Author Topic: Stopping smoking: when?  (Read 68038 times)

Re: Stopping smoking: when?
« Reply #125 on: 18 October, 2008, 10:53:48 pm »
I'm making myself read this thread again.

 :(

Chris S

Re: Stopping smoking: when?
« Reply #126 on: 19 October, 2008, 09:02:57 am »
I'm making myself read this thread again.

 :(

Stopping smoking is a process, not an event. I probably had five years of fits and starts, cutting down, stopping, starting again and feeling like I'd let everyone down.

You'll get there when you're ready.

Re: Stopping smoking: when?
« Reply #127 on: 19 October, 2008, 09:25:42 am »
For whatever reason, no matter how much I think about it and plan to try, I have still never made an attempt. Deadlines pass by. At those times I simply avoid thinking about it at all.

Chris S

Re: Stopping smoking: when?
« Reply #128 on: 19 October, 2008, 10:13:59 am »
That's because you want to smoke more than you want to not smoke.

A period of introspection and self evaluation might let you know whether that's what you really want. Realisation that I actually didn't want to smoke that much after all, was absolutely key.

Be honest with yourself. No, I mean properly honest.

Re: Stopping smoking: when?
« Reply #129 on: 19 October, 2008, 11:09:03 am »
"Stopped smoking....." c.1965 for a whole YEAR. Not since.
I shall give up my right to smoke when they prise the last butt from my cold dead fingers.
Let right or wrong alone decide
God was never on your side.

Torslanda

  • Professional Gobshite
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Re: Stopping smoking: when?
« Reply #130 on: 19 October, 2008, 11:18:08 am »
I shall give up my right to smoke when they prise the last butt from my cold dead fingers.

<MIB> Your proposal is accepted! </MIB>  ;D

J
VELOMANCER

Well that's the more blunt way of putting it but as usual he's dead right.

LEE

Re: Stopping smoking: when?
« Reply #131 on: 19 October, 2008, 11:19:08 am »
"Stopped smoking....." c.1965 for a whole YEAR. Not since.
I shall give up my right to smoke when they prise the last butt from my cold dead fingers.

You're not giving up your right to smoke by quitting, you're choosing not to exercise your right.

Chris S

Re: Stopping smoking: when?
« Reply #132 on: 19 October, 2008, 12:55:00 pm »
"Stopped smoking....." c.1965 for a whole YEAR. Not since.
I shall give up my right to smoke when they prise the last butt from my cold dead fingers.

That reminds me of something Richard Harris said on a chat show once. Something about how he gave up drinking for a year so he could take up drugs, but he wasn't very good at it so went back to drinking.

Rather miraculously, he was 71 when he died.

<soapbox>
I have no argument with anyone who wants to smoke, and would never challenge their right to - Mrs S smokes like a docker, and coughs like a coal miner in the mornings; we all make choices in our lives. Anyway, smokers more than pay for their clean up - unlike boozers and junkies.
</soapbox>

scottlington

  • It's short for, erm....Bob!
Re: Stopping smoking: when?
« Reply #133 on: 20 October, 2008, 12:56:31 pm »
It's been 7 weeks now since I last lit up. As per Chris S, I have spent the last 5 years kinda giving up for a bit, starting again, giving up, starting again. I'm under no illusion that this process could indeed continue (once a smoker, always a smoker - wether you've 'given up' or not).

However, this time something 'feels' different - I no longer find myself 'wanting' a cigarette and then not having one cos I've given up. I now think I actually REALLY don't want to smoke anymore. I think maybe that's what Chris S was alluding to in earier posts - to really give up, you have to really want to give up...

Re: Stopping smoking: when?
« Reply #134 on: 20 October, 2008, 01:09:53 pm »
I do want to give up. But obviously not enough.

Eccentrica Gallumbits

  • Rock 'n' roll and brew, rock 'n' roll and brew...
Re: Stopping smoking: when?
« Reply #135 on: 20 October, 2008, 01:14:44 pm »
Then there's no point beating yourself up about it, because making yourself feel bad about your failed attempts isn't going to make you want to try again. Focus on what you did achieve, feel good about that and know that one day you'll manage it.
My feminist marxist dialectic brings all the boys to the yard.


Re: Stopping smoking: when?
« Reply #136 on: 20 October, 2008, 01:29:51 pm »
I'm a big believer in the "you'll only succeed in giving up when you really want to" maxim. What gets you to that point is different for everyone, but at some point something just clicks.

I do want to give up. But obviously not enough.

Don't worry, you will get there eventually.

I had 4 or 5 failed attempts, one lasting a whole 6 months, at giving up. Now at 2 and a half years and I am well and truly over it.
"Yes please" said Squirrel "biscuits are our favourite things."

Chris S

Re: Stopping smoking: when?
« Reply #137 on: 20 October, 2008, 02:05:16 pm »
This whole "wanting" thing. It's an equilibrium equation:

I want to Smoke     ⇌   I want to Not Smoke1

The concept of stopping smoking only becomes tenable at all once the equation gets pushed well over to the "Not Smoke" side. Whilst there is only small inclination, or indeed if the equation is canted the other way, then it will be very much harder to drive yourself through the tough times.

The introspection I mentioned earlier in the thread is important in helping to diminish the LHS of the equation. As you work through it in your head, you'll realise that although you thought, perhaps even was convinced, that you wanted to smoke - in fact you don't want to that much. A good example is the "I enjoy it" argument. I'd bet that most smokers don't in fact enjoy it - what they enjoy is the temporary suppression of the feelings of loss you get as time passes since the last smoke, and that actually, even dyed-in-the-wool career smokers like Mrs S, if they are really honest, don't enjoy a lot of it.

When you stop, the junkie that lives inside you (there's one in each of us - including those of us who've not smoked for years) will crash about like a 15 year old with the worst possible case of hormone driven ADHD who's unable to get their way. That person will try desperately to convince you of arguments that will drive the equilibrium back to the left. Your job as sane quitter will be to keep the equation well to the right.

Even now, after over six years, I have one of these equilibriums. It's pushed waaaaay over to the right now because of years of reinforcement and hard work. It would not be out of the question for circumstances to succeed in pushing it far enough back to the left for me to start smoking again. You can never let your guard down!

I'm waffling now. Shut up Chris.

----------------------------
1There's an equilibrium sign in chemistry that I'd love to put here, if only I knew how. Thanks GB  :thumbsup:.

Re: Stopping smoking: when?
« Reply #138 on: 20 October, 2008, 02:19:20 pm »
This one? (just use cut and paste, it is a character not a picture)

"Yes please" said Squirrel "biscuits are our favourite things."

Re: Stopping smoking: when?
« Reply #139 on: 30 January, 2011, 02:00:32 pm »
Jeez.

I think I am sick of smoking. I'm not enjoying my cigarettes: I wolf them down. I smoke as soon as I wake in the morning. Even that first one is not doing much for me, it's just staving off a future lack of nicotine. Cigarettes are a waste of time for me as far as relaxation goes: the underlying knowledge of the actual and potential harm causes more stress than the cigarette can relieve. I am tired of "needing" cigarettes, and the "dependence", the need to ensure a constant supply.

I am starting my first dose of Champix today. I don't want to reveal my proposed quit date - it's not a special day, it is simply (as recommended) between a week and 2 weeks of starting the Champix.

Encouragement appreciated. I've smoked since I was 16. I've never tried to stop before and I doubt if more than a single day (that being when I was having back surgery - I recall getting my best friend to bring me fags into the hospital) has passed without having a cigarette since then.

I want the freedom of not feeling the need to smoke.

Wowbagger

  • Former Sylph
    • Stuff mostly about weather
Re: Stopping smoking: when?
« Reply #140 on: 30 January, 2011, 02:05:39 pm »
Good luck with that, SP.

My quitting fags occurred within a year of quitting teaching. I'm 100% convinced that the two events were closely linked. I would imagine that your job is fairly stressful and it would probably help if you can find some other stress-relieving pastime to replace smoking.

Once I'd given up fags, I found it easy to keep off them because I was no longer a regular attender at the pub which is where all my pals used to hand round the fags. I find it immeasurably harder to restrict my calorie intake.
Quote from: Dez
It doesn’t matter where you start. Just start.

Re: Stopping smoking: when?
« Reply #141 on: 30 January, 2011, 02:26:47 pm »
Quitting smoking, stopping drinking, eating less to lose weight. They're all the same. You try but very often fail. I will quit the fags one day, but I've got other more pressing matters to worry about. Once that's done with, the fags will go too.

I hate the fact that I smoke, but no matter how many times I've tried, I can't give them up.

I always smoke outside - wherever I am which does reduce the "stinks of fags" factor (and chew gum) but I always remember being sent to the staff room at school and opening the door to a massive haze of smoke. Did all teachers smoke in the 70s and 80s?!!
Those wonderful norks are never far from my thoughts, oh yeah!

Re: Stopping smoking: when?
« Reply #142 on: 30 January, 2011, 02:32:05 pm »
Jeez.

I am starting my first dose of Champix today.

My friend at work quit successfully using this, and he was quite a hardcore smoker. He hasn't smoked for two years now, although he does admit to still enjoying the smoky smell in the stairwells at work (smoke drifts up from the smokers outside).

Good luck!

jogler

  • mojo operandi
Re: Stopping smoking: when?
« Reply #143 on: 30 January, 2011, 02:33:29 pm »
Giving up the coffin nails is a very personal thing*.Each of us has our own reasons which sometimes needs several attempts to find that incentive which works.However,will-power is a universal requirement: without it you will continue to accellerate the arrival of the grim reaper.
Never give up giving up.
I hope you find your own  personal spell to exorcise the 'baccy demon

* I'll not bore the forum with my own history but if you wish, I'll PM it to you.

eck

  • Gonna ride my bike until I get home...
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Re: Stopping smoking: when?
« Reply #144 on: 30 January, 2011, 02:41:19 pm »
Don't think of it in the negative terms of "giving up" something, think of it positively as being a non-smoker.

* I'll not bore the forum with my own history but if you wish, I'll PM it to you.
+1^  I stopped 18 years ago, and I was a member of the Scottish International Pro Smoking Team.  ::-)
It's a bit weird, but actually quite wonderful.

Eccentrica Gallumbits

  • Rock 'n' roll and brew, rock 'n' roll and brew...
Re: Stopping smoking: when?
« Reply #145 on: 30 January, 2011, 02:43:30 pm »
Fags in batter?
My feminist marxist dialectic brings all the boys to the yard.


jogler

  • mojo operandi
Re: Stopping smoking: when?
« Reply #146 on: 30 January, 2011, 02:49:23 pm »
I would have preferred breadcrumbs :)

Re: Stopping smoking: when?
« Reply #147 on: 30 January, 2011, 02:51:55 pm »
If you can get past a week of no fags then you have cracked it and whats more you will be loaded!
Get a bicycle. You will never regret it, if you live- Mark Twain

itsbruce

  • Lavender Bike Menace
Re: Stopping smoking: when?
« Reply #148 on: 30 January, 2011, 02:58:44 pm »
Encouragement appreciated. I've smoked since I was 16. I've never tried to stop before and I doubt if more than a single day (that being when I was having back surgery - I recall getting my best friend to bring me fags into the hospital) has passed without having a cigarette since then.

I started when I was 14, stopped for good at 30.  The motivation was seeing white spots on the back of my hands and realising it was hurting my circulation and threatening to turn me into an old man before my time.

Quote
I want the freedom of not feeling the need to smoke.

That takes a while after you've quit.  Coffee, tea and booze all seem too dry without a cigarette for a long time after.  All kinds of things that you used to accompany with a fag (reading the paper, waiting for the bus) remind you of what you're missing.  It probably took about 3 years for that to subside completely;  after that, it was as if I had never smoked at all.

I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked: Allen Ginsberg
The best minds of my generation are thinking about how to make people click ads: Jeff Hammerbacher

Re: Stopping smoking: when?
« Reply #149 on: 30 January, 2011, 03:03:45 pm »
Maybe going a bit OT, but I would never smoke in someone's house (unless they were smokers too) and it really annoys me when somebody lights up and casually says "Don't mind if I smoke do you?" I will also not smoke anywhere where it is explicitly stated that I can't ie a pub or somewhere. But if I can and it's not stated that I can't, I will. And if anyone has a go at me for smoking where they feel I shouldn't be - they will get my gob. And it can get pretty fucking potty....
Those wonderful norks are never far from my thoughts, oh yeah!