Craven and Bi-Polar Bear have inspired OCCOM BILL to finally

There you go Smog! Why not quit on Thursday, November 18th, 2004?

Thanks Soz... but it's no longer a big deal. Sometimes I go whole days without even thinking of a cigarettes now. I can smell the smoke if the person driving in front of me is smoking. ... and true to Fox's prediction... its starting to smell bad to me. There is no effort in not smoking now.

Edit= Fixed date.

Butbut, how can I quit on a date that has already passed?

Good goin' guys! 4 and 5 months already.
Noticing the stink is usually a good sign of "soooooo over this".

Thanks! I suppose it would be a good sign. Are you gonna try to get Set to give it a shot on Thursday?

Today's big news in England is the banning of smoking from restaurants and all pubs that serve food; the pub is the centre of the smoking culture and there is a big outcry.

They did that in Florida a while back... with the loop-hole that Taverns are exempt as long as receipts show greater booze sales than food. Suddenly everyone had a large "open air" dining area and bar. That "pubs that serve food" description is a little disturbing as it sounds like they're going to be banning food in some of the drunker hangouts. Drunks need food… not good.

I've always maintained that very few people go to pubs for their health. While I choose not to be around smoke any more than I need to be, I still strenuously oppose people not having the right to be so long as the product itself is a legal. But oh well.

Update on my nephew: as previously discussed he is a heavy smoker. When he was diagnosed with a brain tumor, it was speculated that it probably originated from somewhere else with the lungs being the most likely point of origin. Well the Ctscan was negative and the tumor itself turned out to be much smaller than originally thought and the lab report is also negative. So we had much to be especially grateful for this Thanksgiving.

So after this scare is he going to quit smoking? He's thinking about it.

Glad to hear you got some good news, Fox. I'm starting to think that the whole "quitting is hard" mantra is mostly a clever way for BIG TOBACCO to tell their customers it's okay to fail... and the Billion Dollar "Quitters Aid" market isn't going to help. Remember, THEY said it was impossible to run a mile in 4 minutes. It still isn't easy, but now lots of folks are doing it. Fast miles in Marathons are run in 4 minutes. Quitting smoking isn't exactly a four minute mile, either. There must be one hundred million members of that club. How tough could it be?

(Yikes, I've become a born again A-hole )

OB
OB, that's OK. You're our born again A-hole---and we overlook it.

BBB :wink:

Reminds me of how I used to get rid of telemarketers. I tell them my husband sells insurance and I just found the Lord.....do you have a minute? They thank me and hang up quickly. Would probably work if I told them I had just quit smoking or drinking or womething too.

I've followed perhaps more addicted persons than any of you.

It's an interesting and phascinating observation:
most, if not all, tell afterwards, how easy it has been and that, of course, everyone else should follow the way how they did it. (Alcoholics tell e.g. "you mustn't go in any other clinic than this one", same with those hwo were addicted to heroine, nicotics say ... )
:wink:

Well there are some things that are the same for everybody. Everybody who quits smoking for instance will still have the same powerful cravings and those who are able to train their mental and emotional response to treat them as temporary annoyances are going to succeed more than those who do not know to do that. Same with alcoholics - most who succeed know they must retrain their response to certain stimuli whether or not they know it in those specific terms.

Other than that, I agree Walter. It's somewhat different for everybody. I had one friend who went through 30-day in house treatment for alcholism seven times before it finally took. I have others who never had formal treatment or counseling but never took another drink after walking into their first AA meeting. Still others have managed to quit without either, though I doubt they had as much fun doing it.

There is no definite right or wrong way to quit smoking either. Once you've got it done, it seems easy enough as Obill just testified. I feel the same way when I was past the physical, emotional, and mental addiction of nicotine.

It doesn't feel so easy when you're going through the withdrawal and retraining though, and everybody has to find their own motivation and way to do that.

Thanks BBB!



I don't think it much matters what "method" you use. Fox is dead on. Accept that cravings are a hangover from something you used to do... or fail. I doubt there is a method that can eliminate the cravings themselves. I'm reminded of when an Iron-Man type athlete was at my house for a party and pointed to the weight room and said "I see you've got a weight set in there" with a teasing smile. I said "yep, any advice?" He said "Yep, use it."

Bill---you used the term A-hole! That was the word of the weekend. All those A-Hole holiday drivers......

Anyhoo....hope everyone had a safe and happy holiday weekend. Christmas is just around the corner.

And tomorrow marks the 3rd month of not smoking!

And the third month my husband has been "quitting". Bill, I too have become a born again A-Hole...I get on his case all the time now. I am worried about his health, blah blah blah, why can't he quit blah blah blah, he just needs to not have that cigarette and he will be on his way to not smoking blah blah blah. He will probably divorce me for nagging. :wink:

Three months, already? Good for you Kristie! It must be doubly tough living with a smoker. Well done!

Gold stars for Obill, Jer, and Kristie!!!

Does anybody else qualify?

Kristie, I chain smoked for a good two years after my husband quit. I tried not to do it around him but did smoke when on the computer so it was in the house. I am ashamed of that now, but as you and everybody else knows, nobody quits until that day they wake up and choose not to do it anymore. If threats of going to hell, loss of income, child abuse, failing health and/or death aren't sufficient to make people quit, it is unlikely nagging will do it.

My advice is to back off and do what we women do so well. So very subtely wrinkle your nose to express displeasure at the smoke smell....but don't use a disdainful expression - it should be pained and long suffering. Look concerned when appropriate. Suggest lots of nonsmoking activities--restaurants, movies, playing cards at non-smoking friends' houses, etc.

If you do this well, it could hasten that day he figures it's easier to be a non smoker than a smoker. Don't overdo it though or he'll catch on and interpret it as nagging.

Thanks for the stars Foxy :d

Congrats on 3-months Kristie! That's GREAT!!!

Laser treatment for smoking cessation
Quit for good
By Patricia Anstett
Knight Ridder Newspapers

New treatments can help smokers break the habit

DETROIT ?- Debbie Foerster hated her smoking habit so much that she never smoked inside her home, even though she lives alone. She smoked on the back porch. "I was a closet smoker, and thought no one knew, but everybody does,'' said Foerster, 35, a pack-a-day Virginia Slims smoker for 10 years. She washed out her ashtrays immediately and sprayed her car to rid it of smoke odors. "I'm quitting smoking because it's gross,'' Foerster says.

An organizational development manager for Ford Motor Corp., Foerster has tried to quit smoking a dozen times, only to pick up cigarettes within a day or two. "I help people make changes at work, but this was a change I was unable to do for myself.'' She tried "everything, from gum to patches to you name it,'' she says.

On Nov. 5, Foerster brought a firm will to quit to the New Beginnings Laser Institute in Huntington Woods, Mich. There, clinic owner Jayne Radford offers one-visit laser treatments for smoking cessation, for $295, and free booster treatments for life, if needed.

Radford's son, a chiropractor, runs a clinic branch in Grand Rapids, Mich. The mother and son are among the first to bring laser treatments more common in Canada to Michigan.

They decided to offer the treatments after Radford's husband, a three-pack-a-day smoker, got the treatments in Windsor, Ontario. He has not smoked since Dec. 27, 2002, she says.

The treatment is not federally approved. Patients sign forms to acknowledge they know they are part of a research study.

Radford says the treatments work. Most of the 400 people who have received treatments at her office since April no longer smoke, she says. The center follows patients at one-, three- and six- month intervals.

Foerster has gone nearly two weeks without a cigarette. "I'm actually doing good,'' she says. "I have not felt cravings like I did before'' with other quit methods, she says. "This time, I know I really don't want to be a smoker. All I can say is, thank you, God.''

She's among the minority of people who succeed in stopping smoking when they try. Quitting rates nationwide range from 10 percent to 30 percent.

Many try multiple times to quit.

There still are no good studies to help consumers know which approach assures their greatest chance of success. Most methods have not been compared.

But there are more programs and choices than ever to stop smoking, from telephone counseling to Internet message boards to medicines.

Smoking cessation campaigns now are year-round, not just the single day campaign for the Great American Smoke-Out, which was Nov. 18. More people stop smoking that day than any other, including New Year's Day, according to event sponsor the American Cancer Society.

Whatever approach you choose, the will to quit ?- not quitting to make someone else happy ?- is key, says Perry Bertolini, a respiratory therapist, and Dr. Safwan Badr, chief of pulmonary medicine at Harper University Hospital in Detroit.

Badr tells smokers their chance of developing heart disease, lung problems or lung cancer is inevitable with long-term smoking. "If you don't get one you get the other,'' he said. He and Bertolini also work on educating the next generation of adults about smoking by bringing a model of two pig lungs to local elementary schools. Fifth-grade students are their ideal target group.

To succeed, a person needs to combine counseling with other nicotine replacement products or Zyban, an antidepressant that helps reduce cravings after quitting, most doctors advise.

Quitting around the holidays is not a good idea, many experts say, because it's often harder to break the smoking habit if attending parties and holiday events. "The chances of going back to smoking are so high that it's far better to do it in January,'' says Dr. Arthur Weaver, a retired lung cancer surgeon who has taught smoking cessation approaches for 38 years.

Do a little homework. Set a quit date. And pick the method that suits you best.

Laser treatment:
http://www.tobacco.org/articles/category/cessation/?code=cessation&pattern=laser+treatment

For more information contact the American Lung Association, 800-586-4872; www.lungusa.org, or the American Cancer Society, 800-227-2345 or www.cancer.org.

A family member went to have one acupuncture session and hasn't smoked since.