copd: i been told i got copd mild but i... - Lung Conditions C...

Lung Conditions Community Forum

56,325 members66,957 posts

copd

curry profile image
35 Replies

i been told i got copd mild but i need to give up smoking but just cant do it i have try a few times now any help

Written by
curry profile image
curry
To view profiles and participate in discussions please or .
35 Replies

have you tried smoking one cig less tomorrow than today - keep doing that - see how it goes. I found over a period of time I went from 40 a day to 10 a day. Then I went from 10 a day to 0 six weeks ago and still smiling - give it a go :)

curry profile image
curry in reply to

thanks eyes i try that i got to smthing

in reply tocurry

It really is worth the effort curry :) let us know how its going.

curry profile image
curry in reply to

will do

ToadFlax profile image
ToadFlax in reply to

Wow, well done to you for giving up smoking this way!

The only way I could do it was using ecigs, and have been given up now for 6mths, I would never smoke cigarettes ever again.

in reply toToadFlax

it doesn't work for everyone but we are not all the same anyway :)

Suzy6 profile image
Suzy6

Hi, my son did it the way eyes suggests until he got to 5 a day then decided well why do I need the 5. Stopped for about 6 years then idiot started again and now seems to be unable to give it up again. Even seeing me struggle to breath at times. Please try hard. At mild you have a good chance to not suffer badly. Try hard and good luck

curry profile image
curry in reply toSuzy6

thanks suzy will do

jimmyg23 profile image
jimmyg23

Hi Currie please stop I know it is hard when I landed in hospital with severe cold the consultant told me if I did not stop smoking I would be lucky to get six months so I stopped there and then that was four years ago I know it is hard but it can be done so please try and

curry profile image
curry in reply tojimmyg23

thanks jimmyg23 i will do just got to get my head round it

I think its probably frowned upon, but the E cig. really helps me. Good luck, most of us know all about the effects of smoking, and the harm it has done, and it will continue to get worse. Until you stop!!!! Once you've made your mind up, it really is easy and you will wonder what made you do it for all those years!!! All the very best Sheila Xx

Hi the best thing to do is ask to see the smoking nurse at your surgery. I think every surgery has one. There are many options to help you give up including champix, patches and e-cigs. Good luck. x

James48 profile image
James48

Hi Curry, It seems like a mountain to climb but you can do it. I tried many times before finally deciding to stop including using Zyban, accupuncture, nicorettes and patches but started again everytime. I realised I had to stop instead of trying to stop. There was no trying about it after I finally made the decision to stop.

Have a word with yourself that you are sick of cigarettes controlling your life and take charge. It's all in the mind.

Buying bags of sweets helped me through those inactive times like watching tv. You can deal with any weight gain later. You will feel better about yourself day by day. All changes in behaviour take about 2 weeks and then it gets a whole lot easier. Tough it out and go for it - you can do it as so many of us have on this site and you will feel a whole lot better. I'm sure there'll be plenty of tips from other folk :)

123jim profile image
123jim

Hi sir james is right dont try to stop,just stop,your doctors will have a stop smoking nurse who will have several quit smoking aids i went from smoking up to 80 a day for fourty years to zero ,and that was eight years ago,im so much fitter and richer,for your healths sake STOP!!

tony12345 profile image
tony12345

Hi many times i tried to give up never succeeded the i was told about a new tablet called champ ix, after the first day i felt that i did not want to smoke 3 days later i give up completely is now been 2 months and i am still smoke free.

don't try and smoke one cigarette less a day it does not work

tony

in reply totony12345

everyone is different and what works for one does not always work for another.

There is a smashing quit support site on Healthunlocked that helped me tremendously . Loads of advice and loads of people going through the same thing. Look in on them and say hi. I quit after reading Alan Carr's book Quit the Easy Way....it was instant for me and then serious cravings only last a few weeks. i smoked for 42 years!

wishoz profile image
wishoz in reply to

Alan Carrs book did it for me too - highly recommend you reading it - good luck and say out loud I CAN STOP then do it.

BTW. COPD won't stay mild unless you quit!

Lolly2 profile image
Lolly2

Hello Curry,

I am sorry that you have received the diagnosis of COPD. I'm glad, for your sake, it is mild at the moment, but it will not stay that way!

Just over 10 years ago, I decided to quit smoking. Unlike other times in the previous years, I decided to prepare for my quit, and then to throw everything at it. I found a website for support, I got all the pills, patches gum etc. I had old hypnosis tapes to use and a couple of dummy plastic cigs. IT WAS NOT EASY, but I did it and in November I celebrate the 10th Anniversary of my quit. I smoked for 40 years!

Unfortunately, I have had cancer since then and I now have severe COPD....believe me, it is not funny. I have oxygen 12 hours a day and am breathless in between. Maybe, had I known what I know now, I would never have started smoking! What is done is done!

You have a chance to improve things.........get into the mindset to quit, and make all your plans and prepare well. If you have a plan, you can attack the Nico-demon when he tries to make you pick up another one. Search on the internet for a site for support....that is part of the preparation. DO NOT rush into things and you stand a better chance of succeeding.

I will not wish you luck, as luck has nothing to do with it....I will just say "Be determined, prepare well, have positive thoughts, and whatever it takes, just don't smoke!!!"

Lolly.

Lolly2 profile image
Lolly2

Dear Curry,

Please have a look at my reply to Brooke telling us to grow up!

Lolly2 profile image
Lolly2

Sorry, my reply to you about 20 minutes ago!

hallentine47 profile image
hallentine47

As someone crippled with this disease I beg you to stop. I like others worked down the numbers of cigs per day until I was on one only. that one was the hardest to stop!!! I had smoked for 41 years every thing one could possibly smoke! What helped me so much was the plastic white cigs which hold a little nicotene pellet. I rarely changed the pellet but even now after 10 years I have a chew or suck on the little plastic container when on the computer. Do whatever it takes because it will help you.

Offcut profile image
Offcut

I do not like them but try the e cig. You really have to just give up. it is still in Stoptober so there is loads of help and aids out there at the moment.

I am a real anti smoker now and would ban them. I was a 40 a day man with asthma and bronchitis at the time and have realised just how stupid I have been. Stopped in 1992 and not touch one since. It was not easy but worth it just for the money not spent on them.

Good luck and Be well

Tracey40 profile image
Tracey40

I recommend Alan Carrs book on giving up smoking it worked for me and hypnothis also worth considering. Good luck

Catnip profile image
Catnip

It's hard to stop smoking -- too many of us here know that -- but the bottom line is, if you don't, soon you won't have "mild" COPD. You will be struggling to breathe when you get out of a chair, you won't be able to go anywhere or do much at all. Ultimately, it could be an oxygen tank on your back, or being attached to a concentrator in the house. Then comes the wheelchair...

If that's the future you fancy, then keep smoking. If you'd prefer to live a relatively normal life, then take all the good advice offered here and stop. Patches did it for me, to back up a warning from my GP that I'd be dead in six months if I didn't stop smoking. That concentrated my mind.

Your choice, Curry: make the decision and stop.

FarmerD profile image
FarmerD

Just like the disease Copd affects everybody differently,it is a very individual disease,giving up smoking is individual.You could ask ten different members and each one may have used a different method.It is the tar in the smoke that affects the lungs so badly coating them in black sludge.So if you can just switch to the e.cig you,re half way there.I started smoking when I was nine years old and stopped at fifty six mainly through fear because I could,nt breathe.I now have very severe emphysema and life is quite limited and very very slow.You have the chance to avoid my situation,try every method,there is something will work for you once you are determined to stop.I wish you the best of luck! D.

Dmactds profile image
Dmactds

You say you've "been told" that you need to give up smoking; in my experience (I smoked over 50 years and tried numerous times to quit), in my experience, until you tell yourself and mean it that you need to stop..., you're not going to stop. You've got to tell it to yourself and MEAN it..., else you can look forward to continuing and having ever worsening health and an earlier than necessary death.

What finally did it for me was doubling up on the patches (one on each arm, for instance and wearing each stage of the patch program longer than called for in the instructions. I HAD to do something; at the time, I was up to nearly 2 and a half packs a day, so I figured all that nicotine absorbed from the patches through my skin certainly couldn't be any worse than all those ciggies.

You may have to finagle a way to get that many patches but if so, then 'finagle' you must...., anything to get lose from 'the evil weed'..!!!!

Best of luck !!

Give yourself a good talkin' to....!!!

Regards,

Duncan

CornishBrian profile image
CornishBrian

Just think forward a few years...when, if you carry on smoking, you will have to get someone else to go and buy your cigarettes for you because you won't be able to get to the shops. Your loved ones will then be piling on the pressure about your smoking because of the dangers of smoking in bed surrounded by oxygen bottles, because, realistically, that's how you will be existing. That did it for me. Off to the GP for Ziban or whatever, put up with a few weeks of side effects but then begin to rebuild your life. You only have mild COPD at the moment so there is plenty of life to be lived if you push through the first few days of withdrawal.

curry I have never smoked yet through childhood Asthma I developed COPD, my parents and one of my siblings smoked and I guess I look at smoking this way if it had just been discovered I doubt that tobacco would be legal it is one of the most addictive drugs going (and that is only the nicotine in them) have you ever wondered why the government have only made a half hearted attempt at making them totally illegal? The answer is quite were else will they get the revenue from the tax they levy on them, now they are starting on these electronic ones they are talking about putting them in the same class as ordinary fags. Nope the nicotine has got you well and truly hooked there are plenty of nicotine replacements to help you along the way but the first decision must always come from you you must want to give up. If you are still having troubles ask your GP he might with his nurses be running smoking cessation classes I am told these run for about 6 weeks and they have on a whole 50% success

Shocked1 profile image
Shocked1

I was diagnosed in dec 13. I gave up smoking through Allan carrs hypnotherapy session on 7. 12. 13. I'm moderate COPD. As my namesake suggests I was so so shocked and kicked myself for not going to the docs sooner as I was coughing for about 9 months!!!!! Try anything u can think of to quit smoking. There's people on here worse than me and I struggle enough. So please for your health just quit. It' really is a no brainer. Best of luck!!!!!!!! X

Weemag profile image
Weemag

I smoked then changed to vapouriser with nicotine and havent looked back well worth a try i know how hard it is but these really do work x good luck xx

Dragonmum profile image
Dragonmum

So here we go again! O.K the bottom line is that if you don't stop smoking you are going to become very much worse very much quicker - so do it!! You have to. I don't care what method it takes - just do it. It has been said by an apologist for e-cigs that they may be frowned upon in this forum and Offcut doesn't like them, but doesn't give a reason - sorry Offcut but I deal in the facts and the science. They are helping millions to kick smoking without going through the trauma of cold turkey quit or die philosophy. I smoked 20 a day for 60 plus years - yes I "Quit" - for years at a time, only to fall by the wayside every time. By the time I became really ill 5 years ago, ABs3 or 4 times a year + multiple steroid inhalers plus emergency admissions, these were beginning to take off. I got one on the 28th January 2010 and have never smoked since - I believe I owe it my life. Even the BMA admit there are people who just can't give up - so please, don't look on these as some kind of dangerous last resort. Leicester Stop Smoking Services are very happy for their patients to use them, and other Authorities are following suit. You smoke for the nicotine, you die from the tar - there is no tar in an e-cig and nicotine in the strengths used in vaping is no more harmful than caffeine.

onamission profile image
onamission

Giving up cigs is hard I went to my local quit clinic and used champix I took the tablets at night you continue to smoke then between 8-14 days you feel you don't wont to smoke you continue to take the tablets for a few weeks more.

That was 10 years ago and it worked for me good luck

susiegirl profile image
susiegirl

Im 55 and just been diagnosed with mild copd, I gave up smoking 5 months ago because of chest infections, I used patches and they worked fine. I was given the incentive to quit as the chest infections , showed me what it was like not to be able to breathe properly, no smoke was worth that distress. I wish you luck, be strong.

Not what you're looking for?

You may also like...

COPD

During the last week I have been short of breath which is causing my anxiety attacks, I've lost...

COPD

I have been a smoker for many years & thought I would die anyway of this disease, but I don't want...
stanns profile image

Copd

Can someone please explain why is it my breathing sometimes is really bad but doc says oxygen...
Jeanjt profile image

COPD

My husband has copd and has had 11 courses of antibiotics and steroids in 13 months. I think he...
Bird-67 profile image

COPD

Hi , I have been a smoker for 45 yrs. and a plasterer for 30yrs hardly ever went to the doctors...
padg1 profile image

Moderation team

See all
AsthmaandLung profile image
AsthmaandLungAdministrator
moderator_AandLUK profile image
moderator_AandLUKAdministrator
Claire_ALUK profile image
Claire_ALUKAdministrator

Content on HealthUnlocked does not replace the relationship between you and doctors or other healthcare professionals nor the advice you receive from them.

Never delay seeking advice or dialling emergency services because of something that you have read on HealthUnlocked.