Need help quitting smoking

[SydneyDave]

Adam, Eli

I was a pack a day smoker. I quit smoking 34 days ago, not long but I can only add one day to my total per 24 hours

* The night I wanted to quit, I smoked about half a pack. The last few cigarettes before bed on that last night, I had about 10 or 15 minutes apart. On the very last one, I felt like I was going to throw up, I felt terrible, and I REALLY wished I hadn't had it (exactly what I was aiming for)
* As soon as I woke up the next morning, I put a patch on - I used a 14mg/24 hours patch (medium strength). I wore these for a week, had some really bad nightmares (24 hours patch is not for everyone)
* I kept using the same patches until I hit 1 month quit, but removing them when it was bedtime.
* I stopped using patches 5 days ago and it wasn't fun ...

Things that helped:
- Breaking up with my smoking, negative attitude ex-gf one week earlier (even though she mostly only smoked on weekends).
- Lifting heavy weights
- Not drinking any coffee, and making an effort to reduce all bad foods in my diet and increase protein
Things that made it harder:
- Still going out drinking with my mates -- I found the best way to deal with that is tell EVERYONE about how you quit smoking, how long its been, what the symptoms are, don't worry if you annoy your friends a bit they aren't going to stop talking to you if you are focusing on something like this for a month. Oh and don't just tell friends, show girls in the club your patch, show the barmaids , etc (hmm actually if you're married this could be risky, chicks dig the patch )
- WORK. I'm a programmer and I tell you now ... this has reduced my productivity to about 10% right before a critical deadline. Well, the other potential deadline I'm facing would be *death* so, I'll just say, I'm going to do the best job I can possibly do at my work - and NOT SMOKE. Any way I can improve productivity, like starting other exercise, getting hour long remedial massage, anything is good ,.but smoking is no option.

Sorry for the rambling essay, hope you can get some ideas from it.

Oh if you decide to quit mail me, I will be happy to email you every day, asking you how you are feeling, how quitting is going etc. But keep in mind - I'm pretty relentless and I'll stay on your back about it

[eblight]

Apart from an addiction, smoking is also a habit. Changing habits can help break the addiction cycle. For example a favourite time to smoke is often after a meal. Perhaps getting up and away from the table and doing something else that is not linked to smoking could also be beneficial.
Try some of the relaxation meditations on my free website and see how they may also calm you when you may be feeling particularly agitated.
I wish you every success to greater health.
Fragrant Heart - Free Guided Meditations

[frankfortpost]

Good thread.

I would like to follow Adam and Eli's success here, as I am going through the same thing myself.

I have been saying, for years, "if" I could only change my environment, and conditions, then I can "then" start the path.

But, everytime a stressful situation comes up, which seems like every 30 minutes nowadays, I have a quick cigarette, even though intellectually I'm totally against it, and just lost a grandmother to lung cancer.

I will be staying tuned to this thread, and when I have more time later, I want to go over each response one by one and read the articles.

[TheFlyingMan]

Agreed with Gong01 - I've found mindfulness the best for breaking addictions. Eckhart Tolle recommends taking a few mindful breaths whenever you feel the urge. Acknowledge the feeling, feel the feeling directly, breath into the feeling. When I got cravings, for instance, my mouth and neck had this funny, sore, thirsty feeling and I got super restless. Instead of thinking about it "Oh I need a puff NOW!", I breathed, and felt that feeling directly - just feeling the soreness and thirstiness. At this point, I'm going to break convention - you shouldn't force yourself to stop. If after a few breaths you still need one, then have one. But after a while it will die out.

Of course you could try the other thing - smoke non-stop for as long as you can. Even when you don't feel like smoking, when you are coughing, wheezing, etc, keep smoking. After a weekend, you probably won't feel like it anymore

Warning: Second part was half joke (so if something bad happens don't blame me) It half worked for me, though - but I wasn't a heavy smoker.