Author Topic: Stopping smoking: when?  (Read 68123 times)

Chris S

Re: Stopping smoking: when?
« Reply #100 on: 05 August, 2008, 08:27:48 pm »
I feel sorry for colleagues and cow-orkers whose lunchbreak (30mins) consists of four or five cigarettes chain-smoked in almost a frenzy.

Damn right. Mrs S manages to get four or five in (instead of breakfast) before the morning commute. Of course, she smokes in the car (I can't use her car - the smell makes me want to gag) so gets a few more in before work. Sigh.

She says she enjoys smoking. Yeah - right. We all get to listen to her coughing her lungs inside out every morning. What can you do?

Re: Stopping smoking: when?
« Reply #101 on: 05 August, 2008, 08:30:26 pm »
Thanks for the added food for thought.

I have a plan but I'd rather not talk about it. It does involve taking Champix.

Today marks approx 6 months IIRC since I packed in the fags.

Well done.


I think fairly constantly about cigarettes and cigars

That's what I'm not looking forward to.

I am totally as a loss as to what I am going to do with myself when I am not smoking. At present I feel a mild anxiety even if I am down to 2 cigs in the packet.

Regulator

  • That's Councillor Regulator to you...
Re: Stopping smoking: when?
« Reply #102 on: 05 August, 2008, 08:35:58 pm »
Thanks for the added food for thought.

I have a plan but I'd rather not talk about it. It does involve taking Champix.

Today marks approx 6 months IIRC since I packed in the fags.

Well done.


I think fairly constantly about cigarettes and cigars

That's what I'm not looking forward to.

I am totally as a loss as to what I am going to do with myself when I am not smoking. At present I feel a mild anxiety even if I am down to 2 cigs in the packet.


Have more sex... it has (almost) worked for me!   :thumbsup:


'Cept there's nothing better than a fag after coitus... :-\


...or in my case, a fag during coitus and a cigarette afterwards....  Boom tish!
Quote from: clarion
I completely agree with Reg.

Green Party Councillor

Chris S

Re: Stopping smoking: when?
« Reply #103 on: 05 August, 2008, 08:38:47 pm »

That's what I'm not looking forward to.


Yes, I found that particularly tough. That incessant voice in your head

"iwannasmokeiwannasmokeiwannasmokeiwannasmokeiwannasmokeiwannasmokeiwannasmoke"

Sounds like you're ready for it - just put up with it, it will go away eventually.

Basil

  • Um....err......oh bugger!
  • Help me!
Re: Stopping smoking: when?
« Reply #104 on: 06 August, 2008, 09:04:49 am »


I have a plan but I'd rather not talk about it. It does involve taking Champix.


YHPM
Admission.  I'm actually not that fussed about cake.

Jacomus

  • My favourite gender neutral pronoun is comrade
Re: Stopping smoking: when?
« Reply #105 on: 07 August, 2008, 12:18:00 pm »
Try the Lance Armstrong method of deciding whether you are actually hungry, or just thinking about food.

When you get the thought "I want a cigarette" look at the time, and wait 15 minutes - If you really do want it, you will still want it.
"The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity." Amelia Earhart

Re: Stopping smoking: when?
« Reply #106 on: 08 August, 2008, 02:14:16 pm »
Try the Lance Armstrong method of deciding whether you are actually hungry, or just thinking about food.

When you get the thought "I want a cigarette" look at the time, and wait 15 minutes - If you really do want it, you will still want it.

All very laudable, if you want to be a driven obsessive.
[Quote/]Adrian, you're living proof that bandwidth is far too cheap.[/Quote]

Re: Stopping smoking: when?
« Reply #107 on: 08 August, 2008, 09:27:05 pm »
Try the Lance Armstrong method of deciding whether you are actually hungry, or just thinking about food.

When you get the thought "I want a cigarette" look at the time, and wait 15 minutes - If you really do want it, you will still want it.

All very laudable, if you want to be a driven obsessive.

and especially laudable if it helps anybody in any small way whatsoever who wants to pack up smoking, and actually does so.

a bit of awareness into ones own thought patterns and habitual behaviour can be enlightening & liberating sometimes, for some people, in freeing themselves from a sense of being a slave to destructive ways of doing things - at least it was for me when I packed up some 9 yrs ago.
Garry Broad

Re: Stopping smoking: when?
« Reply #108 on: 08 August, 2008, 09:47:31 pm »

a bit of awareness into ones own thought patterns and habitual behaviour can be enlightening & liberating sometimes, for some people, in freeing themselves from a sense of being a slave to destructive ways of doing things - at least it was for me when I packed up some 9 yrs ago.

Yep!
It was exactly that kind of rationale that got me off smoking, after years of it, relatively quickly and easily.
Now, if only I could apply the same to the sauce . . . .

Chris S

Re: Stopping smoking: when?
« Reply #109 on: 08 August, 2008, 10:01:45 pm »

a bit of awareness into ones own thought patterns and habitual behaviour can be enlightening & liberating sometimes, for some people, in freeing themselves from a sense of being a slave to destructive ways of doing things - at least it was for me when I packed up some 9 yrs ago.

Yep!
It was exactly that kind of rationale that got me off smoking, after years of it, relatively quickly and easily.
Now, if only I could apply the same to the sauce . . . .

I've tried. It doesn't work  ::-)

Re: Stopping smoking: when?
« Reply #110 on: 08 August, 2008, 10:03:07 pm »
Well, this is probably at the heart of my mixed feelings about giving up: it's not just about smoking. It's about making some fundamental changes in my life and I am perhaps not ready for all of them.

Or is this just the nicotine talking, making the matter more complicated than it needs to be.


Chris S

Re: Stopping smoking: when?
« Reply #111 on: 08 August, 2008, 10:13:22 pm »
Well, this is probably at the heart of my mixed feelings about giving up: it's not just about smoking. It's about making some fundamental changes in my life and I am perhaps not ready for all of them.

So don't do all of them at once.

Or is this just the nicotine talking, making the matter more complicated than it needs to be.

Mmmm... junkie thoughts. If you find yourself justifying your habit/addiction - pounce on that and reason it out. There will always be factors that make lifestyle changes hard - there's always stuff going on in one's life, and the addict in you will always try and justify his existence based on shit that's going on or coming up.

Re: Stopping smoking: when?
« Reply #112 on: 08 August, 2008, 10:36:52 pm »
Well, this is probably at the heart of my mixed feelings about giving up: it's not just about smoking. It's about making some fundamental changes in my life and I am perhaps not ready for all of them.

Or is this just the nicotine talking, making the matter more complicated than it needs to be.

When it comes right down to it, the bottom line is: regardless of how much advice, help, support, information from the internet, nicotine replacement products, etc, if you don't really want to stop, if your mind's not really made up, then you just never will. Period. Or at least I never could. I probably went through about a dozen half-hearted attempts. 'I really must give up, I know I should'. But I was never anywhere near doing it. Some attempts lasted a day, others lasted 2 weeks, but I always went back. It was a bit like standing with your back up against a broken door, trying to keep at bay an almighty storm from raging inside your home. A futile taste. Then, one day, eventually, I suddenly knew I was there mentally, and although I still obsessed about being quit for about a year, I always knew deep down that the party was over. The beauty of that was, I never had to pretend to hate cigarettes to pack up, and still don't hate them. It just felt like the end of a relationship, like an overwhelming realization that the whole thing had just run its course. Not all relationships end acrimoniously do they?

How you get to that point, I have absolutely no idea. Why the hell should you get there anyway? Same old story, it's different for everybody. It never mattered how many damaged lungs I saw, or how many horrible deaths I heard about, how many Government health warnings I watched, it never made a blind bit of difference to me succeeding to pack up smoking. Putting it like this just sounds plain idiocy really. Was it the nicotine? Was it habit? Or was it just good old-fashioned self-denial? Search me. That's just the way it was. And nothing changed until it changed in me.



Garry Broad

Re: Stopping smoking: when?
« Reply #113 on: 08 August, 2008, 11:18:42 pm »
Try the Lance Armstrong method of deciding whether you are actually hungry, or just thinking about food.

When you get the thought "I want a cigarette" look at the time, and wait 15 minutes - If you really do want it, you will still want it.

All very laudable, if you want to be a driven obsessive.

and especially laudable if it helps anybody in any small way whatsoever who wants to pack up smoking, and actually does so.

a bit of awareness into ones own thought patterns and habitual behaviour can be enlightening & liberating sometimes, for some people, in freeing themselves from a sense of being a slave to destructive ways of doing things - at least it was for me when I packed up some 9 yrs ago.

In the short term you are right. However Lance Armstrong knew that throughout his racing season and for the duration of his racing career, how ever long he felt that to be at any given tme, he neded to control his weight to be competitive in the mountains. It was a finite thing though and I don't suppose that he does so to the same extent now unless it is for a special event.

The result that is needed here is to get beyond this state and to be free of the slavery to tobacco no longer needing any conscious controlling process.
[Quote/]Adrian, you're living proof that bandwidth is far too cheap.[/Quote]

Pedaldog.

  • Heedlessly impulsive, reckless, rash.
  • The Madcap!
Re: Stopping smoking: when?
« Reply #114 on: 15 August, 2008, 11:12:56 am »
I, as many people that know me from other places will know, have been a smoker for 38 years now. I have tried stopping many, many times using every possible aid. Hypno' patches, Gum, inhaler etc and nore of them worked for me. I am sure that my addiction is "In the head" based and I punctuate every action i make in life with a cigarette. Since starting to read this thread I have smoked two already and am reaching for the third now.  I am asthmatic, my Mother died through Emphysema and my father died in June this year from Lung Cancer. You would expect me to see the clue there wouldn't you? Still smoke and, sadly, even had a nip out for one at my Dads funeral!
I have stopped many times and some have been for weeks, others for hours and it always comes back to the "Not now" excuse.
I always plan a date ahead and my brother says it is a way of still smoking whilst I am giving up. All excuses!
TODAY 15TH AUGUST 2008 AT 12-00 NOON PRECISELY I will light a cigarette. When I put that out I will put the little Black Demon out as well and stop smoking.
I WILL tell people that I have stopped as the people I know are not the sort to try and weaken me, rather they are supportive. I will write tonight and say how I coped and I hope you can too Sarge. It might be a temporary hell but it has to be better than the real Hell I'm likely to be seeing soon if I don't stop!
You touch my Coffee and I'll slap you so hard, even Google won't be able to find you!

Re: Stopping smoking: when?
« Reply #115 on: 15 August, 2008, 11:14:11 am »
Good luck PD.
"Yes please" said Squirrel "biscuits are our favourite things."

Pedaldog.

  • Heedlessly impulsive, reckless, rash.
  • The Madcap!
Re: Stopping smoking: when?
« Reply #116 on: 15 August, 2008, 12:09:40 pm »
 :hand:
Just extinguished the most prolific and expensive thing in my life!
I feel really scared about it and I know it's all that I'll think of for some time to come but it has been done!
Sergeant Pluck? External distractions aside are you going to join me?
You touch my Coffee and I'll slap you so hard, even Google won't be able to find you!

Re: Stopping smoking: when?
« Reply #117 on: 15 August, 2008, 12:19:30 pm »
Good luck PD. If you look at the NHS stop smoking websites there is a lot of useful stuff on there.

I have a plan and it is drawing closer. I am not intending to make the timing "public" on the forum this time round though, as I am not sure if this is helpful for me. Like you all my friends and colleagues will be supportive but I want to get things underway before mentioning it.

All the very best with it.

Pedaldog.

  • Heedlessly impulsive, reckless, rash.
  • The Madcap!
Re: Stopping smoking: when?
« Reply #118 on: 15 August, 2008, 12:47:27 pm »
Thanks,
Hope it goes positive for you. I am actually starting to feel a slight sense of freedom, kind of good?
You touch my Coffee and I'll slap you so hard, even Google won't be able to find you!

Re: Stopping smoking: when?
« Reply #119 on: 15 August, 2008, 03:18:41 pm »
I feel slightly embarrassed some of the time when I smoke now. Or just slightly stupid. I tend to smoke where no-one can see me, sneaking off furtively away from the people I'm with unless I'm with people who already know I smoke.

When I walk past the smoking refugees at work I find myself pitying them slightly (while well aware that I am indeed still one of them).

I'm attempting to re-think my attitude to the whole thing. This is involving a change of attitude to a lot of other things in my life. I no longer want to be someone who lets himself down.

Chris S

Re: Stopping smoking: when?
« Reply #120 on: 15 August, 2008, 03:28:56 pm »
When I walk past the smoking refugees at work I find myself pitying them slightly (while well aware that I am indeed still one of them).

I believe the technical term is Snoutcasts  :).

Re: Stopping smoking: when?
« Reply #121 on: 15 August, 2008, 03:29:33 pm »
 ;D

bobajobrob

Re: Stopping smoking: when?
« Reply #122 on: 15 August, 2008, 11:46:13 pm »
Have you read Easy way to stop smoking? Read some of the comments. It's got to be worth a go for the price of a pack of fags. The book is supposed to remove the desire to smoke so that quitting becomes easy, even enjoyable. If you have no desire to smoke, then you don't need NRT or drugs.

I've bought it but I haven't read it yet. I'm reading author's book about drinking at the moment. Bloody good book.

Rapples

Re: Stopping smoking: when?
« Reply #123 on: 16 August, 2008, 05:05:05 pm »
I feel slightly embarrassed some of the time when I smoke now. Or just slightly stupid. I tend to smoke where no-one can see me, sneaking off furtively away from the people I'm with unless I'm with people who already know I smoke.

When I walk past the smoking refugees at work I find myself pitying them slightly (while well aware that I am indeed still one of them).

I'm attempting to re-think my attitude to the whole thing. This is involving a change of attitude to a lot of other things in my life. I no longer want to be someone who lets himself down.

Accepting that it is a stupid thing to do is, I would have thought, a very positive thing.  The more you can associate it with stupidity the more likely you are to stop.
If you feel stupid when smoking don't finish it!  Now that's clever because you are beating it!

How about "I no longer want to be someone who is controlled by a stupid addiction?"  Feeling guilty is more likely to you feeling you are failing.

I haven't followed this thread apart from contributing early on, but it sounds to me like you are on the verge of being able to stop completely :thumbsup:


Re: Stopping smoking: when?
« Reply #124 on: 16 August, 2008, 05:49:58 pm »
Thanks Rapples.

I'm trying to get everything in place to give it a good go and have a date in mind.

Have you read Easy way to stop smoking?

I'm reading it at the moment. I'm not as impressed with it as I thought I would be based on the popularity of the book. It does seem to be getting better as the book progresses, however.