Hi Patrick!! I just joined this site about two minutes after you I reckon
I am also ready to quit but I have been trying unsuccessfully for a few days now and I realise I am unable to do this thing on my own. I have been browsing the forum for a few hours and it looks really great with lots of positivity and support between the members.
I am one of these 'serial quitters' :rolleyes: - I give up for a few hours a day and then start again in the evenings - not good I would like to take the plunge and be free from this terrible addiction, and am determined to give it a go.
Hi Pat and Zoe welcome to the forum. The support you will get on here is really good and will help you quit. I could not have done it without them.
First of all you have made the first move, you want to quit, with me it was a case of I didn't want to smoke any more, it was getting I hated everything about the stinking addiction and habit.
Please read read read all you can that's what I did it really helped before when I tried there was no pc in my house so didn't have the knowledge there is now. I read Allen Carr and went cold turkey hard but took it one hour one day at a time.
If I can do it anyone can, really even after 35 years:eek: wish I done it sooner.
I have just stubbed out what is meant to be my last ciggie one minute ago so I am very early in my quit lol I admire you for going cold turkey cos I don't think I could do that, I tried it a few years ago but felt so ill :eek: So I have been puffing on an e-cigarette which I wouldn't recommend - it tastes awful and is too strong. But any port in a storm until I can get some other NRT. My problem is that I am terrified to leave myself without cigarettes overnight in case I panic. So, I buy a pack of ten and then the inevitable happens - I smoke them. But I feel I need to know they are there just in case I get too desperate. Bad thinking I know.
Anyways, after browsing the forum, my commitment to myself is not to smoke for one hour!! Even I can manage that lol
Hi Patrick and Zoe - welcome to the forum, and good luck to both of you!
Sorry Patrick - can't help on the beer issue as I don't drink. I know that I have avoided other triggers for a while until I get to grips with not smoking though.
Zoe - I know what you mean about the e-cigs - they are horrible! Have you tried cutting down in advance of quitting? Some people reduce the number of fags they smoke for a week or two before they give up so that quitting doesn't come as such a shock. This didn't work well for me because I was constantly clock watching and obsessing about when I could have my next ciggie. What I did instead was to continue to smoke whenever I wanted, but each day, I reduced the number of puffs I had on each fag. By quit day, I was only having 3 puffs on each one, so I had really reduced the amount of nicotine I was taking in. In the run up to quitting, I also only bought a pack of ten each time, and changed the brand every day. I also only smoked in places that I didn't usually smoke in, and made myself stand up. This helps to start breaking down the related smoking habits and makes it less appealing. Every little helps!
Good luck, anyway, and let us know how you are getting on.
Zoe - I know what you mean about the e-cigs - they are horrible! Have you tried cutting down in advance of quitting? Some people reduce the number of fags they smoke for a week or two before they give up so that quitting doesn't come as such a shock. This didn't work well for me because I was constantly clock watching and obsessing about when I could have my next ciggie.
Hi Mrs T, - yes the e-cigs are horrible but at least they have cut me down a bit. I am trying to cut down in advance of quitting, hence the e-cig, but I know what you mean about clock watching, I find it hard to concentrate on anything else! But at least I have come down from 30 to 20 to 10 --- but quitting altogether is the biggie --- if I could buy one ciggie at a time it would help!!
Zoe
(Oh and gone two hours four mins now lol big deal!)
Zoe I m a serial quitter and have been for nearly seven months. It's not important how many times we fail, it's how many times we try to succeed. We want to do it or we wouldn't be here. We just need to be stronger and work through our craves instead of giving in at the first sign of panic. It can be done and we will get there.
Find a good enough reason to stop and you won't find a valid reason to stop.
Hi Karri I agree with you so well! And if I manage to stop smoking for a couple of days at a time instead of smoking everyday I will still be helping myself, baby steps, as someone said
Thanks for the comments, been doing ok so far today but its so weird not smoking anything at all... the one thing i miss is the taste, like i can have these nicorette enhaler things but they dont taste of ciggerette smoke and thats the main thing my mind misses really
Hi Patrick, I know what you mean about the taste. That's why I've been trying with an e-cigarette, they taste awful, like pipe tobacco lol but at least it feels like smoking a cigarette. And it is the feeling of smoking I miss whenever I try to give up. So I am using it to cut down and then will switch to other NRT like inhalator. It all seems to be a learning process really. But i am glad to have cut down. And when I get another inhalator, I lost mine I will use that again.
At least I have cut down, that is the main thing - guess I am at the pre-quit stage, but hope to progress soon. One day at a time and we all do as best we can.
Quick update whilst in the early hours of day 2 i still feel as this is day one until i fall asleep.
I have been drinking beer and even though it has been hard to resist the urge to smoke a ciggerette i have had a nicorette inahler glued to my hand taking puffs every 5 minutes to try and sustain from the urge to go out for a quick smoke.
One of the best things about this is as well is that i havent even got any money because i spent it all on nictotine products haha so even if i wanted to smoke right now it would be impossible unless i begged someone for a ciggerette on the side of the street
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