Attn: Non-smoker's, want motivation

[NuWoman]

Shoghi... flamed by me you will not get... thank you. I cannot flame you for giving it straight as I asked for it! Everyone, thank you. I truly appreciate all that has been said here.

[ColoradoHermit]

Hi ya! I cant really flame you either but I can give you something that I think will help. I have just quit smoking myself. Today makes 31 days without a smoke. I will be 49 in one week and I have been a heavy smoker since I was 18 and I started smoking when I was 14. This is the longest that I have gone without a smoke in at least 30 years. For me the decision to quit was my own. And like some others that I've seen post here I didn't tell anyone for a while. What finally made me decide to quit was the money. I was going over my bank statements on my computer and saw all the charges at Smoker Friendly where I always bought my smokes. In five months I had spent over $800 there on cigarettes. I couldn't believe it was that much! It averaged out to $163 a month for smokes! Now I'm on SS disability and that was over 15% of my monthly income, for smokes.
What I have used to help me quit has worked pretty good. I started with using the new drug that's out called Chantix. And then I downloaded a couple of self hypnosis recordings from Amazon. I put the hypnosis recordings in my iPod to listen to and it has worked amazingly well. The first recording I tried I got tired of after a week so I found another one that I like. I have been switching off on them and it has been a lot easier than I ever thought it would be. I'm really surprised at how easy it has been. I thought it would be a lot harder than it has been. I quit drinking a couple years ago and that was a lot harder to do.
I had to stop taking the Chantix after the first 4 weeks because it started making me break out and itch. But I was able to take it long enough to get over the hump and get the nicotine out of my system. The hypnosis recordings have been a big help in breaking the habit. I still think about it, and that first smoke in the morning and the one after eating are the ones that I miss the most. But I think I'm going to make it this time. Here is a link to the downloads at Amazon that I have been using.
The first one is called "Global Hypnosis"; Amazon.com: Stop Smoking Now: MP3 Downloads: Global Hypnosis
This is the one that I like the best, "Mind's Eye Hypnosis"; Amazon.com: Minds Eye Hypnosis: Stop Smoking: MP3 Downloads: Minds Eye Hypnosis
They don't cost all that much to download and they sure have helped me a lot. And as for the descriptive stuff about all the nasty things that smoking does to you, it's in there and part of the recordings. Give it try and lots a luck to you!

[Rhett_Butler]

Originally Posted by NuWoman

Thank you VAFury... really! I have altered my routine and the things that trigger the smoke craving... I've been to bars without a cig, and honestly didn't want one and didn't really feel the need -- went with non-smokers so even though others were smoking that made it easier. I really feel like I'm over the largest hump, but have just the last and final problem with rare (by that I mean MAYBE once every week or two) occasional cravings. I have a whole new set of friends all of which are non-smokers that I spent most of my out of work time with and they are all mostly coworkers as well that support my need to leave my desk by letting me invade their workspace for 5 minutes every once in a while to replace the go outside urge. Truthfully, I do need one last and final push... I'm having a time finding that little motivator to squelch the "one won't hurt" complex - something that I can think of that will prevent the once every week or two light up. Everyone that I talk to that I know says I'm doing good and it just takes time not to stress over that "minor a setback" but to me this is not acceptable... I WANT to quit completely. So I'm trying to use the BF as a motivator in this last piece, but he's so nice he won't be brutal with me about it. And yes, I think if I saw it through his eyes, it would help.

It's funny..... I'll tell ya what..... The one last secret that helped me get through.....

****** about it..... It helped me so much when people would ask me how I was doing (in general or specifically about quitting smoking) I'd tell them exactly how miserable I was at the moment and VENT..... You simply HAVE to do this IMO...... Simply saying "Oh I'm doing okay" or "Trying my best" or whatever is a lie and you get no satisfaction out of it.....

What's funny is that you'd think you'd frighten people with this but I actually found many got even MORE supportive and congratulatory of my effort which may very well have been the remaining boost I needed.

The occasional cravings are just going to happen and you stave them off by simply thinking about where you've been and if it's really worth going through all of that again.... As time goes by you think about it less and less and eventually your brain almost completely forgets about it...... Once the new lifestyle is established it just needs to "take" so to speak and it will.....

Always remember one thing. Your other friends who smoke WANT you to fail because it validates them not attempting to quit in the first place. If you succeed it makes them feel worse knowing that you've accomplished what they've tried to convince themselves was close to impossible.... You'll notice most of these people would be pretty easy to bum a smoke from if you wanted to cheat. Deep down they WANT you to fail... Not because they don't like you or aren't your friends, but because it "brings you back to them" in that sense.... REMEMBER...

[Rhett_Butler]

Originally Posted by shoghi

I never really got the "I Can't Quit" bit. I was raised by a smoker, surrounded by smokers, I smoked as a youth. In the USMC, at the time, we even got cigarettes in the C-rations... and since I was in the infantry I ate a lot of C's. A CARTON of cigs cost $2.65 at the PX, less if on ship and so many miles out to sea.

One day I just said, "I quit." Took four days to get over the nic fits and I would dream about lighting up for several years. But I quit. The benefits as so eloquently related by Picassine were almost immediate. First to show up: food tasted like, well, food. And as a single male I am not overly into how food tastes (more like, "Will it bite me back?").

Perhaps I am insensitive but I feel that "addictions" are in fact personality defects. Witness the "recovery rates" of programs-- exactly equal to rates of people who, like me, did it on their own.

If you have the willpower you will quit. If not, do not attempt to fool people.

But you want physical motivation? Join a gym. Spend the first six months on the treadmill. Ass_u_me for a second that you last more than three days (which is typical), about the month mark you will notice that the hacking coughs (along with their... productive effluent) have peaked, and there are subtle changes in The Machine. Which is the topic for an entire thread. (My bp is 96/55 at present.)

So which is it: "I can't quit smoking." "I can't lose weight." "I can't stop drinking (drugging, potting, shrooming...)" Or, [bad word] it, I am going to do it?

I expect to get flamed for this.

There's some truth to this, but remember society is teaching us to be weaker in this respect these days..... Trying to teach us not to blame the person or ourselves, but blame the "illness" or some supposed defect in the way we were wired or something.......

I'm all for personal accountability in this day and age where "they" try to convince us it isn't our fault when we fail...

[keeperk]

Originally Posted by ColoradoHermit

This is the one that I like the best, "Mind's Eye Hypnosis"; Amazon.com: Minds Eye Hypnosis: Stop Smoking: MP3 Downloads: Minds Eye Hypnosis

I started downloading about 5 1/2 hours ago. Looks like I have about 2 more hours and it might get done! YIKES! Landliners, don't attempt this. I think I'm at 96% there and it's still chugging along. Hope it works!

[sierraAZ]

Originally Posted by Picassine

I used to smoke most of my life.. I quit about 14 years ago. Now smokers are my pet peeves... I would never date a smoker.

Yeah, nothing worse than ex-smokers! Many non-smokers are a lot more tolerant. Ex-smokers become bigger Catholics than the Pope. Pathetic sight.

[shoghi]

Who said that the most annoying person is an ex-smoker former-Marine who has just lost thirty pounds? The most I had to lose was twenty or so but few people would dispute that I am quite annoying.

[Rhett_Butler]

Originally Posted by VAFury

It's funny..... I'll tell ya what..... The one last secret that helped me get through.....

****** about it..... It helped me so much when people would ask me how I was doing (in general or specifically about quitting smoking) I'd tell them exactly how miserable I was at the moment and VENT..... You simply HAVE to do this IMO...... Simply saying "Oh I'm doing okay" or "Trying my best" or whatever is a lie and you get no satisfaction out of it.....

What's funny is that you'd think you'd frighten people with this but I actually found many got even MORE supportive and congratulatory of my effort which may very well have been the remaining boost I needed.

The occasional cravings are just going to happen and you stave them off by simply thinking about where you've been and if it's really worth going through all of that again.... As time goes by you think about it less and less and eventually your brain almost completely forgets about it...... Once the new lifestyle is established it just needs to "take" so to speak and it will.....

Always remember one thing. Your other friends who smoke WANT you to fail because it validates them not attempting to quit in the first place. If you succeed it makes them feel worse knowing that you've accomplished what they've tried to convince themselves was close to impossible.... You'll notice most of these people would be pretty easy to bum a smoke from if you wanted to cheat. Deep down they WANT you to fail... Not because they don't like you or aren't your friends, but because it "brings you back to them" in that sense.... REMEMBER...

FYI the bleeped out word is the "b" word..... Complain complain complain... Vent vent vent..... It's good for the soul...

[STT Resident]

First, I'm of an age now where finding a mate isn't crucial to my well-being. As a smoker in a world which is becoming increasingly unfriendly towards smokers, I may be in deep ca-ca where smoking in general is concerned within the near future. Most US cities have banned smoking in bars and restaurants and public places (government offices became non-smoking areas years ago in most jurisdictions both in the US, its territories and in Europe.) Puerto Rico recently implemented and enforced smoking bans, as did the British Virgin Islands. The US Virgin Islands are not too far behind with legislation pending.

I know that smoking is both a nasty and addictive habit. I make no excuses for being a smoker but should point out that the American tobacco companies brought about the majority of problems which smokers are now faced with.

When I lived in England during my formative years, it was no big deal to smoke or not. Most did. However, the cigarettes made then didn't have the ghastly concoctions which the major American tobacco companies subsequently continued to add over the years. Back then, if you didn't smoke a whole cigarette, it would quickly fizzle out in the ashtray.

Nicotine came via the minimal natural content in pure tobacco. As the chemical additives continued to be added to the basic product by particularly major American cigarette-manufacturing corporations, health issues resulted because of these additives which, as we all know, led to increases in death from lung cancer, emphysema, pneumonia, etc.

The cigarette manufacturers came under increasing fire, the "wrongful death" lawsuits escalated, the Surgeon-General decreed that a warning label be attached to every packet sold and the major cigarette manufacturerers were not only sucked up into different multi-corporate entities but then - as they do now - campaigned via TV ads for their non-smoking programs.

Corporate entities, as much as they are SO huge these days, will do anything possible to ensure their revenues. On the one hand the major cigarette manufacturers continue to produce their chemically-enhanced tobacco products while on the other hand they spend advertising money promoting alleged "no smoking" or "quit smoking" programs.

In closing (and I'm sorry if I've been rather long-winded) I do think that the anti-smoking legislation has gone way overboard in so many jurisdictions. It's apparently reached such stupidness in some "gated communities" that you can't live there and not only not smoke in the privacy of your own home but are prohibited from smoking OUTSIDE your own home but in your own back yard.

When the US is involved in a terrible unjustified war and America's youth is being diminished by the day, where be the priorities? Cheers!

[keeperk]

There is a book called The Easy WAy to Stop Smoking by Allen Carr.

I read it once and I did just quit smoking after reading it and it was easy.
The book says whatever you do! DO NOT loan out the book. Keep it.
My mother kept insisting on borrowing the book. She can read a book in a day,
I reluctanly gave her the book then she would not give it back.
Everyday I kept asking for the book, finally I said like a little kid,
Give me back my book!!!! Well I started smoking and told her to forget it.
It's not like we have a book store just around the corner and I could not get away to make the trip to get another one. Should have! But I wanted That book! The actual one I read for some reason.

Last night I picked up the book again and started reading it. It's a tedious book to get thru, but somehow it takes all the You've got to have a cigarette brainwashing away.
Today I'll be reading the book and listening to the Minds Eye mp3 I downloaded All of yesterday.

This thread came in a timely manner. I've been struggling with it myself and my boyfriend hates smoking. Yes he's one of those X smokers that can't tolerate smokers. I've quit a few times, was never that way. But I am more aware of the stinky smell of it when I quit and try to avoid it.