Topic : Trying to Quit Smoking?

I am so sorry to hear. That is just awful. I have been in an accident before and the sounds just stay with you. Mine was  an accident in the winter and I got a ticket as well, not my fault. I hope things work out with the lawsuit. I can only imagine the stress that your under. The smoking I can very much understand and hopefully soon you will be strong enough to try again. I think things will get better soon. You are in my prayers. By the way my oldest daughter wants to move to Montana so bad she thinks you have a beautiful state. She wants to buy some land and learn how to fly fish. She is so cute she is 19 and is sort of hippie. Wants to live off the land.

Take care Linda

Love Beverly

I was reading your posting and sooooo understand. It has been 3 months for me and I was a big car smoker too. And I can understand the little panic attack of when a cop gets behind you. For me I don't know why but my nerves become a wreck when there is a cop behind me too. Linda a regular here once told me just say N.O.P.E (not one puff ever) and it has stuck with me. For me my second week was a lot harder than my first week. Not sure why but it was. It got a bit easier after the second week. The second week was my biggest hurdle. Deep breaths and lots of gum got me through it. I think your doing really good that even though you slipped you went back to not smoking. Some people slip and say forget it. I know I have done that many times before. Good luck to you.

Beverly

Three months, two weeks, one day, 39 minutes and 33 seconds. 1484 cigarettes not smoked, saving $534.38. Life saved: 5 days, 3 hours, 40 minutes.

Hi Beverly,

Wow, it's been a while since I posted, shame on me. Just doing the summer stuff. School starts Wednesday, Aug.16. Got all the school clothes shopping done. Goes pretty fast when its a boy and public school has a strict dress code. Yea, all the parents love it, solid colors, no name logo bigger than one inch. So its mainly polo shirts or spirit shirts.

 Tonight it's a full moon, sometimes you just think of a cigarette more, a few times a day in wanting one. I want to caulk it up to the moon, the urge to satisfied an old feeling. But if I got one whiff of the smoke the urge would be gone. That's one thing for sure the smell truly changes with time in quitting. Here in the states they are really banning smoking in just about all public places. Anyone that smokes now when they come out of a picture show or public event are walking pretty fast to their car, like trying to hide it. The laws are really changing here.

Good hearing from you, and you are  staying strong and encouraging others, good for you.  Getting close to 4 months !!!!!!

When you said it gets dark at 11:00, wow !!!!! Here it is 9:00 and it is dark, sunrise around 6:30. Well take care and talk to you soon.

Linda

One year, four months, one week, one day, 3 hours, 46 minutes and 30 seconds. 14854 cigarettes not smoked, saving $2,874.14. Life saved: 7 weeks, 2 days, 13 hours, 50 minutes.

Hi, nice to meet you all.  I hope this is the right board to post this on and if not I apologize: I'm not a smoker, but I'm married to one.  He's been struggling with trying to quit for about as long as I've known him (around 5 years).  What frustrates me most is that if/when he falls off the wagon, he goes out of his way to hide it from me.  I caught him about a month ago, so I tried to be patient and understanding and we talked about solutions and so forth and he got the nicotine gum.  It seemed to work pretty well before.  Well before he even finished the pack of gum, I caught him again!  This time it was a pack of cigarettes in his bag (his cell phone was ringing and I was trying to find it when I stumbled on the other stuff).  It's frustrating that he's getting better at hiding it from me.  Frustrating and a little hurtful.

Well it just so happened that I caught him on Monday; he flew to San Diego for business for two weeks on Tuesday.  Talk about your lousy timing!

So I guess I'm here to get some perspective, and some insight.  And some ideas.

Nice meeting you,

Laura

Hiya Carrie.  I'm not entirely sure he wants to quit, now that you mention it.  But I do know that he has to; 3 months before we were married we had an extreme scare regarding his blood pressure.  He was so hypertensive that he was in the "could-have-a-stroke-at-any-moment" stage.  He completely changed his diet and did everything he knew how to do to fix it.  At that point he'd been "on the wagon" for a few months but the fear and stress from it all led him to light up again just once.  At least as far as I know at the time it was just the once.  Anyway, long story short, he's on medication and such, and we both try to meditate an an almost daily basis, and I know he wants to take care of himself but I honestly don't know if he wants to give this up.  But I think he knows he has to.  Mind you he's been at it on-and-off for some 30+ years now (he has as much experience with smoking as I do with breathing, lol) so it's harder than I can possibly understand.

To a non-smoker to give up a habit, it just doesn't work that easy. I have smoked 30 plus years too and tried so, so many times. Each time promising myself this will be the last cigarette or pack. Then it would be a certain date for sure. Only to see that come and go. It takes a health scare to get you to be more serious, but at the same time you just can't seem to give it up. And you ask yourself why would this be" killing me". It was this board to recognize that you are dealing with a very strong addiction and you have got to have a plan for it to work. Oh yes, there are people that quit "cold turkey", but there is a huge amount that "just can't quit cold turkey". My family begged me for years to quit, and I would always say "yes I will". But I never had a true plan, it would be the "cold turkey thing" and that didn't work for me.  This is what  did work for me:

I got a prescription for Wellbrutrin (it takes the edge off of quitting, you have to be on it about 2 weeks).

Then a nicotine inhaler, some people use the gum or patches, it is to get you over the rough times.

Then pick a "quit date".

And come and post on the board your progress, your ups and downs. You will get your strength from other smokers that have quit.

And my lesson "don't ever have just one". For me I would have to start all back over. And that was so hard.

Till I followed those steps I was not very successful. Now I'm over a year....yippee !!!!!

I hope I have helped you in understanding that you are dealing with an addiction that is so powerful.

Linda

One year, four months, one week, six days, 3 hours, 51 minutes and 24 seconds. 15004 cigarettes not smoked, saving $2,903.19. Life saved: 7 weeks, 3 days, 2 hours, 20 minutes.