Just thinking about it

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Just thinking about it

...stopping smoking.

I was walking to the corner shop this morning. The sky was a lovely almost cloudless blue and I thought. "Maybe, just maybe I may so come to love this world again, I'll REALLY want to stay. And then I won't want to have to fight cancer will I?"

That coupled with the fact that
1. It's lent
2. I don't have any money this month
3. The smoking ban's on its way - it won't effect me if I don't smoke

All seem like good reasons.

It's one of those things you always say "yeah I'll give up one day" and before you know it you're in your sixties with a face like a scrunched up crisp packet and yellow tombstone teeth.

yeah go on jude ... it's three years nearly for me and i am very pleased i did it ... although the first six months were very very hard the next 6 were only very hard and since then it's got less hard ... til about a year ago when i was suddenly ok with it ... have you quit before? ... i never had seriously ... but i think when you stop you find out what you use smoking for ... that can be scary ... but if you're ready ... good luck ... my advice is to cold turkey it ... you think when you stop that you can't find anything to do with yourself but that passes ... i joined quitnet.com ... it helped ... getting high fives in the chatroom from a bunch of incredibly over sincere and encouraging americans whenever i reached a milestone (one hr one day one week) ... was absurdly helpful ...
I haven't tried before. I figured if I can give up drinking I should be able to stop smoking. I could never have stopped smoking when I was drinking. The craving is heightened after a few jars. I generally smoke when bored I think. quitnet.com sounds interesting - may take a peak!

 

I want to give up smoking (again), those adverts on tv freak me out, I couldn't bear my kids to be helping to arrange my funeral and preparing for my death knowing that it was something that I had brought upon myself. I did it last time with patches, but they gave me horrendous nightmares (when I was able to sleep), so I am going to wait until have finished dissertation and then stop...hopefully for good this time.
uuurgh ... imagine your veins dripping with that goo ... those adverts are freaky ... i didn't stop until i was convinced i actually was going to die if i didn't ... smoker's cough ... phlegm gobbets ... wheezing ... lovely ...
It's odd - I've given up for long periods of time - once for 3 years - but something always comes along and I start again. But, I go for weeks without any, then have an evening where I'll have about 10. I have never had that 'I need a fag' moment, but there are times I think, 'I fancy a cigarette'. It is usually in a pub. I saw both my parents die very young, and they were both heavy smokers. My mum was only 44 and my dad was 51... they got sick very quick, and even that, even seeing my mum turn into a David Bowie circa Ziggy Stardust lookalike - even helping my dad piss into a conical flask because he lost the strength in his hands - even that hasn't stopped me. Human beings are just plain weird. We don't do anything that makes sense. We are hilarious. But that's also one of the good things about us too. We make no sense. We are just bags of desire and impulse and need and fear and excitement. I reckon. Am in philosophical mood today, but in a good way.
I haven't had a cigarette for over 30 hours!

 

Enzo
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Good luck Jude. It's hard. I give up once a month but my heart's never really in it. I'm no quitter. Enzo.. www.thedevilbetweenus.com(link is external)
http://nica-norcal.org/cards/nica-chip.html(link is external) please can you guys keep sending me these cheesy and almost effortless tokens of encouragement My last cigarette was at 8:30 am on Monday 6th March

 

Keep going Jude. Just keep saying, not just yet, not just yet, when a craving wave arrives and within ten mins it will subside. Drink lots of water - the more you drink the quicker the nicotine will be out of your system. 2 days is poss. 3 days at most - then it's completely gone (the rest is psychological). You can do it hun! Oh and btw - i'll be joining you with the cold turkey next monday as have been pulled into a Days of Wine and Roses thing with dave recently and started smoking again after a 3 year break... Doh.
I started again after 3 years - and whilst I do smoke it's not a lot (on average two or three a day) so I fool myself that I can stop anytime. I can't. But I will - soon. Go for it Jude - give me inspiration.
WTG jude!!!!! .....you're AWESOME .... *high 5* whoooooooo whoooooooooooooooooo (and other quitnet american chatroomisms)
There is a Nicotine Anonymous Jude, that's how I stopped 16 years ago. Contact me. Now if I could just get a handle on not picking up that first drink.

 

I've been a 20-a-day man for over 30 years now and I'm fine ....... apart from the high blood pressure, the cough, the inability to run for a bus without gasping ... Do it Jude, one more for the slipper!
aw thanks Fish...it REALLY is helpful! Styx, one thing I don't get about Nic anon is step one. Maybe I am powerless over cigs but my life isn't unmanageable because of it! I am taking a kind of 12 step approach to it though

 

Your life is unmanageable because you're doing something which will eventually cause you serious injury or death. There's also the fact of thinking about nothing else all day long when trying to quit. Funny story: When I lived in London I had a dinner date with a woman who was studying to be an addiction therapist. She showed up 45 minutes late to the restaurant, sat down, and announced that she was out of cigarrettes. The restaurant did not sell them, so she excused herself and left the restaurant in search of cigarettes. After another 15 minutes she returned, all apologies for the taking so long to find an open shop. It was everything I could do to keep from laughing out loud. Suffice it to say, that was our first and last date. I can tolerate smoking just fine. Being an airhead is inexcusable. So a few weeks later someone informed me that she had met a guy over the internet and moved in with him three days after their first meeting. She evidently was not entirely sure what his last name was. A few months later she moved out after discovering he was involved with some strange new age cult. He also did not work, so she was supporting him. And this person will be counseling addicts.
2 days !

 

oh the awesomeness of jude! .... well done madam ... (did you try quitnet? ... they send you milestone emails telling you how much cash you've saved ... how many fags you havent smoked and how much time you have added onto your life ... marvellous!) xxx
such as this one .... Your Quit Date is: 4/21/2003 11:59:59 PM Time Smoke-Free: 1051 days, 12 hours, 10 minutes and 24 seconds Cigarettes NOT smoked: 31545 Lifetime Saved: 8 months, 23 hours Money Saved: £6,312.00 (of course i have spent £6,312.00 on snacks and booze so really i haven't seen any financial improvements ... but i shall enjoy the extra 8 months alive in my shed, i hope ...)
I am saving the quitnet chatroom for when the cravings really kick in - they haven't done so yet!

 

Nicotine is as addictive as heroin I read. I read on this thread that people cannot manage to run for a bus, their blood pressure is high etc.. Of course there's also the fact that you will probably shave off 20 years of your life.

 

If You Want To, You Can Do It Jude!
I'm one of those incredibly over sincere and encouraging Americans, jude. Woof woof woof woof! Go, go, go! :-) and a seriously 'well done'. My sister-in-law went for hypnosis to quit smoking, and it worked! The hypnosis cut the mind-hand-mouth connection; besides the nicotine addiction (which is, as styxbroox said, as addictive as heroin, although not *quite* as scary), there is also the *physical* habit, which many people find even more challenging to quit than the actual drug itself. Don't let it beat you; we're rooting for you...
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