Started when I was 9, me and a friend used to steal a couple of fags from each of our parents every day, quickly moved on to buying 10 a day with the lunch money for school, then 20 a day. . . I'm now 25
Gave up for the longest time in 2007 for 9 months and never felt healthier, was going to the gym everyday, tae-kwondo 2 times a week. . then my dad died and I started again.
Since then the longest has been 3 months, then my Granddad died, normal stressful things I can deal with but death is a toughie.
Recently I made it 2 weeks which is long enough to keep going after that, but went out drinking (a lot) and thought just the one wouldn't hurt (I've been there so many times it's ridiculous but never see sense)
I'm sick of telling all my friends and family 'this time I'm giving up for good' so thought I'd find a forum to help this time instead.
The patches never worked for me, gives you the nicotine without the pleasure of having the fag in your hand, a bit like having an alcohol injection, without the fun night out with your friends, and made me a bit crazy.
Found the best way is to go cold-turkey, plan the date and the time well and look forward to it. Normally for me it's 12:00am so I can start the new full day as a non-smoker. I sometimes use a book (like hypnosis) by susan hepburn, the kind of thing I'd always disregarded in the past but it actually works for me, only use that method if I'm feeling really weak to quit.
The hard part for me is not stopping, but staying off them.
So here's day one anyway. . or 58 minutes of the first day. Really going to put 100% in to make this the last time. Fed up with the smell, the embarassment of needing one whenever I go, the breathing trouble, the lethargy and the bad taste amongst many many others.
Wish me luck!
Bob
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One of the things which helped me most (apart from this forum) was reading as much as i could about my quit. What to expect, how to deal with the various things i would have to deal with.
I found that whyquit was a great source of material, with a huge amount of info on there.
Also woofmang has some great, inspirational stories to help when you think you may just have one.
Have a good read on those sites (links in my sig) and keep posting on here.
Welcome to the forum and well done for deciding to quit this is a great place and we will all help you I like you quit unsuccessfully many times then just over 3 months ago decided to try again
My son recommended this forum and with the help of the people on here and my son who is also on here am doing OK
Have a look at the sites John mentions and also all over this forum. There are loads of interesting bits and pieces about quitting, and I'm sure you'll gain a lot by reading up.
Keep posting, ask questions, tell us what it's like for you, but.... don't smoke those pesky fags anymore :cool:
That's the easy way and highly recommended way of stopping
Thanks for the support everyone, and thanks very much for the links John. I'm reading through all the websites right now and it's helping already.
Before, I only quit on my own, I told people I was doing it but didn't want to talk to them about it too much, somehow I think this made it easier for me to start again as I thought I gave up so easily, it's the usual story right?
But coming on here and seeing everyone else who is giving up or has done it already really gives me encouragement.
Today I woke up late, which is normal when I've quit. Feel really tired, bad taste in my mouth even after brushing my teeth, and sore throat. Feel hungry but the last time I quit for 2 weeks I gave in to the munchies and gained about 7 pounds, then started smoking again and was even more pissed off with myself for becoming fat also haha. This time I'm going to try to be careful with the food.
Drinking a lot of water seems to help with stopping me needing a fag or food, and I have breathing exercises to do every hour which helps too.
According to this little freeware program I got called quittime, I'm 14:16 hours smoke free, and have saved myself from 11 cigarettes, saving me about an hour of my life. So far so good.
Not much I can add to what everyone as already said. you will have great advic and support here and It make a diffrence when you can speak to others going through the same thing. Your doing great and remember the nicoyine is all but gone in 72 hours.xxxxxxxx
Do lot's of reading, it really does help. I stayed off caffeine too (use decaf coffee) and drink fruit/green teas. Lot's of water and fruit juice.
I've got a relaxation program on my iPod particularly geared to help stop smoking, found it quite good the first couple of weeks. It certainly helped me feel calmer.
Gave up for the longest time in 2007 for 9 months and never felt healthier, was going to the gym everyday, tae-kwondo 2 times a week. . then my dad died and I started again.
Good luck Bob,
A positive attitude, and an understanding of why you smoked is the best way. Also a fitness regime is a great help in dealing with the down points, exercise always makes me feel better.
now I'm raging at this website, I wrote down a whole reply which rambled on for about 10 paragraphs, went to post it and the website said I wasn't logged in, so I logged in, then it said I was already logged in and told me to press back, pressed back and the sodding email was gone! :mad: Is that supposed to be a funny trick they play on people on day one? Hilarious.
"10 paragraphs deleted? thank God!" you might be thinking but honestly it took about half an hour, I was going to send that then go to bed.
Sorry Nic, what was that about positive attitude? lol thanks for that, anyway I'm happy now, managed to get my email back!
It's now been exactly 1 day and 56 minutes! (edit: 1 day 1 hour and 20 minutes)
26 cigarettes not smoked, 2 hours of my life salvaged, although another 4 wasted from lying on the sofa watching crap on tv and not wanting to move but that's besides the point, and the grand total of $1 saved (I'm living in Asia right now which kind of does away with the whole 'think of the money you'd save' line) but at least it's one dollar more than I had yesterday right? Wrong! See the list at the bottom. . .
Anyway, today hasn't been as easy as sometimes in the past when I've quit, but I guess that will help make the resolve stronger to stay quit right? If it was easy, you could slip back into the habit easily thinking you'd have no trouble to give up again.
Normally I have to hide myself away from the world for a couple of days, not go out, and not talk to anyone, today I've been slightly more sociable in that I've given people an answer when they've spoken to me, albeit a grunt, and a sarcastic sounding one at that, rather than a comprehensible sentence but you have to walk before you can run.
I only lost my temper with one person today (edit: add this website today, but that technically goes against Day 2) which is pretty good for me, normally when I tell people I'm going to give up, they spend about an hour each trying to convince me not to as I can be such an arsey bastard, haven't a clue as to where they got that from but I feel it's a bit harsh.
In my defence, losing my temper today today wasn't really my fault, as you know I was planning last night to give up today, anyway I got this weird craving for egg fried rice, so I cooked the last of my rice and shoved it in the fridge looking forward to frying it up this morning and start the day off with some nice hearty food. Today I looked inside the fridge and to my horror, the rice was gone! one of my housemates had only bloody eaten it!
If it was for 'anyone to eat' I would've left it in the rice cooker like normal, why the one and only time I put it in a little sealed tub the fridge would it be for 'anyone to eat!!!' Made me more angry as he had no food in the fridge worth eating so I couldn't even take my revenge, plus I was left bloody starving, and not in the mood for going out food shopping.
I guess he got scolded a little more than was appropriate for a bowl of rice, but no (serious) harm was done, and it was a lesson worth telling just for future reference, don't think anyone will be going anywhere near my food from now on haha. Today hasn't been a total waste.
Reading through all the websites and other people's experiences has helped a lot today, and helped me to understand a lot more about smoking and the giving up process like why you can smoke and only feel the need to eat one time a day, in the evening, but when you give up you feel hungry all the time.
All of this reading has been informative, but at the same time about as much fun as watching paint dry! Although it's kept me off the fags, I've managed to put away a hell of a lot of food whilst reading without even realising until just now when I'm looking for something to snack on, and there's nothing there:
2 boiled eggs
8 cheese triangles
2 yoghurts
3 tins of tuna
a bowl of pasta with ketchup (lazy to make bolognaise)
aaaaannnnd a huge plate of egg fried rice with chinese sausage (housemate bought some rice tonight haha)
You maybe reading this post right now with a disgusted look on your face lol, and I wouldn't blame you. But the carnage could've been a whole lot worse, fortunately the cupboards are now all bare!
On the plus, it tasted good, it stopped me from smoking, and there's no fatty food left in my house which has got to be another positive step towards a healthy life right? So that's really 2 great things I've done today!
On the downside, I've probably gained about 5 kg just from today, there's no food left to eat with still a minimum of 24 hours of this left to bare. . .and I'm still hungry! I was 72kg before, I'm not even bothering to check again for some time lol
Tomorrow should be interesting, least I get to post on a different board which is just. . fantastic. (Insert sarcastic faced emoticon here) <-- Why do they not have one of those on this site, surely there's a need???
If anyone's still awake after reading this, does anyone have any tips on beating the food thing? Loads of fresh fruit and veg is all well and good, but I find that just wastes time and doesn't satisfy the hunger.
Okay, better go. Have to check and see if there's something edible left that I might have missed before.
P.S One thing is good, one of my housemates smokes, not as much as I 'used to' lol sounds weird. But seeing him go off to smoke and coughing over there makes me feel better. . (feel better that I don't smoke, not at his misfortune).
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