Referred here for support (smoking related)

[SunnyDaze]

I posted the following at the Playground and somebody told me about this board. I'm going to copy/paste it here...anybody feel (or felt) this way?

While waiting for my mom to finish with the eye doctor on Friday, I picked up a copy of Self magazine and was thumbing through it. The headline...Cigarette City...I usually avoid articles such as this but what snagged my attention was Galveston, Texas so I read the first paragraph...

Then the second and so on. I've been a smoker for a lot of years, quit *successfully* twice but went back to the filthy nasty habit. Reading this article, the overwhelming emotion I felt was guilt. Guilt because I say I want to quit, I say I need to quit...then walk outside and light up while I "give it a little more thought" before I make the committment. COPOUT!!!

I've always heard that you have to be ready to quit smoking in order to be successful (for life) at it. So last week I was talking to someone about wanting to quit but that I just wasn't ready. She asked me a really tough question..."Why do you think you have to be ready?" I couldn't answer a question like that.

I think what I'm most afraid of in quitting is the failure. Nobody likes to feel like a failure and I'm no exception. But I really just felt a huge amount of guilt, disappointment and disgust in myself and the tobacco industry in general while I read that article. I found myself wishing the taxes on cigarettes would double...that the government in Texas would spend money on smoking prevention and awareness...that somebody would step up and say "You do NOT have the right to infringe on the health of your family, your neighbors, your grandchildren just because you choose to fill your own body with toxins...so KNOCK IT OFF!"

I wish I could have woke up this morning and just *been* a non-smoker! Thanks for listening...

[manalu]

SunnyDaze....
I quit smoking 15 years ago and I smoked 3 packs of cigarettes a day!!!
I quit cold turkey.....which now they have all the patches and things to help you, so it would be easier now.
I kept some cigarettes...I thought if I failed, I would have some on hand. Every time I wanted a cigarette, I would just think....
"do I want to go through the 1st hour again?"
In the beginning I would use the 1st 30 minutes etc.....I changed the time to wherever I was at the time. That was the only thing that kept me going....I did not want to feel like I did then. I knew if I started again, I would just have to quit again.
I had a 2 year old, who smelled of smoke! Now that apalls me!! I cannot believe I put my baby through my smoking!!
In 1998, I watched my Mom die from smoking all her life. She had emphysema and it was not pleasant! I would never want that for anyone. Now I have asthma and can't be around people who smoke....it triggers an asthma attack. Even if I smell it on their clothes, I have an attack.

Please get support......It is not just your health affected. I will be praying for you!!!

Nancy

[SunnyDaze]

Thanks for sharing that with me! I know so many people who would be thrilled if I'd quit and I'm sure any one of them would be my support. My girlfriend (partner) agonizes over it but doesn't push me because she's afraid the more she nags me, the longer it will take me to decide to quit. I should just tell her how disgusted I am with my own smoking...she would be my #1 fan and supporter!

Thanks again. All ideas and good thoughts or well wishes appreciated! I'll try to check some of the other threads.

[SusanY]

Sunny, don't know if you have put the cigarettes down yet, but a couple of weeks ago when I announced my quit date of Oct. 22nd, someone recommended the book "Allen Carr's Easyway to Stop Smoking".

I immediately went to Amazon.com and ordered a used copy.

Absolutely the BEST investment I have ever made. I am now ordering 4 or 5 more copies for friends & family because I do not want to part with mine.

Spend the money. Get the book. You don't even have to quit smoking. The author actually encourages you not to quit smoking before reading the book. What do you have to lose?

[aim in Fla*working]

susan..why do you feel the book is so good? I am tired of motivational books that just dont motivate or support me to do anything other than "buy it"

[SusanY]

Aim, the author, Allen Carr, smoked 100 cigarettes a day. Believe me, I could have written this book when he describes the gut-grinding hunger for a nicotine fix. I have smoked since just before I got my drivers license at age 15, so appx. 30 years of smoking.

In previous attempts I didn't fully understand the withdrawal process, or how brainwashed I had become about how Hard it is to quit. It really isn't as hard as everyone would have us believe. The tobacco companies like us to feel like it is the hardest thing we will ever do.

I think the person who recommended the book is the lady with the Chesire Cat avatar, but I can't remember her name. Anyway, she smoked the whole time reading the book. Finished the book, put down the cigarettes and never looked back. I think she said that was 1 1/2 years ago.

[aim in Fla*working]

awesome Susan!!!! Sounds great i will order it now..Also, let me ask you..did you gain when you quit?

[SusanY]

Aim, amazingly I just put the cigarettes down on Thursday, October 21st. I went to bed and when I woke up on Friday morning I emptied all ashtrays and threw away all cigarettes and had DH take the trash with him on his way out the door to work.

I have not gained an ounce, other than ordinary water retention issues, but I am really working to replace the occasional nicotine withdrawal pang with anything BUT food. Keeping a close eye on my fitday totals because I have every intention of losing another 5-7 lbs. before Thanksgiving. I have started walking again, jumping on the trampoline, etc. You really have to make your mind up that you WILL NOT replace cigarettes with food. The book is well worth the money. If you buy it and aren't satisfied, I'll buy it from you.

I was going to pass mine on to a friend, but really don't want to part with it just yet.

[aim in Fla*working]

I ordered it and it whouldbe here in a few days..JUst curious..how lond di it take to read it and yes..if it sucks..I will send it to you...

[SusanY]

I deliberately took about 4 days reading it in my spare time because I had set my quit day for October 22nd. So, on Thursday night I finished the last few chapters. I probably have a little more spare time than some people though.

[aim in Fla*working]

Susan..I too have smoked consistently since I was 14ish...learned to inhale on a trip visting family in England where allt he kids aksed me "Is that how all americans smoke...without inhaleing...So I learned and showed all my american friends...who all have wuit except me...and they have gained a CRAPlOAD of weight and I think that detered me more...funny thing is when I was a kid and would want a smoke and I wasn't even inhaling..I was already psychologically addicted....howmessed up is that...Then when I inhaled...that was it.
I rememebr fighting with my mom when I was sweventeen. She was mad at me for staying out too late...I was so stressed..I looked at her and said,' Well..now you are really going to be pissed,," and pulled out my pack and staraed at her and lit up and blew it out and said...okay..now WHAT?
I teach HS...and that seems so young to me now. Mom is dying of emphasema and I have so many health problems...I can not even list them. It is time for me. While I have time. Thanks for the insight.

[SusanY]

Aim, that is so ironic. When I was seventeen and told my mother I was engaged to get married, I immediately started smoking in front of her. I was so young and stupid (for smoking AND for getting married )

I have been suffering from chronic bronchitis with bouts of pneumonia since appx. 1985-86. Last Christmas I got the flu and seriously thought I was going to suffocate to death. I put the cigarettes down. By Late January, early Feb., I felt better and picked them back up again.

I'll be totally honest with you. I felt like I would die if I ever caught the flu again with the shape my lungs were in. It is very scary.

I can't wait for your book to come in.

[puttchikins]

I gave up smoking 22 years ago after having smoked from 14-48...Anyway I know you have a medications and patches and all kinds of good things today but when I stopped I was a 3 pack a day smoker and these are some of the things that helped me...Got a subliminal tape put it on casset player and ran it all night now it just dawned on me no one listens to tapes anymore and don't know if they make subliminal tapes anymore but if they do I swear that helped...I also signed up for courses from both the heart association and the lung association..they had people who phoned you ever day to see how you were doing and that was a big help...I kept a rubber band on my wrist and everytime I wanted a sicarette I snapped it hard...I also got cinnamon sticks they are the size of a cigarette with a hole in the middle and I puffed on them for months looked and felt like a cigarette..also in the beginning change your routein..don't have coffee first if it makes you want to smoke have it with your meals...etc....good luck all....

[catkin]

Originally posted by SusanY
Sunny, don't know if you have put the cigarettes down yet, but a couple of weeks ago when I announced my quit date of Oct. 22nd, someone recommended the book "Allen Carr's Easyway to Stop Smoking".

I immediately went to Amazon.com and ordered a used copy.

Absolutely the BEST investment I have ever made. I am now ordering 4 or 5 more copies for friends & family because I do not want to part with mine.

Spend the money. Get the book. You don't even have to quit smoking. The author actually encourages you not to quit smoking before reading the book. What do you have to lose?

aim! THIS book is incredible! Susan speaks the truth! I stopped a 35 year habit cold turkey after reading Allen Carr's book. He concentrates on the *brainwashing* as Susan said. You will be totally amazed at how much you've *bought in to* the mental aspects of nicotine addiction! Makes you feel that you've fallen for the lies for so long.

He encourages you to smoke the majority of the time you're reading the book--and smoke I did! I took my time reading it so I could let his wisdom sink in. I stopped reading frequently and pondered the information he was trying to get across until I was satisfied that I understood fully before going on. I highlighted every single passage that spoke to me while I was reading--I referred back constantly--it was a great motivator. Get the book, you'll see!

BTW, I only gained 8 pounds. It'll be a year and a half this November 18th. Yay!!!!!

You CAN do this. It's ALL in how you think. Seriously. You have nothing to lose by reading it.

[aim in Fla*working]

thanks susan and katkin..I am busting my a$$ to get down to 118 and quit...I have a goal challenge going on...I am going to read that book..smoke and get to my goal wieght. I WILL DO THIS. i hope.

[catkin]

Yes, you will!

[Babycrow]

Yes, smokers have a lot of excuses and little things they tell themselves to justify such a horrid habit. It wasn't until I realized how much $$ I could save in a month if I quit smoking that I actually found it within myself to quit. I had a one year old baby, finances were tight, and I was sad that I couldn't afford to buy him a new pair of shoes. To my shame and dismay, I realized that if I saved the money I spent on cigarettes, I could buy him 2 pair of shoes EVERY MONTH!
I bought 4 packs that night, and told myself that once they were gone, that was it. I smoked every one with relish! I considered the patches, Nicorette gum, etc...but of course, couldn't afford them. I thought about it and realized that those things are crutches you just don't NEED. It sounds too simple, but honestly, the way you quit smoking is: you just don't buy any more cigarettes! When I ran out, I used Diet Pepsi and cinnamon flavored sugarless gum to see me through. The combination kind of fulfilled the "burn" similar to smoking...hard to explain, but I went through a lot! After 3 days I decided to tell my husband, and his reply was "yeah, RIGHT!", which wasn't very nice! As a lifelong non-smoker, HE had NO IDEA how MONUMENTAL it was going 3 days without a cigarette! I didn't let it bother me, however, and it was pretty smooth sailing from there. About 6 months later I found a half a pack in the baby's old diaper bag (gotta have all the essentials, right? ) and I took them into the bathroom where DH was showering...he asked what I was gonna do with them...so I threw them into the shower!! It's been 13 years for me and I couldn't be happier or proud of myself for "having it in me" to quit. Quitting smoking is the singular most important thing you can do for your health. And you CAN do it; good luck!

[Pedmom]

I just ordered the book. Thank you to aim in Fla * Working and also catkin for highly recommending it!
Wish me luck! I have tried cold turkey, the Patch, Wellbutrin, and hypnosis. Nothing has worked yet.

[aim in Fla*working]

Hey Pedmon
You are supposed to smoke while you read it. I got mine and didn't even crack it yet. I am waiting until I get to goal....then I will read it and somke away and either quit....or not...for good. I have tried all the same crap you have and it never worked. I guess we gottta make it work.

[Pedmom]

Problem for me is I don't WANT to quit. I like smoking. I just know how bad it is for me and how much my son hates it. So I know I should quit..............