I'm a chronic nicotine addict waging an epic war on my organs to quit. Fun >_>

[nsd_user663_2714]

My name's Mark, I'm 17 and I've been smoking for about a year and a half.

This is my second attempt at quitting, the first being not so long ago and more of an experiment than a serious effort. During this time, however, I managed to cut out parts of my smoking routine, limiting my habit mostly to the late afternoon/evening.

I typically smoke around 4-5 cigarettes during schooldays and 6-8 during the weekends.

The roots of my addiction have grown from using cigarettes as a comfort during a family crisis and of course other stressful periods thereafter. I realise that nicotine replacements cannot contribute to breaking emotional/mental binds to smoking, but i'm using a nicotine inhaler and some lozenges (which taste like the decayed corpse of a prize cow might I add).

This is my first time on the boards and i'm almost at Day 2! I'm considering hypnotherapy if all goes well in the next week or so, does anyone have any advice or experience with that?

Cheers :cool:

[nsd_user663_2142]

Congrats - you have made the best decision ever and I have all the confidence in the world that you will succeed!! Good for you and continue to stay strong and smoke free!

[nsd_user663_2714]

Well technically the first 24 hours are over.

I feel pretty good now, just about to sleep. The cravings were mad earlier, though i'm glad I didnt yield to the temptation.

I really need to find my nicotine inhaler for I know how dangerous Mondays are :rolleyes:

[nsd_user663_2703]

Hi Mark,

Definitely do everything you can to quit now while you are still young and it is a relatively new habit. It will be so much easier than letting it go on for years and then trying to quit. I started smoking when I was 16 (stupidly just to see what it was like!) and honestly never in a million years thought that I'd still be smoking almost 12 years later! When I think of all the money I've spent on cigarettes and all the things I could have done with my life (I used to be a good runner before I started smoking, now I'm unfit and overweight and probably couldn't run ten yards!) I wish I had never been so stupid. Don't make the same mistake that I did Mark. Look after your health and do everything in life that you want to.

As for tips for giving up, what has worked for me so far is just to eat tons and tons of fruit. Concentrate on the fresh gorgeous taste in your mouth and think how lovely that is compared to the disgusting taste of cigarettes. Think how much nicer you smell to other people too. I don't know if that will work for you but it's working for me so far.

Sorry for such a long post!

[nsd_user663_2512]

Keep it going Captain ...

I had a 5 year habit when I was your age and it's taken me another 35 years to quit (you do the maths, thats a serious lot of wedge)

[nsd_user663_2176]

Hey captain, not sure which day you're on now but hopefully you'll read this!

Congrats on making the fantastic decision to stop now. There are so many of us on here that started in our teens and are shocked (and frankly a bit disgusted) to find ourselves 10, 20, 40 or so years later still puffing away like stinky chimneys.

Hope it's going ok, best of luck to you.