A Quitter's Apology

Good luck with it. I tried quitting twice but both times added stress had me lighting up again so I wouldn't choke anyone. Hold on to your happy thoughts.

Glad to hear of your efforts SD, and anyone else trying to "stay" quit. Like Juston says, quitting is easy, I too quit every couple of weeks, but then always start back up again. BlackOps 719, thanks for the reminder of just how bad and ridiculous the whole self poisoning thing is. It's just crazy that we know how bad they are, we try and live healthier lives, but still we crave the whole package deal that comes with smoking. The Nicotine, the smoke in the lungs, the oral fixation, the idol pacifier, geez it's tough!
Man, I eat good, run 8 miles 3 -4 times a week and meditate regularly.....then I'm off to blacken my lungs again.
I have even put signs up throughout my house reminding me of why I should quit: cancer in the lungs or throat, costs of cigs, teeth issues, bad breath, the fact that we pay somebody to kill us basically, I also want to be a singer, and I even included some nasty pics of cancer. My friends laughed when they came in and saw all the notes in my house.
I wish they made an antibuse for cigs like they do for alcohol where if you smoke while on them, you get really sick.
Well good luck to you and may your strength of mind and will get you through this and may your story be of inspiration for others. Don't forget about Doc's incident either...scary.

Peace,
spec

Congrats on a great choice, S Dog -- sending you strength and good wishes. As you can see by some of the other posts, many people try to quit and find that it's not easy. As 10-year, 2-pack-a dayer who successfully quit some years ago...

*Warning! Unsolicited advice ahead.*

Just remember to "BARF"

- Breathe. Deep breaths. A lot of them. Someone told me that your body not only misses the nicotine and all the other gross stuff that you inhale, but it also misses the deep draughts of oxygen that make their way in, too. 'Not sure how accurate this is, but breathing is always good.

- Accept yourself and move on after any setbacks. Sometimes it takes several tries. Tape a saying such as, "If you fell down yesterday, get up today." to your bathroom mirror.

- Relax. Some say that putting yourself in a relaxed state and then envisioning yourself going about your daily life without the ciggs is a very powerful way to jumpstart your forward momentum.

- Fill in the vaccum with exercise, new hobbies -- anything to prevent the void. It amazed me to think of how much time I spent on daily cigarette breaks. Maybe a walk around the block has the same "reset" capability? Anyway, the extra time and energy is one of the many gifts you've just given yourself.

Props to you. Let us know how it's going.

GraceUP

Quit whining and think about something else...!

I mean...erm...good luck...

I..uhhh...quit smoking a few minutes ago...

Seriously...there is a lot of good advice in this thread...I think that one of the reasons smoking is so addictive is that there is an implicit physiological association to breathing...

Try Smelling Salts...

Good on you for quitting.

You're not trying to quit. You've done that. Now the only way is forward.

I'll mention a couple or six things. I quit in the summer the year before last. Did great. We were out in the country and so I just took walks in the forest. Lots of walks. Lonnnng walks.

Got to ten days without a cigarette, and then I did the thing that you absolutely mustn't do. It was evening and I'd been busy on stuff all day and I thought, "Hey, I can have just one as a little reward for doing so well." So yeah, I had just one and that was that -- or so I thought.

I was dumb... A non-smoker doesn't want a cigarette as a reward for anything. They'd rather drink a glass of drain cleaner. I'd let my "non-smoker mentality" slip.

The next day I had two and my non-smoker mentality was obviously starting to crumble. The day after -- six. The day after that I was just about in tears as in the morning I "had to" go down the road to the shop to buy a fresh pack, hating myself for failing again.

Looking back on it now, it wasn't really a failure. It was a lesson learned. I'm going to try again and next time I know that after I've started my first day as a non-smoker I have to stay that way and never, ever have one again, because non-smokers loathe cigarettes.

Now, this might sound odd, but don't be afraid to be a non-smoker again. We're all born non-smokers, after all. Don't fear it. I realize now that in some weird way, I feared it.

And yes -- sunflower seeds help. There's something in them that aids in taking away the craving or heebie jeebies or what have you.

Stick to it, you non-smoking person, you. Darn it I envy you your clean-smelling clothes and breath. I want to do what you're doing soon as I can muster my nerve for it again and not be afraid of going through all that. Take a little pity on us who are still trapped in this filthy weed's stinking snare. You're a non-smoker and now you can see how horrible a life we really have.

You've succeeded and now you can begin to help us out... In fact, you've already started.

Mike

Good luck!

Actually...

You don't need luck, just a steel mind set on the goal.



You will do it...

Good for you! Best of luck to you. I quit for 8 years and only took it up again when I was getting divorced to piss off my wife. Don't make that mistake.

This is a good thing. Nicotine is a poison and you have broken free from it.

Im happy for you

I gave up too but i didnt smoke that much so it didnt affect me alot.
I still smoke of cos, my pipe of peace at peacefull times.

Good for you!

reply to post by JustMike


Yeah It's a lot like being an alcoholic in that sense once you quit one cigarette is one too many.

It doesn't help that once you stop for a while the cigarettes suddenly become really good again, the first one you have after quitting for a while gives you a real rush and you feel the actual effect of the nicotine, when you smoke everyday you just don't feel it any more.

Smoking sucks....

Takes another drag on the cancer stick between my yellowed fingers and wonder why I am still doing it

Originally posted by davespanners
reply to post by JustMike

 

It doesn't help that once you stop for a while the cigarettes suddenly become really good again, the first one you have after quitting for a while gives you a real rush and you feel the actual effect of the nicotine...

[Hands over ears] Lalalalalala....don't listen to things like this! (No offense, Dave S.) I actually find the smell of smoke revolting now and if you want a rush, there are many other fun ways that you can achieve one.

reply to post by schrodingers dog


You must be very weak willed there S-dog.

I quit about 20 times a day.

All you have to do is stub the butt out?

I know you'll "man up" and start burning tobacco again.

Heck you are doing better than Obama.

He is up to 2 packs a day the word out on the street is.

He'll be up to 3 after 2 Nov.

After a total of two hours of accumulated sleep I have decided that I ...

Love/Hate all of you ...
You guys suck/are the bestest!



Two days in and life blows!

reply to post by schrodingers dog


Awesome.
Having said that, it's hard as a mo-fo.
I smoked Virginia Slim menthols like a freight train for about 7 years and I can say this in complete confidence, that the sole and only reason I was able to quit is because I got pregnant.

And since you bein' a dude and all, I don't see you havin' that option

So I will offer this: "Dear God, please help Schrodinger's Dog kick the nasty habit for good. Amen."

p.s. "Dear God, I'm sorry for saying 'mo-fo' but it seemed like the most appropriate adjective in this case. Amen"

reply to post by schrodingers dog

Good luck to you. I quit a little over 10 years ago after smoking 27 years. Hardest thing I ever did, well, except for getting my engineering degree at 48 years old. I have to say, it gets a lot easier and pretty fast. By the end of the first year I never thought about cigarettes anymore and now I feel like I never even smoked. The lungs are in much better shape too!

Oh, I wanted to add that I smoked about two packs a day also. Non-filtered home rolled jobs.

Originally posted by schrodingers dog
I love all the peoples!

And we love you, too!

When I quit, I happened to be coming into menopause. I was such a raging bitch that my husband didn't even notice that I'd quit smoking. I guess that's not really an option for you, though.

Hang in there, sweetheart!

Good for you SD, I wish you the best of luck. Don't give up even if you slip a few times.

I quit a 20 year habit cold turkey 5 years ago. The 6 times during that attempt when I was about to give-up and buy a pack I used a small nicotine patch. It got me through the moment and I moved on...ultimately succeeding in quitting. Had it not been for the small patch a few times I don't know if I would have made it.

Maybe the same could help you.

reply to post by schrodingers dog


Sdog,

Just to let you know... This thread inspired me to give quitting another shot. I made it about 21 hours without a smoke and though I just fell off the "wagon" a few minutes ago, and had one ( I had to interact with a difficult family member and figured a smoke was preferable to assault charges! ), I am still gathering my willpower to take another stab at it. I don't have health insurance right now, so my road is cold-cold turkey (AKA how I envy your Chantix!)

In short... You're not going through this alone, at least as far as ATS goes.

~Heff

Hang in there

Congratulations to ANYONE who is quitting! Keep trying! One of these times it will work!

reply to post by Hefficide


I tell you what heff, do a smoking cessation thread on the 'health and wellness' forum and I and others will join up and talk about the process, setbacks, successes, general venting and grumpiness, etc.

I honestly wasn't trying to do that with this thread, I was trying to preempt, apologize, and explain, what I saw was a penchant for crankiness on my part towards fellow members and staff and wanted to indicate that should they notice that, that it wasn't a personal thing towards them.

But what has happened instead is a very helpful thread which has made a difference. A couple of times in the last couple of days I was close to grabbing a smoke and the only reason I didn't is because I didn't want to let the folks on this thread down. I know it sounds rather silly and the priorities seem to be upside down ... nevertheless it stopped me from smoking that cigarette and I can't say how appreciative and mad at them I for that. (j/k obviously)

Sleeping through the night seems to be off the cards for the near future though, which is unfortunate cause if I were sleeping I wouldn't be jonesing. I am however wearing out my mousepad clicking the 'recent posts' and 'my ats' pages ... but to be fair I always did that. lol

reply to post by kinglizard


Yeah, I actually got lozenges for emergency cravings, welcome to flavor country with those disgusting things.

Thaks kl, bh, and everyone else ... honestly thank you!

A friend of mine's doctor prescribed her Wellbutrin when she told him she was quitting. It is supposed to help with the cravings and many studies show that it doubles the likelihood that you will still be on the wagon up to a year after you quit.
It also helped curb her hard-core biatch-iness, er, um, I mean "irritability" during those first hardest weeks.

I'm convinced that she should thank Wellbutrin for the fact that she still even has any friends after that debacle....lol...