Reformed Smoker? whats your story (sorry matsu)

i-bent-my-wookie · February 24, 2003 2:49PM

Who here has successfully quit smoking? Successful defined as you neither desire a cigarette nor see yourself smoking again for the rest of your life

I smoked for about 10 years, quitting unsuccessfully many times over that period.

Then I got it (the gag) one day and became a non-smoker again almost instantly.

I would like to hear your stories as I am trying to help a life-long smoker quit (he wants to but feels helpless) but I have had no success whatsoever. He is my best friend for the last 10 odd years, so I am genuinely interested in keeping him alive. He is also an asthmatic, which exacerbates the problem...

private messages are welcome on this subject since it is sensitive to some...

[ 02-24-2003: Message edited by: I-bent-my-wookie ]

[ 02-24-2003: Message edited by: I-bent-my-wookie ]

matsu · February 24, 2003 2:54PM

Damn, I thought you just meant life in general, I give up.

brussell · February 24, 2003 2:58PM

<a href="http://www.surgeongeneral.gov/tobacco/"; target="_blank">This info from the Surgeon General</a> is the best out there, IMO.

ijerry · February 24, 2003 3:02PM

I myself have never craved or needed a ciggarette. However, I do like to have some now and again. I recently had my first cigarette in over 2 years, then will probably not smoke again for another 2. I am strange. OH well. As for helping your friend. I am not sure. I have yet to be able to get people to quit. I think there is a mental block that must occur. The habbit must be broken. for every in, there needs to be an equal out, unfortunately most people use a ciggarette to equal their outs. Just find something else to keep your friend occupied during those times that he/she smokes the most. That is the hardest part. After that, wean slowly. That is my best advice. Just keep in mind that quitters never win.

matsu · February 24, 2003 3:02PM

just kidding, must remember smilies.

i-bent-my-wookie · February 24, 2003 3:24PM

[quote]Originally posted by BRussell:

<a href="http://www.surgeongeneral.gov/tobacco/"; target="_blank">This info from the Surgeon General</a> is the best out there, IMO.<hr></blockquote>

Thank for the link, I have visited this site and its canadian equivelant.

For a hardcore smoker, no amount of facts about death or poor-lifestyle work. I mean they know all that $hit, just as I did when I smoked.

The real problem is that the nicotine levels in your blood/brain have such a short cycle time that people make the decision to smoke in the short-term (ie. as each craving comes a cigarrete is smoked), there is no moral/logical debate process. It is hard to map a long term solution onto a problem that pokes you sharply in the ribs 10-60 times a day. And yes, I have smoked 3 packs in a day before.

Then there is THE FEAR. That was the biggest demon I had to slay... The fear of never having another cigarrette. All you smokers know what I am talking about...

Here is a test for smokers:

Imagine in your mind never smoking another cigarette in your life... pretty scary, anyone reaching for their packs yet. It is stressful to think of never smoking again. How do smokers deal with stress? They have a smoke. The scary part for quitters is when they have resigned themselves to keep the mindset they are quitting but cant get past the stress-smoke cycle I mentioned above.

This is where THE SHAME comes in. My self-confidence took a beating for about a year and a half while I tried in desperation to quit, people in general dont deal with failure well (failure to stop smoking in this case). Dont get me wrong, I could quit for a couple of days or a week or two, easily enough to remove the physical craving for nicotine itself...

But then there is the SOCIAL ADDICTION. The real monster hiding behind the facade of nicotine. Everytime I would see someone smoke on the street, on tv, in a bar, anywhere I would get a craving....

trick fall · February 24, 2003 8:09PM

I was a pack a day smoker for sixteen years, two packs if I was going to a bar. I wanted to quit for a long time, but couldn't even try. Then this past September I decided I had enough. So I went out on my b-day, smoked a ton, stayed out until about 8:30 am got really, really wasted. Woke up the next day and felt so bad I couldn't get out of bed all day. Then still felt bad for about two days, bailed on work etc....and felt bad enough that I couldn't stomache a smoke. Anyway, got me through the first couple of days. After that it was more a matter of breaking habits.

It's starting to feel better now and I haven't reached into my pocket expecting to pull out a pack of smokes in over two months, but for the first couple of months I would sometimes forget and reach for a cigarette.

brussell · February 24, 2003 8:46PM

I smoked about a pack a day for about four years in college, but I haven't smoked a single cigarette (tobacco or otherwise) for 10 years now.

I quit when I was sick after college finals and went home during Christmas vacation. I think the keys to my quitting were 1) the aversive conditioning: I was sick with a sore throat and it just tasted bad, 2) the change of surroundings: there were a lot of triggers around me in college that I avoided because I was at my parents house, and 3) the time: it takes over a week to fully get over the addiction, and I was at my parents' house for over two weeks.

I also used to smoke on campus, in my advisor's office and in our lab office, but that was changing and I think it was around that time (1992 I think) that smoking was prohibited in just about all indoor campus buildings. I think that helped too.

thuh freak · February 24, 2003 8:51PM

puff. nobody likes a quitter.

rick1138 · February 24, 2003 9:09PM

I smoked for about 14 years and haven't smoked in about 8 years, it took me a lot of tries to pull it off - one of the things to remeber is that it is a major life changing event to deal with - it is not easy to quit at all. One of the best things that helps to calm down urges is heavy exercise, but in the first few weeks you will not be able to relax at all - you will be wired for a while - so don't try to. After a few months you wil start to feel better than you ever did as a smoker. I don't regret quitting for a single day - I miss nothing about smoking, and I am fortunate enough to live in one of two states that bans smoking in all indoor public places. Going to a crowded club where the air is clean is a great experience.

ibrowse · February 24, 2003 10:56PM

I'm 19 and have smoked since I was like 13. I want to quit smoking, but I don't want to stop smoking, uh.. I know what I mean. I know it's bad for me. I can go without the nicotine, that craving I can kill, unless I get stressed out real bad. But I enjoy smoking, kind of like a snack or something. I also need to have a cigarette in certain situations, like driving, concerts, after a meal, drinking (and other.. uh.. recreational things), breaks between classes, certain friends houses. Ok, so I have grown to associate smoking with pretty much everything I do.

Damn. I really want a cigarette now.

gspotter · February 24, 2003 11:51PM

I never did smoke myself, but my father once told me he was a heavy smoker at university. Then a friend began nagging him "you are an addict", "you have no control over your body", "you're weak willed" etc. As he had another picture of himself, he finally gave in and in order to show his friend that these comments were not true, he stopped smoking.

My wife did smoke at the time I married her. In order to stop her smoking, my father made a deal with her: She'll get some money from him when she quits smoking. If she ever starts again, she'll have to pay it back. She never started again...

tmp · February 25, 2003 10:48AM

I smoked for about 10-12 years and quit 6 0r 7 years ago. I had "quit" several times before, but it didn't take. I also felt I "needed" to smoke in while driving, at the bar, etc.

I used the patch. At the time, it was pretty expensive. I think that helped- my inner cheapskate wouldn't let me not succesfully quit after dropping the bucks on the patches.

I did gain weight, which was a bitch to get off. But on the plus side, my teeth are white, I can actually run a few miles without getting winded, and I don't stink of smoke half the time (I really notice it when someone comes back from a cigarette break)

As a matter of fact, the only thing I miss is the cigarette break. It's still perfectly acceptable to walk out of the building for 5-10 minutes every hour or so to grab a smoke. I can't do that just because I am sick of looking at this freaking computer.

<img src="graemlins/oyvey.gif" border="0" alt="[oyvey]" />

superkarate monkeydeathcar · February 25, 2003 11:02AM

i never smoked until i was 21. by the time i was 25 i was at 3 packs a day.

i quit.

i started chewing instead. copenhagen, the heroin of snuff. just as hard to quit too.

i quit chewing but then i smoked cigars, and cigarettes when in clubs or bars.

i had a friend who had bone marrow cancer and the last time i saw her she begged me to quit smoking cigars.

about 4 months later i just quit out of the blue.

about a month after that, my friends husband called and told me my friend (heidi) had passed away the month before and as i wasn't a friend anyone in her family knew real well i wasn't informed. he felt horrible.

i asked him the date she died and it was the same day i had i quit.

true story.

i-bent-my-wookie · February 25, 2003 11:58AM

[quote]Originally posted by superkarate monkeydeathcar:

i never smoked until i was 21. by the time i was 25 i was at 3 packs a day.

i quit.

i started chewing instead. copenhagen, the heroin of snuff. just as hard to quit too.

i quit chewing but then i smoked cigars, and cigarettes when in clubs or bars.

i had a friend who had bone marrow cancer and the last time i saw her she begged me to quit smoking cigars.

about 4 months later i just quit out of the blue.

about a month after that, my friends husband called and told me my friend (heidi) had passed away the month before and as i wasn't a friend anyone in her family knew real well i wasn't informed. he felt horrible.

i asked him the date she died and it was the same day i had i quit.

true story.<hr></blockquote>

cooooool, in the way that something 'good' (quitting) can come out of the worst situation imaginable (losing a friend). Im sorry for your loss.

i-bent-my-wookie · February 25, 2003 12:08PM

I certainly can relate to each one of these posts in one way or another with my experiences.

[logical section of brain]

I want to quit

BUT

[emotional section of brain]

but I dont want to quit...

thus "the FEAR". Unfortunately the nature of the nicotine molecule attaches directly to emotional centres in the brain where we reward ourselves internally (ie. endorphin release). So when we stop smoking often the logical part of our brain never gets to do its work for very long before our emotional/reward centres of our brain start saying "GIVE ME A F*&ING SMOKE NOW" thus drowning out our logic centres. Because of the nature of nicotine replacing natural brain-reward chemicals when we quit our body has drastically lowered the amount of this necessary chemical being produced. So we are depressed, it is difficult to get excited about things or accomplishments, a general depression. We brood, we stress ----> we smoke again... arrrrgh.

The Nicotine molecule fits right into that special part of your brain and provides instant relief to the that stress... And thus your body again reduces its natural production cycle of endorphins and related brain-chumma. back to where you started.

i-bent-my-wookie · February 25, 2003 12:11PM

has anyone here read this book:

"Allen Carr's Easy Way To Quit Smoking"

by Allen Carr (naturally)

That was how I quit almost instantaneously, no 3 day burn, no two-week pickup, no relapse, no FEAR... I recommend it but it is out of print so difficult to find. If someone comes accross an ebook or pdf version send it my way

i-bent-my-wookie · February 25, 2003 12:13PM

[quote]Originally posted by thuh Freak:

puff. nobody likes a quitter.<hr></blockquote>

Actually, it was your signature in an unrelated forum that spurred me to start this thread. thanks for the inspiration

and good luck with the smoking thing, whatever you do with it.

Reformed Smoker? whats your story (sorry matsu)

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