I am on my 3 rd attempt of quitting after being a heavy smoker for some 38 years and recently been on 50 roll ups a day and even waking up half way through the night to smoke.
I am on day 3 and on the patches with the insulator at the ready in case of, however I have also studied the Allen Carr Easyway, and am wondering as I am quite motivated by this weather if I was to abandon the NRT if I would be able to escape the withdrawal period sooner, I have had my patch off for the last 5 hours and have been ok apart from chewing on normal sugar free gum, although I do have a patch in my pocket at the ready in case of! Although I do find that my worse time is first thing in the morning
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nobbey
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Welcome aboard to our online stop smoking community
Congratulations on making it into your 3rd day, you sound like you are doing really well
Evidence shows that if you use NRT when quitting you are more likely to remain stopped. However, some people would prefer to not put any more nicotine into their system. This really is personal choice.
I think that there is some really good advice in the Allan Carr book, and that there are many ways of stopping smoking, this way is just one of them.
If you do not use anything, then any nicotine will be out of your system after 48 hours. However, it can take around 12 weeks for the nicotine receptors to down regulate, whether you use any NRT or not.
NRT will never do for you what smoking will, however it will help to curb those physical cravings.
It is not unusual for you to feel that the morning is the worse time for you. This is because your nicotine levels will have dropped whilst you were sleeping. As you were a heavy smoker, you have already noticed that sometimes you woke up to top up your nicotine levels.
Because you were a heavy smoker, I would advice that you continue using the patch and then the inhalator as and when you need it.
You are doing really well so far, keep up the good efforts
I have been sticking with the NRT to help with the withdrawel pangs as I am now on day 8 and the last couple of days have been really hard,
however because I have read the ALLEN CARR book I am wondering If I am prelonging the agony with NRT, as if I was to rid my body of any traces of nicotene completley would the cravings subside sooner?
Hi Nobby, well done ..I would say use everything you can that helps you. Quitting is personal,different things click for different people..so use all the tools you can
Hi nobby I smked rollups (no tips) for many years, then started smoking ordinary fags. Has smoked for many years tried many times to give the evil stick the heave ho. Well I am now at 4 months fag free....I also used to smoke during the night. Read Alan Carr twice, thought the principal was great however it did not stop me smoking. I hope you will succeed, in fact I know you will.....Good luck x
I read the Allen Carr Easyway book back in Feb last year, I didn't think it could make a difference but after reading the book I stopped, I had a week of feeling a bit hungry or empty and by 3 weeks was so happy to be free. This was well over a year ago. No NRT was needed but if NRT helps and works then fine, but his way changed how you thought about smoking so the craving was gone all together, it was just like a hunger or a little twinge. I still read the book again on my first week of stopping and again on week 2 to make sure it sank in. It was the best second hand book I ever read. Some people have said that I must have been gullible or easily read to be brainwashed by a book, to be fair that is exactly what getting addicted to nicotine is like when you are a teenager. What ever way you choose, go for it, be positive and enjoy being free Xxx
I really do beleive in what Allen Carr says, but still having trouble dealing with the withdrawell pangs! am working with both NRT and Allen Carr at the moment but wondering if I am prelonging the withdrawell period with NRT!
Try and read the book again, Ok it isn't thrilling but if you can relate it to the part of your brain that thinks smoking is no longer enjoyable or makes you feel confident or relaxed, it might just work. NRT maybe does keep up the nicotine addiction BUT it is still helping you break the habit and that is what we all want. No way is right or wrong. No one has all the answers. Just believe me that once you've finally said goodbye and good riddance to smoking and you don't miss it, well that's such a relief. Keep up the good work. Nice teeth, smelling good, walking taller, it's ok to not smoke, actually it's great. Good luck and good health to you Nobbey
As I said, there are many ways to stop smoking and even if you just take the parts that you need from the resources and tools that you have, the parts that actually 'hit a note' with you, then that's the trick
I am the same as you been a heavy smoker for years.I ended up smoking roughly six cigarettes of a night.Then about forty of a day.Today it's been 16 weeks off the smokes.I use a ecig in the evening.
Without doubt it's been hard but I am starting to feel the benifits financially and physically.
I didn't like the A Carr book.He had all the answers.He had the cure.
Everyone is different.You have to find the best way for you.
My advice would be go to Fag ends .Its professional advice it's free and your worth it.
Well done to you, cant wait to be that far down the line, one of the many things that are stopping me having are a relapse is the fact that I would have wasted the period that I have done so far (8 days so far) and the thought of having to start again!
so once I get past 3 or 4 weeks I know I will not give in, the daft thing is that when I managed to stop for 3 months before I decided to celabrate with a cigar because I wasent having withdrawell pangs anymore, what a Plank i was, after 1 cigar bact to 40-50 a day within a fortnight!
welcome in to week 2 I bet you are well chuffed with yourself
There are two stages to giving up smoking;
Stage 1. Stopping smoking
Stage 2. Staying stopped
Both stages are the normal process, you cannot do one without the other and they have to be done in that order. At the moment I would say that you are at stage 1. Stage 2 will follow quite naturally, provided you keep on top of the first part.
I think an important thing to get your head around is the psychological cravings as opposed to the physical cravings. In other words, what your mind goes through (when quitting smoking) versus what your body goes through.
Some folks find it hard to deal with both the physical and the psychological sides of quitting and so need that little bit of extra support.
NRT will help you with the physical cravings and since you have had your smoking habit for so long then I think that (initially) continuing the use of NRT would be the best plan until you feel more confident in your psychological ability to quit If that makes sense
It will still take around 12 weeks or so for the nicotine receptors to down-regulate and they really do try and catch you out. However, if you are ready and prepared for those times, then you are less likely to succumb to them.
Once you have got used to not smoking that first rollie each morning then you know you have slowly but surely made a massive change to a long term habit. You can then look at other times you may find a challenge (maybe after a meal / drink etc) and work on that.
Only when you are more confident, then you will be able to assess how you are using your NRT.
Are you paying for your own NRT? There will be a stop smoking service local to you that you can get extra advice and support from, and help with your NRT. As Kevin has found out, the Liverpool and Knowsley FagEnds service has helped him. If you would like me to refer you to your local service, send me a private message with your postcode and I'll let you know who they are and what they offer.
Remember that the more effort that you put into a quit attempt, the more you are likely to remain smokefree.
You are doing brilliantly, just remember to stay positive and don't give up giving up
Just a little message really, hopefullly to motivate you, my husband and I were long term smokers me 30+ years, my husband 20 years, I didnt want to give up, but we were really struggling to keep our habits of 20+ cigerettes going ! the price of a packet is staggering.
We heard about the Allen carrs book ( I laughed it off as nonsence, but my husband bought 2 copies) and I agreed to read it. that was all I promised, I loved to smoke I enjoyed it!
Well 1 year later here we are non smokers!! and can you believe £1000 per month better off!!
we have been to the caribeean 3 times and bought a new car!! really you cannot believe how much money you burn smoking, try and save some of the money you would have burnt its such an incentive!! good luck to you all
hi ive been quit for 53 days now and am well chuffed .ive read the alan car book about 4 times now obviously it didn't woprk on me totally but some of it was really good .this is about my 5th attempt in the last 7 years .I have had hypnotherapy which I thought was crap .I had champex which done the job for about 3 months .I had the inhulator which so far was my most successful quit which was 9 months I had a 2 month quit about 18 months ago and a 2 week quit about 9 months ago .im 52 and that's my giving up history .like a lot of people my age I started when I was really really young by the time I was 16 I was a professional .this latest quit has been a bit of a revelation really it didn't start out that way .id been thinking about havin another go for a while my quits always start with me smoking all my baccy with a real big fuckoff rolly as a finale .this time I woke up on a mon morning thought im gonna hve another go put my baccy in the cupboard and got my old inhulater back out .this was fine till week 6 then got fed up with it cos kept reminding me of fags .so got some lozengers which were ok .anyway I was out the other night and someone said you don't need nrt he said why do you need a drug just to be normal and I thought hang on hes right and im a plonker cos all people smokers and non smokers are normal and only one set are taking drugs .that was 3 days ago and ive hardly thought about a fag since
Congrats on your success! I read Allen Carr and took all the things out of it that I needed. And I opened up 12 weeks of patches and took all the things I needed out of them too! Whatever works!!!! I'm coming up on a year of smoke free living.
Focus on the new energy you gain?
In my case it helped that I never focussed on stopping the smoking thing. I just focussed on stopping early morning cough and low energy feeling coming from smoking! I also bought someone close to me a gift every week - the money from 10 packs a week makes for a nice small gift!
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