to have expected to feeing much better than this after quitting fags for over 6 weeks?

[Bunfags]

I quit using champix just before New Year's Eve. Had a sneaky puff a couple of days after, but nothing more since then. I was a vv heavy smoker, 30, 40 rollups a day. Who knows, maybe more sometimes? I used to wake up in the night to continue my smoking habit.

I still have terrible cravings. They have been worse over the last few days. I feel really angry and upset. I also feel quite fat. I have not weighed myself because i'm too scared. Suffice to say there's Crimbo and Quitting smoking poundage, so probably 8 to 10 lb. To be frank, the fact that none of my niec clothes fit me properly also makes me very angry.

However, generally I feel upset and angry and miserable and would love a fag. I also have spots and I keep getting a horrid taste of stale tobacco in my throat even though I haven't smoked. I have a sore throat, cough, feel miserable and fat and I have spots. I wish I had never stopped. I took Champix and that made me feel awful. I'm seriously considering going to get some baccy, because I was happier and a nicer person as a smoker! Where is all this renewed energy and vitality they go on about? Aren't you supposed to turn into Supeerwoman? I feel like fuckin chuff!

IABU to exected to be feeling better and healthier after 6 weeks without smoking?

[zookeeper]

yes , Allen Carr helps. you definitely need to get out of the mindset that you're giving something up and focus instead on what you're gaining .

[YouOldSlag]

I think if you're going to stop but spend the rest of your life missing it then you will be miserable and always feel like something is missing.

With the Allen Carr book, you kind of realise that cigarettes are brainwashing and you go back to the person you were before you started, when smoking didn't occur to you.

One point that really made sense is that smokers spend their whole lives waiting for a cigarette. A beautiful meal is incomplete until they've had the cigarette. A social occasion is incomplete because they are waiting for an opportunity to smoke. Not smoking taught em to live in the moment and enjoy life more.

Life is better without them, not worse.

[FrantasticO]

Come join us on these threads

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/_chat/1652275-Champix-quitting-support-thread

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/_chat/1646231-Whats-the-secret-to-stopping-smoking-without-the-weight-gain

I feel your pain today!

In general it's getting better.

I will be 7 weeks on Monday, cold turkey method, all methods unfortunately equally cigarette free

Hope to chat to you later.

[Joiningthegang]

My last cig was 28th dec (only smoked 10-15 a week) - i dont feel better or worse but definitely smell better, and am craving leas and less - do fancy one from time to time.

But

Cant imagine not smoking again! I like it.

Gonna try the idea ^ and promise myself a pack on my 70th birthday - when they will be about £50 for 10

[Canihavesomemore]

I quit 4 weeks ago, started on NRT's but got a chest infection a week later and been cold turkey since, I crave cigarettes at every usual trigger point (coffee, after a meal, leaving the office, with a drink, everytime I'm stressed) but that's ok because I have reframed and I shrug it off. What I can't stand is the weight gain, constipation, greasy skin and gassiness

[Thingiebob]

You are doing so well. Everyday you feel greasy and spotty is another day of sweating out the toxins in your body. Eventually it will stop.

I got loads of mouth ulcers when I stopped.

[ErikNorseman]

I done have cravings, I feel happy to be free. I second what the old slag () says about Allen Carr. It changes the whole way you think about smoking.

[YouOldSlag]

My MIL described giving up as being deprived of something you like and you feel bitter. In a way this never goes.

This is why a lot of ex smokers are miserable and often why some fail.

In the Allen Carr book, he changes the mindset to make you feel you are free from smoking and you never have to do it again.

Honestly the book is worth it. I was a devout smoker who couldn't ever imagine being happy without fags, yet I hated the hold it had over me, and my 6yo DS asking me why I smoked, and the guilt, and the cost and the smell.

Allen Carr actually made me excited about stopping and I feel amazing. I do not have cravings. In the first three days I did, but he de constructs smoking so that it just seems pointless.

Example: the reason you want a fag is because the nicotine from your last fag is withdrawing from your body. If you hadn't had the previous fag, there are no nicotine withdrawal symptoms.

The reason cigarettes feel relaxing is that you are resolving a craving. They don't actually relax you as your heart rate goes up every time you have one. Non smokers are more relaxed than smokers because they are not worrying about where their fag is coming from or if they can smoke, or if there is a smoking area etc etc.

This all made sense to me and now smoking seems illogical. It's like getting addicted to something just so you can relive the addiction. Cravings are gone and I even passed the night-out-with-wine test easily.

Don't call it giving up, call it being free.

[Dirtymistress]

Stick with it. You are over the worst. But honestly you are not going to stop missing it for months yet. I quit 2 years and 8 days ago and would say that for the last 10 months have truly stopped having any cravings. I smoked 20 a day for 15 years. Think of the money! Don't go back to it now.

[IfNotNowThenWhen]

I stopped with Allen Carr, and was so relieved to have stopped. I didn't have cravings after the first 3 weeks, and my skin was better, but I wasn't a heavy smoker, although I smoked for YEARS.
Also, hangovers were only a fraction as bad. I realised that because I binge smoked when drinking, that my hangover was mainly a fag hangover.
I don't agree with the "once a smoker" statement. That's so depressing. The minute you quite you became a non-smoker.

[ErikNorseman]

Try the Allen Carr book. It will help with the core belief that smoking is desirable and that cravings are hard. It's suitable for anyone who wants to change their beliefs about smoking, even those who have stopped already.
I felt miserable for ages afterwards, and very ill for months. Now, however, I hardly get ill but it did take about 6 months to feel better.

[Benn]

Well done to Bunfags and everyone else who is giving up - it's one of the hardest things you can do. But don't give in, just keep at it...

I thought I'd tell you how I did it (with a bit of background) and hope that in some small way it will help.

I started smoking when I was about 11, and I smoked for 25 years, very heavily for most of that. Over the years I tried everything to give up - patches, gum, accupuncture, hypnosis, will power - nothing worked. (I've heard it's a worse addiction than heroin and cocaine!) A health scare made me decide that I had to give up once and for all or I'd be in big trouble. And I decided that I would just use willpower otherwise I'd be addicted to whatever I was using instead. So I gave myself two months, gradually cut down to 7 a day (from 20-30), and then just stopped. It's one of the hardest things I've ever had to do; I had all the same things that everyone else has mentioned, bad skin, colds, chest infections etc, and I did gain about a stone in weight. I knew that if I gave in and had even one smoke, I'd be right back to the beginning and have to go through it all again, and I didn't think I could bear to do that.

Someone mentioned taking a deep breath when you're having a craving because oxygen gives you a natural high - that's right, it does, and just remember that a craving only lasts a couple of minutes - do anything to get through it. Take deep breaths, jump, skip, sing - anything that helps you get through those couple of minutes.

One thing that I did that helped me more than anything is really stupid, and I know it's psychological, but it worked for me. I told myself that I wasn't giving up smoking, and that I was going to smoke again, but not until I am 70 years old. Because every other time I tried to give up and told myself that that was my last cigarette ever, I just panicked and didn't know how I would cope, but knowing that in the future, if I wanted to have one then I could, was liberating.

Four years on and I'm so glad that I stuck at it and I'm really proud of myself - I never thought I'd do it. I do still fancy a smoke now and again but I'll just have to hang on til I'm 70!

Anyway, I'm sorry to go on. Good luck, hang in there, you'll get over this and be glad you did. Everyone is rooting for you.

[Bunfags]

PureQuintessence - that's a genius idea. Thanks, I will decide on a suitable name change.

[BillyBollyDandy]

You are doing so well

I quit 7 years ago, I still dream about fags from time to time!

I went to an nhs clinic thing and they told me 6 months was the dangerous time. People think that they are over it and that they can have "just one" so bear that in mind.

[PureQuintessence]

And change your posting name. You dont want to be reminded of fags every time you post.

I quit smoking back in 1997-98, it was so hard. I was a wreck. I was moody and unstable, coughing, spluttering, my skin broke out in terrible spots. I reached for chocolate hobnobs every time I usually had a fag. Replacing a 40`plus habit with chocolate hobnobs was not a good idea. It counted for more than 4000 extra calories a day! This weight is hard to shift!

If you need to snack, try something healthy. Like grapes, almonds, or just a glass of water....

[IWishIWasSheRa]

Thank you for the most helpful, honest thread I've ever read on mn!
I need to give up, I am struggling even to cut down and I would love to be 6 weeks down the line!! You've done it well done don't ever go back - you'll have that 6 weeks all over again and I'm praying it gets easier for you! Thanks to other posters for their positive and honest replies!! Ill save this thread!

[TheCatIsEatingIt]

Allen Carr didn't work for me, but if you're happy to PM me your address, you're welcome to it.

[DumSpiroSpero]

Child turkey...wtf?!

Cold turkey.

[PureQuintessence]

You are doing really well!

You need to just continue to expel those toxins!
Can you get yourself to work up a sweat a few times per week? Swimming and sauna? Exfoliating cream for face and body? Drink green tea and plenty of water. Go for walks.

[DumSpiroSpero]

You've done really well so far.

My mum gave up smoking after over 40 years of 15-20 a day. She went child turkey and complained constantlyof feeling like crap for about 3 months.

Her GP had told her a few months before that he suspected she had early indicators of emphysema & COPD.

6 years later she's still not smoking, and subsequent scans have shown no signs of either so it's realkt worth sticking with it.

Just don't replace the fags with wine gums like my DM did - she may have fended off the respiratory issues but she's been diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes!

[Footface]

I gave up smoking over three years, and at times I really crave it! I have to think of myself as a smoker who hasn't smoked today. A little bit like an an alcoholic whis been clean for a while.

Once an acholic always an acholic.
Once a smoker always a smoker.

That's not to say it doesn't get easier with time.

Allen Carr is fab, I read all the chapters in one a couple if days bar the last one as I was t quite ready at the time. But once I did its stayed in my head and makes me feel a bit of a fool for ever starting

[jjuice]

I smoked for 20 years and stopped using lozenges. I had spots and ulcers for weeks. Huge volcanoes and really sore. I lost my voice, apparently something to do with the hairs growing back in my passages.
I think it took a good few months before I really felt better. But boy did i feel better. I used to run and the difference was amazing.
You are doing ace. Please stick it out. My MIL described giving up as being deprived of something you like and you feel bitter. In a way this never goes. But you do feel way better health wise.

can someone please now explain to me why the hell I started again after 2 years ?

[HildaOgden]

Dose yourself up on some multivitamins,and vitamin c in particular.And drink lots of water too.

Well done on all the hard work you've put in so far,the worst is behind you now!

[Bunfags]

Champix eh? Who would have thought something as awesome as a pill that stops you wanting to smoke could have such horrible effects. The nightmares as well!

Everyone bigs up the Allen Carr book YouOldSlag. I have to see it for myself.