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Fag Free for 2005....Join us.....We need Help!

425 replies

charliecat · 13/04/2005 10:41

I cried when I read how many failures theres been and applauded hub2dees approach as sometimes theres no point pussyfooting....come on guys! Its got to be done.
I am so so so gutted that theres been vile puffing going on...did you REALLY enjoy any of them. Truely satisfying were they? No No No! Tell you what though...waking up knowing that bastard nicotine monster has got no grip on me whatsoever is liberating. I could touch the sky with the high that im free. No chain round my neck.
Remember that just one is never just one and even if it was, why would you want JUST ONE? Your aim is to STOP FOREVER.

OP posts:
hub2dee · 04/05/2005 11:17

You might want to try getting rid of the ashtrays.

dh can smoke outside etc. if needed, and it'll be one less reminder.

Enjoy the cleaning.

Ref: reminder of dd.... sounds tacky, but you know those plastic keyrings where they seal in piccies.... could find something similar as a necklace etc... no very punk rock, but when you get the urge you would just need to reach down and gaze at her delcious face !

hub2dee · 04/05/2005 11:17

sorry, dp.

mummylonglegs · 04/05/2005 12:49

Oh, well I'm not at all 'punk rock' when it comes to pictures of dd, they're all round the shelves by my mac, they're next to the bed where I sleep and my wallet is full to the brim of her.

Off to get her now. Haven't succumbed. And have left myself without enough time to nip into the corner shop if tempted. Dp not back until 9-ish. A long day ahead ...

fee77 · 04/05/2005 13:19

You are doing great mml, just keep yourself really busy. How about popping round to a mates house for a chat - a non smoking friend of course.

fionagib · 04/05/2005 13:42

It WILL get easier mml!!
My dh quit smoking yesterday... for 9 hours, then started smoking again.

Have raging pmt, but crave a run, weirdly enough, and not a fag.

mml I know you know all this, but if you can force yourself to endure two fag free weeks, the awful symptoms start to fade. And you'll be healthy & filled with clean, billowing air by the summer.

mummylonglegs · 04/05/2005 14:17

Thanks for the support everyone. Almost 24 hours now. I'm having moments of insanity but then moments when it's really not so bad. I actually can't think longer than the next hour though because I'm still in a daft mode of thinking that I'm really going to miss smoking. I get nostalgic for precisely what cc posted here in one of her cut and paste's 'the one perfect' cigarette. For me the first one of the morning. Life without it looks a bit dull.

Fiona, no, please say the worst cravings don't go on for as long as 2 weeks!!!!!!!!! I thought I read somewhere that it was a few days before the nicotine leaves the body ...

I really am shite at self-denial...

hub2dee · 04/05/2005 14:19

"shite at self denial" - does that mean you're a hedonist ?

You keep going, you hear ?

What're your plans to keep busy / sane this afternoon, presuming you will attack dp at 9, poor fellow ?

mummylonglegs · 04/05/2005 15:35

No, not a hedonist, I just don't like putting myself through pain. I know I know the idea is that I'm doing this now so as to spare myself future pain. But I just mean in the immediate moments.

Well, dd's asleep and I've had a nap too. Woke up with a very powerful urge to nip out to the corner shop when she wakes up! I'll get her up in a few minutes. Then it'll probably be an afternoon's playing for her and me, she usually needs quite a lot of attention when she's spent the morning with the childminder. Maybe I'll crack myself open a beer.

It'll be long.

hub2dee · 04/05/2005 15:42

Post if you're cracking and don't go anywhere near that cornershop !

I'd contemplate giving them a tenner to never serve you again. Tell them your underage or sommit. LOL !!!

If it doesn't pish down with rain, maybe a stroll outside later would help ?

fee77 · 04/05/2005 15:59

Keep going mml - the urges do last a long time, i wont lie to you, but they get less and less each day, and you will notice more and more how you are feeling better, even though you thought you felt fine before, iykwim.
How old is dd - i can't be arsed to go through all the thread again. My dd is 18 mths and has soooo much energy. Luckily now i have stopped smoking, started losing weight and doing some exercise i can kep up with her. Kids are such fun aren't they! And i am so lucky to be a sahm.

hub2dee · 04/05/2005 19:32

Well the play has finsihed, the tea was gobbled, the dinner was munched.... and mml.... where are you ?

Can I smell something in the air ?

Do you watch The Apprentice or Desperate Housewives tonight ? There's always a few people chit chatting about them whilst they're on. Maybe you can stay and post / watch TV so you aren't tempted ?

charliecat · 05/05/2005 08:47

Bloody Hell Im ill for a couple of days and mml stops smoking all by herself I am so so so pleased for you
For a giggle, I was so ill I literally shit myself in bed last night but im feeling better now. Must have thrown up 30 times as well.
It was runny green moss type shit, like I had years ago when I had salmonella...
..anyway...

In the first few days of a quit the question is often asked, "will this get better." If the concept that the physical and psychological reactions occuring are short-term and temporary is not understood, the person often gives up on the effort and ends the quit. They try to stop, get some big time physical discomfort, think this is what life is like as an ex-smoker, and go back to smoking. It is a cycle repeated over and over throughout the world throughout the history of tobacco use.

I always advise people that if the way they felt the first day or two or three was the way they were going to feel the rest of their life by quitting, they should just smoke and die prematurely. To quit smoking only to live 20 extra years in chronic pain wouldn't be worth it. But when quitting smoking, the way symptoms and reactions that mayt be experienced don't feel like this forever. What they are experiencing when the quit is not what it is like to be an ex-smoker, it is what it is like to be a smoker in drug withdrawal. This is a very temporary state. Once they get through the third day the physical withdrawal will ease up.

For those in your first few hours or days of your quit, understand the reactions this far are temporary, it is quitting running a normal course, and it will end and you will feel better. When you get flu symptoms from the flu you accept this method of accepting the temporary state of the feelings because you have had the flu before and know they improve and basically, you don't have a choice. With withdrawal, you don't believe it will end and you know you have a choice to stop it. You can smoke.

But smoking does not stop withdrawal. It just delays it off for 20 to 30 minutes. Then it starts again. Then you smoke another one. That holds you for 20 to 30 minutes. Then you need another. Get the picture. This is your life now, constantly smoking to put off withdrawal again another half hour or so. All the time poisoning your body with hundreds of poisons. By stopping you withdrawal for a few days, and then get better the rest of your life.

Soon you will recognize that your life will go on without smoking. You will be able to face miserable tasks, celebrate life happy events and even just do nothing without smoking--basically live without cigarettes and without the preoccupation of smoking. The longer you are now off and the more life circumstances that you successfully overcome smoke free,the sooner this concept is believed and the the fear of life without smoking will be conquered. Hang in there during this time of uncertainty just know that it will improve and get continually better and better as long as you maintain your focus and never take another puff!

Also, they do this on whyquit.com..
...tell a newbie how long youve stopped smoking for and how many seconds a day you think about fags.

Well for me its 5 months 1 week and so many days...and I think about fags for less than 20 seconds a day now.

I used to be JUST like you MML I know that insane feeling

You CAN do it.

OP posts:
hub2dee · 05/05/2005 10:22

cc thanks for those descriptions. Nice. Hope you're feeling a little stronger !

So, mml.... where are you and what's news ?

fee77 · 05/05/2005 13:53

CC! I hope you kept off the new sofa!
MML where are you? We all want to know how you are doing. Any one else around? Dropinthe? ALmost40? And where is whymummy?

mummylonglegs · 05/05/2005 14:38

Gosh, I hope you're feeling better, cc! sounds horrible. Was it a bug? Anyone else got it?

Thanks for the latest cut and paste, it answers exactly what I was going through yesterday.

I'm crap though. I've had 2 today already . Mostly because dp's working from home so it was easy to nick one of his on the way out to the park this morning. BUT the day is not lost, I've only had 2 and would normally have had about 4 by now so I'm going to try to stay 'clean' for the rest of the day. My plan at the moment is to spend this week drastically cutting down so that the withdrawal won't hit me too hard when I stop altogether.

At least that's the plan.

Fee, thanks for asking, dd's 2 1/2 and yes, she's an absolute dream! She's rather insecure at the moment, seems to be going through a re-visited 'separation anxiety' phase and needs my attention an awful lot. Being a bit distracted by my withdrawal symptoms yesterday didn't help her I don't think. But I keep reminding myself that even though I might be a bit of an irritable cow for a week or so it's better than being a dead mummy in a few years time.

Wish me luck for the hours to come? I'm finding it very hard to maintain my focus. One thing I am pleased about is that I haven't bought any. This is always a milestone for me. The moment I buy some is a real failure.

fionagib · 05/05/2005 15:09

mml get yourself some niccy lozenges! They're okay. The new fags. Am very partial to them actually. Gob's fairly stuffed with them at the mo, breathed strong mint all over the tiddly little tory who's just been rapping at our door...

Please, please stop torturing yourself with all this stop-starting mml, it reallay is hell and worse than 'just' quitting.... good luck xxx

whymummy · 05/05/2005 18:58

hi fee and everyone,keep up the good work i will be back soon

charliecat · 05/05/2005 19:07

The thing about cutting down is you leave so long in between each fag that when you do have one it seems even better than if youdd smoked 20 in a day as your body/brain was aching for the nicotine and you can feel it crawling up your veins.
But if your gonna cut down and quit in a few days go for it! But as a long term thing NO WAY!
(oh you also creep back to your original intake before you know it as well.)
Where is Minkmama also? She hasnt been around for donkeys years.
I have stopped soiling my knickers and I steered well clear of the sofa that dp somehow managed to squeeze into the front room. The kids have became couch potatoes now!
Well Done everyone this is turning into a really positive thread.

OP posts:
mummylonglegs · 05/05/2005 21:35

Fiona, I totally get your point. And you too cc. I'm aware this isn't really 'quitting' what I'm doing. I'm gearing myself up to quit. I know I may fail and up the quantities again as I have so many times. But my plan is to just ease myself off the 10-a-day need over a week and then quit completely. My birthday is 15 May. I will be 39 and I so want to have stopped by then. It's my BIG goal. I need to have been fag free for at least a week by then so I don't have a miserable day.

What are these lozenge things called? How long do you need to take them for?

hub2dee · 05/05/2005 22:50

It would be a fab birthday present to yourself and dd, mml.

Good luck.

mammya · 05/05/2005 23:26

Hello guys,my this thread has gotten very long since I last looked at it. Sorry I haven't been posting. I haven't been smoking either so WOOHOO! last one was on 15 March.
I haven't read the thread either so don't know how everyone is doing, but pat on the back to everyone doing well, and a kick up the butt to everyone who's not doing so well
Off to read most recent posts now...

mammya · 05/05/2005 23:33

Hey Mummylonglegs! I'll be 39 on the 7th! another taurean then? Hope you manage to give up for your birthday.

mummylonglegs · 06/05/2005 10:34

Thanks mammya. So your birthday tomorrow then? How odd to think we would have been newborns at almost exactly the same time as each other ...

Yesterday I had 2 1/2 fags, today none so far. But my lungs are 'itching' you know that feeling? I'm at work today and determined to last at least until I get home. I know it's an 'odd' way to give up but every time I've tried to go immediately cold turkey I don't handle it well. Whereas if I get my body slightly used to doing without nicotine it seems to be better for me.

fee77 · 06/05/2005 15:49

You are doing great mml - but are you sure you want to quit before your birthday? I was hypnotised the day before my 30th, then went off for a nice weekend to celebrate. I was crying because i couldn't smoke then thought bs so smoked! If you asssociate smoking with having a good time you need to quit when it's a quiet time. HTH

mummylonglegs · 06/05/2005 16:24

Yes, dp said that, fee. I'd also forgotten how near it is now, just over a week away. Maybe I'll stick to my keeping smoking as low as possible this next week and make my birthday the last day. Or maybe I'm just endlessly putting off the inevitable ...