I really want to quite smoking. I’ve been smoking for 26 years at a pack or 1.5 packs a day. Today was my quitting day. I made it 7 hours. Was dizzy, disorientated and thought about smoking almost every second. I’m smoking a cigarette now as I write this.
I don’t want to die from a smoking related disease. I have a lot more music work to do. Any tips from people that successfully quit smoking?
This is what others who have successfully quit have told me:
NEVER, NEVER, NEVER stop trying to quit. It may take 50 tries, but once you become committed to finding that way, you WILL succeed.
Try Chantix. (You can smoke for the first week while you adapt to the drug.)
Try the Patch.
Try Nicorette.
Reduce CAFFEINE intake. Ice-water, juice, milk, pop all taste terrible with a cigarette.
Try accupuncture.
Exercise.
Get a support group!
Keep TALKING – affirming you want to stop. Don’t
say you can’t or won’t, but you ARE!
Wishing you much ‘good luck’!
It works the same for anything in my life that I desperately need to change, from smoking, to practicing.
To stop smoking for good:
I have a thought that I recall–a “go-to” thought/memory that, once I recall, it stops the brain activity that drives me to go for the cigarette. Believe me, I really dug smoking. But finally, wanting to quit really badly. I ‘allowed’ the visual/thought to become more powerful than my actual desire to smoke. I actually gave this go-to thought control over other thoughts that would lure me to smoke. Also, I actually “click” away the obsessive-compulsive drive with a nod of the head. I know, this all sounds kindof wacky, but if you want me to go on, just ask. For now, I need to gather some sound effects for the show Peter Pan.
Good luck
Ellen – I’d be interested in hearing you expand on both the visualization technique (an example of a
‘go to’ memory) and ‘clicking’ away the drive.
Appreciated!
Best way for me was cold turkey. Was a 2 pack a day smoker Camel straights. Yellow fingers, teeth and my lungs hurt all the time. Done with it for 14 plus years now. Tar and nicotine is really one of the worst addictions known to man. We think we have it licked. And a single spiff (cig butt) has us back on the wagon again. This addiction is like alcoholism. An addict cannot take again that next smoke. I am generalizing but not that far off for most.
But if you are like at an Xtian retreat of some kind, the length of your stay could make the difference. The Holy Ghost presence will get you strength. You need strength.
It helps to understand a pure revulsion of the practice itself, of smoking. Smoking is a purely indulgent activity. It is oral and it is for that ‘zip’ you get over and over in your brain. Addiction is from that need for that ‘hit’ same as heroin or cocaine. As in all sin, indulgence is a spirit and an evil one. A rapist indulges. He has lust. He rapes.
The sanctified Christian struggles to forgo many flesh pleasures. Fasting and praying are also denying the flesh.
Struggle on and God bless.
Hi Connie! You always land on your feet – so you’re in Seattle now? The first writeup is a good one – it took me about 30 times to quit the first time. I used Chantix this last time, but with hormonal changes it messed me up a bit – now I’m having new cravings and it sucks! Just remember that each craving lasts about 3 minutes and you can wait it through – I can’t recommend using items with nicotine but some people have quit with the E (electronic) cigarette – I may try it if these cravings dont stop and yes I’ve been sneaking them now. Sucks! Miss you and you’re still as handsome as ever – too far away! Joyce
Wish there was an easy answer. If you really want to, you can.
This plan will take some time, but it will work.
Firstly, begin to manage your smoking. make the place you spend most of your time a smoke free zone. preferably, make your office, and your home smoke-free. take your smokes outside. So, you have to consciously do something, interrupt something to have a smoke. A smoke break.
One step at a time.
after you have made progress here, pick a time, some day, that you will quit.
After that day comes, just stop. If you feel the need for it, get one of the patch systems, or chantrix.
You have to make it a project, just like your music. Plan, and execute. Try to plan the cut-off for when you will have less stress, because stress makes it more difficult.
Don’t quit the smoke breaks. Just don’t smoke while you are taking them.
Go talk to someone, or sit outside and read, or something. Anything but smoke.
Good luck.
Get the book “The EasyWay to stop smoking.” by Allen Carr. I am not joking nor am I affiliated with them in any way. Check it out on amazon… it’s the only thing that ever worked for me, and it truly was easy.
On the somewhat lighter side of trying to quit smoking..
I read a story in this morning’s paper about an
orangutan who’s about to endure the pains of withdrawal –
http://www.ctvnews.ca/health/cigarette-smoking-orangutan-forced-to-go-cold-turkey-1.868722
Excerpt(s):
The Associated Press
Published Friday, Jul. 6, 2012 2:07PM EDT
JAKARTA, Indonesia — Tori is a teenager with a bad habit. The 15-year-old orangutan has been smoking cigarettes at an Indonesian zoo for a decade, but she’s about to go cold turkey.
..A mesh cover will initially be placed over Tori’s cage, and later she will be moved to a small island away from the public, he said.
Wondered if they have room in that cage for me!
“Allen Carr’s Easy Way To Stop Smoking”
I finished this book yesterday, ripped the “patch” off my arm, and started laughing.
Allen Carr insists you smoke right up until the last page of his book. Readers become so excited by what he tells them, that thousands report staying up all night to finish the book because they KNOW they’ll never smoke again when they’re done.
OH HOW SMOKERS HAVE BEEN BRAIN-WASHED AND LIED TO!
Smokers take heart, because Allen Carr utterly destroys the myths we’ve been force-fed, undoes the brain-washing, and will have you smoke-free with relatively NO withdrawal symptoms. The gift of a life-time. God bless you, Allen Carr.