Need help quitting smoking

[Adam]

I am a pack-a-day smoker, and I have been since I was 17. (I'm 26 now) I quit once for three months, but that was a forced quit when I joined the US Army, and as soon as I was able to, I started back up again. Since then, I have wanted to quit, but I have only made serious efforts about once every six months. The longest that I've quit on my own was one week. Since finding Steve's site six months ago, I have tried to quit about once each month, though I have made it past 24 hours only twice.

Now, I'm starting to ramp up for another attempt at quitting, and I want to make this stick. I do have a couple of things going against me, though. First, my wife also smokes, and is not ready to quit. She will be supportive of me when I do quit, and won't smoke around me, but I will have easy access to cigarettes and lighters. Second, I have way too much time at work, and easy access to cigarettes there as well. (I teach and tutor at the technical college where I'm also a student, so I know *everybody* in the computer science program, I know every staff member, and I know about 75% of the students who are in other programs... I can ask any smoker, and many of them would go out of their way to help me.) I'm also addicted to caffeine, which has a nasty side effect of increasing the intensity of any cravings.

Now that I have listed all of the reasons why I can't quit, I can manage them and hopefully work on the reasons why I can quit.

I would like to learn how others have quit, and use them myself. Please list the methods that you have used, because I want to model my success off of the success of other people. (I don't remember the term that Steve used in his blog, but it seems to be of little use for me to get recommendations from people who are currently smoking. )

I intend to quit smoking on Thursday after work (I'm off on Fridays, so I have three solid days where I can control my environment), and I will quit cold turkey. My father smoked for 20 years, has used various gums and patches, as well as other programs, and finally quit after a group hypnosis. He recommends that I use anger against the habit, which matches very well with the levels of consciousness model.

If anyone has feedback, please help me. I'll keep everyone posted on how I'm doing, and if I'm successful, there should be a nice long post here and in my blog on how I did it. I would like to use overwhelming force against this habit, so any recommendations will be used.

[Tester]

I think everything you need to do is to read Allen Carr 's "Easyway to stop smoking".
Allen Carr's Easyway Worldwide: Allen Carr's Easy Way to Stop Smoking

[dmauder]

Originally Posted by Tester

I think everything you need to do is to read Allen Carr 's "Easyway to stop smoking".
Allen Carr's Easyway Worldwide: Allen Carr's Easy Way to Stop Smoking

Adam, I agree with Tester's advice. I have an Aunt, Uncle and cousin who all quit after MANY years of smoking by simply reading Allan Carr's book.

[skinnyninja]

Here is my personal take on quitting smoking.

I just recently celebrated one year nicotine free! Good luck to you.

[jasonmanheim]

Chewing cinnamon and/or licorice (the real kind) sticks is a great way to control the need for oral fixation.

[ChefSalad]

You know, I found that quitting smoking is actually pretty easy. No seriously. If you think it's hard to quit, then it's going to be hard to quit. If you think it's easy, then it'll be easy. Having said that, here's my advice (just for street cred, you should know that I quit three years ago and was a two-pack-a-day non-filtered smoker. I've not had one cigarette since the day I quit. Since then, I have helped three others quit (and another quit but started back up because he's a wuss )):

First, don't go cold-turkey. Sort of. Use some kind of nicotine replacement therapy, like the gum or lozenge. The patch is difficult to use during the initial quit phase because it doesn't have a built-in mechanism for dealing with unexpected cravings, so I recommend against it. (The patch is great for getting off the gum, however.) Using the gum or lozenge give you a chance to deal with breaking the smoking habit without having to worry about nicotine withdrawals. This is very important.

Second, go cold turkey. When you decide to quit, quit. Right then. Don't wait. Throw out that half pack of cigarettes. It'll give you power over them. Don't cut down for three weeks, thinking that'll help; it won't. Instead, it'll give you a bunch of time to think about how much quitting will suck and how hard it will be. Don't do that to yourself.

Third, identify why you smoke. Is it stress? Mouth feel? Habit? That it acts as a stimulant? Whatever smoking provides, you need to figure out some other way to provide it. If it's about stress, then you need to come up with ways to reduce stress, and cope with what stress you have left. If it's about mouth feel (having something to chew on), start chewing on something else, like gum or pens. If it's a habit, then break it. If it's that it's a stimulant drug, start drinking (more) coffee or tea or ginseng or what have you. If it's about something else, then figure it out and replace it.

Fourth, identify why you want to quit, then forget about it. Seriously. Thinking about those reasons will just stress you out and make you want to smoke more. Instead, realize those reasons and put them out of your mind. Focus on something else, preferably something that doesn't involve smoking.

Fifth, use the gum and follow the directions. The gum works when you stick with it. I've never seen anyone relapse who quit using the gum if they stuck with the program. The first rule of the gum is to chew enough pieces. If you get even the slightest craving, pop in another piece. Don't hold off. Holding off makes the craving worse, and eventually you'll pick a smoke instead of a piece of gum. You'll need to chew a large amount of gum for about two months. Probably about as many gum pieces as cigarettes you smoke now. Don't worry that it's more expensive than cigs; you'll save WAY more money by the time you quit than you spend in the beginning on gum.

A word to the wise: you'll eventually need to quit the gum. You see, the gum works by getting you addicted to the gum while you break the smoking habit. After you've been chewing for three months, you'll need to quit the gum. The gum directions say to start weening yourself off after two months of chewing. Don't worry if you need more time before you start weening off. If you still need fifteen pieces a day to fend off cravings, then you need fifteen pieces a day. However, after three to four months you will need to quit the gum. Luckily, that's not too hard.

Here's how: the patch and chewing gum. I like those whitening gums, but to each their own. Just use the smallest dose patch, and chew a piece of (chewing) gum if you start getting nervous. After two weeks or so you should be fine to give up the patch. Bam, you're quit. If you really start getting some cravings, take off the patch and relapse to the gum for the day. That's it though. The next morning stick another patch on and be happy.

Anywho, what's above is what I found when I quit smoking and from the experiences of the many people I've helped quit. Not everyone I've helped has been successful, but I can safely say that most of them unquit, not because they couldn't do it, but because they were too cheap and too stubborn to admit that they were having extra cravings and needed more gum.

[Gong01]

Many of the advices to quit an addiction refer to a technique and that is a very simplistic approach...
An addiction is just a sign of lack of balance in our life and usually all those techniques are focused on the addiction, not in the cause of the addiction....
I will not explain more about this, but I will recommend you to read the book named "Mindful Recovery: A Spiritual Path to Healing from Addiction" by Thomas Bien, you will find just amazing information about how we could try to keep a balanced life, free of addictions.
I found this book recently, I even have not finished it yet. But for me, this book is enlightening and awakening. I think that this book is changing my life for good...
And this book is not for people with addictions, but for everybody... well, in some way all we have some addiction anyway...

Regards from somebody who is trying to follow the right path

[sean]

Originally Posted by Tester

I think everything you need to do is to read Allen Carr 's "Easyway to stop smoking".
Allen Carr's Easyway Worldwide: Allen Carr's Easy Way to Stop Smoking

Yes! Just get this book. I have tried to quit a dozen times, with a dozen methods, sometimes staying nicotine free for over a year. I read this book and something really clicked. I know I will never smoke again and I truly do not miss it. I recommend this book to anyone I know that has even the faintest desire to quit smoking. Every single person I know who has taken my advice and read this book has had the same experience and successfully quit.

[moltar]

Don't QUIT smoking - start not to smoke!

[skinnyninja]

Chef Salad, I am glad you quit smoking. My experience with quitting differs from yours; I tried and failed to quit many times using the patch and the gum, but I was finally successful going cold turkey, without using any form of NRT(nicotine replacement therapy).

NRT refers to the patch, the gum, the lozenges--all of those methods of putting nicotine in your body other than cigarettes. NRT products are a multi-billion dollar a year industry (because they don't typically work). They have also done some studies that suggest that most of the people buying NRT products have bought them before. They carefully rig their "studies" to show how effective NRT is, when in fact, a large percentage of quitters go back to smoking after the patch finally comes off.

My suggestion to smokers is to quit using nicotine, not just cigarettes. Cigarettes are just a delivery device for nicotine, and the patch and the gum just prolong the agony of withdrawal. Get it over with quickly and get on with your life.

I'm genuinely glad you quit smoking, Chef, and I think people should do whatever it takes to get off of cigarettes. But if NRT products have failed you in the past, consider going cold turkey this time--even though it may sound very unappealing.

[moltar]

A few more counterintuitive suggestions:

* Once you start not smoking, carry a pack of cigarettes and fire with you at all times. It will give you a comfortable feeling of knowing that you can start to smoke any time again if you want to, but you just don't want to, and you won't.
* Don't count the number of days/hours/month of non-smoking. It will make you feel like you've been separated from something for X number of days and there are only Y number of days left till you go back. Just start not smoking, and that's that. No need to count days.
* Make a schedule of things to do for the first few weeks. Make your life REALLY busy. To the point where you have no time to eat, sleep or do anything else. This is a good time to finish all those tasks around the house that had to be done years ago. Clean the yard, fix the car, through away junk from the garage, watch a movie (Borat), go to museum, go to an art gallery, go to a theater, go shopping, play with kids, the list is endless.

[thadroe]

I completely agree with the suggestions about not treating like you are giving up something...because then you just want it back. Focus on what you are gaining.

Cold turkey worked for me. Nicotine replacement is just going to put your body in a constant state of withdrawal.

I attribue most of my success with it to this site. WhyQuit - the Internet's leading cold turkey quit smoking resource . It's a site dedicated to support for those going cold turkey.

Exercising helped me tremendously when I felt edgy....even just dropping and doing a few pushups.

Thad

[Adam]

I think I've let this thread simmer long enough... and it certainly has some really great advice.

Unfortunately, I don't have the budget to buy Allen Carr's book, not even the $10 that it was listed for on Amazon. Also, I don't quite have the faith in intentions to be able to get the book before Thursday, so I'll be concentrating on manifesting the change in myself, which I know works quickly. When I have the budget, I'll get the book, even if I have already been a non-smoker for a while, so that I can learn new ways to help others.

SkinnyNinja, thank you very much for posting that in your blog. It is full of advice that I will thoroughly enjoy using... And for the other contributors, I'm sorry that I don't have the time to thank you in this specific reply, but as I compile the advice together, I'll give each of you updates.

Wish me luck!

[moltar]

Wish me luck!

No 10characters

[ashwin]

I stumbled on to this thread and I think I should share the information. I'm 30 yrs old and I have quit smoking for the last 15 months. I smoked for 11 years and I was smoking upto 20/day when I finally quit. The main reason for my success was Whyquit.com , which is a free resource for sensible quitters.

Hope it helps you as it has helped me. All the best!

[Wit and Itch]

I smoked a pack a day for 10 years, my husband smoked 3 packs for 20 years. We decided to stop together 18 years ago, and we are still smoke free. This is what we did:
We changed every small thing we did.
Stop with morning coffee, took an orange instead.
After every meal got up and did the dishes, or something engaging.
Avoided places where people smoke a lot
Avoid all activities that used to be connected with cigarettes.
Exercise a lot.
Took a lot of showers.
Stop coffee and alcohol
Change our diet: Stop all the foods that promote need to smoke, heavy spicy meals, sweets. Ate a lot of fruits and veggies. Every time you want a cigarette, take an apple or an orange.
Think one day at the time: I will not smoke today.
As with everything else you must want to do it, and you must believe that you can.
Do it, it is worth it. I wish you luck.

[Angela]

Adam, think how much more room you'll have in your budget for books when you stop spending money on cigarettes!

I give you all my best wishes in this very laudable intention of letting go of something that is doing you harm.

[dalante]

Originally Posted by Tester

I think everything you need to do is to read Allen Carr 's "Easyway to stop smoking".
Allen Carr's Easyway Worldwide: Allen Carr's Easy Way to Stop Smoking

This is THE way to quit! I finally successfully quit after reading that book (after 6 attempts).

[valpal215]

Adam, congratulations on your decision to quit smoking! You'll be so glad that you did. I smoked my last cigarette on Feb. 5, 2005. I love being free of that habit.

There are several internet sites that will help you - someone already mentioned Whyquit. There's also quitsmoking.about.com and Quit Smoking All Together with QuitNet.com - Stop Smoking Help and Cessation Support. When I was getting ready to quit and the first few months after I quit, I read those forums constantly. Anytime you feel a craving to smoke a cigarette there will be something in the forums to help you get through it.

I used the gum for a couple of weeks - that helped me get through the worst of the cravings.

The main thing to remember is JUST DON"T SMOKE, no matter what! Once you quit, it will be tough, but it will get easier every day. If you do smoke, even just one puff, the withdrawal symptoms get worse, so you make it harder on yourself if you try to smoke just one or just a few puffs.

Good luck!

[Eli]

Adam my man, I could use the same kine of help, if you should find please share it with me..............Peace.........Eli..........

[fubek]

Hi Adam,

I smoked for about 15 years before I quit two years ago. I smoked about 30 cigarettes a day. One day I realized I hated it. Quitting was quite easy. Every time I wanted to smoke, I asked myself "who's the boss in my life: Philip Morris or me?" That helped. I also realized that I had trained myself a pattern to regularly reach my mouth with my hand. That realization was quite odd, but it's a side effect of smoking for many years.

Nowadays I still seem to be more sensitive to smoke than people who never smoked. I hate the smell and my body still reacts. I hope that this will become less by time.

Good luck! Remember: quitting smoking means just not to smoke that next cigarette.

[Adam]

Well, I suppose that I should put an update up.

I tried quitting shortly after putting this thread up two months ago... I thought that I would just be stubborn about it, but being stubborn only works when you're doing what you want. I want to not smoke, but I didn't want to go through the process of quitting.

It has been two months since that last try, and I'm trying again. What is different is that, this time, I've done quite a bit of research on what nicotine does to the brain. If anyone is trying to quit, I recommend the links posted in this thread.

So far, I have been quitting for two days. The first day, I had one cigarette at midnight, about 16 hours after starting to quit, and it was a real struggle to go those 16 hours. Now, I'm at my 17th hour after that one cigarette, and it is a lot easier, but still difficult. I've already passed the time since I broke down from yesterday, so now I'm just seeing how far I can get.

One thing that I've noticed is that I can't concentrate very well. I'm always being distracted by the urges, and the addiction is telling me that if I just have a cigarette, all of those distractions will go away and I'll be able to think clearly. Well, I'm not falling for it. If I smoke now, then the last 17 hours of withdrawal will have been wasted, because I'll always have 72 hours of withdrawal from my last cigarette no matter what... Having a cigarette now to get rid of those distractions will be like adding 17 hours on top of those 72 hours.

I can't post in my blog... the only thing that I can do right now is to do mindless things, like play video games, to keep myself distracted without trying to do something that I could be easily distracted from. I want to do something productive, but I can't enter a creative flow state right now, so I'm just sitting here wondering when I'll be clear headed again. I should feel normal by Wednesday, though... that's my goal.

[skinnyninja]

Wow. Hang in there Adam. Keep us updated on here. I am genuinely interested to see how your progress is going.

I can remember the first 72 hours of my quit. I slept through most of it. When I woke up, I felt a little better. Not much better, but a little bit. I think at day seven I was really out of the woods, amazed at how easy it had become. I had crossed a threshold. Still the occasional craving, but I knew I would make it.

Whyquit.com tells you that your cravings for cigarettes will pass. I thought this was a bunch of crap, because it just seemed like one big craving for the first couple days. I honestly believed that I was always, constantly craving a cigarette. That's not true, but someone at day 2 of their quit won't necessarily believe that.

My best advice is to seek the power of distraction. Go do something active and energetic and then go to sleep. Sleep a lot if you have to. I wasted about 2 whole days on sleeping, but it was time well spent. I made it through and now I'm completely nicotine free. And it is so good to be free, my friend.....

[simon]

adam, it sounds like you've been going through exactly the same thing I have. I was an extremely heavy smoker going through at least 10 - 20 rolls per day, and maybe the same again if I went to the pub! I was compulsive about them totally and found it wasn't the physical addiction itself it was my whole lifestyle in itself.

I basically quit when it hit 2007, and I haven't smoked during the day at all. I have however stupidly smoked when I was drunk in the pub on two nights that I can remember so far. However, I'm really very happy that I'm definately not smoking during the day and I don't even crave them which is crazy because when I was smoking I couldnt think of anything else when I was working on my laptop! I can deal with the sometimes smoking when I go out because thats the next step for me- along with quitting alcohol.

I've heard that Allen Carrs book is great, and my friend who m I quit with read it. I didn't, I think I just decided on a date to do it, and the new year was a good date. After that it was a clean slate for me. You will find it difficult because you are totally surrounded with smokers and I'm feel really sorry for you because I know how awfully tempting it is in this situation. Rest assured, if you can quit in the environment you are in, you'll get a kick out of knowing that you are so much more self-disciplined than before!

I think the key is to be persistance and have patience. Kicking a habit that is so ingrained into you will take time for your brain to readjust to. I spoke to friends about it, I've even said that if they see me smoking I'll give them a fiver and we shook hands on it- this is an excellent tactic and perhaps one you should use! I've written in my journal repeatedly about quitting, studying my reasons for quitting and possible difficulties that will arise that I will have to overcome. I've even visualised situations in the pub where I refuse cigs from friends. The key is to find out what works for you. You might find that it is more than quitting smoking that you need to change in your lifestyle...

[Brutha]

So far, I have been quitting for two days.

No you quited 2 days ago.
Don't try to stop smoking, become a nonsmoker! Trying doesn't work.

I teach and tutor at the technical college where I'm also a student, so I know *everybody* in the computer science program, I know every staff member, and I know about 75% of the students who are in other programs... I can ask any smoker, and many of them would go out of their way to help me.

Make a bet with those people, the first of them that sees you smoking gets 100$ from you.

[dor]

here's how i did it, take what you want from it.
a. I told myself I would quit before I was thirty.

b. around 28, I was in a mountain bike race in the Alps. I was still smoking but I remembered the fresh, clear air in my lungs. I remembered feeling that feeling and how good it was. I really started to want that feeling.

c. i cut my smoking to evenings only - then down to two cigarettes a night except when drinking. This was pretty easy for me to do (at one time i was a pack a day smoker - but working out heavily made that idea increasingly repulsive.

d. for a long time I told myself "okay, if can go half a day why not a full day' - i got that idea in my head...

e. every time i saw someone whom i thought was repulsive smoking i would mark that mental image in my head (yes in some ways I know this was kind of a nasty thing to do, but i wanted to counter Bogart in cassablanca, ect)
I remember having a bad cold and finding cigarettes repulsive...but I still smoked them...but i told myself the next time i got sick i would take such a deep drag it would repulse me.

"the universe conspires to give it to you"

auspiciously i got food poisoning (no not from drinking but from McDonalds). As i was about to throw up, i took the deepest longest drag I could take.

That was good for two weeks.
During that time when ever I would walk my roommate's dog when i would get a whiff of his crap (in the city you have pick it up) and gag i would imagine myself deeply inhaling a cigarette. I would constantly remind myself of that vomiting /nausea incident, constantly think of the most repulsive person smoking and the foul odor of dog crap whenever i thought of a cigarette.

strangely i didn't throw my cigarettes out, i kept on pack in the freezer. Something about knowing it was there kept me from the impulse of going around the 7-11 and buying a pack - i felt that anxiety exacerbated urges.

sometimes I would really get the urge after drinking and i would take out a cig from the pack, go through the ritual of lighting it without actually lighting it (i would strike the match and put it to the side of the cig as i inhaled).dangerous .but it worked...anyway I got strong urges for a couple of months afterwards and occasional ones for about six, but after that I can honestly say i haven't had a craving since. oh by the way, I never needed/used patches or anything like that.

the most important thing to do is:
associate cigarettes with repulsive smells and tastes - and constantly re-enforce this even when you don't think you need to - that strength will be needed in the future!

[dalante]

Originally Posted by Adam

Unfortunately, I don't have the budget to buy Allen Carr's book, not even the $10 that it was listed for on Amazon.

All right, so read this carefully. This is a summary of Allen Carrs' book (from the top of my head, there may be mistakes):

Why do you smoke today?
Today you smoke because you are addicted to nicotine.

You tell yourself that there are other reasons, but that is just social conditioning, or whatever beliefs you have to help you not feel as bad about your addiction. Bottom line is: each cigarette creates a need in your body for another cigarette later.

Whatever your reason was to light your first cigarette (mine was that at the time, I was really shy and I couldn't get a girl), it created a need for nicotine in you. Today, you smoke, because... well... you just smoked a few hours before (or a few minutes).

This is an addiction chain. You smoke, you want another one later. So at some point, you are going to have to break the nicotine chain. That means, stop smoking and no patches. Erredicate nicotine.

What you tell yourself

In order to feel good about your addiction, you told yourself many lies (usually, lies you've heard from others, no need to be creative)... those lies, repeated over and over, create beliefs. These beliefs need to be erradicated if you want to successfully quit. Here they are:

• I smoke because I am bored
• I smoke because I need to focus
• I smoke because I enjoy it
• I smoke because I am tired
• I smoke because I need to calm down
• I smoke because I envy watching the others smoke

I smoke because I am bored
It won't make you less bored. The boredom will remain after the cigarette.

I smoke because I need to focus
Nicotine creates a rush in the brain that makes it harder for you to focus.

I smoke because I enjoy it
Please get real. Can you really say: "I am proud because I only had 10 cigarettes today" and claim you enjoy it? I thought people couldn't get enough of things they enjoy doing.

I smoke because I am tired
After the head rush, the nicotine will put you in a drowsy state.

I smoke because I need to calm down
The nicotine accelerates your heart beat and makes you more stressed. Moreover, it creates a stressful need for another cigarette later.

I smoke because I envy watching the others smoke
Actually, smokers envy non-smokers for not smoking. Not the opposite.

This is just a brief summary, I probably forgot a lot of ideas. Save 10$ and buy the book.

[Cron]

Cut back on your caffeine to make quitting smoking easier.

Nicotine helps move things out of your blood faster, making the effects of caffeine you use weaker.

Once you remove the nicotine, the caffeine you use will once again hit you at full force adding to your post quitting jitters.

[vivling]

Originally Posted by Tester

I think everything you need to do is to read Allen Carr 's "Easyway to stop smoking".
Allen Carr's Easyway Worldwide: Allen Carr's Easy Way to Stop Smoking

I bought that book over a year ago and read it, because people recommend it so much. Most people seem to think it works like magic.

I didn't work for me. Reading that book did nothing, absolutely nothing at all. I got a little angry and depressed because of it. I felt I was too smart for the book and it was full of false logic.

I really wanted to quit and was open minded about every possible quitting theory, but I still smoke. I read it once after, but I realised it's useless. I'm glad other people have found it helpful, but I guess I'm just not easily influenced... I just need to use my own will power and quit smoking the way I've quit other destrucive habbits in my life. Will power and determination.

Everyone has their own way, what works for you, might not work for me and vice versa.

There is nothing that is either "easy" or "difficult" Everything is relative. It depends on a person and a situation & million other things.

Form my own experiences I believe you need self-dicipline, the right state of mind and the right place and time to get rid of an addiction.

When life is good and smooth, everything gets surprisingly easy... Then you get a feeling "Wow, this was easy! Why didn't I do this before".

Well it wasn't easy before...

[VeganMelissa]

I quit smoking 5 years ago after smoking for over 10 years. I used to smoke a pack a day and I decided I was done with the smell and lack of breath. I quit on a Friday so that I would have the weekend to work out my anger etc. I remember crying the entire weekend! I didn't let myself pick up a butt I would just cry at everything. I also was unable to sleep soundly for the first month when I quit. I don't know if it had something to do with the nicotine coming out of me or what but just be prepared.
Once I got past that first month the fact that I could sleep again made me want to leave those butts alone. I didn't want to have to go through another month of not sleeping and I knew if I started again it was inevitable that I would also quit again.
As crazy as this sounds, I've decided that when I turn 80 I'm gonna start smoking again because by then who cares! This actually helps me get though every day smoke free. I'm not giving them up for good, just for most of my life.