The Giving Up Smoking Thread!!

yellowmonkey

Hi and good morning.

Still going strong (5 weeks and 3 days now). No urges but have had a cold since xmas day and even had last night off from work as I felt so rough. First time in 3 years.
Still no urges and giving up drink as well for Jan. Glad to see everyone is doing OK and all the best

ym

TNG

Morning all - hope we are all well (or getting better in monkey's case )

Toi add to JoeHel's ever wise words......

Because the association is made that the cigarette relieves stress (even if it is only the stress caused by the previous cigarette), the brain then sees this as a survival technique. So one of the big reasons people give for not stopping is "I'll stop when I'm less stressed", meaning that they never will because they will always be stressed and the only way the (subconcious) brain knows to relieve that stress is....... yup.

Once you understand that, REALLY understand it, it makes it so much easier to stop. This is what Allen Carr and Neil Casey do. They try to explain it clearly enough for you to understand. I didn't for SOOOOOO long, but now I see it so clearly that I want to sit every smoker down and talk to them until they understand it too

I'll leave it there, otherwise I'll end up with a JoeHel sized post :cool:

Stay strong, all those who are not having a great day, it WILL get better. It's the only way it can go if you don't smoke. Up.

BrickingIt

melbury wrote: »

Talking about Babel, I am waiting for that to arrive from Amazon in the next couple of days - is it terrible or something? Is it bad enough to drive me back to smoking?

Its absolutely terrible, one of the worst films I have ever seen, if Amazon lose it in the post they are doing you a favour, you sit there for hours thinking ok whens the film going to start proper, then the closing titles appear.

The people in the film just do really silly things aswell, its like the scriptwriters thought this is really boring and theres no real story line or connection between the four stories, so lets get someone to do something stupid to make up for the incredibly bad storyline. It also gets really Bizarre at times, especially the Japanesse storyline, an absolute mess.

melbury

BrickingIt wrote: »

Its absolutely terrible, one of the worst films I have ever seen, if Amazon lose it in the post they are doing you a favour, you sit there for hours thinking ok whens the film going to start proper, then the closing titles appear.

The people in the film just do really silly things aswell, its like the scriptwriters thought this is really boring and theres no real story line or connection between the four stories, so lets get someone to do something stupid to make up for the incredibly bad storyline. It also gets really Bizarre at times, especially the Japanesse storyline, an absolute mess.

They didn't lose it in the post, it arrived this morning and now I am going to have to watch it (because I chose it!). I thought it sounded quite good from the write up, but just goes to show. I won't even be able to relieve the boredom with a cigarette!

How is the non smoking going Bricky?

MJay

Hi y'all!

Like Oops a daisy, now completing 6th day..... The cravings come and go but are much more a challenge late evening..... Apart from that, feeling sort of OK but a dreaded virus has kept me housebound and I think that has helped! Turned down two social events last weekend as I knew I would be with friends who smoke and couldn't trust myself...... Had to stop reading Joehel's description of first fag, second fag etc as my cravings crawled all over my forehead shouting "Go to the 24 hour garage".... Gulp.... Could this mean I have to become housebound to become smoke free?

Running short of milk so will have to brace myself and go outside tomorrow..... Send out the force, good buddies!

M

oops_a_daisy

May the force be with you Mjay

I hope you feel stronger today when you go out for the milk. Sounds like you went through a particularily bad craving - well done on not caving in. When I have quitted before I have stopped going out or avoided smoking situations just for a short while till I had gotten over the addiction side. I was going to offer to babysit for a friend of mine but then I remembered that they both smoke and I am just not that strong yet I dont know how people do it when they are in the same house as a smoker while they are trying to pack in - I just wouldnt have the will power.
Well its day 8 for me today and my patch/crutch is firmly in place. I was reading the instructions on the pack of patches and noticed that it mentioned about one of the side effects being stomach cramps - just mentioned it as somebody on here said that they were suffering from stomach cramps the other day ( cant remember who it was though )
Have a good day everybody :hello:

JoeHel

MJay wrote: »

Had to stop reading Joehel's description of first fag, second fag etc as my cravings crawled all over my forehead shouting "Go to the 24 hour garage".... Gulp.... Could this mean I have to become housebound to become smoke free?

HEH. Only on this thread could I describe how drug addiction draws you back in to the pit and someone thinks it sounds like an attractive proposition...

Hang on in there MJay you are doing so well. You are nearly at a week!! The thing that made my quit so easy was reading about what was going on in my body and understanding it properly. On WhyQuit.com there is a section where there is information for every day of the first two weeks of your quit. I am going to try and find it now and post a link at the bottom of this message.

If you have any cravings now they will NOT be for nicotine. It is far more likely that the healing process in your body is causing low blood sugar. Are you eating properly/regularly? Trouble is, when we've smoked for a long time we interpret ANY little strange feeling in our body as a cry for our old drug! It might not feel like it, but you have got through the toughtest bit already WELL DONE YOU!!!

I live with 2 smokers and my 2 main social groups are all smokers too. I promise you it's not impossible to still enjoy going out and socialising with smoking friends. I only quit 2 months ago but I have been out drinking with all of them and not been tempted to smoke even one puff.

You might find this guide to "Glory Week" (i.e. first week quit) a help...

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

Boatie_Bird

Hello fellow quitters!
I hope you don't mind me crashing this thread.
I have posted on here before - I think it was the middle of last year - but I fell off the waggon and started smoking again.
I put out my last cig at about 10pm last night and I'm determined to never smoke another as long as I live.
I'm going cold turkey but I do have a pack of nicotine lozenges in my bag for emergencies - better a lozenge than a fag I say!

I was encouraged by the BBC news this morning where they were saying that small things like stopping smoking can give you an extra 14 years of life, and who woldn't want that?

TNG

Boatie_Bird wrote: »

Hello fellow quitters!
I hope you don't mind me crashing this thread.
I have posted on here before - I think it was the middle of last year - but I fell off the waggon and started smoking again.
I put out my last cig at about 10pm last night and I'm determined to never smoke another as long as I live.
I'm going cold turkey but I do have a pack of nicotine lozenges in my bag for emergencies - better a lozenge than a fag I say!

I was encouraged by the BBC news this morning where they were saying that small things like stopping smoking can give you an extra 14 years of life, and who woldn't want that?

Hiya Boatie, welcome back! :wave:

Boatie_Bird

Hi TNG, thanks for the welcome.
Looking at your signature tells me it was around July/August when my previous attempt failed.
I'm dead impressed that you haven't smoked, it's nice to know that it can be done.
I'm feeling OK at the moment - I'm in that 'high on oxygen' phase I think!