Tips for quitting smoking?

Ok I know someone out there has quit smoking at some point and might have some tips for dealing with the *real* issues I'm facing -- such as, what did you do when you were stuck in traffic and pissed at the guy who cut you off? Normally, I would just light up a cigarette and curse him from my safe cloud of smoke. Now I'm just sitting there, wishing for my safe cloud of smoke . . . argh! I keep looking at these quitting smoking websites and they suck. I swear they are all written by people who never smoked in their lives and thus, have no idea the joy and pleasure of the after dinner smoke or the, oh, even better, after work smoke! Bah . . .grumble . . .whine . . .

Zana

I hear ya. I've tried many times and failed. Most I've gone without it was about 3 month using the patch. But getting off the patch was another issue. I hear Zyban works well.

Stop the car, get out, walk to the back, open the trunk, remove the lid from the crate, take the rocketlauncher and blow his car up.

You even get lots of smoke that way! :)

Haha I misread the post. Ez has a nice solution.
For the real issue, I get satifaction of speeding up, cutting the same person off, slowing down and boxing him/her in.

I've never smoked tobacco myself, but I have helped several people stop smoking. Nicotine is a horrible drug and I'm glad to help people get off of it. The main problem I've seen with friends is the first few days. If you can successfully get past those days, you'll be in a better place to continue quitting. So, I mainly try and help with those days. My method though is a bit unorthodoxed.

Mainly it consists of a long weekend (4 days or more if possible) in which the person is allowed to smoke as much as they want, just not tobacco.

You can use a smoking blend, cloves, or, umm, whatever Just as long as it isn't tobacco.

I find that forcing a geat deal of smoking on the person during the weekend helps.

This will get you past the period where habit and the actual chemical addiction will be your downfall. After that, as long as you Actually want to stop, you should be fine.

Well, I've never smoked ciggerettes, only marijuana. Since it's psychologically addicting (for most, anyway) I got off by, more or less, just saying "no" to myself VERY harsly. It was hard, and I got REALLY tense, but it worked.

The time I was trying to quit, I smoked one cig on my birthday and that pretty much ruined it. Even if you've been off of it for 2 years or so, it only takes 1 cig to get back into the addiction.
As for weed, well that's really easy to kick (never had the reason to quit though )
It does take a while to get off the physical addiction of nicotine. Just the smell of it makes you go nuts and literally pale and sick. Definiitely not a good feeling. I'm willing to try to kick the habit again though. Yet it's just so nice to light a cig after a bowl.. Anyway, I'm open for suggestions also.

I quit smoking about 8 months ago. Was 1-2 pack a day smoker for around 7 years. I tried to quit many times. Tried the patch a few times and even zyban.

Finally I got really sick and quit cold turkey for that week and never looked back. Quitting cold turkey and staying away from drinking and bars helped a lot.

Hardest part was the routine of driving and smoking. Was hard. Oh and drinking the few few times was rough. Just gotta pick a week that you dont' have a lot of serious things going on where you need your concentration. Maybe even on vacation .. I went on vacation the week after I was so sick and that helped too.

After a few weeks (maybe even less) of getting used to the new routine it got easier. I soon got to the point where I didn't understand why I really smoked to begin with and why I had the notion I was never going to be able to quit. It's almost like a weird dream at this point .. I still get the occasional craving but it's so minor I don't really think twice about it.

LOL It's crazy because I can smell the smoke on people as they walk by. I can actually smell! and not run 10 feet and become out of breath. Crazy stuff.

Now I just drink heavily to compensate my non-smoking lifestyle.

Here's a scary one for you - I've quit smoking 3 times for more than a year. I'm back smoking again though.

What worked in each case were these things:

1. Switch to a natural tobacco brand first, such as American Spirit. You'll actually go through withdrawal for a while from all the other poisons besides nicotine.

2. Get rid of every last piece of smoking related paraphernelia in your place. All ashtrays, matches, lighters etc.

3. If at all possible, stay away from other smokers for at least 4 days. This should get you over the major withdrawals.

4. Exercise! Wear youself out physically. You'll duplicate that breathless feeling without having to poison yourself in the process.

5. Another thing that worked amazingly well was a bit of accupressure. There's a bump right in the middle of your ear. If you press your fingernails in right below it, you'll get a sensation of your lungs relaxing a bit. It's a good substitute habit.

6. Take lots of extra vitamins and minerals to help handle the physical withdrawal.

-Good luck to you, and best wishes to you and your dad.

I've never smoked... but then I guess that gives another angle to the thread Or maybe it's just more of the crap you read on other sites *shrugs*


Honk horn, scowl, maybe wind the window down and yell at them. A friend of ours makes a point of venting over the (hands-free) cellphone to my father's most tolerant and amused ears. I guess making light of it like that can also help

Followed by a nice strong coffee on arrival (or beer if it's a one-way trip).

After-dinner smoke? Way to kill your aftertaste Again, coffee or beer work for me. Both of those kill it too. Actually I usually either have a snooze or find some online fix like messageboards or an SL session.

After work - same story Alcoholic drinkage is preferable (it's still safer than smoking!) and if it was a particularly bad day then perhaps some flame-thrower fun on GTA.

Oh, and get some sweets. My uncle stopped smoking by always having a pack of Werthers Original on standby... every time he wanted a fag he had one of those instead.

Iron,

Try lighting another bowl after the first bowl if you feel the need to continue smoking. Eventually, you'll either not feel the need to smoke a cigarette, or you'll not remember what the word cigarette means.

Seriously though, Iron, try for a few days smoking something other than a cigarette each time you get a craving.

And Darwin, in the interest of honest information I'll have to refute your statement that Most people find marijuana psychologically addictive. True, a percentage of people find marijuana psychologically addicting, but it's no greater of a percentage than, say, the number of people who find ice cream sundaes psychologically addicting.

Marijuana is one of the least addictive substances known. MOST people find stopping the use of marijuana as simple as actually making the decision to stop.

LOTS AND LOTS OF SHOWERS!
Keeping a Marlboro burning in the shower is a SERIOUS challenge!

However, go to your doctor and ask for a prescription for Nicotrol Inhalers! THey break you from cigs, and then you can break from the inhalers with the gum.
I have a very close friend that quit in a month using those inhalers, gum, patches, and Zyban.


THough, I still manage 2 packs a day, guess Im not ready to really quit huh?

Erm, pardon my British dialect... just realised

Here, a 'fag' is slang for a cigarette... rather different from the American terminology

I can't find it!

try gum. or make up ways to kill them in your mind.

i quit in july after smoking for 10+ years (about a pack a day) and i found that you have to break yourself of the depandancy on nicotine, completely. no nico-gum, no inhalers, no patches.

its not an easy road, but once you break free of that tether, you'll be free.. free at last!

seriously, try gum.

If your REALLY SERIOUS about quiting this is a guaranteed way to quit smoking:

1. Before bed, place 4 cigarettes in a full glass of water.

2. When you wake up, and get the urge to have a smoke, drink the glass of water. (warning: you will puke like its your 21st bday all over again)

3. Vow that if you smoke another cigarette you will drink another glass. Come through on it too, if you smoke, fill up a glass and do it again.

Repeat this for about a week. My friend had to drink 3 glasses total, and he never smoked again.

Michael


p.s. - i was never serious enough to do this, so i quit BSing myself that i was gonna quit, and came to the realization that i'll smoke until the end of my (smoking-shortened) days.

Well, I have a rather addictive personality. I get depressed when I don't have sugar sometimes, even!

Zana,

Different people are addicted to cigarettes to a different degree. I have known people who gave up easily, and others who just could not manage it (and unfortunately died because of their addiction). I used to panic if I only had 20 cigarettes on me, and spent my life trying different methods of quitting.

What finally did it for me was nicotine nasal sprays. You start off by having a squirt every 30 minutes. This takes the edge off the craving. In the early stages the craving returns in full force after 20 minutes, but you know you are only going to have to wait for 10 minutes before you get relief.

I gave up nearly eight years ago, and still experience a strong physical craving from time to time. Fortunately this only happens now at rare intervals. But while it might be true that the craving vanishes after three days (which is what I was told) this must only apply to people who are not really addicted. I found the craving diminished only very gradually, and it was many months before I was finally able to relax.

And you stay in a rather strange mental state for many months. I am not at all aggressive normally, but I lost my temper on a number of occasions after I gave up, and actually tried to physically attack someone - which is totally unlike me. So it is important to be prepared for things like the incident you mention.

Best of luck, anyway. It can be done.

First, danke much for the suggestions. This is a tough one. I'm addictive personality too, which is why I don't drink much really.

Well, I've been using the lozenges which seem to fix the nicotine craving just fine. The weird thing is, what I am apparently craving is the kind of semi-burning sensation in the back of my throat. Do you know what I mean, you smokers? I know the lozenges give me less nicotine than the smokes did (at least, that's what the marketing materials claim and I mostly believe them) which could account for some of that. But at the same time, it seems the oral fixation part is what is getting to me. I've always smoked lights or ultra lights and I'm just about a pack a day or less smoker, for about ten years maybe? Anyway, it seems it must the nicotine that's giving me these fits but it feels like the other stuff is what I'm missing -- the "relaxation" thing, etc.

I have tried Zyban in the past but it made me a little bit nutso. No, scratch that. Think PMS times about five hundred for three weeks straight. Think psycho zana.

So I've decided to start carrying the lozenges, regular gum and suckers with me at all times. It's only three days in, so apparently I really do need to just ride the painful physical wave until I get past it.

Still, that guy on the highway was a real arse . . .



Zana

This may sound weird, but it actually does some good. If your at home and get a craving, go brush your teeth. It helps the oral fixation thing and the craving will pass. And, a nice clean mouth is an added bonus to remember another reason not to smoke.

Darwin,

Sorry, I didn't mean to come across harsh or antagonistic if I did. I completely understand what you are saying, and yes, for a percentage of people, marijuana can be VERY psychologically addicting.

With all of the misinformation out there about marijuana, I tend to feel like sometimes I Need to champion honest information. Makes me picky about semantics sometimes

Dar, I know you're a vey intelligent guy and like more and more intelligent people these days, I sense that you can look at marijuana rationally.

Thanks

Ya I know the feeling. I think that's why nicorette has that spicy substance in it to try to replace that feeling. You might want to try that if you're not going cold turkey. I grabbed a box of those but damn, $30+ for it. It's good for a temporary relief for me anyway.

Zana - The throat hurty thing is apparently normal. I had that when I quit... as well as weird oxygen buzzes, weird warm/cold sensations in my extremities, a vicious, crushing, blinding headache from hell, a runny nose, and tons more phlegm and coughing than I ever had while smoking. It absolutely sucked, but I'm 16+ months out now.

Not sure I really have any advice except for keep on keepin' on. I still (*rarely*) have cravings, but they're more of a fleeting fancy nowadays. There was some point around 6-8 months that I suddenly realized I hadn't thought of cigarettes in quite awhile, and it was a welcome relief. Now it's rare that I *do* think of cigarettes. Unfortunately, around the 1 year mark, I started noticing my lowered lung capacity. It's hard to notice the first year because your lungs are clearing up and smells and tastes are fascinating. I almost feel like I have mild asthma now... which "sadly" means I have to get off my butt and do some cardiovascular exercise.

Eat a crap-ton of apples. They always helped me, but I have such an addictive personality that I usually needed to eat 3-4 in a row. What else... oh, if you slip at all, instead of feeling guilty and sliding back to smoking, just keep going. You'll feel like crap for a couple days, but if it was only a small slip-up, the renewed withdrawals will be shorter. Lastly, however you may feel, you WILL feel like yourself again. It's just slow and sneaky. I wish you luck!

Zana,

Three days in -- go for it!

I quit smoking in '84 after 20 years of Pall Malls. I used a combination of behavior mod (big treats at 1 week and 6 months) the buddy system (whenever I wanted to smoke I called up my wife) and aversion therapy (my uncle had just had his leg amputated because of "cardiac insufficiency" due to smoking and drinking, and I found out all the gory details). Also I had an iffy treadmill test, you know running hooked up to an EKG machine, they never told me exactly what they saw but somehow managed to scare the hell out of me anyhow. Nothing like intimations of mortality to break that addictive cycle.

I did a bunch of stuff in the week before quitting smoking too; you know, finding all the packs stashed in the sock drawer etc., getting rid of all the ashtrays in the house, avoiding friends who smoked and places like the local tav where smoking is basically what you did to go with drinking. The most revealing thing I did though was to keep a log of when I wanted a cigarette, and it was this log I think that pushed me over the edge. I discovered that a lot of times I was smoking just from habit, and that really pissed me off, the notion that I wasn't in control of my own behavior. So I got mad, and I got scared, and I quit.

In the weeks following the Big Day I hit the gym a lot and learned some biofeedback techniques (aka meditation) to bring the old heartrate down in situations like being stuck in traffic behind some moron. Again, I think I was driven more by fear and anger than anything else. Figure out a way to activate that old survial part of the brain and you're on your way.

my tip: don't