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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think I am, in fact, doing well at quitting/drastically cutting down smoking?

36 replies

DooinMeCleanin · 07/09/2011 10:24

It is very possible I am being entirely unreasonable, if I am I blame lack of nicotine.

I promised to stop smoking after our holiday for financial reasons. I brought back 200 cigarettes and vowed that when they were gone I'd quit. When my plan of using the 200 to cut down slowly didn't quite work out as planned I decided that stopping completly after smoking 30 a day might be a bit ambitious.

I bought 10 yesterday and smoked 7 of them Blush. Now I admit this is not what I planned and is far from ideal but I still cut down to less than a quarter of what I usually smoke in just a day. This imo is good.

Twattish tells me I have no will power. I have failed. I am in denial and will never quit. This is unfair after I did so well yesterday. My mum who also failed at quitting full stop yesyrtd

OP posts:
Original poster
DooinMeCleanin · 07/09/2011 10:26

Stupid I phone posted too early.

My mum is also cutting down. She did the same as me yesterday and thinks we both did well. I agree.

OP posts:
emkana · 07/09/2011 10:26

I'm sorry but cutting down will never work. You have to stop completely.

Witchofthenorth · 07/09/2011 10:27

Does twattish smoke? You are doing well, it's incredibly difficult to stop smoking! It took me three attempts to quit and DH is now on attempt number 5 and he is still on a twenty a day habit.

Keep going, you will do it! Dont beat yourself up if you fall at the first hurdle, it's happened to the best of us :)

worraliberty · 07/09/2011 10:29

When I used to smoke, I did the very same thing. The trouble was, after I cut right down I somehow went right back up again so it was all for nothing.

Everyone deals with it their own way..but should you find your method doesn't work for you, I can't recommend the E-Cigarette enough.

It was an excellent way of cutting down as I used to 'smoke' it inbetween cigs...then eventually I was able to 'smoke' it more than cigs....then managed to cut the cigs out all together.

Eventually cutting out the E-Cig was surprisingly easy.

Good luck though, you haven't failed at all....you're just doing it your way.

itisnearlysummer · 07/09/2011 10:30

I think you might be a little BU. Sorry.

My MIL smoked from being about 14. She had tried unsuccessfully to give up several times and each time did it in just the way you have described, then bought some more and just one packet of 10.... but she was still a smoker.

Then 5 years ago she just stopped. No 'last packet', no exemptions. We told passed on the midwife's instructions to her about smoking and our prem baby and she said "I'm not going to not smoke for half an hour before seeing my DGD and change my clothes and clean my teeth. I'm going to stop smoking" and she did.

The difference was, the time she was successful she didn't 'stop smoking' she became a 'non-smoker' and that was that!

To quote Mr Punch, "That's the way to do it!"

Original poster
DooinMeCleanin · 07/09/2011 10:30

He used to smoke socially but quit out right after he watched his father die of smoking related lung cancer. I never met his dad it happened before I knew him.

OP posts:
porcamiseria · 07/09/2011 10:30

i used to smoke 20 a day (ugh) now never have more than 5

cutting down IS possible

and agree more than 20 fuck me thats £7 a day!!!!!

itisnearlysummer · 07/09/2011 10:30

Anyway, good luck. I hope you are able to give up Smile

babybarrister · 07/09/2011 10:33

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Ben10WasTheSpawnNowWeLoveLego · 07/09/2011 10:34

DH used the ecigarette successfully too. He has this one. It helped him to initally give up proper cigarettes and he now has the nicorette spray. Gradually he is using less and less of these replacement products and is now only using the nicorette spray when he goes to the pub and nothing else.

Kayano · 07/09/2011 10:36

I don't think one day and still smoking 7 would constitute as 'doing well' Wink

Keep it up though and keep us updated!

Original poster
DooinMeCleanin · 07/09/2011 10:36

On the bright side my house is sparkling and bleach is my new friend. I cannot sit still and need a fag, so I clean manically to distract myself Grin

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scrambedeggs · 07/09/2011 10:38

lol why on earth buy 200 fags if you were planning on quitting

i think people must be incredibly rich to waste £200 a month on making themselves ill, but it creases me up when smokers say oooh we cant afford little Johnny's school trip - why do they make them sooooo expensive!

spookshowangellovesit · 07/09/2011 10:39

here you go best money you will spend
get it now you can smoke while you read. its really easy to give up and dont be told different.

Original poster
DooinMeCleanin · 07/09/2011 10:45

Scrambedeggs, I have never done that. I always find money for the dc. I want to be able to go on holiday every year and have fancy hair products and make up. This is why I am quitting. I cannot afford holidays, fancy products and smoking. One of them has to go. I decided I'd rather give up fags than kerastase or sun. My children always have what they need.

I have that book spooks, but never get round to reading it.

OP posts:
worraliberty · 07/09/2011 10:45

i think people must be incredibly rich to waste £200 a month on making themselves ill, but it creases me up when smokers say oooh we cant afford little Johnny's school trip - why do they make them sooooo expensive!

I imagine that's because cigarettes used to be very cheap when people first became addicted to them.

For example, 20 cigarettes cost 75p when I started smoking...but when I gave up, they cost almost £4 a packet.

Now I think they're about £6 a pack?

You can't just kick an addiction over night because the Government suddenly start whacking heaps of tax on it.

Witchofthenorth · 07/09/2011 10:47

While I get your point scrambedeggs, it is a touch unfair. Stopping smoking after many years can be incredibly difficult, regardless of how skint it makes you.

FWIW my mum stopped because she couldnt afford Christmas, but was puffing away on twenty fags a day. She realised that she needed to stop but it was very difficult for her to do so. Just because you see what they are doing to your health and bank balance doesn't mean you can just switch off the addiction.

Dooinmecleanin, have you spoke to your GP about getting help? That helped me stop, it's worth a conversation.

worraliberty · 07/09/2011 10:48

The book didn't help me at all and nor did the very expensive Allen Carr course I attended.

Don't get me wrong, I agreed with every word of it...but it didn't stop the Nicotine craving.

Ilovedaintynuts · 07/09/2011 10:49

You are completely in denial. Giving up smoking is massively hard, but until you are getting real with yourself you won't quit.

Have no fags in the house. Stop smoking completely. Then be pleased with yourself.

Good luck Smile

spookshowangellovesit · 07/09/2011 10:52

honestly read it, i tried cutting down and stopping over night and nrp no joy. i know 3 people that have read that book and have stopped the minute the have finished and had their last ciggie and heard of countless others. i was already reading it when i found out i was pregnant so rushed through to the end and oh my goodness, no crazy hating the world, no dying for a fag, no swapping food for ciggies. occasional, oh i quite fancy a ciggie. oh wait no i dont. and thats it. such a surprise.

SpiderObsession · 07/09/2011 10:53

I'm not going to give you, or your mum, a pat on the back for cutting down for one day. You're not going to give up smoking by doing that. I also don't agree that you have no will power, smoking is an addiction and difficult to give up (yet not impossible).

Agree with Ilovedaintynuts, be pleased with yourself when you stop and the best of luck on your journey.

spookshowangellovesit · 07/09/2011 10:56

well worra nothing is ever going to be 100% and in those times when my brain says to me oh i quite fancy a ciggie its a choice for me to go ok i'll have one or no i wont.
its good they have the money back thing.

Graciescotland · 07/09/2011 10:57

Hypnotherapy, one session £50 nine years ago. No cigarettes since. I think it paid for itself after a fortnight. You have to really want to stop though, good luck.

BettySwollocksandaCrustyRack · 07/09/2011 11:00

Well done on cutting down but really you need to just go cold turkey and quit.

Years ago I used to smoke 20+ a day and tried to give up countless times when I didnt want to, it never worked. I gave up when I wanted to...for me...not coz others thought I should or I just thought I should but because I didnt want to smoke anymore - I gave up just like that and 18 years later have never smoked since.

I dont understand in this day and age why anyone smokes knowing what we know about health implications. My lovely mum died last year of lung cancer - she never smoked in her life - and seeing what she went through - well, why pay for the priveledge.

Good luck !

Original poster
DooinMeCleanin · 07/09/2011 11:03

Well there is the problem gracie, I don't want to quit. I enjoy smoking. I need to quit if I want expensive conditioners and holidays abroad every year, but I don't want to quit. I am not looking forward to the day when I can call myself a non smoker.

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