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I quit smoking for a month. Quit cold turkey from a pack a day. I have to say it was the most miserable month of my life. My cravings never subsided. I work a call center job where I get yelled and and cursed at all day. Cigarettes help me deal with it and I perform much better at work when I smoke. I relapsed last week and am back up to 10 cigarettes a day. I am going to try again tomorrow to quit. Question is, I am not sure how to cope with it. I know the habit is disgusting and unhealthy, and I know the risks. If it wasn't for societal pressure I would not quit. However, being in my mid-20s it is very unfashionable at my age to smoke and people look down on me for it, so I have no choice but to quit. Is there any advice on how to deal with it? How do I make myself "want" to quit?
P.S. Never smokers please don't tell me how stupid the habit is and that its easy to quit.
Please do not be overly discouraged. Many people try several times before they are able to quit for good. Different things work for different people, so I just throw these suggestions out:
1) See if you can continue to limit yourself to 10 cigarettes a day, or whatever it has slipped up to, if short of a full pack. I think this will make the next cold turkey easier.
2) How about getting yourself a little help, such as the nicotine chewing gum, or a patch, for the next time you quit?
3) Another form of help is the smoking cessation programs. It would be worth the cost, I think, or perhaps your medical insurance would cover it? These programs have had experience helping other people quit; make use of their knowledge.
You could try gum or hard candy when you want a cig.
Smoking to me seems to be more a habit of action or association than the bodys actual need for the nicotine. Meaning you want one with coffee, after a meal, when you sit down at your computer, anytime you light up during certain daily activities when you usualy have a smoke. Replacing the cig with something else during those times might help break the association of cig and activity.
I know when I'm somewhere I can't smoke, even for hours, I don't even think of smoking because I"m in an activity I don't associate with normaly having a smoke.
Since you are in your mid 20's and haven't been smoking for 30 or 40 years it should be a little easier than for those that have. It isn't easy, just maybe easier.
I wish I would have quit when I got out of the Army in 1968. I should have. Everybody I was around then smoked. We didn't know the harm it can do and being young thought bad health was many decades away and smoking was socialy acceptable then. I've been lucky. At 64 yrs of age I'm still in pretty good health with no problems that can't be controlled with simple meds. Not all are that lucky and I don't know how much longer I will be.
The longer you smoke the harder it is too quit. For some it gets to be a major life or death health crises that causes them to quit. And that can happen to people a lot younger then me.
So do yourself a favor and make a real attempt to quit now instead of later which might never happen. You and your wallet will be much better off. And being young you have no idea how fast the years can pass by and the harm that decades of smoking can cause in what seemed to be just a short time between youth and old age.
I wish you luck and hope you do quit. It will be much to your advantage down the road.
If you do succeed, you will thank yourself many times over and you won't wrinkle up early and get saggy skin because smoking causes your skin to lose its elasticity and get saggy and hanging.
Not to mention possible early clogged veins, lung, and heart problems.
I've smoked for over 40 years because I'm stupid, stubborn, and set in my ways so I certainly can't condemm anyone else who does smoke. But to be perfectly honest about it I wish I would have never started or at least had sense enough to quit years ago.
At the present my health is good for my age but one of those health crises could happen in an unexpected instant from the years of smoking. I still ride a motorcycle. Have for over 40 years. I can still shovel snow. But I know sooner or later my bad habit will bite me when I least expect it.
My mind still thinks young. But the body has been abused and may not keep up with the mind part.
And like I said before, you can't imagine how fast the years go by and how you wish you had made different decisions that might have given you many more years.
I hope you have more will power and gumption than I have had.
First of all, congrats on making the decision to quit.
I have low blood pressure. I couldn't use the nicotine substitutes (gum, patches, etc), because it spiked my blood pressure and made me dizzy. A cigarette delivers less nicotine than the gum does. So for me that wasn't an option. I considered Welbutrin, but antidepressants don't really sit well in my brain so I decided to avoid that route. I tried cold turkey and didn't last nearly as long as you did. My husband came home from work one day to find me in full delerium tremens on the bed, grabbed a cigarette, lit it, and stuffed it in my mouth and told me to smoke the damned thing or he was gonna call an ambulance. I was severely addicted to nicotine.
Several years later Chantix came on the market and I decided to give that a try. It was before all that bruhaha about side effects made the front page, but the information about those side effects was already on the packaging. So I knew what the risks were and chose to take it anyway. For me, it was the one thing that worked. I've been smoke-free for four years, and had only very fleeting "cravings" in the first few months of being smoke free. I only used the Chantix for two weeks. I had already quit the first day of my second week, took the pills to reinforce the quit, and my doctor and I decided it was safe for me to discontinue the meds.
I had smoked for over 30 years, and it took me three tries, and 2 week's worth of meds, to quit. Your mileage may vary - and I very strongly suggest you check with your employer and see if the company offers smoking cessation support through their EAP. Many corporations do, and it is no cost to the employee at all.
The first year of quitting cigarettes is tough, very tough. But do-able. I did it. Helps to avoid things that trigger your desire to smoke--coffee, alcohol--and even being around people who smoke.
Stress makes you want a cigarette to comfort you. And to help you breathe. We tend to hold our breath when tense. I found yoga and learning to do deep breathing worked to replace my held breath when stressed. Also, when I'd do my deep breathing, I'd silently say my mantra which was also comforting: "I breath in love, I breathe out pain."
I did one thing which probably wasn't the healthiest thing to do but it got me through the worst of my cravings when I was about to cave...I'd suck on a Tootsie Roll Pop...something to do with my hands and mouth to relieve the urge to smoke...did that for about six months...
You can do this. You know why? You are stronger than the cigarette; stronger than the tobacco companies that want you to stay addicted. You've got free will and you can decide that you'll no longer breathe hot, toxic smoke and chemicals into your precious body.
Get some worry beads. A long strand of colored plastic balls, an old neclace, great at home when you go thru a rough patch. I ditto the gum and hard candy. Do things in general that relax you the way cigs do, like swimming laps at the Y after work, running or walking around your neighborhood. I also got into making hot tea and burned incense in the house, made a whole ritual with it. Keep a list handy of reasons why you shouldn't smoke, grab it when you go through a hard time. Keep in mind smoking becuz of work is just an excuse. Instead, use an excuse to NOT smoke.
I think I quit smoking the easiest way known to humankind. It really was simple with no withdrawal symptoms. I went into the hospital for a simple little test a cardiac cath. The doctor said, "No problem you'll be out of here and eating lunch at your favorite Mexican restaurante by noon!" ---WRONG---, it was a Friday, they knocked my butt out kept me sedated until Monday Morning when I got placed at the front of the line for cardiac surgery. I had six cardiac bypasses, they kept me in the hospital until my sternum started to knit back together. I stayed Messed up as a can of worms for a week or so on Morphine Sulphate, little recollection, I still hear stories about my antics. When they finally let me out, I had been weeks without tobacco and that tube they kept in my throat left this plastic taste in my mouth and I had no desire to smoke. Have not had a desire to smoke ever since.- Simple!!!!
I smoked for 23 years and have quit for 3. Early in the quit it wasn't easy. There were a few days I hated myself, life,k pretty much everything and I wondered if it would ever get better. He!! yes it does. You have to keep the quit long enough to get over the hump and then you find you can live without smoking and that life is better without smoking. It really is, I promise.
How do you want to quit? Well I can tell you a few things I enjoy now. I love not having to spend the money to worry about getting cancer od COPD, I love that I can go in public without worrying about stinking like a stale ashtray, I love that I don't have the craving for the drug so I have to go stand out in the freezing cold and look like a moron sucking smoke. I love that I've stopped forcing my skin to age faster than nonsmokers, I love that I don't cough when I lay down to go to bed at night, I love that I won't ever burn another hole in any garment or car seat or carpet from a cigarette.
Some tools. But Carr's book, The easy way and read it before quitting. Get a membership online to quitnet and get support there. Familiarize yourself with the site and talk to people about the quit and get cozy with the site. Support is a must! Get some low cal munchies like tictacs, gum, cinnamon sticks. Plan for activities when you feel frustrated. Walking, running, biking swimming, yelling into a pillow, throwing things against a brick wall if need be, cleaning the floor, cleaning out the fridge, yard work, cleaning the garage or the closets, painting, walking the dog, if at work and there happens to be stairs, walk up and down the stairs if you must a few times and tell co-workers you are quitting in case you feel uncomfortable.
Here is a fact. Smoking does not relieve stress..
When we are stressed as smokers we burn off the nic drug faster so it FEELS like smoking relieves stress when we get that fix. It's an illusion because we are nic addicts. When you quit for long enough you will realize that because you won't feel like you need that drug to deal with stress any longer. Life does change.
I will never smoke again... Keep strong and know you can do this. It's tough at first, I won't lie but it IS worth it.
Try electronic cigarettes. I smoked for 40 years before stopping in April 2009 using them. Even with subsequent stressors (death of my father, etc) I managed to keep away from real cigarettes.
Not only do you get the 'hand to mouth' motion of smoking, but you inhale nicotine-vapor (the vapor is the same stuff they use in fog machines and the like). You can't quite do smokerings, but it is very close to the real thing.
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