Giving up smoking-any help/suggestions gratefully received

[wheresthevalium]

I have decided to bite the bullet (gently nudged by bf). Its not big and it's not clever, so I am going to stop.

What worked for you?

I gave up about 2 years ago and managed to stop for 4 months on Zyban, but it did give me apalling insomnia, so I would rather not do that again.

Help and suggestions please

The NHS has some excellent stop smoking advice here

Good luck!

www.whyquit.com for a lot of reading to educate your brain about every crave, every minute of the day. Knowledge is power.
Good luck, fag free for 2 plus years now.
Also an allen carr book, makes you see smoking very differently to what you do now.

go to your doctor and ask to be referred to the Smoking Cessation Service.

They have carbon monoxide monitors that you breathe into and it gives your reading.

I stopped straight away after my first reading!

(I had previously smoked for 24 years and never thought I would give up)

Have been cig free now for 7 months

good luck

Put postit notes up wherever you normally think about lighting up.Eg. on the telly/phone/car whatever.
On the note put the reasons you are giving up and some of the good things that are happening to your body now .look here

Take up something to do with your hands. I did (admittedly terrible) cross stitch whenever I felt the need to smoke.
Getting pregnant was the clincher for me but obviously that isn't always practical for everyone
BTW, insomnia is a side effect of withdrawal symptoms ... so it may not have been the zyban.

Thanks guys, I am really determined to do this

good luck ,try to think of yourself as a nonsmoker now.It's all in the mind.

I did find Allan Carrs book helpful aswell.

over the next three or four days, write down every cigarette you smoke. Write where you are, what you are doing, how you feel and whether or not you need the cig, and whether or not you enjoy it.

Look at your diary and see if you can identify cigarettes that you can easily cut out because you didn't need/enjoy them.

Try to find something else to do at the times when you have the others.. change your routine completely. Eg: if you only smoke in the kitchen, shut the door and do NOT go in there (put the kettle somewhere else for a couple of days and make your dh do the cooking)

Never been a smoker myself but several of my friends (some really heavy smokers) have stopped using Allen Carr's Easy Way to Stop Smoking

Good luck with it!

Nicotine replacement - gum, microtabs, lozenges are best in my opinion. Because you can just have one when you fancy a fag which gets you through the first few weeks. Then you can start to cut down. Didn't like patches as you can't control thme yourself.

Both me & DP (smokers for 20yrs plus) gave up this way.

Couldn't have done it without Allen Carr's Book.

I gave up nearly 6 years ago and have to say I still get pangs of wanting a fag!
I used the patches to start with, but as soon as I was off them I started smoking again, in the end it was shear determination and cold turkey.
Stay positive try to stay away from the old temptaions for the first couple of weeks and best of luck.