Jaydee5

Good luck to you duSTI's PA


You've made the first big leap...the rest is just of lots of little steps now

SiPie

Worked for me

Amazing that so many people still go down the patches road .....

'I want to give up nicotine addiction..................'

there you go then.....stick a patch on and get some nicotine back into your system then

tmo

At the end of week two using the max strength patches.
Going fine, no cravings,
Its your brain telling you at certain times that you should be doing something, i.e. on the way to work I used to spark up at a certain point in the journey first couple of days passing the same point bit of a craving, now no problem.

Got over the “everything I drink tastes like I’m licking an old lump of steel”

It’s correct that you are replacing the nicotine in the **** with patches, then you wean yourself off those.
Main points for me at this stage are
1. stopping the smoke inhalation
2. stopping the cravings
3. stop smelling like a Whitby kipper
4. reducing the nicotine intake

True you can go cold turkey or the numerous other ways that people use.
For me patches are working just fine thank you.

SiPie

Good luck to you and I'm certain that patches are better for you than actually smoking and I'm certainly not knocking your efforts....but eventually you'll realise that the smoking is not the issue........

...it's simply nicotine addiction

2 colleagues of mine are addicted to nicotine gum after nearly a year cracks me up

Jamo

iTrader: (23)

chuppa chups!! and will power!

it will satisfy your brains cravings, as you are doing something that is similar to smoking a cigarette, you are after all holding something placing it in your mouth then moving it away.

if you can get your head around the quitting part this will help no end. I have been quit just a little over 2 years now, and I was smoking 30 + a day for about 15 years.

hth

jamo

Leslie

As far as I can remamber FCD, the airborne time was about 0.55 of a second!

Les

tmo

So do you have any teeth left

I've chewed the **** out of a couple of pens i had in the car

SiPie

Which (if you follow Allen Carr's method of stopping) substitutes something else for your cigarette and convinces your brain that you've given up something worthwhile. Because you've replaced it with a substitute, psychologicly you feel you have been deprived in some way. This in turn makes your brain add illusionary importance to the cigarette. Therefore you crave a cigarette even more.

Your brain works out that your body is 100% complete and doesn't need nicotine so much quicker if you don't use substitutes, mints, chewing gum, treats, carrots...whatever.

Just get on with your life and start celebrating the fact that you ain't poisioning and gunging your arteries to death......

Having smoked (heavily) for over 20 years, I stopped (and stayed stopped) with no real problems, having previously failed using :

nicotine chewing gum
patches
inhilator
cutting down
hypnosis
cold turkey

PS Zyban can have some well dodgy side effects if you have any pre-disposition to depression or any anxiety related illness

Surely it's worth a try reading a book at £6.99 first, before spending a fortune on nicotine patches, gum etc

Also worth remembering that nicotine itself is a mega powerful poision and the sooner you can clear it out your system the better

tmo

Couldn't agree more

duSTI's PA

Hi Everyone

I must admit starting this thread was a great idea of mine, all you responses have been excellent and are really helping me, don't usually post on SN as you can see by my post count but I'm really glad I did .

One thing I have noticed.

I love Diet Pepsi and I always get a can in the morning for lunch time , well I have just had my first sip of Pepsi and my god what a diffrance I can really taste the Phosphoric Acid , Aspartame,Acesulfame k (lol) , but there really is a diffrence in the taste of things , or am I just being daft ??

tmo

Wait until you get the metal taste ..... hmmm hmmm nice !!!

only lasts a week.

duSTI's PA

Oh Great sounds wonderful
is there anything else ?

tmo

Hot sweats, short temper, sore throat ........ but well worth it i tell you and i'm only coming up to 2 weeks

EBRWRX

Sorry to **** on your bonfire but if an alcoholic gives up drink he is still an alcoholic.

I thank you.

duSTI

No she's already got that

TonyFlow

How is that so? If they look at it that way, then surely they are more likley to relapse?
To be an alcoholic surely you must be addicted to, and using/abusing alcohol!

I consider myself to be a non-smoker - although I used to smoke! Dont tell me I lied to my insurers

SCOsazOBY

i smoke about 10 to 15 cigs a day, i can honestly say that its mainly when im bored or stressed when i light up, plus the routine things like getting in the car you light one, after meals etc.
I have been considering stopping for a while and after reading this thread it has convinced me even more because then i too can post up my progress and i like the idea of been able to chat to others who are going through/have done it.

I have tried before and stopped for five days and the only reason i started again was because i was soooo sleepy all the time and i never even craved a cig but that maybe because i was eating polo mints and chewy like it was going out of fashion.
I even tried to convince myself that i would buy myself something at the end of each week as a treat, but hey im a woman and do that anyway

So sod it! im 22 years old and im QUITTING THE CIGGYS TOMORROW!

Not because i think its bad for me or that i dislike myself smoking but because im fed up of the cost (its quite shocking when you total it up each month!) And im fed up of that horrible taste and yuckyness in my mouth in a morning and the last reason is because im fed up of trying to find a lighter (because no matter how many you have you still lose them!)

tmo

Yep my two week present to myself is a whiteline adj ARB and drop links

duSTI's PA

I wonder why

SiPie

Therefore a Cancer sufferer who has had Cancer but is now 100% clear is still a Cancer sufferer

Clown

Smoking and alcholism similar but not identical

duSTI's PA

Hi SCOsazOBY .

Starting up this thread has really helped I'm only on day 2 but am already feeling the benifits, it may sound daft but it's true .

I've had an excellent response from people on here and when I feel edgey I just come on and read through the replys .

Your're right though it is about breaking the routine , when I get in from work I always open the back door put the kettle on and have a ciggy (every day ) last night I hung the washing out and forgot about the normal routine OK so I know it's not thrilling putting the washing out but hey it worked for me, and then I redesinged the back garden and measured up for decking , My energy level has risen but by 10.30 I was feeling a bit edgey and but I was also feeling very tierd Nut I worked through the edgeyness and then went to bed at about 11ish , as for sleeping there was no problems slept ok , got this morning slapped a patch on and off i went to work.

last night there was a girl at the station smoking and her smoke was blowing in my direction, don't have a problem with her smoking or seeing her smoke , BUT the smell of the smoke made me feel a bit qweesey .

So it's day 2 and all is OK, so far no temper tantrums been fairly happy since I quit , thought of a really nice holiday as promised by duSTI is a good motivation and the £35.00 in the jar at the end of the week. and feeling better with in myself .

duSTI's PA

tmo

well done on the 2 weeks, how are you feeling now ?

eClaire

Get pregnant! It worked for me

Seriously though, I went to the 'stop smoking group' at the local community centre and it was naff. I read Allen Carr's book and that had a significant effect on - if you do decide to read Allen Carr's book, DON'T go to the classes as the practise two totally opposed methods!

tmo

To be honest ... great.
don't think about smoking now, i don't crave for it, metal taste in the mouth has gone now, still get a bit of a hot flush sometimes.
Pleased is an understatement, didn't think i would last two days nevermind two weeks.

I know to alot of people two weeks may not seem much but to me it is.

Mrs WRX

Other half was a 20 a day man and he gave up in February. Was really proud of him but i found at the he has been relapsing and smoking again. So angry I could kill him. (that's if the **** dont first).

CharlesW

I gave up - cold turkey- 17 years ago, after 20 years of 15 - 20 roll-ups a day. I was offshore and had a rotten cold at the time which helped. I didn't really feel like a smoke at the time.

First week is about getting over the physical addiction. You do crave for a smoke. After that it's about the psychological addiction. You just get the desire when the usual cues come up. For instance you finish a meal, have a cup of coffee and light up, or you get in the pub, get the drinks on the bar and light up. Anyway you know the score. These moments just last a few seconds, but you have to say NO. You just have to break the old pattern of behaviour and learn a new one.

After a year I could definitely say I had given up. I put on a little weight, which has since been stable.

You will feel much better for it. Food and drink will taste much better, because you regain your full sense of smell. It's surprising how sensitive it becomes. You don't smell like chimney. You will notice how terrible smokers smell. It's not attractive!

Anyway good luck. Never smoke again. It's worth it.

duSTI

D**k!

duSTI's PA

2 weeks is brilliant .

after smoking for 19 years I think 2 days is fantastic, It's funny about the type of things that prompt you to give up smoking whether it be Health,Illness,finacial
for me it was a number of things , Family Health history ( very bad ), buying our first house and moving to a diffrent county for me,to far to walk to the shops to get a pack of ciggys, and the time felt right , it was not forced upon me I had no one nagging at me , and the fact that my friend has just used her final patch and is patch free really encouraged me to chuck the cigs and get on with life

duSTI's PA

I hope you tore a large strip off him

duSTI's PA

Afternoon all

ok so now I have started coughing a bit but that's all .