Desperate for a smoke

I gave up the smokes a couple of months ago, and have been on the patches since.

Foolishly, I chose just a few days ago to knock it down a step to the middle strength ones. Bad idea with the stress of Christmas looming.

In addition to really craving a smoke, I'm also being daft, thinking very negative thoughts.

Still, must persevere. Every day I can't help but notice that I can actually breath without effort, and when I got a tad drunk a last weekend, I found I could 'dance' to a whole song without nearly passing out.

Roll on spring time.

 

Hang in there Clueless! You're doing okay.

I'm under orders by my Doc to give it up and had a failed attempt a couple of weeks ago. I've never got beyond the three month mark even with the patches. Giving up for me is the easy bit, it's the withdrawal symptoms that's the problem!

Apparently smoking is more addictive than heroin!

 

As they say, "Don't give up giving up" Sheal. It is hard. This is not my first attempt at quitting. About 10 years ago I quit with some success. It was hard, but within about 6 months I was the typical evangelical ex smoker. I stayed off them for 5 years, and the idea of smoking made me feel sick. Then I had a bit of a legal dispute that would have cost me thousands if I'd lost. I "won", but such things don't come without their stresses, so I had a cigar on my birthday, and then a few weeks later scrounged a rolly off a mate, then a tailored off a colleague, and you know how it goes, before you know it your a smoker again.

Different things work for different people, or even the same person at different times. Last year I went two weeks on the patches. They just didn't work. This time they seem to be working reasonably well. Same patches, same brand and everything. My dad has also recently quit. He had some spray thing that did the trick for him. He let me have a go of his spray, just before I quit. The taste was so foul I had to have a smoke straight after just to get rid of the taste. A mate of mine went on that brain altering Zyban thing. He very nearly went insane, lost his job and everything and at one point accused his long term girlfriend of being an actual witch (not just a figure of speech, he decided she'd made a magic potion in an attempt to trap his soul), yet it works fine for some people.

Different things work for different people. The trick is to find what works.

Its not just about the chemical substitutes either. I'm not going to say it takes will power because everyone says that and its quite nasty really, because sometimes you feel as though you have no will power. I think you just have to keep yourself occupied.

For me, I'm fundamentally lazy. As a smoker, I would smoke more when doing some physical work than when chilling out. Its easier. But then I found myself a new motto that seems to have so far made me more active and less tempted to smoke. "If not now then when?".

 

Thanks Clueless, I'm going to give it another go in the new year. I only smoke 5 - 7 a day anyway. I cut down from twenty plus four years ago. I must have a very addictive nature, even trying to give up these final one's is just as bad. I don't know who suffers most, me or the other half, but I go completely off my head when withdrawal from the patches sets in.

This time when I come off the patches, I'll switch to the Niquitin mini's for a while, just to keep the horrors at bay!

 

Wise words from your missus Armandii. When I went 5 years smoke free between the last twice I was a smoker, some people who knew I'd quite occasionally asked, attempting to complement me, how it felt to be a non-smoker again. I would answer "I don't know", and would then go on to explain, there is no such thing as an ex-smoker, a non-smoker has never smoked. A smoker who has quit is just a smoker who hasn't had one for a long time. Its a sad truth, but the way I look at it, its not as depressing as it sounds. The cravings go away for the most part, and only resurface with a fraction of their original strength in times of extreme stress, and even then only fairly briefly. And in any case, even if you cave in, as long as you don't end up on the slippery slope again, the odd one every now and then isn't going to do any more harm than standing next to a bonfire from time to time.

Some quittees put far too much pressure on themselves. The danger of caving in is not in the occasional smoke, its in getting too comfortable with it again, and deciding (as I did) that as you quit once you can do it again when you're ready, so might as well enjoy it for a while.

 

5 to 7 a day isn't that much, and its a massive achievement to get to that from 20 plus per day, and maintain it.

Very few people I know have managed to stay 'cut down', although I know a few who have. Most cut down, and then it creeps back up. For most, its either all or nothing.

I used to work with a very wise lady who became a dear friend (she was much older and wiser than me). She cut down to 5 a day and was happy with that. Her view was that the cigarettes used to control her. She decided that she liked smoking but wanted to be in control. She got herself into a routine of one with coffee after breakfast, one at 11AM, one at lunch, one after dinner, and one after work. Unfortunately we've drifted apart but she was in her pate 50s when I knew her, and she was as fit as fiddle (so much so that I had a secret serious crush on her, but that's an entirely different story ).

 

I've stuck with the five to seven because if I smoke more it makes me dizzy, which in it self helps to keep them down. I also write the number of the cigarettes inside the box in the lid every morning so I know exactly how many I'm smoking. I find that helps too.

 

Quote Clueless1
"as you don't end up on the slippery slope again, the odd one every now and then isn't going to do any more harm than standing next to a bonfire from time to time."

You have failed already with that in mind

Remember how you started "Just the one to try"
And as long as you just have the one, you will NEVER QUIT

If you do manage to give up, Then NEVER EVER casually mention to the NHS that you used to smoke many years ago, if they are unaware of it already

I mentioned it after fourty years of quiting and I am a marked man with NHS
it is not too bad for me at the moment,as they still treat you

But the way things are going NHS by the time you are my age YOU will have to pay for any treatment / buy insurance etc, IF you were a SMOKER

I managed to quit by Shock of the price and in the old days oil filled capsules for two weeks
My smokes went from £1 for 200 to £1.50 for 20, Never wanted one since not even a sly try (the one off is the end and start of the slippery trail back, Remember how you started just the one to try)

I remember to this day how I started
At 17 I was invited with the rest of the salesmen to a Black and Decker presentation in 1964, there was a free drink, nibbles and ten Benson and Hedges
the cigs I did not bother with until one of the older guys gave me one of his
My ten lasted a week, then I bought another ten that lasted me three days
THEN Ten a day
I joined the Navy and you could have three old pence a day or twenty gigs a day, I took the cigs as they were about thirty old pence a day to buy

Then it was cartons of 200 for 10 shillings (50p) ashore or free at sea
As I was watchkeeping ie up at 0600 work all day, then watch on 20:00 to 23:59
or 16:00 to 18:00 then 23:59 to 04:00 We smoked 24/7 or 40 a day for free or about a £1 a WEEK

I left the RN with a mortgage a wife and two children, and cigs went from £1 a week to £20, as I say the shock of the price more than I could possibly afford REALLY HELPED
After 12 weeks I never missed them and thankfully to this day, do not even miss them

Now to NHS, I had cause to go to the Doctor ten years ago 54yrs old, Casually mentioned I used to smoke BIG RED CROSS on document SMOKER
Cynic or not I belive in future SMOKERS will not be treated FREE on the NHS

So do not Grass yourself up

Good luck in your venture

Jack McHammocklashing

 

You're right Jack. I guess I'm just trying to be optimistic.

As for the NHS marking ex smokers, I totally believe that. A couple of jobs ago, I worked for over 10 years as an analyst programmer, looking after the IT systems on a gov contract. I would love to tell the world some of the rules that were set, but I signed a piece of paper, and I'd find it very difficult to earn a living if I was found to have breached that 'agreement'.

 

If it helps I used to smoke 40 a day, I had tried patches but I found them hard to light, so I tried hypnosis. Went in to see the man at 10 a.m when he was finished at 12 mid day, I never touched a cigarette since, no withdrawal symptoms, nothing. People that know me could not believe I went from 40 / day to 0.

I am not saying hypnosis works for everyone, but as the man said, for this to work I have to want to give up. (first thing he asked) That was around 5 years ago now, saved a fortune.

Good wishes to any one who wants to give up.

 

I gave up in July 1985 after years of sporadic smoking of fags and various other things. Luckily, I was an irregular smoker so i don't think I was particularly addicted. Two of the people I shared those foolish, heady years with have succumbed to smoking related illnesses although they both smoked heavily for many years.

When it came down to it, giving up wasn't too difficult, I was at a watershed moment in my life, and my lifestyle was changing anyway, which helped.

Since then I've devoted myself to a regime of exercise and healthy living but it does occasionally bother me that my doctor still makes a note of it. I seem to remember being told years ago that eventually the risk would return to that of a never-smoked person, not sure that's true. Oh well, enjoy the moment.

To all those struggling with giving up, respect, keep going, it will be worth it.

I did suffer from the occasional craving, mostly when i was stressed or in the pub, but I haven't had that for years and I wouldn't give up that healthy smoke-free feeling for anything now.

 

I smoked for 40 years.
During that part of my life I played football for my county,did athletics,played cricket,squash,rugby,hockey even darts:D......ran around the counrtyside for fun and thought I was super fit. Then five years ago I found myself lying on a table having a thread inserted into my groin and having Stents fitted into my heart's pipe work:DOH:That was my incentive to quit.
I stopped smoking one month before that procedure on 24th September 2006.
To 'reward' myself I put £300 a month cash into a box and over the 5 years I have paid off all outstanding loans,including the house.
But for sure, the biggest incentive was remembering the look on my wife and kids faces as they stood over me in my Hospital bed.

My sig used to be 'One life, Live it'....following advice fron G-C member roders(if I remember rightly) It was changed to what you read now.

Use patches,Gum Sprays,or as I do now and then,an electronic smoke.....just please stop and think of the grief you may give the ones that love you.

Best of all???...I 'aint a miserable git anymore.:D

 

Hi Clueless
I gave up smoking 9 years ago . I had been smoking since I was 14 .Two little tips to make it a tad easier . Get one of them nicotine inhaler things - it gives you something to do with your hands . Half of smoking addiction is habitual. Also get an empty wine bottle , and every time you would have bought a packet of coffin nails put a £5 note in the bottle . Its amazing how that cash grows !!! Paid the deposit on a holiday to Gran Canaria !

 

I've been smoking since I was 11 ...

tried giving up several times, but I am too weak

I am active (gym 5 times a week) etc, but eventually it will catch up with me

My dad used to smoke 50 a day .... he used to wake up at 4am every morning and 'bark' for 20 min (his cough sounded like a dog barking)

eventually, he passed away from a blood clot that went through his lungs (cannot remember the name ... think it was pulminory (sp) clot )

I take my hat off to those who have quit