Can anyone help me quit smoking?

[violetbloom]

I'm so keen to stop. All advice and tips very gratefully received.

depeche have you taken the plunge?

Hope things are going okay

Choose the right day for you Depeche. You'll know when to go for it.

And come back travelling! You did so well last time. What went wrong?

Depeche, what went wrong with you?

depeche don't beat yourself up, honestly it's the worst thing you can do. It's okay you know. I have tried to give up so many times before but just couldn't handle it.

I'm now on day 13, but boy I could smoke one right now, so don't feel I'm out of the woods yet. Hope things go a bit better for you.

Depeche, as basking says, we've all been there. I'm never going to allow myself to feel out of the woods to be honest. Well, maybe after 5 years I'll relax!

Hi. Can I join you all?
I'm a guilty smoker. Every single day I think about quitting.
I hate everything about smoking - the furtive trips into the garden for a ciggy, dcs catching me and knowing I'm smoking, having to wash hands and brush teeth before going anywhere because of the smell, my cough & my breathing (not good).
Why oh why am I doing this to myself?
I'm reaching the point of quit date - I'm working myself up to it. Quit date is Thursday.

Is the Alan Carr book really really good? Thinking of ordering it from Amazon.

hi kissing, you sound like you're at the same place as me. I just felt permanately guilty. Almost as if I had no rights simply because i was a mother who smoked. I'm fairly neurotic/stressy but cover it up quite well, fags helped me camoflague myself.

it is hard stopping, but there's no alternative really. Please please read Allen Carr, i couldn't have done it without him.

Please do join us, kissing. The more the better!

I was feeling just how you and basking describe. I'd wake up in the morning feeling guilty, go to sleep at night feeling guilty. Dd is almost 8 now and knows what smoking is and what it means and I couldn't answer her questions about it. "But if you know it kills you, why do you do it?" What do you say to that?

Alan Carr, great, really helps, get a copy but do it well before your quit date so maybe quit next Thursday instead. I think being as prepared as you can for the quit date is a big help. Read lots on whyquit.com so you know exactly what you're going to have to face.

My advice would be to quit cold turkey (they advise that too on whyquit). Just get it over with. NRT prolongs the agony and has a huge relapse rate.

Depeche. I so know what you mean. I have always found 'excuses' / 'reasons' for continuing to smoke. There will come a point though where you'll just be so totally sick of yourself doing it that even the excuses won't work. Keep posting and don't give up on the idea? We're here to support when you're ready.

And, as I near the 2 months fag free mark I can only say again, totally honestly, that for the last 3 weeks at least I haven't had a single moment when I've seriously fancied a smoke. I miss it now as a thing of the past rather than a thing I want to do now.

Hi, I'm going to join you all too, it's my first day as a non-smoker and I'm stopping a 40+ a day habit, I'm 41 and I've been smoking since I was 11 (although not a fully-fledged smoker till 16/17).

It's sort of very hard but easy at the same time if that makes sense? I'm really determined to do this and I'm very focussed but the cravings are a nightmare.

I'm quitting because I had to have a chest x-ray, which came back clear (apart from calcium in the lungs, which is apparently nothing to worry about) but the worry waiting for the results was a bit of a kicker. The biggest reason though - my 7 year old dd saying 'mummy, who will look after me if you die because your heart will stop working if you smoke (gulp). Awful. Felt the crappest mum ever having her say that and think it, so enough's enough.

Going to have a good read of this thread now and pick up some tips hopefully

Violet, you were so right about the psychological stuff kicking in. I am a total mess today - can't stop crying, hating myself, feeling proper depressed, haven't got anything done etc. I am literally flailing around looking for something to help me. I have some pretty crap stuff going on in my life and this is all just making me feel like a useless piece of shit.

Thank God you warned me about this. I am trying to see it as just more smoking madness. But bloody hell - it's worse than nicotine cravings. I'm not giving in, but I'm not sure I'd have got through this without your wise warning. So thank you, thank you.

DM Fan, don't give up giving up. The fact that you're on here means you're serious about stopping, and I know you'll do it.

Bremusa, hi! Hope this thread helps you - it has helped me. I know exactly what you mean about it being easy but hard at the same time. In spite of what I've written above (!) it does get easier in a short space of time. Well done for getting this far.

I'm off to slash my wrists

Visualise your dinner/kitchen table packed with all the cigaretts you smoke in a year. Example 20 * 365 = 7300. This will fill your table completely and stack up pretty well too. Then visualise all the cigaretts being replaced by money... very gratifying. I stopped using such visualisation techniques and saved the money for a whole year to treat myself big time at the end of it (it was great!)

Other good thing to know is that you need to be absolutely ready to quit because research has found that if you try and fail you tend to take another 5 years to stack up the will power to try again. 20 365 5 = 36 500 - you can do the math on the money you'd spend yourself...

Other practical, and weird, things I did was:

1. change to a new and disgusting brand and smoke it for a week
2. change the way I held the cigarette and where in my month I placed the filter
3. smoke less of the cigarette

Do this for 10 days before quitting. I did and was so fed up at the end of the 10 days that actual quitting came as a relief!!

Good luck!

Bremusa my OH had a smoking history much like yours.

He has been on a programme organised by his pharmacy. He checks in every week for tests and cheap NRT patches. It lasts 3m. The first week he was on full strength patches, an inhalator and gum. He got rid of all smoking stuff and told everyone so he was mentally prepared to act like a non smoker. Second week he had dropped the gum, third week the inhalator. after 2m they start reducing the patches, if you are coping well.

He is just about to finish the NrT and has not had a single fag.

I am so relieved after years of worry. He is using the spare money to treat himself guilt free, he is allowing himself to smarten up, see a dentist, try out new hobbies etc cos he doesn't have the excuse of smoking.

I will be rooting for all of you -good luck- it is so worth it

I read the thread today, kids in bed finally so I can post. Wow! Loads of stuff here and I'm so impressed with how well you've all done and it's been so interesting to read. Frankenfanny I'm following the path of you're OH but not using the inhalator, it's far too reminiscent of having a real cig to me but using gum and patches. You're OH's done amazingly well

DMFIB, are you going to give it another bash in the future? Well done for getting so far, I'll keep my fingers crossed for you

Today has been pretty awful, well during the day it wasn't too bad but once it hit tea-time I could have murdered a ciggie Feeling a bit twitchy and miserable but I'm not bloody giving in, tis only one day so far! I just keep telling myself I'll have one tomorrow and I'll just keep repeating myself every day IYSWIM

Still, I've managed (just) to get through my first 24 hours hurrah! Roll on tomorrow.

Bremusa are you getting a progress sheet and being measured? OH found the scratch off mottoes helpful though normally he would despise such things.

Day 1 is the hardest so well done. By day 3 your carbon monoxide levels will have returned to that of a non smoker. Oh's went from around 20 to 2, it really makes a dramatic difference.

His advice: It is a bastard but absolutely worth it.

i did it with champix from the docs..some side effects but worth it in the long run!

Bremusa - stick with it! Don't think ahead. Just deal, literally, with each moment as it happens and remember that cravings don't last forever.

Thanks Depeche, but I wouldn't have done this without all you guys on here.

CJ that happened to me. It was like intense PMT and it went on a while but it was only really awful the first few days it started. Stick with it. I'm living proof that it'll pass. Again, everything I've done today, every single thing (and there have been some stressful, boring and emotional moments) I haven't once even thought a jot about smoking.

It's so hard to imagine when you are smoking that you can stop thinking about it. But you can.

Bremusa, my dd's been saying some pretty upsetting things re smoking and it also became impossble for me to continue for those reasons.

I think you're right - I need the Alan Carr book. I permanently have my head in a book so can bookworm Alan Carr as a crutch - and I'm certainly going to need a crutch at this rate. Today I stopped reaching for a ciggy at every godgiven opportunity as usual, went out for the day without them and only had 4 until 9pm (ermm, cough cough, had a few in last 2 hrs). I'm trying to get into the right mindset to prepare for D-Day.
Depechemode: can I really have your copy. Yes please!!!

kf - that's a great thing to do, cut down on as many as you possibly can in between now and the quitting day. It will lower your nicotine levels but more importantly break a few habit smokes.

im sorry if this has already been mentioned earlier in thread but didnt read all posts
but ive just gone on amazon to look for allen carrs book and there is 2 for quiting smoking
there is -easy way to stop smoking and then there is -stop smoking permanently

which one would you recommend

Ive been smoking since i was 14 (im now 24)
and really need to stop smoking as want to try for my 3rd DC this year...asap

I read Easy Way to Stop Smoking. It was an enormous help. x