i'm on day 5 with no cigarettes, cold turkey. i never thought i would be able to quit, especially since i've been smoking more than i ever have lately. what prompted me to quit was i had an insane asthma attack where i couldn't catch a breath for what seemed like an eternity. i seriously think if i didn't have an inhaler i would have died.
i've had asthma since i was 12 and have never, ever had an attack like this.
it scared the shit out of me!!!
sunday also just so happened to be my mom's birthday.
i wasn't able to call her because my voice was jacked up and i didnt want her to worry about me.
^^ shit dude thats brutal, i have asthma as well (diagnosed when i was 2, um 37 now) i havent smoked since my post above yours...feels good, i am still on the herbal though..
if you havent read the book yet and feel like you need some "extra re-assurance" i recommend you spend the $20 on it...i pick mine up every so often just to remind myself why i aint smoking..
This October it'll be two years since I quit. I still smoke the occasional spliff, but never cigarettes.
I quit smoking 14 years ago, and it's been so long that I can do spliff, but only in company - I'm such a lightweight that it only takes about three or four drags to spin me out, I can't finish a joint to myself.
I quit in a similar fashion to Okem. Got ill, went a few days without, and then decided I'd take it one day at a time. Will power works as well as any book. My brand was Marlboro Lights. Crest on the packet says veni vidi vici. Like fuck, was all the motivation I needed.
Slighty off-topic: I noticed a few people here mentioing asthma. I (thought that I had) developed asthma in my early twenties after spending 6 months in Bangkok. Assumed the pollution 'set it off' somehow. A year and a half ago a doctor was listening to me describe my symptoms, and prescribed me a course of anitbiotics. 8 pills a day for 5 days, then straight off them. Come-down from that was mental. Started seeing things, my eyes went all crazy for a day, terrible head-aches. But the asthma must have been a long-term chest infection as it vanished! 9 years of my life living with an inhaler because I was never diagnosed properly.
just over a year since i've been smoke free. i haven't taken a drag of anything, smokes, weed, cigars, nothing.... i know that even a little bit will relapse me.
a year was pretty easy. all i had to do was make sure i didn't put any cigarettes in or near my face. .....and chapter searching past this scene.
Funny this topic just got kicked up, I was reading through it the other day since my girlfriend and I decided to quit this past monday, with the help of the Allen Carr book mentioned in this thread. She feels the reading a self-help book won't do her any good, but it's really been helping me, just like reading this thread has.
I've been smoking a pack a day for years now, tried to quit before, now I feel more motivated than ever.
Just re-read this and whoa. I failed like a champ. Granted, that was my first attempt and I'm sure I'll try again, but I got caught out by Mrs. Day one night having one outside the studio and that was it. I still refuse to smoke around my kids or admit that I do. I wish to gawd I had the desire to quit again. I'm sure I will, but for now it is what it is. If at first you don't succeed and all that...
I've heard hypnotherapy can be the move (word to T**s who probably wants to kill me right about now). Might look into that sooner than later.
Congrats to all my people here still doin' the do.
DocMcCoy"Go and laugh in your own country!" 5,917 Posts
day said:
Just re-read this and whoa. I failed like a champ. Granted, that was my first attempt and I'm sure I'll try again, but I got caught out by Mrs. Day one night having one outside the studio and that was it. I still refuse to smoke around my kids or admit that I do. I wish to gawd I had the desire to quit again. I'm sure I will, but for now it is what it is. If at first you don't succeed and all that...
I've heard hypnotherapy can be the move (word to T**s who probably wants to kill me right about now). Might look into that sooner than later.
Congrats to all my people here still doin' the do.
Day, hypnotherapy did it for me, although I've heard from some folks who've successfully quit with the aid of it that you sometimes need periodic refreshers, so I think it's probably about researching what's on offer out there and finding what fits you best.
I was lucky - almost three years ago, just as I'd reached the point where I really wanted to quit, I was offered the opportunity through a friend to jump in on some corporate "quit smoking in one day" thing at a bargain rate. It was just one three-hour session on a Saturday afternoon, and I swear I haven't smoked a cigarette since. Smartest money I ever spent. The first half of the session involved the guy breaking down the whole anti-smoking industry, and how the overwhelming bulk of it pays lipservice to the idea of quitting but is actually dependent upon people not being able to. Then he asked everyone in the room to think about what it was that made them start to smoke in the first place, and about whether the reasons for doing so still made sense to them. That was the part that made the difference for me - by the time of the actual hypnosis, I'd made my mind up that I wasn't going to smoke anymore, so the rest of it felt like plain sailing. The absolute best thing about it was that I had none of the unpleasant shit that people associate with packing in the gaspers; no withdrawal or cravings or anything like that. There would be the occasional impulse where I'd feel as if I wanted a cigarette, but if I ignored it, then it would pass.
Now, I never evangelise on behalf of this kind of thing, but I would say to anyone who's serious about quitting; look into hypnotherapy. Apart from myself, I know a bunch of people who've had a positive experience with it*, and if you can find a program that's right for you, it could do the trick. Good luck.
* - the one thing Allen Carr's book doesn't tell you is that he quit using hypnotherapy.
Hypnotherapy worked extremely powerfully with me for about 3 months. At that point I should've gone back for a refresher.
In addition it was a very awesome experience in general and made me super-elated and positive-minded. As a demonstration that you can change your life in what ever way you want it was unlike anything I'd ever experienced before or since. I had zeal.
So..........been telling everyone I know that I'm going to quit when the last duty free baccy disappears as there's no fucking way I'm going back to paying that kind of money for cigarettes.
Turns out it ran out last night and this, coupled with a head cold, would seem like fate telling me to give up smoking today - no fanfare, no significant date, just stop after nearly 20 years and over half my lifetime.
Unfortunately it's only 9.26am and I've already snapped at two people and my brain is telling me it's first fag break of the day in twenty minutes. Maybe going cold turkey wasn't the best idea but I'll be damned if I have to depend on something else to get me off my dependency. I think mentally I'll be fine as I'm a stubborn bastard but concerned at how long it'll take before I start falling down at work,
Turkey is the truth. My dad smoked 20 a day from when he was 17 til he was 58, and decided (after I had a go at him) to just quit. He had a nasty cough that might have given him some extra incentive, but if a 40 year smoker can go cold turkey, anyone on here should be able to. /boot-straps
I was going to say commit some crime with a short custodial sentence, like that Tetrapak dude, and do your turkey in the cell, but fags and harder drugs are prison currency, innit bruv? Go in a smoker, come out a tossed-salad smackhead
Best mate is a doctor. Believe, dem ciggies no good in so many ways.
So, using this thread as self help blog/tumblr, still haven't had a cigarette since the 23rd September so should theoretically be over the hump. The weird bit is that my cravings have actually got worse the last couple of days. Might be linked to getting over the worst of the man flu but finding it more rather than less alluring right now.
Don't think I actually want a cigarette at all any more, just miss the special gift it had for breaking up the day into timeslots and "Just get this done before I reward myself with a ciggie".
Apart from that, piling on the pounds quickly as exercising at home when cravings hits works well butdropping to the floor and doing twenty in the middle of the office? Not so much. Still haven't tackled drinking and not smoking yet which I think will be when the willpower question really comes into its won.
Comments
i've had asthma since i was 12 and have never, ever had an attack like this.
it scared the shit out of me!!!
sunday also just so happened to be my mom's birthday.
i wasn't able to call her because my voice was jacked up and i didnt want her to worry about me.
its crazy how shit happens sometimes.
if you havent read the book yet and feel like you need some "extra re-assurance" i recommend you spend the $20 on it...i pick mine up every so often just to remind myself why i aint smoking..
I just quit for my New Year's resolution after 17 years of smoking a pack a day.
It only gets easier.
I quit smoking 14 years ago, and it's been so long that I can do spliff, but only in company - I'm such a lightweight that it only takes about three or four drags to spin me out, I can't finish a joint to myself.
I quit in a similar fashion to Okem. Got ill, went a few days without, and then decided I'd take it one day at a time. Will power works as well as any book. My brand was Marlboro Lights. Crest on the packet says veni vidi vici. Like fuck, was all the motivation I needed.
Slighty off-topic: I noticed a few people here mentioing asthma. I (thought that I had) developed asthma in my early twenties after spending 6 months in Bangkok. Assumed the pollution 'set it off' somehow. A year and a half ago a doctor was listening to me describe my symptoms, and prescribed me a course of anitbiotics. 8 pills a day for 5 days, then straight off them. Come-down from that was mental. Started seeing things, my eyes went all crazy for a day, terrible head-aches. But the asthma must have been a long-term chest infection as it vanished! 9 years of my life living with an inhaler because I was never diagnosed properly.
today i am 3 years, 4 months and 12 days without smoking.
peace, stein. . .
a year was pretty easy. all i had to do was make sure i didn't put any cigarettes in or near my face. .....and chapter searching past this scene.
I've been smoking a pack a day for years now, tried to quit before, now I feel more motivated than ever.
I've heard hypnotherapy can be the move (word to T**s who probably wants to kill me right about now). Might look into that sooner than later.
Congrats to all my people here still doin' the do.
Day, hypnotherapy did it for me, although I've heard from some folks who've successfully quit with the aid of it that you sometimes need periodic refreshers, so I think it's probably about researching what's on offer out there and finding what fits you best.
I was lucky - almost three years ago, just as I'd reached the point where I really wanted to quit, I was offered the opportunity through a friend to jump in on some corporate "quit smoking in one day" thing at a bargain rate. It was just one three-hour session on a Saturday afternoon, and I swear I haven't smoked a cigarette since. Smartest money I ever spent. The first half of the session involved the guy breaking down the whole anti-smoking industry, and how the overwhelming bulk of it pays lipservice to the idea of quitting but is actually dependent upon people not being able to. Then he asked everyone in the room to think about what it was that made them start to smoke in the first place, and about whether the reasons for doing so still made sense to them. That was the part that made the difference for me - by the time of the actual hypnosis, I'd made my mind up that I wasn't going to smoke anymore, so the rest of it felt like plain sailing. The absolute best thing about it was that I had none of the unpleasant shit that people associate with packing in the gaspers; no withdrawal or cravings or anything like that. There would be the occasional impulse where I'd feel as if I wanted a cigarette, but if I ignored it, then it would pass.
Now, I never evangelise on behalf of this kind of thing, but I would say to anyone who's serious about quitting; look into hypnotherapy. Apart from myself, I know a bunch of people who've had a positive experience with it*, and if you can find a program that's right for you, it could do the trick. Good luck.
* - the one thing Allen Carr's book doesn't tell you is that he quit using hypnotherapy.
In addition it was a very awesome experience in general and made me super-elated and positive-minded. As a demonstration that you can change your life in what ever way you want it was unlike anything I'd ever experienced before or since. I had zeal.
Done, son.
Turns out it ran out last night and this, coupled with a head cold, would seem like fate telling me to give up smoking today - no fanfare, no significant date, just stop after nearly 20 years and over half my lifetime.
Unfortunately it's only 9.26am and I've already snapped at two people and my brain is telling me it's first fag break of the day in twenty minutes. Maybe going cold turkey wasn't the best idea but I'll be damned if I have to depend on something else to get me off my dependency. I think mentally I'll be fine as I'm a stubborn bastard but concerned at how long it'll take before I start falling down at work,
Best mate is a doctor. Believe, dem ciggies no good in so many ways.
um wit-it...not going back now..
Don't think I actually want a cigarette at all any more, just miss the special gift it had for breaking up the day into timeslots and "Just get this done before I reward myself with a ciggie".
Apart from that, piling on the pounds quickly as exercising at home when cravings hits works well butdropping to the floor and doing twenty in the middle of the office? Not so much. Still haven't tackled drinking and not smoking yet which I think will be when the willpower question really comes into its won.
That's a horrific Freudian.