Do You Have Any Tips On How To Stop Smoking

Sad to say, nothing, yet.

hey jd, i got 66 days up on my third attempt with a book by allen carr ("the easy way to stop smoking" i think) two years ago

the trick was to not smoke one ciggarette, the next one!

i'm about to attempt it again

are you contemplating the same?

Yes, I have to the ole lungs are givin out.

How much do you smoke, Joanne?

Many years ago, my mother gave up smoking just like it was nothing (after smoking for 40 or so years). She was remarkable woman in many ways. Unfortunately, I don't take after her. No will power whatsoever when it comes to this.

Good Luck. If you find a way, let us know.

About a pack a day. Less if I am working and have to go outside to smoke. More if I set at the computer all day. But I have averaged one pack a day since the day I started.

I gave up smoking 13 years ago, and I smoked 3 packs a day.

I psyched up for it about 8 mos. prior. I just decided I no longer wanted to be a smoker. It is a horrible habit, dirty, unhealthy, and controlling, that was the one that bothered me the most ... it was controlling me.

I was also becoming very inconvenient to smoke.

It was embarrassing when I went to a restaurant with a friend, I wanted the smoking section, my friends wanted non-smoking but humored me. That was difficult for me to swallow, but very giving on their end.

I wouldn't go to a movie because I couldn't smoke, and when driving with people who didn't smoke, they complained a lot, and I don't blame them at all.

Looking back on it, I'm embarrassed that I put my friends and family through so much discomfort.

I am thrilled that I no longer smoke, it was a big accomplishment. I would NEVER, EVER pick up a cigarette again, because it's MY CHOICE to be a non-smoker.

You all can do it too, it's just a matter of making up your mind and sticking to it.

You will feel better, healthier, no smoke smell in your house, or painted walls yellowing, your clothes will smell fresh and clean, your teeth won't have tartar on them, your skin will become clearer and you will lose that gray tone.

There's so much to be said for quitting, you have everything to gain and nothing to lose but all the negatives about it.

Someone once said to me, "you weren't born with a cigarette in your mouth!" ~ that's saying a lot!

Good luck, you can do it!

Hi, Joanne...

What worked for me was first, having bronchitis then pnumonia and not being able to, and secondly, the commercial where the response to the line, "It's my life" was, "You're right, it just might be".

Also, seeing what a biopsied smoker's lungs looked like compared to an non-smoker's lungs. YUCK!

Now, I'm allergic to cigarette smoke. Can't stand being around it.

I was a 3 pack a day smoker. Gave it up almost literally overnight. It was when you couldn't buy cigarettes on Sundays here - a friend of mine was seriously FREAKING out because she'd run out of cigarettes. FREAKING - crying, screaming, shaking. It was awful.

I took the pack I was working on - gave her the rest of my carton - finished my pack - drank a lot of tea for a week - that was pretty much it. Every couple of years I'll get a craving to smoke. Oddly, I'm still a chain smoker, so I'll buy a pack on a Sunday afternoon, smoke the pack, and then wait for another year or two to do it again.

In effect I quit close to 20 years ago. The first two weeks were rough, but then I was ready to get on with life. My lungs are in much better shape now - they'll never be 100% again - too much damage even before I was a smoker, but i can breathe.

In boot camp I will not be able to smoke. I intend to build on that momentum.

BTW I fully support the "next ciggie" theory.

The thought of throat cancer and the prospects of surgery and chemotherapy made me quit cold turkey. Never had cancer and never plan on it. I 'm living and eating HEALTHY.

b.

:wink:

It's not the hardest thing, I've ever done.

Burying someone I truly loved, was.

At the time I stopped, I was smoking 2+ packs/day and I had been smoking about 20 years.

COLD TURKEY, ALL THE WAY!

Misti, thank you for taking the time to list your issues certainly these good point will help me and give me food for thought when the craving starts.


Matrix500 I quite smoking once for 4 years and became allergic too. However when I started smoking again I quickly overcame the allergy, humans are amazingly adaptive.

Beth, when I quit smoking the first time I was in Montreal and could not bye smokes the day I ran out because of Canada's Sunday law.

CDK, what is the the

New Haven, actually I am the opposite. I used the death of a loved one as an excuse to start smoking again.

I am fond of telling how, after 40 plus years smoking, I realized one day that I had not taken a puff in at least three weeks. I guessed I'd quit, so I never picked up another. Truth is, people around the workplace tolerated me smoking but did not like it. This silent pressure probably went a long way toward my quitting. My wife still smokes about two packs in three days. I would be overjoyed if she quit, but I can't insist on it.

Still trying.

I´ll be stopping around the 5th of March.

Dear Joanne--The very best of luck to you! Remember-failing at quitting isn't failing-it's just practice! One day it will "take"!
I feel exactly as Misti does. I feel very liberated from a horrible, unheathful, costly addition. I also feel much,much healthier-I can breathe right down to the bottom of my lungs--what a revelation!
I smoked at least 2 packs a day (more when I went to "light" cigs) for about 40 years! Ugh! Have been off for 6 years now-a newbie compaired to people who have been off for 20 or more years, but...I finally got wise.
I stopped 3 times before finally stopping successfully the 4rth. It was the hardest thing I ever did.
The hints I can give you are not to feel sorry for yourself 'cause you can't smoke. Feel glad for yourself because you don't HAVE TO smoke.
And , the best tool I had-a book-Potatoes Not Prozac, by Kathleen Des Maisons. Kathleen is a psychologist who has made quite a career out of helping people quit their addictions. In Potatoes, she tells us how to produce our own serutanin, the feel-good stuff that cigs give us. It's not a psycho-babble book, it's essentially a way of eating.
And it WORKS!

Desire, nicoderm patches, and falling in love with a non smoker!

By the way, best of luck and you can do it, I know you can can! Oh Yeah