Hands up all smokers.

That's me for a start.

And I need to give up - again.

I started smoking at the time my abuse started at 11, it's natural to have a smoke after sex isn't it? :rolleyes:

Since then I have smoked more or less continuously except for about 8 years. Then I started on small cigars about 5 years ago and now smoke about 8 or 10 a day, although at weekends and in the evenings I rarely smoke and can go for hours without.

I think my smoking is more 'event' based than addicted, when I come to a natural pause in my job I smoke, stop for coffee - I smoke. It's as though I look for a reason to light up.

But I need to give up!

Dave

Who me!? *puff* *puff*

Aye, me too.


Of all my unhealthy habits, most of which i have either quit or atleast toned down to an acceptable level, the smoking is still with me in full force, its just so hard to quit! grrr..

I am proud of myself and all I have accomplished in changing and improving my lifestyle the last few years...

But those damn smokes...still have me...

I started in college and finally after I had been married about four years I quit....

The day my wife told me I wanted a divorce, i bought two bottles of wine and a pack of smokes...

And haven't quit since....

I have been working on figuring out what I need to do to quit again and make it the last time...

One of the most interesting things I have figured out is that I have always used smoking as a way to be alone and get away from everyone. I was never one to go with the smokers to smoke or other social times...

I allways go off by myself... I think there have been a lot of reasons for my doing this, but am learning that i don't need to smoke to be alone...

Sounds a lot simpler than it is...

and that "just one more" line of thought is pretty darn powerful...

Any successful quitters... any suggestions greatly appreciated...

brent.

Ashamed as I am to say it I still smoke, lots, started when I was 13 stealing my dads. I have given up twice for periods of three years. I hope to give up again for good, soon; I just keep putting it off. I used to like the idea that smoking might shorten my life, but that’s no longer the case.
Peter

Smoking is my scourge too, I started at 21yo, when i felt so low.

I really do think it is a filthy habit, yes, I hope I can stop it.

I suppose it is the child and dummy effect, a pacifier,

ste

I started smoking when I was about 17YO. One time, many years ago I had quit for 8 1/2 years. Then, I went to Europe for the first time and felt like an alcoholic at a bar. Everyone was smoking (England) and it drove me nuts. One day my wife and our friend went shopping at Knightsbridge and I was left home alone. I walked down to the corner store and bought a 1/2 pack of Marlboro lights (this was about 10 years ago and cigarettes were $4/pack THEN). I smoked the whole bloody thing in 3 hours! Then I was back to it full force at about a pack per day.

On December 27th, my wife's mother died from advanced emphysema complications. She was 40 days in the hospital and I watched as she laid there in agony unable to breathe. I watched as this woman who, at 85 years old, used to run circles around me as far as energy was concerned. The woman was unstoppable. As soon as they put her on O2, she started to deteriorate FAST. Her weight dropped to 85 pounds and she was too weak to even get up and sit in a chair. It was a bittersweet moment when we got "the call" from the hospital.... we were glad that she was out of her suffering - besides that, they had found a cancerous tumor on one lung.

In the meantime, my shrink had started me on Wellbutrin about 8 months earlier. This is the same medication that is in Zyban - the smoking cessation>

Three people I know have been to a hypnotist, with great success.

I'll make an appointment - soon.........

Dave

I quit (for the second time) about 10 years ago.

A guy I know gave me a bit of advice that was very helpful, so I'll try to pass it on.

What he shared that worked for him was to focus on the emotional content of the whole smoking thing.

For example, realizing that smoking surrounds us with a cloud of toxic smoke and gases, that is a very good way to keep others away from us. Why would we need that emotionally?

Another thought, holding a lighted, burning object in your hand in front of you might be a deterrent to someone approaching you. It might accidentally harm someone by burning them, like a child or your partner. Why would needing that type of defensive barrier be so important to you that you would risk hurting someone you love?

I could go on, but maybe you get the idea. And it's not that there are Yes of No answers to these questions.

The point is to engage the mind and spirit in an examination of the emotional needs that are being fulfilled by smoking.

That turns our thoughts from smoking the cigarette to get the immediate gratification to a deeper look at how we might find other ways to fulfil our needs. Or we could even realize that we no longer have those needs any more but are still hanging on to the mechanism, the smoking, out of habit.

Needless to say, smoking is addictive. But as an addictive substance, nicotine has an extremely short half life in the blood stream. It's designed that way to make us want to and feel like we have to have one cigarette after another, even when we really want to quit.

So, in about 24 hours or less, all the nicotine will be out of your system.

It is the emotional need to smoke that will last much longer than that and eventually force us back to smoking.

This approach really worked for me. I noticed that whenever I had a feeling........of any kind....happy, sad, bored, lonely, loving, glad, rejected, drunk, sober....any feeling provoked a strong desire to smoke.

I believe that is because there is such an incredibly strong link between smoking and emotional needs.

I think that we are actually "burning up" our emotions by smoking.....it's a lot easier than having to process them....messy things that they are.

But actually having the feelings has a lot less side effects like lung disease etc.

Hope this helps someone quit. I have also heard a lot of positive results from friends who attended Nicotine Anonymous groups, which use the 12 step methods.

Good luck to all. You'll be happier once you have quit; but you'll probably be unhappy for a while first!!!

Thanks,

Regards,

I used to say that but then I made the appointment. I haven't smoked in 3 months and I didn't have any cravings or anything. And I smoked a pack or more per day from the time I was 11 until I was 39!

sorry duplicate post :rolleyes:

Some questions...

anyone know anything about credentials for hypnotists....

Or what to look for if you want to try that route..

any other success stories?

I went to the guy who was recommended to me. I was scared but....

I guess I should have checked him out more but didn't.

If/when you start to quit a good way is to busy yourself with something when you get a craving. My cousin peeled oranges.

Nothing worked for me but a year of or so of telling myself that I had to quit. Just like telling myself I had stop certain behaviours. I have been quit this time for about 3 or 4 years. Made it 6 years once.

At least I know that if I ever smoke that first cigarette, I will be back to a pack a day within hours. That is how I stay quit. Never smoke that one cigarette, no matter how bad I want to, or feel I control my addiction. It is the same with every other negatice behaviour.

"YOU CAN'T HAVE JUST ONE!!!!"

dude - Peter Jennings died today -

cause - he was a smoker -

as soon as he was diagnosed even the Network
hinted there is not chance of survival for him -


and today he passed -

fyi

mark

Good luck to all the smokers trying to quit. Good advice here. I was like some of you guys who got started early. I was eight and inhaling like a champ, eh, chump.
I tried several times to quit, but the thing that did it for me, was when my, then, 4 year old daughter, who had just climbed up onto my lap as I held a cigarette. She had just come from her evening bath and her long, silky hair smelled so good. She turned to me and said, "Daddy when are you going to put that yucky thing out?"
Out of the mouths of babes, I thought.
That was 32 years ago, and I know if I hadn't quit, I would have been dead long ago.
Keep trying, guys. Most physicians can recommend a good hypnotherapist, and the other methods of that Welthingy drug and Nicorette stuff, anything, go for it. The thought process that Danny mentions ain't bad either, use them all.
Just don't gain the weight that I did. I'm finally getting a handle on that, now. Looking forward to lowered blood pressure and reduced need for blood sugar meds.
Geez, and then deal with the abuse issues, too.
Holy, moley what next?
Good luck to us all.

David

I was a smoker also. I gave it up 4 years ago. I gave it up cold turkey. I gave it up because I was starting my training as an acupuncture and decided that touching people with my hands smelling of smoke was not a good way to help people heal.

Since then I have done a workshop on hoe to help people quit smoking. Below I am giving the ideas that they showed us.

1. Most smoking is a reflex and not because we really need the nicotine. It is a safety mechanism. It is the first thing we do when we feel a little unsafe. So the first thing is to make it harder to get to the cigarettes. So, trying putting four elastic bands around your pack. This way to smoke you have to take each one off. This gives you more time to think about whether you really want the smoke or not. Also keep the lighter or matches in a different place than your smokes.

2. it is important to understand why we smoke. What are the reasons we light up. So, keep a diary of how you were feeling before you light up. Every cigarette you smoke you should write it in a journal along with what you were doing just before and any emotions that you were feeling when you lit up.

Once you have done these two techniques for two weeks you can start to see any patterns you have concerning smoking. What emotions trigger you to light up. And what actions make you feel insecure.

With this information you can start reducing you smoking and the stressful emotions that cause the smoking together. It is a process and it has to be your decision to stop. I have found that people who follow this come to one of 2 decisions. 1) they give up smoking because they see why the needed to smoke and reduced those problems

or

2) they decide that giving up smoking would be too hard.

Remember that the chemical dependency of smoking last for about one week. After that it is all mental. If you can prepare your self for the mental and emotional problems attached to giving up smoking you have a better chance of succeeding.

Good luck too all of you and if you need any more info feel free to pm me.

Jonathan

I didn't see the hypnotherapist in the end, but I did see one advertised in our local paper who claimed he could stop a roomful of smokers smoking all at the same time - for a considerable amount of money of course.

But I'm down to one cigar during the evening now, with no real cravings during the day.
I enjoy that one smoke though, and that's going to be the hard one.

Dave

Dave,

You're in great company. Helen Hays, stage and screen actress, said that she had one bad habit that was impossible to break, and that was her one cigarette in the evening with her glass of port!

Hats off to you for cutting back.

David

Interesting post and new forum I also smoke cigars and pipes sometimes it might be linked to how I feel and what my thoughts are right now still smoking 12 packs of cigars in a weeks time not including the pipe.I might just consider writing a journal of how I feel and what is causing the feelings or thoughts at the time I light up.

Well here goes. I started smoking when I was 7-8 years old. I did it to keep away the mosquitoes when outside on the ranch. Also at that time I discovered loco weed. IT was called that because when the cattle got into it they went bananas. Turns out it was marijuana growing wild. I did not know that at the time but I knew if you dried it out and made a smoke with it it sure made things a lot rosier.

I continued smoking through abuse and work. From 18-21 I did not smoke as I discovered Horse. But that is another story.

AT 36 I joined AA and when I was 45, i think, I walked away from cigarettes. I had tried to do it before with absolutely no sucess. But I finally, in my own mind realized that the damned things would kill me. When I thought about it that way I just quit. After about 5 weeks I was ok. The first 3 weeks had me going snaky but the urge left after about a5 weeks. I also realized that I was putting something really dirty and ugly into my mouth. DUH like I did not know about shit like that.

I encourage all of you to change the perspective on smoking and the way will be a lot easier.