I've GOT to give up smoking

building_with_lego

You'll do it, eventually, because you know you have to,and because if your child grows up with you smoking they're far more likely to smoke when they're older.

Bafore you know it you'll have forgotten all about it

Allen Carr books- very interesting but don't expect it to do the trick all on its own. I found reading the section on Alcohol and Other Druge more useful than the smoking bit actually: he recommends that addicts stop smoking rather than deal with the drug as you very rarely meet a non- smoking alcoholic/ junkie.

Gum- worked for me but I was a half @rse d smoker by the end and had a really good reason to stop (I wanted a second child). Haven't smoked in over 4 years.

Patches- worked for OH but again he had a really good reason (DD was asking him too ) Hasn't smoked for almost 3 years; this from a man who declared "I will never stop smoking so never ask" during our courtship :rotfl:

Good luck- you WILL get there when you're ready!

Errata

Champix has the highest success rate for smoking cessation. Available on a prescription from GP's

Annisele

Tell your 12 year old that if they catch you smoking, they can have/do something that they really want but you'd never allow.

grey_lady

Theres a book by Gillian Riley about giving up smoking that I can recommend, its based on cognitive behavioural therapy techniques, for example - you need to recognise that lighting up or not lighting up is your choice, and you need to conciously outloud make that choice every single time you think about smoking -e.g. you can have a ciggie right now if you choose to, or you can choose not to smoke just for now and gain the benefit of not dying young from a horrible smoking related disease or whatever benefit you can think of.

Ive also heard good things about the nhs smoking cessastion services.

CRANKY40

If your child grows up with you smoking then they'd be lucky. My husband smoked roll ups because I'm asthmatic and they didn't irritate me as much as ordinary cigarettes. He wasn't a particularly heavy smoker either....yet he died when our son was four. He had blocked coronary arteries. Not lung cancer with a possibility of recovery, he just dropped dead. Please do your best to give up - my husband never wanted to as he said he enjoyed smoking. Our son is six now, and misses his daddy (as do I). Telling my son what had happened was the worst day of my life so far. I hope you manage to give up. Good luck!

colli

substituting cigs for something else (not a double decker though!) worked for me. I swapped the morning cig for a cup of green tea and had a few nuts or something thoughout the day when I would have smoked. Try to make sure you take the few minutes to do nothing as you would if you were smoking. Change your routine/go different routes/shops if at all possible and avoid smokers! Don't think after a while you've cracked it and one as a treat won't hurt, you'll be back smoking again in no time (I was the had to give up all over again)!

This is probably a better suggestion than mine though, brilliant!

Annisele wrote: »

Tell your 12 year old that if they catch you smoking, they can have/do something that they really want but you'd never allow.

Good luck, I know it's scary!

dundeedoll_2

Was going to PM, but will post in case anyone else who is wanting to stop is lurking.

cranky I am sat here in tears after reading your post. for you and your son.


Hi,
Well done on the decision to stop smoking - it will be the best decision you've made!
Here are some links for you to help.
The blood sugar one is very very important for you to read - it will be most helpful in the first few days.

http://whyquit.com/

is a site I've used a lot............scary, but does the job. Lots of stories on left hand side :eek:

And in the middle some links.............where I took the ones below from

Here's a little selection from there...........read right to the bottom of the links.

http://www.whyquit.com/joel/Joel_03_21_blood_sugar.html

http://www.whyquit.com/whyquit/LinksIWeight.html

http://www.whyquit.com/joel/Joel_Ind...ight_Gain.html

http://www.whyquit.com/joel/Joel_04_11_Smokers_Vow.html

http://whyquit.com/joel/Joel_04_16_just_one_puff.html

http://www.whyquit.com/whyquit/A_Thoughts.html

http://www.whyquit.com/whyquit/A_NicodemonsLies.html

Accept that you have given up nothing and taken up living.
By quitting you are not making any great sacrifice.
Any duration of time without nicotine is a gift......not a sacrifice.

Once your mind set switches from 'quitting' to 'having quit' the challenge lightens.
There is a difference between being in the process of quitting and having quit.
Just over 8 months ago I would never have thought it possible to go this long without.....I was worried about getting through the first morning.
Today it honestly takes no effort at all. I don't remember the last anything I would call a bad crave.

There is light at the end of the tunnel and it is different for everyone...........but the constant in this equation is that it is possible to live your life nicotine free.

All you have to do is decide you want to..................


And finally when I had a 'wobble' after a few weeks these were my thoughts:

If I decide to stay a non-smoker then there is a chance I MAY:

experience a craving which will last seconds........minutes at the most and cravings are NOT guaranteed!
That is the ONLY negative.

it is guaranteed:
i will feel so very very proud of myself
have less chance of any of the things below happening



If I decide to become a smoker again then there is a very high chance that it will: (in no particular order )

affect my sinuses (and the suffering is torture)
make me have a hacking cough
feel the cold more because of bad circulation
have a very negative effect on my teeth/gums and lead to loss of teeth
affect my skin
affect my lungs/breathing
increase my chances of cancer
increase my chances of suffering a stroke
increase my chances of suffering a heart attack
increase my chances of thrombosis
increase my chances of gangerine/amputation
force me to come off of my HRT patches

it is guaranteed it will:
cost me between £60 & £70 a month
make me and my clothes smell horrible
make me FREEZING when I have to stand outside to smoke
make me anxious having to worry about when and where I can smoke (was a secret smoker)
make me anxious having to think whether I've got enough/am running out
make me feel very disappointed with myself

JBD

I gave up smoking [up to 30 /day] 5 years ago. I used patches for about 8 weeks. I think it's important to develop some mental strategies eg when I want a cigarette I always imagine what a dirty full ashtray or a smoker smells like. I also accepted I can never smoke 'just one' ever again.
I have also made a pact with my 2nd son that neither of us will smoke in the future. Unfortunately my oldest still smokes, and I have to take some responsibility for not being a good role model.
I agree about drinking lots of water. It's very refreshing, and helps to stop nicotine withdrawal in the very early days.
Best of luck, it is so worth giving up, and not just for health reasons.

ailuro2

OK, so you say you've GOT to give up smoking but are starting to give up already. How about if you imagine it's someone you know and like, rather than imaging it's yourself, try and look at it from someone who doesn't HAVE to make the decision...there's nothing worse than being told you've GOT to so it. You need to WANT it.

Here's the scenario - You hear through the grapevine that an old mate from school has been told to give up smoking for health reasons, but is struggling to quit. Later on, you're attending outpatients and spot his teenage daughter standing outside the gates having a wee smoke before she goes into hospital to visit your old mate... well, you don't grudge her it, do you? She needs something to calm her nerves 'cos she hates going to hospitals, especially thw cardiac unit with all those machines. You have a wee chat, ask her how her Dad is, have a wee smoke with her...

Fast forward a couple of years, you walk past the old schoolmate's daughter lighting up outside the pub, you notice she still hasn't managed to kick the habit either, well it's got to be hard for her to give up when she's still getting over losing her Dad, isn't it?

Don't think it would never happen , that no-one would be stupid enough to carry on smoking when they saw their parent hooked up to those machines.

Yes, I was the teenage girl who was having a smoke on the way to the Cardiac unit to visit my father after he had his second heart attack ( he gave up smoking after the second one;)). I was that daughter who thought it was impossible to stop smoking because there was always something cropping up and making life too stressful. I watched my grandfather die of lung cancer but still started smoking. It happens.


After smoking from the age of 12 to almost 30, I stopped 11 years ago, when my daughter got to one year old.I know, it really is true what they say about ex-smokers - we're the worst for harping on about quitting, but I can wholeheartedly say it's the best decision I ever made... not because me and my OH stopped smoking and used the first year's money saved to go to Las Vegas and get married, not because we were able to get rid of the mortgage, not because we can afford to subsidise our daughter if she makes it to Uni... but because I didn't want my DD smoking on the way to the hospital like I did. I didn't do it for me, I did it for her, and no it wasn't easy, but it was do-able.


I stopped by using nicotine patches, yes they gave me some weird dreams, but the simple answer was not to wear them when I slept, and to slap one on as soon as I got up in the morning. My OH quit a couple of months after I did, he had already changed to smoking rollies and that was half the battle for him because there really did seem to be less chemicals in them.



Nowadays there are tonnes of things to help you quit. But I will always maintain that it is only love for someone else that will keep people stopped when it gets to the tough bits... 3 weeks in when you first venture out to the pub and really want a ciggie, and 3 or 4 months in when you've had a bit of a roll in the hay and really miss those post coital ciggies lying in bed...
after a while it all disappears and you realise one day that you're an ex-smoker and it dawns on you that smokers really do smell bad, and that you've not had to wash down the woodwork in the house for months, that you won't need to decorate as soon as you would have before.. but best of all you do something a bit strenuous and it doesn't take your breath away like it did before, even though you hadn't noticed the difference until you quit.

Hope this isn't too preachy, but if you've GOT to stop smoking, then find someone you really love and stop for them. When you do stop, feel free to shout from the rooftops that you're an ex smoker and proud that you did it, :j

eta I'll run and hide now, before the smokers turn up and tell me I'm not helping you one bit by being so negative.:( Good Luck

ailuro2

_martin's_projection_tool wrote:

After saving £21.73 a month for 6 years and 0 months,
you will have £1,729.69 in savings.

It's only a fiver a week, so not much.
I think 17 hundred quid would be a nice little housewarming present six years from now if your 12 year old grows up and ends up needing a deposit on a flat for Uni.

p.s. if you have insurances your premiums get cheaper once you've been stopped for a year. Martin says so.:money: