This coming Tuesday marks my one month anniversary of quitting and looking back to day one has got me thinking.............
Do we ex-smokers dramatize our quits to much ? Is it as hard as we make it out to be to actually quit ?
Lets be honest we have all probably told non smoking friends how difficult it is to stop smoking when i'm not entirely convinced it is.
Yes most of us have suffered some nasty days in our quit but on the whole it's been reasonably easy to say the least. It's true it does get easier, in fact as soon as the first week is over it's all downhill after that.
Maybe i'm having a good quit which has clouded my views on this but i can't see how. I still smoked for 17 years of my life.
I honestly believe quitting isn't difficult if you get stuck into it. It's not the hardest thing you will have to do in your life.
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IMHO quitting is all about the unknown.....
An educated quit is actually quite easy, but sadly, the number of quitters who find sites like these and the resources they offer are slim.
Most of the quitters who do not find the education on offer end up following one of the members on here's advice and "man up" and hope that their iron will outlasts the craves.
Clearly a quit along those lines has the potential to be more difficult.....
But hey, someone will be along presently to disagree!!!
PS: Congrats on the 1 month
easy eh?
I know what you mean rogue .. it's not rocket science and really it is quite easy.
BUT .. how easy would it be to pick up a cigarette and smoke it? (well a rollup for me as I always hated cigarettes) .. Easier I would suggest so BEWARE of the complacencies which will creep up when you least expect them and WHAM! before you know it you are on the slippery slope.
Keep up the good work and I'll see you in the penthouse x
I think if you sit a think about how much you 'miss' fags and how great they were and how much fun your missing out on then it is really hard but if you do not allow yourself to constantly 'pine' it really is just dealing with a few moments a day that catch you off guard.
I am very stubborn and I have decided not to smoke ever again therefore I will not. It's as easy as making the descision that whatever happens you will not smoke again NEVER. But I can understand why some people have a very difficult time.
My quit has been easier than I expected (so far!), and, at times, harder than I would have wanted, but on the whole, it's certainly manageable and doable.
What I think is a bit preposterous is the idea that quitting smoking is harder than quitting heroin or cocaine and the like. I've heard that idea bandied about many times, and I just don't see it.
I haven't gone into cold sweats, I haven't been hallucinating, I don't need to be restrained to my bed posts. (Well, maybe the last one could be fun, but that's another story...)
I would agree that quitting for me hasn't been nearly as hard as i thought it would be. I would say out of the hours of the day i have minutes of discomfort now so it's worth it for me; the advantages are so much more:
Clothes dont stink
Appetite is back and i can taste food
Car smells fresh
Money saved
Breathing better and feeling fitter
No more treated like a leper in shops, cafes etc
etc. etc.
I still can be obsessed about it all but that's hardly suprising after just 11 days..i just remember to be patient and not act on the the obsessions and keep in the forefront of my mind that just one puff would put me right back into addiction.
Is it as hard as we make it out to be to actually quit ?
It depends on how many addictions you have going at the same time. I personally have 3 or 4, depending if I include smoking or not, which my doctor didn't seem to want me to quit :rolleyes: but its the one I wanted to quit the most.
No wonder I am the wild virago on this site most of the time. Really sorry to those I have upset
Lets be honest we have all probably told non smoking friends how difficult it is to stop smoking when i'm not entirely convinced it is.
It's as difficult as we choose to make it.
If we don't understand why we smoke in the first place it starts the quit off in the wrong direction and has the potential to make the process harder.
Public perception of quitting is that it's difficult and anyone having an easy quit is seen as in league with Lucifer.
The trick, as always, is simply not wishing to smoke.
A little knowledge, a little application and a little discomfort is really all it takes.
What I think is a bit preposterous is the idea that quitting smoking is harder than quitting heroin or cocaine and the like. I've heard that idea bandied about many times, and I just don't see it.
Those kinds of addictions are totally different .. I think more physical than mental. I had a friend in my youth who was addicted to heroin, prescribed valium and smoked. He was successfully weaned off heroin by methadone, the valium withdrawal was very messy as he decided to give it up CT (NOT recommended) but he did it and, as far as I know, he still smokes to this day.
Addiction to anything is a huge problem and before anyone can succeed in dealing with it you need to look at any underlying issues. I think addiction to smoking is much more subtle and there may not really be underlying issues other than just the act of habitual smoking.. Do you think some people do have an addicitive nature more than others? maybe Carole should answer that.
Do you think some people do have an addicitive nature more than others?
I think it depends on how much interest you invest in smoking and your trigger patterns. By investment I mean whether you use cigarettes as a reward or not and by trigger patterns I mean how often and under which circumstances you light up.
Someone who uses cigarettes as a reward will have a harder time to give up than someone who just smokes because they can, without giving it much thought.
Someone who associates smoking with certain events / times / places etc. will have a harder time to give up than someone who hasn't created strong associative patterns.
If you plot this on an x,y axis, those that would statistically find giving up the easiest are those who are least invested, and don't associate smoking with certain events / times / places. Those who would find it statistically hardest are those that put conscious effort into their smoking, reward themselves by smoking, and have created strong associations.
All, of us fall somewhere along that curve, line, or whatever shape it would form. Someone may have already done the a-nalysis, but I haven't seen it yet.
There is a difference between smoking and addiction to heroin, coke, smak. speed prescription drugs. All of the latter are seen as addictions practised by lowlifes, its quite difficult to take krak in the smoke shelter or even whilst waiting for a bus.its usually something done out of the public domain and not every 20 mins like smoking, you can do loads of things with a smoke even have a shower apparently. You dont get sacked for being a smoker or your windows put through like a smakhead or pisshead or krakhead.cokeheads can get away with it for a while until the paranoia sets in and u have to sell your kidneys and the kids. addiction to the lowlife drugs quite quickly causes problems, big ones . smoking doesnt really do that , it makes u stink and look like s*** but u can do it for years and get away with it , when it comes to quitting its surprisingly not that easy compared to coke or smak , or so my friends tell me. my best mate was an alcoholic(still is) but he dgave up drink, loads of people pressurized him to incl the courts and all the landlords. when smokers quit they do it without all of this pressure and do it alone, maybe this is why its so much harder than heroine, and when u do quit smak u get a flat and a job and incap benefit so its easy peasy really so put that in your pipes but dont smoke it...... Mash ex addict
and when u do quit smak u get a flat and a job and incap benefit so its easy peasy really so put that in your pipes but dont smoke it...... Mash ex addict
I used to work as a support worker for those people, and most of them have about 3 times the income I have. And peeps coming off smack are on methadone for months/years????
Wish I could have a drug that would keep me quiet during the smoking quit cos champix/NRT just don't cut it. Scuse da pun But if smoking fags had turned me into a criminal, I would be getting a lot more support than I am now, which is zilch, maybe I should put Tescos windows in to get help for my smoking habit???? Not joking either but drugs, shmugs, looks like its gonna have to be cold turkey for me, and that will prob see me locked up. Oh well, least I won't have to pay da dreaded council tax. Bin men never come anyway :rolleyes::mad:
Zoe xxxx
P.S. I'm only allowed four smilies on here, what's that about lol ????
Good Evening Rogue as a recovering alcoholic of some 21+ years and a recovering smoker of 80 days standing believe me that putting the nicotine addiction to bed is infinitely harder in the initial stages than coming off the drink. Don't ask me why this should be but it's a scientically proven fact. In fact within Alcoholics Anonymous there's school of thought that if you smoke you shouldn't try to stop before you have 2 years soberiety such is the state of your nervous system.
So for all of us out there trying to quit and maybe finding it hard, remember we're suffering from a very powerful addiction.
as a recovering alcoholic of some 21+ years and a recovering smoker of 80 days standing believe me that putting the nicotine addiction to bed is infinitely harder in the initial stages than coming off the drink.
Wow, cos thought that coming off booze is dangerous, due to convulsions, which we don't get from quitting smoking.
So well done to you for doing both though, that is AWESOME you should be so proud :cool:
Sorry but the quantity of smilies you are allowed is not down to the Mods it is just the way the site is set up :confused: so in the meantime just remember we are also restricted to how many we can use, smilies that is not the other things you were talking about also good luck at the Docs tomorrow carol as well :D
't would also be nice if we could attempt to stay on topic, rather than divert the OP's original question / intent and dip into side conversations instead :mad:
Because it's mainly a psychological addiction, it affects different people in different ways. Mindset is a huge factor in it. If you really want to stop & are mentally prepared for it, it's fairly simple & relatively painless. If you aren't prepared or view it as a sacrifice, you're likely in for a tough one.
Oh i wasnt saying heroin addicts etc are bad people, society might but i dont .i was just trying to point out a massive difference between smokers trying to quit and other addicts trying to quit. some of my best friends are addicts ,as we all know it can happen to the best and the worst of us . There but for the grace of god and all that.
Oh i wasnt saying heroin addicts etc are bad people, society might but i dont .i was just trying to point out a massive difference between smokers trying to quit and other addicts trying to quit. some of my best friends are addicts ,as we all know it can happen to the best and the worst of us . There but for the grace of god and all that.
I so loved some of the people I worked with and miss them, I never thought I was better than them, but it has been said that quitting smoking is worse than quitting heroin. Think its two different things, and hard for each addict as we know. I never been on heroin but nicotine is doing my head in, but will get there
Because it's mainly a psychological addiction, it affects different people in different ways. Mindset is a huge factor in it. If you really want to stop & are mentally prepared for it, it's fairly simple & relatively painless. If you aren't prepared or view it as a sacrifice, you're likely in for a tough one.
This coming Tuesday marks my one month anniversary of quitting and looking back to day one has got me thinking.............
Do we ex-smokers dramatize our quits to much ? Is it as hard as we make it out to be to actually quit ?
Lets be honest we have all probably told non smoking friends how difficult it is to stop smoking when i'm not entirely convinced it is.
Yes most of us have suffered some nasty days in our quit but on the whole it's been reasonably easy to say the least. It's true it does get easier, in fact as soon as the first week is over it's all downhill after that.
Maybe i'm having a good quit which has clouded my views on this but i can't see how. I still smoked for 17 years of my life.
I honestly believe quitting isn't difficult if you get stuck into it. It's not the hardest thing you will have to do in your life.
OK - I saw this as I moved into week 3 of my 4th Serious attempt at quitting in 3 years. I've been trying to stop myself commenting - because I might sound "a bit preachy" but I just want to give you the benefit of experience of where I went wrong the last times out. So here it is:
DO NOT EVER THINK QUITTING IS EASY.
It isn't easy. It's difficult. Otherwise you'd have quit before 17 years of smoking. The mechanics of actually quitting when you're ready to are quite straightforward (i.e. 1st week bad, then easier). But this is how I convinced myself it was OK to smoke again.
I'll just have one. I'll just smoke the rest of the weekend, the I'll quit again on Monday. Quitting's easy, right? So why not have a smoke now and then just quit again on Monday?
Only you keep finding excuses not to quit again on Monday. But it doesn't matter you didn't quit on Monday, because quitting smoking's easy right? Just keep on smoking again and just quit in a week or two. Because it's easy to quit again!
Nine months after my last quit ended like that, I was still smoking. I was going to give up again when I got back of Holiday. I didn't. Now I'm back at a teeth grinding, gum bleeding, not sleeping square one.
Complacency is your enemy mate - after the first month it's all about concentration!
this coming tuesday marks my one month anniversary of quitting and looking back to day one has got me thinking.............
Do we ex-smokers dramatize our quits to much ? Is it as hard as we make it out to be to actually quit ?
Lets be honest we have all probably told non smoking friends how difficult it is to stop smoking when i'm not entirely convinced it is.
Yes most of us have suffered some nasty days in our quit but on the whole it's been reasonably easy to say the least. It's true it does get easier, in fact as soon as the first week is over it's all downhill after that.
Maybe i'm having a good quit which has clouded my views on this but i can't see how. I still smoked for 17 years of my life.
I honestly believe quitting isn't difficult if you get stuck into it. It's not the hardest thing you will have to do in your life.
It all depends on how your mind is Rogue. I started with a good mind but unfortunately for me i broke down with tears and depression and i lit that fag. We all have different views on our quits i personally think its hard to quit.
It all depends on how your mind is Rogue. I started with a good mind but unfortunately for me i broke down with tears and depression and i lit that fag. We all have different views on our quits i personally think its hard to quit.
Hello Jacqui, nice to see you posting. Hope you are well
If you can tough it out until 6 months and your mindset is right, it's easy!
I couldn't have said that a month ago but see that piss walking by it's a piece of that.
You only continue to gain at this stage...such as; days added onto your life, my complexion is so much better (this has happened only recently for me....but so much so that colleagues at work are commenting and the dark circles under my eyes are much, much better), my eczema and psoriasis have cleared up, I feel amazing (I CAN BREATHE AGAIN!), I don't stink, I'm not worried about where and when I'll be able to have a fag, I'm not worried about running out of fags, I'm not as stressed out.
Truly, I wouldn't give up feeling like this for the world. And yet a month or so ago I felt really down, depressed, and wondering why I'd even bothered to give up. I'm so glad I stuck it out.
So yeah the quit was hard initially but so, so much easier now. I think I was a drama queen at first as well. I wanted everyone to sympathise with me for having quit. How self centred....I don't think this was intentional however, but it's funny how that addict part of you is so damn ugly. Anyways, keep with the quit, it is so worth it.
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x
but drugs, shmugs, looks like its gonna have to be cold turkey for me, and that will prob see me locked up. Oh well, least I won't have to pay da dreaded council tax. Bin men never come anyway :rolleyes::mad:
Close quit date buds really help inspire! What do you think?
