Former Smokers support thread

[hc666]

Hey Everyone,

So who use to smoke and quit successfully?

I'm on day 31 now. This is like my 8th time quitting but my strongest attempt since 2001 where I quit for 4 months or so.

I will be 34 in June and I gotta tell ya, smoking was really starting to hurt my body. Trouble breathing, esp in the heat the past 18 months or so, really cranky and tired alot and stuff like that. Feeling pretty good right now. Using the patch this time and finally feeling like I have gotten past the worst of it.

Gained about 8 pounds over those 31 days but thats ok as I need it lol

Anyway just thought this may be a good off topic thread.

If you smoke, quit and buy more blurays lol

[rragland]

Originally Posted by hc666

Hey Everyone,

So who use to smoke and quit successfully?

I'm on day 31 now. This is like my 8th time quitting but my strongest attempt since 2001 where I quit for 4 months or so.

I will be 34 in June and I gotta tell ya, smoking was really starting to hurt my body. Trouble breathing, esp in the heat the past 18 months or so, really cranky and tired alot and stuff like that. Feeling pretty good right now. Using the patch this time and finally feeling like I have gotten past the worst of it.

Gained about 8 pounds over those 31 days but thats ok as I need it lol

Anyway just thought this may be a good off topic thread.

If you smoke, quit and buy more blurays lol

I quit smoking in 1973 by going cold-turkey. My friend took me to an isolated campsite, cigarettes forbidden, no turning back. That was a rough night, but I had no choice. I made it 16 days without smoking, when I lit-up at a party. After two or three puffs, I became very sick and dizzy, so I extinguised it. Then I made it about three months without smoking. Same scenario, I lit-up and got sick. This pattern repeated itself but with longer periods between break-downs until, I finally figured out that if I smoked, I was going to get sick.

This is what worked for me.

[MATTYBLU2]

Originally Posted by hc666

Hey Everyone,

So who use to smoke and quit successfully?

I'm on day 31 now. This is like my 8th time quitting but my strongest attempt since 2001 where I quit for 4 months or so.

I will be 34 in June and I gotta tell ya, smoking was really starting to hurt my body. Trouble breathing, esp in the heat the past 18 months or so, really cranky and tired alot and stuff like that. Feeling pretty good right now. Using the patch this time and finally feeling like I have gotten past the worst of it.

Gained about 8 pounds over those 31 days but thats ok as I need it lol

Anyway just thought this may be a good off topic thread.

If you smoke, quit and buy more blurays lol

good for you, keep up the good work. my brother went for hernia surgey on 4-24-08 and quit that day and he is doing great.

for me i was an off and on smoker, more social than anything. go out with the boys and have a smoke with a beer. but when my son was born last aug i finally quit for good and never felt better. keep on going and you will feel so good, plus the cost is unbelievable now i had this very strong will were i could have one or 2 smokes and go a while without having one, but now i dont want any at all

best of luck and take care

[JeremyPiven]

Started smoking when I was 18. Not sure why. I am 26 now and I quit 2 years and some odd days ago. Never looked back. I tried the patch and it burned me and took it off within a few minutes. Tried the commit lozenges or whatever they were. They made my throat swell up. Definitely stopped them. Then I got a prescription for Wellbutrin. Took it for two weeks while I smoked and then after that kinda quit right then and there. I got really sick from a cold and smoking was not going to happen. So after that I was done. The first couple weeks after I quit were difficult but ok. You have some cravings and your pattern of life changes (no more after dinner, morning, before bed smokes - you know the good ones ). Also, after a few months - you can watch other people smoke and not care.

The key is - you have to WANT to quit. Otherwise you never will. I don't look back and I care to never have a cigarette again in my life. It was the worst addiction I have ever experienced (only one). As many excuses I made for why I smoked - none of them make any sense and to this day - I will never know why I picked up such a filthy habit.

I feel better, breathe easier, don't wheeze when I sleep, no more coughing up lovely matter from my lungs and all that extra MONEY! I don't stink anymore either.

To be free! So nice. BTW - I was a couple smokes a day. Moved up to 1 pack and then hit 2 packs a day. At my height - I was 2 packs and Marlboro Menthols!!! EWWW!

[hc666]

Thanks guys

Nice to see some stories of ppl who know what it's like!

I like the idea of the smoke free isolated camp. I kind of have that feeling just because no one I know smokes anymore and I become the anti-social type smoker which I think is very dangerous. It really becomes a bad habit when you avoid non smokers just to smoke lol

Yeah the cost is crazy, I smoked almost a pack a day at 12 bucks a pack here in Nova Scotia. Weird seeing all that extra money in my account lol

[hc666]

Originally Posted by JeremyPiven

Started smoking when I was 18. Not sure why. I am 26 now and I quit 2 years and some odd days ago. Never looked back. I tried the patch and it burned me and took it off within a few minutes. Tried the commit lozenges or whatever they were. They made my throat swell up. Definitely stopped them. Then I got a prescription for Wellbutrin. Took it for two weeks while I smoked and then after that kinda quit right then and there. I got really sick from a cold and smoking was not going to happen. So after that I was done. The first couple weeks after I quit were difficult but ok. You have some cravings and your pattern of life changes (no more after dinner, morning, before bed smokes - you know the good ones ). Also, after a few months - you can watch other people smoke and not care.

The key is - you have to WANT to quit. Otherwise you never will. I don't look back and I care to never have a cigarette again in my life. It was the worst addiction I have ever experienced (only one). As many excuses I made for why I smoked - none of them make any sense and to this day - I will never know why I picked up such a filthy habit.

I feel better, breathe easier, don't wheeze when I sleep, no more coughing up lovely matter from my lungs and all that extra MONEY! I don't stink anymore either.

To be free! So nice. BTW - I was a couple smokes a day. Moved up to 1 pack and then hit 2 packs a day. At my height - I was 2 packs and Marlboro Menthols!!! EWWW!

You got it! If you don't want to quit you will not succeed!

I WANT to for sure just because I was so tired of feeling sick and tired, of stinking, of wasting money and basically being the reject in my circle of friends and at work.

ANd yeah smokes travel in packs lol You can't just smoke 1 or 2 it seems. Well not me anyway.

[JeremyPiven]

Originally Posted by hc666

You got it! If you don't want to quit you will not succeed!

I WANT to for sure just because I was so tired of feeling sick and tired, of stinking, of wasting money and basically being the reject in my circle of friends and at work.

ANd yeah smokes travel in packs lol You can't just smoke 1 or 2 it seems. Well not me anyway.

Yeah, thankfully I quit before all the YOU CAN'T SMOKE HERE, SMOKERS ARE EVIL and all the laws started kicking in. I ruined 2 cars by smoking. Will never do it again. Bought my third car and only smoked in it a few months before I quit. Thankfully it was rare and there is no trace I ever did. New car smell baby!!



You ever got broke or didn't have any more smokes and you went digging for that one butt that you did not fully finished, maybe only half? Dug it out and lit that baby up??

Any smoker has. Lol. Terrible now that I think about it.

[HDJK]

I quit in '99 after about 10 years of smoking. It took a couple of attempts before I accumulated enough anger to finally do it. Just wishing to quit didn't do it, I had to 'not want to smoke'. If you get that difference you're ready to quit

[dwigtkschrute]

Great thread, OP!

I quit smoking on 3/1 of this year. My doctor put me on this pill called Chantix, which shuts off the nicotine receptors in your brain. Haven't craved one since I dropped them, and I feel great.

I have, like others, gained some weight, but I will be starting an exercise regimen next month, so hopefully that'll go away, too.

It is true, you have to want to quit. Getting used to life without cigarettes is the hardest part, but if you want to stop, you can.

I smoked for 18 years. I told myself I would not be a 20 year smoker. I didn't want to be that guy.

Congrats to all of you, and keep it up!

[Beta Man]

I quit cold-turkey about 5 years ago.... same thing, got a little sick when I tried to smoke after-the-fact....

[hc666]

I feel sick every morning when I put the patch on for about an hour. And man, if I forgot to take it off at night I have the wildest dreams ever!

I quit in the past with wellbutrin/zyban and that also caused weird dreams. I kind of enjoy them lol

Also went cold turkey once and funny enough had my best success. It makes sense though, if you really want to quit that is sometimes all you need.

I've heard of the Champix drug as well, I hear many people have great success with it as well... but as you all mention... gotta want to quit

[JasonR]

I quit using Chantix, I was a 12 year smoker. I started back up lightly last week, I am getting a refill today to knock that back out. Chantix works great!!!

[Herr Schmidt]

I gave the little bastards up the first of the year.And went on a diet the same day.Did not want to gain any extra pounds.And so far its been easy.
Just have to set the mind into doing it.
I was a smoker of over 25 years and im doing good :}

[hc666]

Originally Posted by Herr Schmidt

I gave the little bastards up the first of the year.And went on a diet the same day.Did not want to gain any extra pounds.And so far its been easy.
Just have to set the mind into doing it.
I was a smoker of over 25 years and im doing good :}

You are right, mind has to be set everyday. Everytime I crumbled and gave in, during previous quits, i forgot why I quit in the first place. Only to be reminded later on with a smoke in my hand.

I guess thats why it takes so many quits to finally quit sometimes... learn the mistakes me make each time so we can be successfully in the end.

[hc666]

Originally Posted by JasonR

I quit using Chantix, I was a 12 year smoker. I started back up lightly last week, I am getting a refill today to knock that back out. Chantix works great!!!

Good stuff! Hopefully get back on track

[TwYsTeD]

i quit smoking when i was 23 its been almost 14 years for me i just woke up one morning and figured it was a good day to quit.. good luck man i have a friend who has quit 6-7 times

[rragland]

Originally Posted by hc666

Good stuff! Hopefully get back on track

I honestly believe that if a person can abstain from smoking for 24 hours, then they are home-free. Give it a try. Good luck.

[BStecke]

I smoked for five years, about a pack a day, sometimes more. I had a gradual quitting process that worked pretty well for me. I had the patches that I used during the day, and I was still in college so I kept myself occupied with classes, and just tried to stay busy during down time so the desire to actually hold a cigarette was curbed a bit. I was working a night shift job at the time where almost everybody smoked, so I'd do the patches during the day and I gave my supervisor a pack of cigarettes that he locked in his locker, and I'd have one, maybe two during my shift at work. It helped diminish the dependency so that when I finally just stopped it wasn't such shock. That was in 2001, and I've been pretty good since. I'll very rarely have one or two if I'm out somewhere, usually if I'm drinking, but I've never had the urge to buy a whole pack and smoke like I used to. The taste and smell isn't at all like I remember. When I got used to smoking I could easily tell a difference in taste between cigarettes, but now they're all pretty much the same. Plus, I just don't have any desire to spend the money necessary to support the habit.

The hardest part for me was fighting the physical urge to light one up when I got in the car. Not the nicotine feeling, but just that it was habit and it gave me something to do. Now the thought of smoking in my car repulses me. I hate the smell of a car that people smoke in.

[silversnake]

i smoked for about 6 years, about a half a pack / day , sometimes more. One day i was bringing luggage back home and i went up and down the stairs real fast like , three times in a row at the end of the third time i really felt like i was going to die, wheezing, everything. I decided right there i would never smoke again. Haven't smoked in 4 years ... maybe more. stopped thinking about it until now. I still get these "mini" cravings sometimes , especially after i eat. Not enough to want me to smoke but sometimes a cigarette still smells good but it's easy to remind myself not to smoke.

Pretty glad i was able to do it so well. I used the patch for about 2 days but i had some really weird tingling sensations in my arms and made me feel pretty bad so i just went cold turkey after that.

Good luck to anyone trying to quit, you'll be happy when you finally do and feel a lot better. If you want motivation, you should put a jar and put the money you would be spending on on cigarettes and than spend it on blu's for example.

[BStecke]

Whenever I see a new type of cigarette, particularly some of the flavored Camel stuff (which I used to love), I still get a wicked urge to try them. I'm starting to doubt that that will ever go away.