Advice on the lead up to stopping smoking!

[BernieBear]

I am planning on stopping smoking (takes deep shuddering breath) - don't know why I am so scared but I am. Basically I want to prepare myself over the next few weeks (may even be a week/days) and want some tips (tried and tested) on anything I should do. I have contacted the local cessation clinic, although haven't heard back yet.

My reason - I don't want to die and I want to see my ds grow up. Also am a single mum and can't afford to leave my ds.

I have quit twice before, once when I was pregnant and once before that for 6 weeks (using patches) oh and before that for 6 hours.

I don't ever smoke inside, but still manage to smoke 20 a day - lets just say Gardening has become a passion .

How should I prepare? I really want to get it right this time, the only problem is is:

1. I enjoy it.
2. I am petrified of having the constant craving/feeling like something is missing forever.

Please, be nice!

I can recommend hypnotherapy. I smoked for years, and gave up so many times, patches, allen carr, you name it I did it.
Then I joined a cessation clinic and that went well with patches, and their help. Then had a relapse at 6 months and thought to myself "no no no, you've come so far" So paid £100 for nearly 2 hours of hypnotherapy. It worked, but you really have to want to give up, by the time I did it, I didn't enjoy smoking anymore.
I had no cravings, it was incredibly easy, that was in July 2001, and I haven't looked back since

my mum had hypnetherapty and it didn't work although she didn't smoke. well done to you! i hope i can post on here years to come and say I AM A NON SMOKOER looks so far ahead though.

whyquit.com all the way and allen carr.
Its not your friend, its your biggest enemy.
And you DO NOT miss it forever.
You think you will, but eventually it goes.
Good Luck

OK, give yourself 3 weeks for the nicotine monster to die. Once you have done that your body is completely clear of it.

any cravings you have afterwards are not cravings at all but your body giving you normal messages that everyone elses does.

When I eat too much I feel full and my body digesting the food feels like my old cravings used to....but I know its not, it is just my body digesting food so I can ignore it no problem. You need to learn to read your bodies signals, is it a cigarette or do you actually need a drink, or are stressed etc.

I dont mean to sound negative, but if you were really going to stop you would stop right now, not tomorrow, not one last fag, you would just put the packet in the bin and be done with it. You need to be in the right place mentally and when you are there it wont matter if you are drunk at 2am in the morning you will not want to smoke.

Does that sound really harsh, I dont mean it to, its just that I sooo know how you feel.

you CAN do it. Go out today and buy Allen Carrs Easy Way to Stop Smoking, it costs £8.99 and you will have read it by the end of the weekend easily. Then thats it, job done, no more fags and no more guilt. And loads more money

I can't even remember you smoking cc, how werid is that when we used to sit and drink coffee and smoke. Seems agaes ago now. do you still want one cc? does it ever go??

yeah you're right. i think i will. i knew why i typed i'll stop tommrow in my head saying do it now. I am gonna do it though. i am i am i am.

right i'm off, need to bathe kids and then i'm off out. check up on this later. xx

Good, well thats it then, you are officially a non smoker. You are FREE from the smell, the cost, the ill health, the chest rattle, the whole dependancy.

you have not given anything up

you have become free of something that was ruining your quality of life

in 3 weeks you will never have another craving again

you will dream that you are smoking and be devestated, then wake up and be filled with relief that it was just a dream

well done

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yeah, it takes max of 3 weeks for the nictotine to physically leave your system. Within 48 hours of stopping your body starts to recover from the effects.

Anything you experience after that is not a craving, just normal feelings for something else.

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Well for me, because I found the book so good, it wouldnt have mattered whether my dh smoked or not tbh. I had no mood swings or anything. My sister smoked like a chimney and I used to see her a lot and it made no difference at all.

If you are both going cold turkey though it might be better on one hand as you can support each other and there is no tempation of cigarettes around, or on the other hand you might just be so hacked off and argue.

My dh and I quit last week, using our local cessation service. I can only have the patches as I'm pg again. DH otoh can have a new tablet called Champix, which apparently has been designed to help people stop smoking and has a 50% success rate in the US. He started taking the tablets on Monday last week, and has not touched (or wanted to have) a ciggie since Friday last week. He has found it really easy to quit this time and he doesn't crave them at all. Of course, this pill is not compatible with everyone, but it may be worth trying to contact your cessation clinic again to see what other options are available to you.

Good luck xx

Hmm mellowma, its your own personal fight against the weed.
I personally would be hanging on the door handle hoping that dp had caved in so I could join him.....
I gave up a year before my other half did.
Do you think you could cope with him chuffing away and you not?

I gave up smoking last year when i found out i was pregnant., although I'd been working on it for a few months gradually

My advice would be to give yourself plenty of time and slowly cut down the amount you smoke in a day.

Every week ration yourself and drop the amount by one or two a day, then the next week drop another one or two off.

This way i got down to needing just 1 or 2 a day by the time i was pregnant and that made it much easier to quit completely and also my midwife told me that little amount was highly unlikely to harm the baby.

I gave up finally using Nicotine micro tabs after a lot of unsuccessful attempts of using will power methods. They are great because unlike the patch, you can just pop one when you feel the urge for a fag. Then once you've had a few fag free days/ weeks you can start cutting down gradually.

DP did the same after many years of really heavy smoking.

Even if you go on taking them for ages they are much less unhealthy then smoking.

Do try getting yourself in right frame of mind e.g. how much nicer you'll smell, how much healthier you'll be, how much better it'll be for kids. This will all help you cut down on the tabs.

Also try your local pharmacist/ GP for smoking cessation help.

Another vote for Allen Carr here. I've been smoke free for two years; dh for one.

I thought what really "sold" me about the book was the way that he didn't bang the "health scare" drum like those frightening govt adverts (which as he says in his book, scare you and your instant reaction is to light up!); instead he sold the other benefits of stopping smoking.

Simple things like not stinking of fags, not having to go out in the pouring rain because you're desparate for a ciggie in Winter, being able to sit in the (often far more quiet) no-smoking section of restaurants and cafés...

He says it far better than I could!

Hi BB
I have not had a fag for about a week, so still early days.
I have nicotine lozenges, 4mg give you a good nicotine hit
I find these work for me, patches don't.
Its all pychology though!
I am having the lozenge in place of the fag, so still having to do something to get the nicotine and staying in control of when I get it, like smoking.
You need to have it set in your head that XXX day is when your stopping.
You'll know the day your strong enough to do it.
With the lozenges it is suprisingly not too bad!

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mellowma - I think i'd have caved in if my DH hadnt given up too - he's been such a pillar of strength and the things he has been saying have really touched me. I heard him saying to my mother when she asked "why have you given up?" - he replied - "because i want to be around when (DS) is older".
I gave up from the second i found out i was pregnant but about 3 months after he was born i realised that i was desperate to have one and that i hadnt given up for myself - i had done it for him. He's now 10mo 's and it's time to pack it in totally - so 4 days down, the rest of my life to go!

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Ive had to give up the weed as well mellowma....when I had a joint I could feel the nicotine running up my veins and it felt quite sinister!!!

It's been fine apart from last night i dreamt that i had a fag and was hiding it from my Dh - it was really bizarre and woke up feeling really guilty... i spose smoking in dreams is ok!

Actually - you've just reminded me - Tuesday night i could not sleep! I forgot about that - perhaps thats something to do with it!

Oh well, i slept well last night - so i guess it just takes time...

I have to say i have already noticed that my sense of smell is so much better and things taste different.

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Do you really need to give up the weed?
Could you manage to kick the fags and just have your joint at night?
Or get a pipe?