Successful ways of quitting smoking.

[vicente solano]

I´ve tried quitting once. I took pills that were effective but I lacked the determination/conviction, and so, my willpower wasn´t what it should have been.
After my echography and blood results determined that I had nothing serious -cholesterol and glucose a bit high- my wife and son are insisting that now I should try to quit the smokes.
So now I am considering kicking the habit. And in need of some useful, effective and realistic tips/tricks/pills/whatever
PS. I know, I know-the best way is to go cold turkey- But at the moment I haven´t that determination. So you can leave that method out!

 

[bbbamI]

I´ve tried quitting once. I took pills that were effective but I lacked the determination/conviction, and so, my willpower wasn´t what it should have been.

You must be determined.

After my echography and blood results determined that I had nothing serious -cholesterol and glucose a bit high- my wife and son are insisting that now I should try to quit the smokes.

Great news on your tests.....even though the cholesterol and glucose are a bit high......you can remedy those easily.

So now I am considering kicking the habit. And in need of some useful, effective and realistic tips/tricks/pills/whatever
PS. I know, I know-the best way is to go cold turkey- But at the moment I haven´t that determination. So you can leave that method out!

If you're just considering, cut back slowly on how much you smoke. Ration your tobacco use.

 

[calmloki]

Before my gal had her dental work, successful outcome of which was partially dependent on her not smoking, she took Chantix. That did help quite a bit, but left her feeling dead inside - she hated it. She says it was very effective at removing all desires, leaving no real reason to do or live. Saw an advisory lately linking Chantix to increased suicide propensity. After about three weeks she quit the Chantix and has been taking Commit nicotine lozenges since. Been nine months now. The habits that go with smoking are very tough - you are used to having a cigarettte while on the phone or after a meal, with an evening drink or with your morning coffee and paper...

Good luck - smoked about twenty and have been quit for longer - but it took a number of attempts.

 

[vicente solano]

If you're just considering, cut back slowly on how much you smoke. Ration your tobacco use.

BBB: I don´t want to argue with you....but i´ve read in several reports that what you suggest is a very ineffective way of quitting-there´s that number of cigarettes that you can´t go without and you spend the whole time waiting for the moment to smoke them.
It´s not an excuse, but hearing of people that get cancer after several years of not smoking, doesn´t help your determination...
PS. Even if I go on a diet I won´t pass up on the fish and chips

 

[robcanuck]

.
So now I am considering kicking the habit. And in need of some useful, effective and realistic tips/tricks/pills/whatever
PS. I know, I know-the best way is to go cold turkey- But at the moment I haven´t that determination. So you can leave that method out![/quote]

Vince:

I went cold turkey using an acupuncturist. Really helped with the "withdrawal" effects from the nicotine. I also gave myself a 3-month lead in time as a "quit date". In my opinion, things have to be going well in your life in order for you to have a good chance at success in quitting smoking.

But you don't want to go cold turkey. So my other suggestion comes from a method our local Lung Association used with a group of smokers at the office (I was one of the facilitators).


1. Take a sheet of paper - mark the days of the week down the left side; across the top put three ratings for how much you crave a cigarette - high, medium, low.
2. Fold the paper so that it fits around your cigarette package; secure the paper around your cigarette package by means of an elastic.

Now, each time you want a cigarette, you must first undo the elastic, mark down the time, what you are doing and rate your craving. Then you can enjoy your smoke.

The psychology here is that it becomes a bit of pain to get at the cigarette and so you think about whether or not you really need the cigarette. Helps you cut down a bit.

Then after the first week, you look at the "low" craving cigarettes, time of day, etc. Make a new sheet for week two. In the second week, you work at cutting out those "low craving" cigarettes. It may take a couple of weeks for you to get rid of them. Don't worry about the length of time it takes.

Once you have rid yourself of all the "low craving" cigs, you begin on the mediums. Once you've rid yourself of the mediums, you pick a quit date some weeks in the future.

You work on the "high craving cigs" now. To work on these ones, you analyze the activity/time of day when they occur. The strategy here, is to change your routine as much as possible. If it's the morning coffee, then drink something else, or do a different activity along with drinking the coffee. After mealtimes, the strategy is usually get up from the table immediately and do some activity. Cigarettes and social situations involving alcohol were always a problem for me, so for the 2 or 3 months after quitting, I avoided drinking. Once I was satisfied I had really kicked the habit, I was still very cautious about having more than 1 or 2 drinks in a social setting for many months.

But the effort was worth it. My health improved, no more shortness of breath. And it did wonders for my self esteem. It's been over 25 years now since my visit to the acupuncturist.

Good luck.

Rob

 

[Bestwifeever]

As an exsmoker I strongly suggest quitting cold turkey. It is like ripping the bandage off quickly and enduring a greater pain all at once instead of the continuous lower pain of peeling it off gradually. Buck up and just do it. It's really hard but it works.

And you have to find your own determination and conviction to do it--don't let your wife and child bear the guilty burden if you are not successful. Your success cannot be based on their feelings, just as your decision to smoke did not take them into account. So once YOU decide to do it, do it!

You can do it--millions of people have.

 

[bbbamI]

Well...here's an oldie but goodie of sorts.....take a peek here and see if you find something that may help you...

http://www.early-retirement.org/forums/f38/want-to-stop-smoking-26834.html

 

[Notmuchlonger]

I used the patch. I also kept track of how much money I saved for awhile. Money is a strong motivator

 

[Martha]

I quite using Nicorette gum which had just come onto the market. It made quitting bearable, which it was not in my attempts to quit cold turkey. I chewed the gum for about two years and gradually weaned myself off the gum.

 

[W2R]

I tried everything I could think of, for years and years. Then in 1977 I went cold turkey. I bought Pep-O-Mint lifesavers by the case for the first few months until I was past the worst of it.

I suffered. It was indescribably awful (for me, though others just sail through it, I know). In fact, it was so horrendous to quit that I haven't had a cigarette since, because I never, ever, ever want to go through that again.

I had a good motivation to quit, which helped. My ex and I were planning to have a baby. I wanted to quit before becoming pregnant, for my baby's health. (This is the same baby who is now 30 with pink hair, into J-Rock, and getting married this fall. Thank goodness she didn't take up smoking or I would be furious! ).

 

[Alan]

My sister did it cold turkey with patches, but she also had great motivation from 3 sources - her husband didn't smoke, her 2 year old developed asthma and she nursed our smoker mother as she died from throat cancer.

This was 6 years ago, and her child's asthma cleared up immediately

 

[mews]

I have never quit smoking, but have a lot of respect for those who have - that stuff is highly addictive, physically and mentally.

When I went off of caffeine :::sob, whimper::: I cut back as much as I could beforehand, and then went cold turkey.

I had a very nasty headache for a 3-day weekend, and couldn't take any of the common headache remedies -they have caffeine in them.

Then I felt *stupid* for about a month as the dendrites in my poor brain got used to firing without chemical assistance.

I did this as I left a job and started grad school. I do *not* recommend this timing, really truly I don't!

ta,
mew

 

[Rich_by_the_Bay]

Here is some guidance.

 

[Nords]

PS. I know, I know-the best way is to go cold turkey- But at the moment I haven´t that determination. So you can leave that method out!

Then you're not ready to quit, and you're just wasting your time.

My parents found it very easy to quit smoking... they did it dozens of times...

I was on sea duty when the submarine force (without really bothering to consult the submariners) decided to become a nonsmoking submarine force. Everyone on the crew, whether they smoked or not, became experts at quitting smoking. Steely-eyed killers of the deep aren't very humble and don't get along all that well together under the best of conditions, but when you take away the last bit of nicotine from their lives of deprivation then it gets really ugly.

It's amazing how much nicer and cleaner a habitat we enjoyed when it wasn't perpetually fouled by a blue hazy cloud. Equipment (and human beings) worked a lot better, too. After 30-40 consecutive days at sea without any cigarettes within hundreds of miles then you'll figure out how to quit too.

 

[JOHNNIE36]

I've always said quitting smoking was one of the easiest things I've ever done. In fact it was so easy, I quit twelve or thirteen times. When I finally quit for good in 1986 it was because my doctor made me mad. I was wanting medication for high cholesterol and the doctor turned me down and chewed me out. Told me I didn't care anything about my health or I wouldn't be smoking two packs/day and he told me I wouldn't live to see retirement. That talk convinced me. I walked out of his office and never took another drag on a cigarette.

You've got to have a good reason to quit and the determination otherwise you're just agonizing and you'll go back. Now I see a smoker and it turns my stomach. I can't believe I did that and smelled so bad.

 

[freebird5825]

I quit smoking back in 2000, and made it 4 years until my LH passed. I boomeranged right back into it.
I am currently prepping myself for the big quit, again. I have to "own" the quit, i.e. it is something I have to set my mind to do. Nobody else can do it for you.
Some of the things I did for 3 months prior to the quit date...
- I cut my habit in half, then half again, then half again, tapering off my consumption and controlling when I smoked or didn't. My doctor suggested this method as a practice run to train myself to control the habit. He also prescribed Wellbutrin, which w*rked very well for me in the 1st 6 months of the quit. YMMV.
- I read about the psychology of addiction, in this case nicotine. Look for articles at American Psychology Association, http://www.apa.org/monitor/2008/11/smoking.html, Mayo Clinic, American Lung Association. I felt if I understood the addiction thing in my head, I could anticipate the environmental triggers and do something to avoid them, before the urge to smoke crashed over me.
- I ate a lot of seedless grapes to manage the oral urges. Grapes are juicy, and really took away the cravings. Pick something you really like, healthy food of course, and use that as a substitute while tapering off and after the quit date. You will be retraining yourself to a new habit. Carrots, celery, dried raisins or apricots, cherries, anything that will occupy your hands and satisfy the oral cravings.
Good luck!

 

[JOHNNIE36]

freebird:
Don't tease yourself. Make up your mind that it's no good for you and that in order to live a long life you just have to give it up. Life is too short to go around hacking, coughing, talking with a raspy voice, smelling badly and in general lettting something control you. I wouldn't try to wean myself off smoking. Just decide to do it. You know you are a stronger person than that cigarette. Just do it.

 

[KB]

I quit smoking in 1985 because I really wanted to quit smoking. I didn't use anything but mints to change my habit. When I wanted a cigarette, I sucked on a mint. It probably took 2 weeks to get over the desire...they didn't offer drugs to help people quit back then, it was cold turkey only.

I've never had another cigarette, no allowed myself to even consider it.

When you really decide to quit for yourself, you will do so......until then you're not really serious about it, in my opinion.

Good luck when you decide to do it.

 

[Martha]

A little off the topic, but I wonder about the concept of being "ready" or "not ready" to quit something. I question its validity. I suppose one could say you are ready if you are successful, but that is a bit too after the fact. Ready or not, quit. Use what you need to use to help. Cutting down if it works for you. Nicotine substitutes. Wellbutrin. Whatever.



I quit a long time ago, using the gum that had just hit the market. I wasn't ready. But I had asthma and I couldn't breathe unless I was sitting up. Got pneumonia and bronchitis that lasted forever. So I quit anyway. Ate carrots until I turned orange and madly chewed the gum.

 

[Rich_by_the_Bay]

If Stuart Smalley can quit, so can you. You're good enough, you're smart enough, and doggonit, people like you.

 

[ls99]

There really is on ly one successful way of quitting smoking. Stop smoking.

OK now that the cheeky part is out of the way, I can assure you that quitting smoking is easy I did it many times. Though the last time it was successful.

The situation that last time was: I was going to work, already about 15 minutes late out the door. The drive typically was 30 minutes. About 10 minute into the drive, I realized that I had forgotten my cigs. So I make a U turn, head back home. Once home get my partial pack plus a full one. Start driving to work again. No idea how late I am at this point and did not really care.

Had a few cigs along the way, then finished the partial pack by noon. At the end of the day, without making up for being late headed home. Had a few more.

The last mile before my house I came to the full realization of the absurdity of it all. After parking the car, walked over to the trash can, threw in tha partial pack, went inside, got the remaining 4 or 5 packs took them to the trash bin and added them to the previously dumped partial pack.

That was about 15 years ago. Never had a craving or another cigarette since. That was cold turkey, without any pain.

I guess the moral of the story is that when you are ready, the switch, wherever is located in your brain is thrown, and you are done..

I also am not and never was judgmental of others smoking, nor do I care if the do. As long as they don't blow smoke in my face, I have no need to adjust their attitude.

 

[Martha]

Is99, I think you are unusual in not having a craving after quitting. But even for us that have painful cravings, and even if we were not "ready," we can quit. That's the moral of my story.

 

[Nords]

A little off the topic, but I wonder about the concept of being "ready" or "not ready" to quit something. I question its validity. I suppose one could say you are ready if you are successful, but that is a bit too after the fact. Ready or not, quit. Use what you need to use to help. Cutting down if it works for you. Nicotine substitutes. Wellbutrin. Whatever.

Is99, I think you are unusual in not having a craving after quitting. But even for us that have painful cravings, and even if we were not "ready," we can quit. That's the moral of my story.

By the way, IIRC Wellbutrin is used in the submarine force as an anti-depressant. Is that the same Wellbutrin we're talking about here? How does that work-- your body's going through addiction withdrawal and you just don't care, or you're happy about it?

I think the "ready" or "not ready" issue isn't so much about quitting as it is about staying quitted.

As AA & NA have shown time & again, recidivism is darn near 100% if the subject hasn't hit rock bottom, burned out, and become ready to quit. Hopefully they're still alive & able enough to do something about it.

Oprah has lost her dozens of pounds dozens of times. Today she admits that she's given up because she's admitted that she's not ready to give it up. If a b-b-b-BILLIONAIRE can't figure out how to keep off the weight then there's probably some other factor that's independent of "cold turkey" and "weaning off" and "just do it". We could call it... "self discipline". Yeah, that's it.

My parents quit smoking dozens of times for various reasons but they weren't ready. In fact when my mother's breast cancer metastasized and she got "the diagnosis", she started smoking again. Yet it was that same event in her life that caused my father to quit and to stay quit.

 

[ls99]

Is99, I think you are unusual in not having a craving after quitting. But even for us that have painful cravings, and even if we were not "ready," we can quit. That's the moral of my story.

Perhaps I should have added a few smilies after the part where I wrote ........I did it many times (quit that is).at least a half dozen times, I never counted.

That last time it was not a conscious decision to quit.

It was more along the marvel of the sublime absurdity of turning around to go home to get cigs, already being late for w*rk, along the way having passed at least three places selling the stuff. Maybe not buying them along the way was just a manifestation of a genuine cheapskate.

I also am not telling anyone to do it my my way. YMMV. Maybe need a new acronym YMWV (your mileage will vary)? It was to show what happened in my case that resulted in finally quitting. Moral of the story aside. Maybe that one needed a cartoon character as well.

Hoping that the various stories will help the OP find a way/reason to quit.

DW quit a week before this past Christmas, after having part of her lung removed, along with a cancerous nodule. Fortunately it was stage 1A. Not many have that luck.

 

[Martha]

. . . By the way, IIRC Wellbutrin is used in the submarine force as an anti-depressant. Is that the same Wellbutrin we're talking about here? How does that work-- your body's going through addiction withdrawal and you just don't care, or you're happy about i?

I think the "ready" or "not ready" issue isn't so much about quitting as it is about staying quitted.

As AA & NA have shown time & again, recidivism is darn near 100% if the subject hasn't hit rock bottom, burned out, and become ready to quit. Hopefully they're still alive & able enough to do something about it.

I don't know. I just have a bit of a hard time with a concept like "ready" that is only known after the fact and maybe a little too mystical for me. Actually, I started thinking about this when thinking about AA and the concept of hitting "rock bottom." I question that concept too. So long time alcoholics on the street never hit bottom? They are past bottom. Other people realize they are so good at drinking and successfully stop on their own. Is that their bottom? Oops, they started drinking 5 years later, did they not hit bottom the first time? I would rather think about motivation and what motivates different people and see if there is a way to manufacture motivation in yourself when you are not really "feeling it." I think that we have a long way to go on figuring out impulse control, addiction, and motivation and I think that there are huge individual differences. Due to illness I had a motivation to quit smoking, but I wasn't really "ready," I didn't want to quit but I did anyway. I tried to approach it scientifically. When do I smoke? After I eat? Then I better get up and do something else quickly. Etc. The success after a few weeks was motivating for me, it was hard enough that I did not want to go through it again. Your father saw death and was motivated. Others see death and give up. Why the difference?

I guess all I am saying is that we should look to see if we can manufacture "ready" rather than waiting for a magical moment called "ready."