cushions looking for lost cigarettes and even picked through the butts in the ashtray. I probably had about ten cigarettes that whole week which was a lot better than a pack and a half a day.

After my second session I walked out feeling that I was a committed non-smoker. Although I still wanted to smoke, I felt that I has the upper hand. Every time I wanted to smoke (especially with a cup of coffee), I just took a deep breath , mentally said that I was a non-smoker and the urge would mitigate. Each day and each week became easier and easier. I never needed any more sessions to quit but would have taken as many sessions as I had to to quit.

It won't make you quit but I know it will help you to quit!

After 4+ years, I still want to smoke but I am a non-smoker so I don't.

Also, please don't turn into a holier-than-thou, anti-smoking Nazi. They're worse than any smoker ever could be and symptomatic of why we have so many problems in our society

Good luck - you can do it!

[Tacis]

Find a bar where several smokers who have had mechanical larynxes implanted drink and smoke. The sound of them talking should force him to quit.

I quit cold turkey in May, 1978. I had a terrible cold and smoking was actually painful.

For a rational person, the cold turkey decision is an obvious one. Take a piece of paper, draw a line down the center and on one side, write the reasons that speak for smoking (and, there are some, a smoke tasted good after a meal and the first one in the morning with a cup of coffee was a very effective laxative) and, on the other, the reasons that speak against. A rational thinker will be impressed by the overwhelming weight of things that speak against. A weak minded person, easily swayed by the will of others and incapable of deciding for himself will propably opt for continued addiction.

Heck, the cost savings, alone, should convince most people. Although, I do agree with you, some smokers are so stupid that they'll never learn.

[YOMO]

I tried patches for a while but I gave them up.
They were sticky and hard to light.

Most of my reasons for not quiting are those who would get in my face for smoking. I wish you well for wanting to quit on your own.
GOOD LUCK!

[ShadowDancer]

Quit smoking cigarettes and drinking at the same time? Might as well just shoot me now.

[Howlin]

I caught myself yelling at my son for no reason one day and decided I'd rather smoke than that

One time when I tried to quit, after about a week, my husband asked me exactly how much longer I would live if I quit smoking. I said maybe seven or eight (is that right -- can't remember now.)

He said, "Are they ALL going to be like this? If they are, let me go get you some cigarettes."

[katnip]

No, I was never dizzy on Zyban, just generally miserable.

It did take me 4 weeks of taking the Zyban before I quit though.

I got my doctor to extend the Zyban another 2 months.

[Masscon]

I have a friend in the "quit smoking business" he has given me some interesting tips.
1.The average smoker quits for good after six successful attempts(quitting for more than a few days).
2. The one year time is when many people restart. They belive that they can become casual smokers.
3. The best success rates are found by people who use a combination of behavior modification(hypnosis,prayer, stir sticks etc.) and a nicotine patch.
Good luck, I quit three packs/day in 1976. Sometimes it is good to be a quitter

[ShadowDancer]

I tried Zyban a few years ago and it made me horribly sleepy and zoned out.

[babaloo999]

I went "cold turkey". It took a few times, because I would quit for a few days or a week and then buy a pack and resume the habit.
But around Aug. 2001, I quit for good, but apparently I do not have the addiction gene in my system.
Maybe the people telling me that are just weaker willed when it comes to substance abuse. That's my guess.

[habs4ever]

I stopped when I dropped a friend who is a heavy smoker.I no longer wanted this person as a friend, and voila, once gone, so did the desire to smoke.This was after 8 yrs of a pack a day habit, and its been 22 mos free and clear since.

There could be other, more subtle reasons why some smoke, and not just addiction or pleasure.

[thedugal]

Going cold turkey is the best way in my opinion. I have quit and restarted a few times.

If your friends are Bush-haters this won't help, but if they are good Americans :) then you might mention the following. I was reading an article about Bush and around the same time a snippet of one of his great speaches came on the radio and the next paragraph of the article was about Bush's struggle with alcohol and tobacco. It stated that he realised it was a problem and quit cold turkey. That inspired me, and it might help others who recognise what a great leader Bush is.

[PatriotGames]

Quitting smoking is SO very easy. I quit at least 20 times a day.

Besides, any coward can quit smoking.

It takes a REAL MAN to live with the threat of lung cancer. :-)

[Burlem]

Last September I made 4 years without smoking. I came home from walking one day, totally out of breath, I sat down and lit a cigarette, thought "gee, this is stupid" I put it out and that was that. I did this even though my husband smokes and still does for that matter.
I have to digress a bit though, In 1987 I took a smoking cessation work shop called smoke stoppers, their method boasted of a 95% success rate. There was lots of talk, video, and hand-outs. I quit! I quit for two years and then started again, because I was stupid, I lit cigs for my husband when he was in a position not to be able to..and other stupid reasons, fast forward to that day I most-recently quit, I re-read the handouts of that class in 1987, I am convinced that was instrumental in my success this time, it was so easy, I mean my husband sat there and smoked.
I would recommend for anyone to check out that method. It is expensive but not in the long run whe you are no longer buying cigs.
http://www.smokestoppers.com

[wardaddy]

I went on a 27 day ocean sailing voyage with 2 non-smokers. I took one pack...that lasted a day. When we picked up some cokes from a Brasilian longliner and I saw ciggies, I did not ask for any. That was about it. I was about 30.

Six years later in a poker game, I asked a buddy for one of his Padron Churchill cigars. The rest is history. I smoke 2 La Gloria Cubana Charlemagnes or Soberanos everday....and an occasional big ring Cuban....Bolivar, Trinidad, Sancho Panza.....all other stogies are girly smokes for me. If it don't sting my nose....I don't want it.

Obviously, I don't inhale these mouth howitzers but if you do occasionally by accident..you'll know it. It's like a bad lung burn.

Anyhow...I love cigars. They have their own downside but it's a fraction of ciggies. Life ain't perfect. Enjoy. I'm 45 now, tall and relatively thin but I don't plan to live forever.

[knak]

LOL, that's how I felt. My husband wanted to know if I was ever going to get "in the mood" again. Needless to say he didn't like me while I was taking those either.

Did you kick the habit?

[guitfiddlist]

I quit 5 years ago and have not started again - other than smoking a cigarette like a cigar (without inhaling) - just for the ritual of it in a bar.

What worked the best for me is the gum. The reason is - I recognized that my cigarette intake rate varied wildly - depending on what I was doing. I smoked the least when doing physical activities - and the most when socializing and drinking. The patch just gives you a steady rate. The gum allows you to vary your nicotine intake - as you would vary your cigarette intake. Pop in more gum - or chew more vigorously. Worked like a charm (As in the third try). Actually, a lot more than that.

Quitting the gum afterward was easy - just a gradual lessening of gum usage over a week or so.

I cemented my behavioral change by joining the Y and exercising regularly. Everybody is different - but this was the least painful attempt I ever successfully pulled off.

[spectre]

I quit, by using the nicorette gum, over two years ago.

Of course, I still chew the gum, one for breakfast, after lunch, after dinner and in between if I get upset.

Most people trying to quit smoking, don't know when to stop eating (thus the weight gain) when it's really the nicotene they want to help digest or complete the meal.

I too, like the "rush"...grins.

[retiredtexan]

Just put them down. That is what I did 15 years ago.

[Hot Tabasco]

Quitting anything leaves a void and the best way to stop is to fill the void with something else.

I agree! I quit not smoking 35 years ago and filled the void with martinis. Never been happier since! Well, not exactly, I did get lucky once about 8 years ago......to bad she turned out to be a dimwit lib...