Quitting Smoking

[LordAnubis]

Recently some guys at work have been trying to quit and were talking about some book that once you read it you jsut stop smoking (cigarettes its aimed at). So i wanted to figure out what it actualyl says. Was quite interesting i thought the way he describes nicottine addiction. The book is

ALLEN CARR'S EASY WAY TO STOP SMOKING

The purpose of thread is not to discuss addiction to cigars and nicotine from cigars etc.

If anyone would like help obtaining this book from me... send me a PM and i can help you procure it

Clearly if anyone has read the bok they would not be here though

[polarbear]

I know a couple of guys who have used this book to quit.

I've been chasing it myself.

If I come across a copy I'll let you know

[LordAnubis]

Nah mate, i have the book, and have read it.

[Fuzz]

You can get it online for free, if you know where to look.

[Fosgate]

I tried many things to attempt to quit. I was able to finally quit for over 4yrs before starting cigars when I moved. I had quite cold turkey two other times for over a year each but hanging around with friends who smoked got enough temptation to start again. Once I moved to a new location and with family who I wanted to be around for I made the decision. I found it much easier but I was a grizzly bear to be around for a good six months. If I were having to quit again and were not moving I would advise two things, find a way to break the social norm of smoking around others that smoke. Try to team up with your friends to all quit and break the social norms together. If not you may have to do like your mother did when you were a kid and restrict you from seeing others who were bad influences. If you smoke with friends at work during break you may also try the same with them. Secondly, you have to deal with the anxiety, don't forget if you loose your temper at work it could cost you your job. Look into getting anxiety medications, meditation, religion, something to keep you calm (green tea helps some) and focus on being active to keep your mind from brooding. Some say this stage is only a couple months. For me it was six, so everyone is different.

[poisonowns]

I used an electronic cigarette to quit smoking and eventually lowered the nicotine to a very low amount over a year. Worked marvelously.

[Reevzy]

I used Champix to quite last year. It's a medication subsidised by the government and it basically blocks the nicotine receptors in your brain. It does work but I abused it and started to smoke "socially" on the weekends and at parties, thinking I can have a cigarette and it just won't do anything...... yes and no, silly way to go about things though.

Before I knew it, I'd run out of Champix.

So bugger it, I went cold turkey about a month and a half a go, haven't had one since.

I only smoke cigars maybe once or twice a week but jeezum joe I look forward to it.

[Cohiba Stevie]

Not aimed at the OP:

You want to quit smoking cigarettes?

Then stop.

Don't BS yourself and those around you with the. "It's just not that easy" excuse.

Nobody gives a sh!t how you feel because you aren't getting your nicotine fix. Nor do we have to put up with wankers who treat people poorly when they are in the process of trying to quit.

If however smoking cigarettes makes you happy then do what you want.

Having trouble quitting cigarettes is the problem of tossers in my opinion, either do it or don't.

Don't ***** about it.

Lol rant over guys.

Maybe I should write a book.

[dangolf18]

If it's so easy then take up smoking a pack a day for a month and then quit cold turkey.

Not aimed at the OP:

You want to quit smoking cigarettes?

Then stop.

Don't BS yourself and those around you with the. "It's just not that easy" excuse.

Nobody gives a sh!t how you feel because you aren't getting your nicotine fix. Nor do we have to put up with wankers who treat people poorly when they are in the process of trying to quit.

If however smoking cigarettes makes you happy then do what you want.

Having trouble quitting cigarettes is the problem of tossers in my opinion, either do it or don't.

Don't ***** about it.

Lol rant over guys.

Maybe I should write a book.

[Cohiba Stevie]

If it's so easy then take up smoking a pack a day for a month and then quit cold turkey.

Read that back to yourself mate...

Im not going to bring this thread into dis-repute by even dignifying that with a response because i respect the OP.

I dont want to fall out with anybody

[OZCUBAN]

I have read the book Mus It worked for a little while 6 months i think ,they say it is easier to give up Heroin

[polarbear]

Not aimed at the OP:

You want to quit smoking cigarettes?

Then stop.

Don't BS yourself and those around you with the. "It's just not that easy" excuse.

Nobody gives a sh!t how you feel because you aren't getting your nicotine fix. Nor do we have to put up with wankers who treat people poorly when they are in the process of trying to quit.

If however smoking cigarettes makes you happy then do what you want.

Having trouble quitting cigarettes is the problem of tossers in my opinion, either do it or don't.

Don't ***** about it.

Lol rant over guys.

Maybe I should write a book.

That seems a touch harsh

Do you go to AA meetings and call all those people "tossers"

Quiting smoking is not easy for some people.

Those that say "I just stopped, no biggie", good for them.

Try lying awake in bed at night with a splitting headache or tightness in your chest that keeps you from sleeping, knowing in the back of your mind some relief and a good night sleep is only a quick cigarette away. But you can't have one, you just have to power through it.

The **** thing for some people is if they're trying to quit cigarettes they usually also have to quit coffee and drinking

[rmill3r]

I don't mean this as bragging in any way, but I used to be a fairly chain cigarette smoker (not a pack a day, but about 2-3 packs a week) and I quit very easily by weening myself off over the course of about 2 or 3 weeks. The way I did it was by simply throwing the pack out I had spent money on when it was still over half full. That visual and physical representation of wasting my money I believe helped me quit it. Now, granted, I smoked for about 4 or 5 years where others have probably been chain smoking for 20 or 30+....but still I decided I simply didn't want it anymore. I think a lot of people try to quit because some else wishes it of them, society pressures them, or they know its not healthy, rather than actually wanting to quit. I personally got to to the point where I didn't want the habit in my life anymore, and that made all the difference. I suspect that a lot of people struggling with quitting are also holding onto the fact that they don't truly want to quit, but are doing it for ulterior reasons....that, and there are clearly varying degrees of addiction from person to person.

[ZinZan]

Probably you all think this is BS and it is kind of, I've for stopped over 2 years. I'm a social smoker (I know there's no such thing), I only smoke when I'm with my friends. The 1st year was completely smoke free except for cigar. I used cigars as a reward at the end of the week. On the 2nd year I became social smoker was quite disciplined though, I'd go for hols and was smoking came back switched off. Go out for drinks had a couple of fags that's it. But the past 2 weeks so stressed at work been buying a pack a week.

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[Blackham]

I've quitted for 4 years

How I quit:

Threw out all my cigarettes (no "I will start qutting after this pack" bs)

nicotine gum for the day, patches for when you're sleeping

if you're still craving after, go out for a run

0 alcohol

after a month you'll feel much better

[oliverdst]

I am not a cigarette smoker.

Once I read that those who could stop smoking for 5 whole years never never smoked again. The ones who couldn't hold for those 5 years started again like before.

What I realized among my family/friends is that who stopped smoking for good were the ones who once wake up and said: I will not smoke again never ever.

All those who decreased the quantity (20 cigarettes a day this week; 10 next week...) didn't make it and started smoking again.

[Charltonc]

I have quit many things and it isnt easy; as a recoverying addict that has been clean and sober for over 6 yrs you mist want to quit and not make any excuses. I quit cigarettes via my ego. Iwas running with this running group and I was sick of getting beat by girls may sound childish, but I havent smoked in 5 yrs.

[sw15825]

I tried many things to quit and nothing worked till I started smoking cuban cigars about 8 years ago. I have not smoked cigarettes since. Seriously, and now I need to tackle the beer drinking but have not found anything I like better! On a more serious note compulsions and addictions are not easy to change, either in our minds or bodies. The desire to stop the damage has to be greater than desire to continue. Unfortunately some of us only change when the pain of continuing becomes greater than the pleasure we gain from it. Just my honest opinion.

[Charltonc]

I tried many things to quit and nothing worked till I started smoking cuban cigars about 8 years ago. I have not smoked cigarettes since. Seriously, and now I need to tackle the beer drinking but have not found anything I like better. On a more serious note compulsions and addictions are not easy to change, either in our minds or bodies. The desire to stop the damage has to be greater than desire to continue. Unfortunately some of us only change when the pain of continuing becomes greater than the pleasure we gain from it. Just my honest opinion.

I only change when the pain gets great enough.

[sw15825]

I only change when the pain gets great enough.

True for me too. There are some things I will never do again, too scary to go back there if you know what I mean.

[AbuAmelia]

I quit smoking cigarettes awhile back. I told my brain that I can only smoke one thing. Cigars or Cigarettes. The choice was clear as to which I wanted and enjoyed more.

[SaintLuis]

Quitting smoking was really tough, especially with family and friends that still smoked.

I "quit" for 4 years straight on New Years Eve every year. Each year, I got a bit further along, from late spring, into summer, the last year before I made it for good, I got to July, before I started cheating. That next New Years Eve, I closed the deal.

I'm now 4 years a non-smoker. Cheated a couple times while hammered, and honestly, they taste like trash now. Can't believe I used to crave that. I really didn't want to be a 30 year old smoker. In your 20s, or during school, it's one thing - you know - an irresponsible kid thing, but eventually, it's time to grow up and make big-boy decisions, even if everyone around you won't. Work hard at it, and when you have a craving, find some mental capacity and kill the craving. Sounds silly, but eventually I built some real mind over matter capability.

In the end, we all rely on them differently, but This is what eventually worked for me:

1) Pick a date.

2) Couple months in advance, cut down the "easy ones" first, the butts you're really not craving,

3) Start smoking less of the butt. Your craving is cured far before the end of the smoke. This will lower the spikes of nicotine that cause the initial fits.

4) Start mentally preparing in advance. Try and kill some hard cravings. Go get a water, chew some gum, do anything to shift your mind off the butts.

5) After 3-6 weeks, the nicotine addiction is over. It's just habit at that point. That made it easier for me, because I knew I wasn't combating a chemical any more - it was just me. Using the patch, or the gum, just prolongs a process you'll inevitably have to go through.

6) Understand you'll have cravings for the first 6 months that will be very tough. They get easier, and fewer and farther between, and less severe. Knowing that made it easier for me to deny an urge.

7) When your mind says "god I need a smoke" just convince yourself you don't. After a meal, in the car, when your stressed, the reality is, a smoke doesn't do anything for any of that. It doesn't help digest. It doesn't release stress. It's just a tic. Convince yourself that ever time you have a fit.

Good luck to all those trying hard. I'd advise to avoid the tricks and drugs, and just make your mind up that it's time to stop slowly killing yourself.

[Habana Mike]

Quit for good in 1997. Of course I do have a cigar every now and then

Just decided it was time and went cold turkey.

The wife still has a cig occasionally, usually when she's having a cocktail or two.

Sometimes asks me to light one for her, don't inhale when I do but man, they feel like toothpicks now......

[Nocoins]

I smoked over a pack per day almost every single day for 10 years -- from ages 15 to 25. I quit for a couple of hours or days several times, never more than about five days at a time. I now haven't smoked a cigarette in over 12 years, and I'm pretty confident I never will again. The posters who've already said that the way to quit smoking cigarettes is just to quit smoking cigarettes are correct. When you are ready, you will just stop it. Until you reach that point, it likely won't take because it's a habit and if you're really a committed smoker, it's one you've probably accepted into your persona.

How do you really quit smoking? Make it not a part of who you are. That means stop smoking when you wake up. Stop smoking with your coffee. Stop smoking on the way to work or school. Stop taking breaks all day to smoke. Stop smoking on the way home from work or school. Stop smoking after eating dinner. Stop smoking while drinking. Stop smoking after *******. Stop smoking right before going to bed.

Your day generally will be much the same as when you were smoking. Except you won't be smoking before, during, or after every single thing you do. You'll feel much better, and you'll smell much better. Good luck.

[M777]

I used an ecig to get off cigarettes, haven't touched one in 6 months. Only use my ecig when I go out drinking.