Quote from thisnameistaken :

Edit: He's not american is he? I don't think I could bear feeling subordinate to an american today.

No he is an English guy who used to be an accountant and a very heavy smoker.

Quote from danowat :

Hehehe typical smokers, trying to justify their addiction .

Glad I never started, but each to there own, if you enjoy being a slave to the white sticks more power to ya

Typical non-smokers, all up their own arses... oh wait, I'm a non-smoker

For limiting ones self my brother got one of those M&M Mini's tubes and put his weekyly quota in it (could fit 5 or 10 I forget which), then give the rest to someone who wouldn't give him then. Got him down to 1 a week upto his death bed. Someone at uni just went cold turkey, when I left to come home she'd gone 3 weeks without smoking.

My brother and I started a recruitment company together a few years ago. A few months in, he gets himself a new non-smoking girlfriend. A few weeks later, she's got him trying to quit smoking.

In ONE week, my brother stormed out of the office, and/or quit the business, 33 times. I counted.

Non-smokers who have never smoked, IMO, have no part to play in the discussion on quitting smoking. Unless you are, or have been, addicted to the smoke, you can have absolutely no idea what this all means. You're the lucky ones.. don't kick us, we're down.

Quote from thisnameistaken :

Quote from Scawen :

The problem is basically in your mind (it is actually possible to stop without pain or going through hell)

You'll have to excuse my language at this point but that sounds like utter bollocks.

Believe me, it is possible. If you have the will, you can do it, the habit of smoking is almost purely the mind, the body does hardly get addicted. If you want to have real physical dependency, try heroin(e?) or some of that kind, that'll be hard a hard time to get rid of it. Stopping smoking is an easy thing to do, if done right.

The gum never worked for me, in fact it made me feel sick.
The desire to smoke is directly related to stress for me.
Ive managed to cut down on most of the needless fags you have just because you can. I try to wait until I really really need one.
So in a way, I am finding some will power at last.
In normal situations I can go up to about 4 days without a fag, until I get stressed or have a drink. The drink is deadly, I just can not drink without smoking. Thankfully I dont drink that often, but I hate myself when I do because I smoke so much.
Im gonna check out the book Scawen mentioned, I totally believe there is a big psychological part that goes with the chemical addiction.
Final point, I dont believe in New Year Resolutions. If you are serious about changing your life, you dont need a special day to do it, you do it when you are ready. Do it because you want to, when you are ready to.
Ignore the people who say it is easy, everyone is different (thankfully)

@Anyone, but Scawen specifically: The gum is, I believe, a stop gap. In my mind there are two things to give up - the nicotine addiction and the habit of smoking. To tackle both at once would result in me nipping down the shops for a sly pack of 10. To take the gum, knowing I don't need that cigarette, and then put up with the 'lack of something to do' feeling. I personally find it helps. Gradually my desire to smoke (in most situations) will hopefully die down, and therefore I will gradually cut out the gum.

I haven't read Carrs book, so I think I'll be getting soon too (every little helps), but I'm confident of the way it's going so far. The worst thing would be a mini disaster occuring making me turn to ciggies before I've got used to dealing with everyday problems without them.

I'm under no illusion that ANY method is easy, but so far it's okay. I've felt like a cigarette today, but because of the gum haven't actually wanted one (if you see what I mean).

Well I know that has worked for some people so I hope it works for you. I think it can make it more difficult for some people, because they just end up addicted to nicotine gum and then when they stop that they might go back on the cigarettes again...

There are so many situations you can be in and so many ways that your brain will think of to trick you to keep taking nicotine one way or another... it's definitely a very real and strong addiction and very hard to stop if you aren't prepared for it and don't have some kind of motive.

In my case the motive was the lung damage I began to feel and my baby (unborn then born) was an extra booster. It's not nice to think that you might die before you need to and miss out on time alive, when you think that you are getting older all the time. Having a child reminded me of this.

I've never smoked, I'll happily, but not smugly say. Saw my parents go through quitting when I was a little'un and I think that must have partly stopped me taking it up, whilst many of my friends did. (Still can't believe I got grief off some of them for it.)

Never understood why people take it up, and whilst I'm sure the addictive elements are very pursuasive, why do people continue to buy them if they are attempting to quit? It's not like you're addicted to something you can't escape. I like to think I'd have the will power to stop myself before I handed any money over for them, or to throw away any I might have in my house or on my person.
If your friends offer you cigarettes when they know you are qutting, I think they'd deserve a swift kick to the gonads
Just pretend there are no more cigarettes anywhere on earth! (Easy for me to say!!!! )

GL Kev, and other quitters.

I see what you mean - I don't really want to end up addicted to the gum. Already, however, I'm finding I can substitute normal Wrigleys gum for the nicotine stuff occasionally, so who knows. But I take your point.

My motive(s): My friend from school, who I've known since I was 9, was diagnosed with possible/probably Ovarian cancer; the money; the health; the smell/social stigma; my desire to get as fit as I was when I was at school (i.e. very!)...

@Sinbad: As lovely as it would be to say 'This is a silly addiction, I'll stop', the term addiction makes it a hell of a lot harder. Why do people who are trying to give up buy cigarettes? Because their mind tricks them (sort of, it's hard to explain) into it. I used to think I had the willpower to just stop, or to not hand money over, or to throw them away, but it's not quite so simple when your brain desires a nicotine hit, you've got £5 in your pocket, and you're walking past a newsagents.

Agreed, if my 'friends' offer me cigarettes I have been known to do cruel things to them, involving things like saliva, my finger and their ear; chinese burns; knuckle to the head and dropping bits of ash in their drinks when they're not looking (hee hee hee).

GL to all other quitters. Hopefully we won't destroy the forum in a nicotine withdrawl burst of anger!

Quote from sinbad :

...why do people continue to buy them if they are attempting to quit? It's not like you're addicted to something you can't escape. I like to think I'd have the will power to stop myself before I handed any money over for them, or to throw away any I might have in my house or on my person.

Well for about two days, saying no to a cigarette is nearly as bad as not having some water when you are thirsty. That's the best I can describe it - it is equivalent to a true physical need. Just imagine being really thirsty and saying, "no I won't have any water, or fruit juice, or lemonade, or anything else that could hydrate me!"

Anyway after those two or three light headed dizzy days, you actually start to feel quite ok, not thirsty all the time, but EVERY time you have something to work out, or something stressy happens, however small, or you are waiting for someone, or it's time for dinner, ALL these times, you ALWAYS think of a cigarette immediately (because you are still a smoker and that's just how it is if you are a smoker) and for two minutes you have that "thirsty" feeling. Actually you can just bear it for those couple of minutes, fix the mini-disaster or pace up and down instead or whatever and you are ok, back to normal. Every time you do this instead of walking to the nearest shops, is a small step on the way.

BUT when a friend offers you one, or you have something SERIOUS to do that requires some thought, these are MAJOR temptations. It's like, "OK, I've given up for 2 weeks, but I need to do this LFS function, and it's very important, so if I just smoke a few cigarettes today while I sort this out, because I just can't work without it and I will actually benefit more from doing this than I will lose from the tiny health effect of those few cigs, obviously I've got no choice but to go down the shop and it's only a couple of pounds, and all those LFS users will benefit from this important fix" and off you go happily down to the shop, and you smoke that cigarette and yeah it makes you feel real good for about one minute. And you wonder why it was so important, cos the cigarette wasn't THAT good... but half an hour to an hour later that cigarette is wearing off and BACK comes the major thirsty feeling that you spend the last two weeks avoiding! Hahaha

It's like knitting socks. I can't do it so I won't even try.

:smoke:

sorry, seen this story, reminded so much of this thread, I just had to post it
sometimes it's really better not to smoke :
http://darwinawards.com/darwin/darwin2006-06.html

http://www2.b3ta.com/phillipmorris/smoling.swf

Quote from tristancliffe :

http://www2.b3ta.com/phillipmorris/smoling.swf

Oh, I suddenly remember why I called you "t3h ev1l tristan"

(I love b3ta.com)

I won't ever smoke because all the money people spend on cigarettes could be used on a car.

Yeah, but to buy a Car you have to get out of bed.

Here is some funny old clip that cheers you if it gets hard

Now how do I get rid of my own addiction, need to get chocolate at least twice a week

Quote from thisnameistaken :

Anybody else doing the traditional new years "I Will Not Smoke That Many Fags For About A Week And Then I Will Go Back To Chain Smoking" thing?

It's 10:30am here and I'd really like to smoke a fag. I managed only three fags yesterday, and zero fags the day before, but if I smoke a fag now I will surely smoke more than three today and that would be bad. Right?

Not smoking sucks. I don't understand how you non-smokers do it.

Hey Kev, nice to see your going for the healthy route and I do it, the non smoking thing and it's easiest if you don't hang around with smokers, the non smoking in pubs law helps alot but that's not the point in my post.

Btw, I couldn't be bothered reading the full thread but I don't think anyone will have made this point, apologys to those who have.

I used to look at it as smokers were foolish for doing so with all the bad it does for you but now I see it in a kind of differnt way.

"Fags" are extremely pricey and the government gets a large amount of tax money from the fags that are bought and you'll be thinking that this pays for all the lung cancer patients who are most likely going to die anyway if they have smoked so much. Then you think about the amount of money that goes into lung cancer and the amount the government makes off smokers. Now, say I never smoke for the rest of my life and live untill I am 90 years old, i'm most probarly going to spend the last 20 years of my life in a home having to rely on someone else to help me do the toilet, all of this ending up at a huge sum where as the smokers will die at a much younger age and wont need such care.

So what i'm saying is the government wont ban smoking if they are making them so much money, which IMO is a bigger reason to stop smoking as your giving less money to the government.

That allen carr bloke has since died from lung cancer, so think about it.

Anyone got a light?

Quote from vrooom :

That allen carr bloke has since died from lung cancer, so think about it.

Permanent solution

He has, yes... but not after being free from his addiction for some 23 years... (I think it was 23)

I tried his method, and I am now one year smoke free, and I am NEVER going back. If I had known it was this easy I would have done so long ago.

I've never smoked a cigarette ever, but I don't know what to do about my LFS addiction ! PLEASE HELP !!!

I smoked quite heavily for about 10 years and haven't for over two years now.

Wasn't planned at all, I just decided to not buy a new pack after a night out with lots of smokes. I didn't put any pressure on myself either, I started with thinking maybe I'll just spend a day without a cigarette and then went on from there. I'd say say it took about four weeks until the craving died down to an acceptable level.

I did in fact read Alan Carr's book years ago when I didn't have any intention of quitting and the main idea that I had kept in my head was that if you actually concentrate on your cigarette while you are smoking it you will realize that you don't really enjoy smoking even half as much as your cravings were trying to tell you before you lit it up. This is true and I think knowing this is an important help when trying to quit.

@SamH & Kev.

Let me just get one thing clear, no, you are correct, I have NEVER smoked tobacco, but this DOES NOT mean I have no clue about addiction or chemical dependency, been there, got the T-Shirt.

So yes, I DO know what you are going through, sure, it isn't easy, but believe me once you have got the habit kicked and realise that the "pain" you are going through now is nothing really that bad, you will come out the otherside a better person, and very probably be as smug about addiction as I am.

But please, PLEASE don't tar me with the typical non-smoker, doesn't know what he is talking about brush, because that just isn't me.

Sorry if I made you feel bad earlier Kev, IMO, making light of the situation and keeping a sense of humour is one of the key aids.