The Giving Up Smoking Thread!!

in_debt_again_but_dealing_with_it

"..Almost turning everything into a crisis so I feel the "need" for a cigarette and can "justify" it if I do. Like at work, no milk for coffee, oh no disaster quick go buy fags it will make you feel better - ha,ha .... not quite that extreeme but you get the picture! Thankfully I'm wise to the ways of Mr Nick O'Teen and will battle him from every angle - this war I will win!!! Good luck all.
IDA
x"

Found this from my second quit day back in June, thought it may help some of the new quitters and reassure you that we all felt "the fear" but have gone on to feel "the freedom" and you can too! Well done to you all.

Remember take its second, minute, hour, day etc as it comes and every step is an achievement!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR.

love and hugs
IDA
xx

Beccatje

HAPPY NEWYEAR everybody!!

I hope you all had a great time celebrating.

Welcome to all the new non smokers here! And all the 'older' non smokers too ofcourse!

I've got 2 days until I hit my 4 months smoke free mark and I am SO happy!

I feel so much better!!

Will try to offer lots of support here for those who need it. I found this time around (quitting) that it made all the difference.

Remember that the first 72 hours are the worst, and you'll feel much much better after that! Keep a positive mind and keep busy during the moments of craving. AND come and leave messages here!

Have a great day everybody, and Wishsing you all the best for 2008.

Becca

Beccatje

Diamond78 wrote: »

How am i going to cope when Im stressed and annoyed? When ppl annoy me what can I do as I am use to lighting up...I have so many problems and stresses and not sure how to work round those problems and triggers. I know I shouldnt let ppl get to me especially my sons grandmother who is my ex's mum,she really knows how to wind me up but im determined not to let her get the better of me. She really upsets my 5 year old son,I really want to ring her and speak my mind but if i do i know i will want a cig so im not. I have told my son not to allow me to buy cigs but hes only young bless him, he will be 6 soon, he doesnt know just how hard it is but i will do it for my son and think of disneyparis and my driving lessons.Well done to everyone that has managed to stay off these nasty little sticks that are poisoning us

My dear Diamond78,
Please don't be so hard on yourself!
Be nice to you!

You are a star! You are making a real effort to crack this addiction! That alone is reason for praise. Be proud of yourself for that!

Let me give you something to think about though.
When you are stressed, and you light a smoke, does it solve your problem? Are your ex-inlaws suddenly nicer to you and your son because you smoked?

They are not!

When you are facing a situation that is stressful, that cigarette will not make the stress go away. In fact, as you are wanting to stop, they are making you feel WORSE! Your stress levels are rising even higher! Because on top of feeling stressed over the situation, you are also feeling guilty for smoking. You are adding feelings of failure, weakness and guilt on top of your 'normal' stress levels!

When you are NOT smoking, you will maybe have a little craving at a time of stress, but you can replace that immediately with the thought that you can be proud of you!.. Tell yourself: "I am stressed because of ..... but at least I don't have to smoke anymore! I am proud of me!"

The feeling of relief and pride will easily overpower the craving for a ciggy and you'll feel much better about yourself! YOu'll probable learn to deal with the stress a lot better too because of your improved self esteem.

I wish you all the best! You can do it! I know you can!

Becca

yellowmonkey

Beccatje wrote: »

My dear Diamond78,
Please don't be so hard on yourself!
Be nice to you!

You are a star! You are making a real effort to crack this addiction! That alone is reason for praise. Be proud of yourself for that!

Let me give you something to think about though.
When you are stressed, and you light a smoke, does it solve your problem? Are your ex-inlaws suddenly nicer to you and your son because you smoked?

They are not!

When you are facing a situation that is stressful, that cigarette will not make the stress go away. In fact, as you are wanting to stop, they are making you feel WORSE! Your stress levels are rising even higher! Because on top of feeling stressed over the situation, you are also feeling guilty for smoking. You are adding feelings of failure, weakness and guilt on top of your 'normal' stress levels!

When you are NOT smoking, you will maybe have a little craving at a time of stress, but you can replace that immediately with the thought that you can be proud of you!.. Tell yourself: "I am stressed because of ..... but at least I don't have to smoke anymore! I am proud of me!"

The feeling of relief and pride will easily overpower the craving for a ciggy and you'll feel much better about yourself! YOu'll probable learn to deal with the stress a lot better too because of your improved self esteem.

I wish you all the best! You can do it! I know you can!

Becca

Spot on :T :T :T :T :T . Well said Beccatje

ym

Frugaldom

melbury wrote: »

Sadly the money isn't an incentive because it only costs me about £4 per week for my baccy, if that. It is purely for myself and health. But I am really suffering over this holiday period with all of the drink about.

If you called it £200 to £250 a year and then set yourself a target date to do something else with the full amount, no matter how stupid, how marvelous or how daring, then you'll know just how much your health, your self and your money money mean to you. If the money really does mean nothing, then go for a walk into town and hand out £4 worth of 20p pieces, or set fire to a £5 note - see how you feel seeing it disappear. Or for health reasons you could walk to the nearest donations point (shop with a donations can on counter) and drop each pound in there.

I do see where you're coming from, though. I think there is a general problem with deciding IF you want to stop, but it's easy to decide on a date once you know for sure stopping is what you really want to do. When I started smoking after having stopped for a couple of years it was as though I hadn't been away from it and the one main reason for starting again was more of a what the heck? I need some form of money wasting pleasure or hobby and this is all I can afford right now. I know the psychology behind it is crazy, but it's the exact same as any other 'dangerous sport' or hobby. You are risking your own life, possibly the lives of others and are getting some enjoyment out of it. I want my jollies elsewhere in 2008, that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it

I came back to correct my double typo but decided to leave it like that! Money, money, so good they named it twice... Neil Diamond would be proud of me! Oh! That was New York, New York! Ach, no matter, same difference when you're in Scotland! :rotfl:

melbury

Just popped by to see how everyone is doing. I have just got through another festive lunch with drinks, without smoking.

This has certainly been the most testing time ever to have given up, normally the second I finish my meal out come the cigs to accompany wine. If I am honest these are the ones I am really missing, cigs and drinks just go together so well. But heck I have managed to get through the last six days without a single puff, so it should be easier from now on. Going back to work tomorrow should be really easy as I only ever smoked one in the morning and one in the afternoon there (outside alone in the cold!), it was always at home that I did my serious smoking.

So please take heart everyone, if I can do it, anyone can. Also I think it is stupid to throw all of your cigs away and get rid of everything. If you seriously want to stop you will and chucking it all away just makes you want it more.

Frugaldom

Well done Melbury! Oh beggars!!! I need to go back downstairs to what used to be the smoking room and rescue dinner now! I had to finish off my cigs before quitting because I seriously would have forgotten I was stopping and would have lit one up had it been there, It's their not being there than reminds me

melbury

nykmedia wrote: »

If you called it £200 to £250 a year and then set yourself a target date to do something else with the full amount, no matter how stupid, how marvelous or how daring, then you'll know just how much your health, your self and your money money mean to you. If the money really does mean nothing, then go for a walk into town and hand out £4 worth of 20p pieces, or set fire to a £5 note - see how you feel seeing it disappear. Or for health reasons you could walk to the nearest donations point (shop with a donations can on counter) and drop each pound in there.

I do see where you're coming from, though. I think there is a general problem with deciding IF you want to stop, but it's easy to decide on a date once you know for sure stopping is what you really want to do. When I started smoking after having stopped for a couple of years it was as though I hadn't been away from it and the one main reason for starting again was more of a what the heck? I need some form of money wasting pleasure or hobby and this is all I can afford right now. I know the psychology behind it is crazy, but it's the exact same as any other 'dangerous sport' or hobby. You are risking your own life, possibly the lives of others and are getting some enjoyment out of it. I want my jollies elsewhere in 2008, that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it

I came back to correct my double typo but decided to leave it like that! Money, money, so good they named it twice... Neil Diamond would be proud of me! Oh! That was New York, New York! Ach, no matter, same difference when you're in Scotland! :rotfl:

I hear where you are coming from but I was just trying to make the point that unlike most people on here I am not spending £5 plus on a packet of cigs every day. In fact on working it out more carefully, I think it was costing me more in the region of £3 per week to smoke, which in the grand scheme of things is really nothing at all. So cost was not the motivation to stop, but my health was. If you actually think about it for a moment, it really should be the health issue that motivates people to stop more than the money aspect.

JoeHel

Happy New Year everyone!!

I do agree that money isn't always a massive motivating factor (even for someone like me who was smoking 30 a day at £5 a pack :eek: ) If you've got the money to smoke, you don't think about what else you could be spending it on. Mind you, you soon notice how much longer the cash in your purse/wallet lasts!!

I completely agree with Becca's view on the "stress" thing - absolutely spot on. While you smoke you think that your little ciggies are helping calm you down when you feel stressed. It's only when you quit and get nicotine out of your system that you realise how much of that stressed-out feeling was actually withdrawal pangs as your body craved it's next ciggie! Once you get yourself free of nicotine, normal "stressful" situations are so much easier to deal with. My worst nightmare is going to the dentist and I've done that twice since I quit. The whole experience was MUCH less stressful now I've quit.

You also get an amazing boost of confidence when you quit and that extra confidence helps you deal with stressful situations better too.

Diamond78, I guarantee you that when you get your body free of nicotine you will find EVERYTHING easier including dealing with your in-laws! The additional stress of feeling guilty about not letting your son down must be horrendous. In just 3 days that could all be gone. You are panicking about how you will deal with stressful situations once you've quit, but you probably don't remember that you used to deal with them perfectly well before you started smoking! I found the following quote on WhyQuit.com written by the site's founder, Joel. I think it explains really well the body-chemistry side of what happens when a person is stressed.

"When a person encounters stress, it has a physiological effect causing acidification of urine. In a non-active tobacco user urine acidity has no real perceivable effect. It is something that internally happens and they don’t know it, and actually, probably don’t care to know. Nicotine users are more complex. When a person maintaining any level of nicotine in their body encounters stress, the urine acidifies and this process causes nicotine to be pulled from the blood stream, not even becoming metabolized, and into the urinary bladder. This then in fact drops the brain supply of nicotine, throwing the smoker into drug withdrawal. Now they are really churning inside, not just from the initial stress, but also from the withdrawal effect itself. Interesting enough, even if the stress is resolved, the smoker generally is still not going to feel good. The withdrawal doesn’t ease up by the conflict resolution, only by re-administration of nicotine, or, even better, riding out the withdrawal for 72 hours totally eradicating nicotine via excretion from the body of metabolizing it into bi-products which don’t cause withdrawal. Most of the time, the active smoker more often uses the first method to alleviate withdrawal, taking another cigarette. While it calms them down for the moment, its effect is short lived, basically having to be redone ever 20 minutes to half hour for the rest of the smokers life to permanently stave off the symptoms."

melbury

I used to get stressed going the dentist not because of anything he might do, but because he spent the whole time nagging me about the evils of smoking and how all smokers should be shot!

I always asked him to clean the tar stains off the back of my teeth to which he always said, if they were on the front I bet you wouldn't smoke at all - and of course he was right.

So now I can go and plead for an extra special cleaning session and hopefully (but very doubtfully) get a pat on the back for being good and stopping.:j