Anyone else want to give up smoking? Moral support needed!

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I gave up last year for 3 months and thought I had it cracked...Have also stopped at various other points, found it easy when pregnant. Did it last year by reading Allen Carr's Easy Way to Stop Smoking, but sadly replapsed a month ago. I really want to stop again, what has worked for people? I kind of go with Carr's theory that you shouldn't use nicotine replacement since you will still be taking the drug you are trying to kick. Apart from getting pregnant again (bit drastic!), any ideas?

I gave up about 3 years now - before I had any kids but friends were giving up and sister was having a baby and very anti-smoking so basically I found plenty of reasons to try. Went completely cold turkey - no aids just will power taking it one urge at a time. I also spent my cigarette budget for the month so I would have been extremely overdrawn had I failed and at that time I was single with a mortgage so budgets were important. Basically, all I can suggest is write down the pro's and con's to your habit - if you really convince yourself that there are more reasons to stop than to continue you will be able to do it. I was very pro smoking but am so very anti smoking now that I am becoming a pain to my mother who still smokes. I was told that the addiction is gone quite quickly from the body and that it's your mind that you have to battle with. Good luck!

I gave up completely and instantly 6 years ago and until I went to a couple of parties recently where all the women (but none of the men) were smoking, did not even have one puff in all that time. However at the aforementioned parties I drank rather a lot and it suddenly seemd like a "good idea" just to have one cigarette! Felt the horrible taste in my mouth the next day even though literally had only one. Luckily I haven't been tempted back to the evil habit but it kind of shows that it is best to aviod smokers even after all that time.

WWW - Try finding and attending an actual Alan Carr course. I read the book but kept avoiding the last chapter and needed the formality of attending a course. Worked a treat.

Know how you feel, WWW. I have a very love them/hate them relationship with Marlboro Lights. Stopped smoking quite a while ago, and did about 4 years before having a relapse (quickly up to 20 a day again). Haven't smoked through either of my pregnancies and, like you, found it very easy to give up during those periods, but have since fallen prey to the 'I'll just have one' syndrome. Now I find that I tend to smoke with others who I'm used to having a fag with (old associations die hard), when I've sunk a fair few glasses of wine, and when I'm feeling stressed/depressed. That said, I don't tend to smoke in the bits in between, and smoking now makes me feel hideously guilty - mostly due to the prospect of getting ill and leaving my children without a mother. I think half my problem is that I associate smoking with my younger, more carefree days, before I had children, and smoking as a mother makes me feel vaguely rebellious (sad as that seems). I can only advise staying off the booze, being steely with anyone who tries to tempt you to have a fag with them, and chewing large amounts of Orbit.

Oh grizzler, that is so true about how it makes me feel slightly rebellious and younger and is a tie to my youth! Pathetic, I know. Ds has been away for a week so have smoked my head off, disgusted with myself all the while. Am going to bite the bullet and give up when I've finished the fags I've got. Will let you know how I get on. Thanks for encouragement, glad it's not just me

www/grizzler, you are SO SO RIGHT!!! That whole thing about being slightly rebelious and having a ciggy reminding you of your youth! I am a smoker, can't believe I've admitted it, I've lurked around this thread since you started it and didn't have the nuts to join in .. so here go's. I gave up when I got pregs, and for 3 months afterwards. Then I just got so fed up with being so good. Pathetic I know, but was at my first social evening since having baby and had one. Then it crept up and up. Now smoke (only when ds isn't around) every evening and any other opportunity that I can. So stuiped but so enjoy it! Anyway, I would love to really try and help each other. we would like another child so I've got to quit very soon..dreading it, but I was fine last time. Perhaps we should set a date that we agree on and just go cold turkey and go for it? I went to Alan Carr last time, but the guy who ran it retired and my hubby went to the replacement guy and he wasn't very good so I'm not going to bother this time. A friend of mine is doing well with the gum, so maybe give that a try? I smoke roll-ups with filters which deludes me slightly as they are tiny in comparison to cigarettes. Also no-one knows that I smoke, only close family and a couple of friends, so I spend most of my life pretending I don't either, which does limit my habit massively. Let me know if we should make a plan, I'd really appreciate it!

yes, jessi, lets make a plan and stick to it. My ds is back on Sunday and I'd really like to stop before then. He said when I started again "you said you wasn't going to smoke" - he's 4. So what about Weds this week? Would rather read Allen Carr again and go cold turkey than anything else. And I will rid myself of stupid delusions about why I smoke. Allen Carr does systematically destroy those in his book doesn't he?

I am thinking of another baby too, there's more incentive!

www do you mean TOMORROW weds? Arghhh!

Eeeek! Does this mean I'll have to get pregnant too! I've already got two kids, and one of them's only eleven months!
Not sure I'm ready to give up for good, although I know I should. I like the idea of being able to have a fag-fest every now and again, (she said, clinging onto her fast disintegrating youth by the very tips of her fingernails), as long as it's not too often. But can I handle the guilt?

WWW and all - I woke up this morning thinking about this thread (I've been lurking - I admit it!), and realized I should join in. I have not smoked since...Saturday. And having been doing it like that since DD was born. A week on, a week off. I don't even buy them anymore - well, usually. Mostly I smoke from a friend's pack when said friend stops by - did that on Thurs., and Friday. But on Sat - had argument with DP and went out and bought them. Gave them away next day after smoking several.

I totally relate them to my free wild single times! And truly (disturbingly) think of them as a treat I give myself. But I have to stop! I am now mid-30's (okay, closer to late 30's) and have been fooling myself for YEARS. And my dad died of lung cancer at 46, so I know how truly deadly it is. Am I way out there by saying - I feel sad about the thought of never having one again? How twisted am I? Anyone relate?

This weekend - I am going to NYC to hear a musician that I absolutely love and have not seen in two years - going with a girlfriend, and we have already talked about how we are going to buy a pack, have several drinks, and smoke away! Four things I love - good music, a great friend, glass of wine and a cig!

Please continue to post how you all are doing - I really feel like I can't do this, and wonder what the turning point is to change that...woke up this morning, getting ready for work and REALLY REALLY wished I had a cig...dd and dp were sleeping, and thought "how great would it be to go sit outside with a coffee and a smoke...?" And was totally disappointed when I remembered I am trying to give them up, and didn't have any.

Add me to the list!
I realised back in the Autumn that although I only classified myself as a social smoker the fact was I've been smoking on and off (mostly on) since my late teens, I was smoking c. 10 a day, was in my mid/late-thirties, had 2 children who hated seeing me smoke, smoking is so anti-social nowadays etc. etc. and that I just HAD to stop.

I've trying to give up AGAIN. Gave up for a month in November but the social lure in December tempted me back on (drink = ciggy in my mind). Gave up again just before the New Year but after a month I gave in again. I'm so weak willed. Now I'm trying for the third time. Today is Day 2. Why am I unable to give up for more than a month?
I'll keep an eye on this thread as I need support!

One thing I did try back in the Autumn was a self-hyponosis CD on how to stop. It did work straight away (no need for patches etc..) BUT as I say it only lasted a month. I'm going to give it a try again so if anyone is interested I'll let you know.

Why is it that I can give up immediately when I'm pregnant but cannot get into the same mindset when it comes to my own health (versus a baby)?

joanne, my dad died of lung cancer too (last year at age 59). Jessi, yes I mean tomorrow!! Am going to go to the pub tonight, smoke my head off and STOP tomorrow morning. Will ensure I have none in the house, will remember how healthy I felt when I had stopped, will read Allen Carr. I will also post here (hope no-one minds) about how I'm feeling etc. I'm 35 and keep comforting myself with the fact that I've got time to give up, but 46 seems awfully young and not that far off, so I'll remember that. Thanks all.

Here's an incentive kindly (?) sent to me by a work colleague:
Smoker's Face - Another Reason to Quit the Habit
The doctor could tell the patient had once been an attractive woman.
But now, though only in her 50s, her face was etched with wrinkles, her features gaunt-looking with prominent underlying bones and her skin shriveled and gray with purplish blotches.
Diagnosis: smoker's face.
Dr. Douglas Model of Eastbourne, England, added this condition to the medical lexicon in 1985 after surveying 116 patients and correctly identifying roughly half of current smokers by their facial features alone.
The distinctive characteristics of smoker's face, which makes people look far older than their years, were present in 19 (46 percent) current smokers, 3 (8 percent) former smokers and no nonsmokers, irrespective of their age, social class, recent weight fluctuations and exposure to sunlight.
It is hoped that the all-too-visible and often discomforting damage to skin induced by smoking will encourage more people to quit, "especially those who may be more concerned about their outward appearance than the potential internal damage associated with smoking."

I was surprised to hear (but I suppose it makes sense) that what smoking does to your skin on the outside also happens inside..smokers have a higher risk of hernia because the connective tissue degenerates. yuk.
my grandfather died at 57 of lung cancer and I suppose I've always been a bit anti-smoking because of that. and now my dad has emphysema (industrial cause, not smoking, although he did smoke till his 30s) and it's so hard for him to breathe, if anyone smokes near him I get a bit upset.

..forgot to add...good luck to all contemplating giving up, I know it's not easy

www good luck and have a great time tonight. Sorry I can't join you as soon as tomorrow but will be more than happy to listen to your gripes in the coming weeks, hopefully you'll do the same for me when my time comes...beginning of March I think.

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WWW - I hope that you're feeling strong today!
The book I wanted to recommend is ?Stop Smoking in One Hour? by Susan Hepburn.
The book contains a 30-minute hypnotherapy CD, which reinforces the special breathing techniques promoted in the book. I found these really useful when I stopped last autumn ? it basically recommends that you take 10 slow deep breaths when you feel a craving coming on. Check out the personal reviews on Amazon for inspiration.
As I said before it did work for me straight away but I did relapse after a month. What I should have done is listened to it again but I think my wish to party (and smoke!) in December overrode the sensible option!
The other good thing about her book is that it's short. I have also bought Allen Carr's book but it seems sooooo long.... I've yet to start it.
Anyhow, it?s now Day 3 for me and I?m feeling OK so far (I think!).

I too smoked my head off this weekend to prepare myself to stop.
Remember the first benefit of giving up - it?s lovely waking up in the morning without foul smoking breath.

Hey! How is everyone doing? (WWW I just read about your day of chianti, S&TC, etc., and let me say I wish I had been there with you!)

Today is five days for me without a cig (it is still Thursday here - 11:06 p.m.), but this weekend is NYC - so don't know if I will make it through. I am meeting with a dear friend who was in the WTC when the plane hit - 61st floor(I used to work there as well - left about a year ago), and she has been really struggling since 9/11 and tells me she just wants to get together, have drinks and smoke cigs (which what we often did when I lived in the city). Don't know if I have the strength to withstand while she is smoking! Also I was laid off today, so it was REALLY hard to not buy a pack - I mentioned to dp tonight "I really want a cigarette" and he offered to go out and get me a pack...tough that one was...

Wish me luck! I start a yoga class on Monday, hopefully keep me focused...

WWW, Like Joanne427, I also wished I had been there, sounds heavenly! Hows it going? I have set a date, April the 1st, only a fool would carry on after that date surely?? I need more convincing but I AM going to do it and am psycholigically preparing myself for it. Am going to buy a posh cream for fine lines (around the mouth/eye area) as a reward. It costs a fortune but works a treat on my friend. Am also going to take up the gym again (seems pretty pointless when your killing yourself smoking).Joanne 427, I think you are doing briliantly in light of being laid off,great self-control, well done! Don't worry about this weekend, if you do indulge with your friend (especially after what she's been thro', treat it as an isolated incident. The thing about smoking is, in my experience, that its when your doing it at home that makes it harder to quit, as you've all these associations. Good Luck, you can do it!

Sorry Joanne427, I have no idea where that winking face came from! don't even know how to do them.No offence intended.

As a non-smoker, I haven't really looked at this thread but today, I just thought how awful it must be to try and give up something that you really enjoy - even the thought of giving up choccies gives me the shakes! so I just wanted to wish all of you the very best of luck for a fug-free life!