Thread: If you seriously want to quit smoking ...

Thanks. I had a quick read through and it does make alot of sense. It's also nice to know I am not the only one who *used* to fall victim to such excuses.
It certainly has given me a new perspective on things.

That link talks about addiction. If you really were addicted, you wouldn't last the 8 hours during sleep, but would wake up wanting. Does anyone wake up craving a fag? I didn't think so which means if you can last 8 hours, you can last 24 hours which means you can last 7 days etc:

Originally Posted by Conniff

That link talks about addiction. If you really were addicted, you wouldn't last the 8 hours during sleep, but would wake up wanting. Does anyone wake up craving a fag? I didn't think so which means if you can last 8 hours, you can last 24 hours which means you can last 7 days etc:

This IDIOT obviously has never smoked or know many people that do! To say people don't wake up wanting a fag! Most smokers I know have to have a fag first thing in the morning, and I know I have one myself within 45 minutes of waking up when I am working.

Excuse me shacklegob, don't come on here calling people you don't know names.
I have smoked 40-50 per day for 20 years, so stuff that where the sun don't shine.

You are obviously attempting to deny that the main part of quiting is 'will power and I said 'wake up' not get up in the morning.

I wasn't obviously trying to deny anything ya numpty? I didn't mention quitting or will power? All i said was to say smokers don't wake up wanting a fag is simply stupid, nothing else?

So you wake up once per hour gagging for a ciggy througout the night?

I love one first thing but don't wake up because I need one.

Obviously not but then it's a different part of the brain that takes over and does the thinking when you are asleep so why would you?

The point I was trying to make is that it is mostly will power and not need.
If the 'body' desperately needed a fix, then it would wake in the night wanting one, but as it doesn't then that shows the desire is more in the mind.

chillax...... MissDemeaner its the brain making you all bite, take it from an ex-smoker go outside take a deep breath and exhale slowly do this for a few minutes till you are calm.... MissDemeaner

I have been smoking since the age of 11 and I've decided that for my babies health, as well as my own I want to quit smoking, as working out what it costs for a packet of 20 cigs considering I used to smoke 40 a day, I spend a lot of time on my computer so I thought okay I'm gonna try a different method and if that dont work then I'll be damned.. This may sound a bit weird but my computer runs three monitors so I installed a rotating wallpaper changer and then got images of what smoking actually does to your health. it mind sound a bit crass and morbid, but hey it helped cut me down to 20 a day. who knows I might make a screensaver and upload it to the web though for everyone elses security I will upload it to viruscan jotti first to ensure that no virii has been embedded into the screensaver first.

Hi,

I agree with the willpower. I have been smokefree for 7 years now after starting at 11.

One thing that was different this time though was the amount of work I did before i stopped. in the past I had picked a date, thrown all the cigs, lighters and ashtrays away and tried to force myself to stop not really knowing why i smoked in the first place. what I mean is i always believed what I had been told about smoking and quitting but that is just one side of the argument, the tobacco and pharmacutical side.

I needed to look at why I smoked, what did I get from it and what a cigarette ACTUALLY did. once I had both sides of the argument then i could make an informed decision.

Willpower is a starnge thing. I like to think of ot as the Angel and the Devil sat on your shoulders. The Angel telling you "stop, it is killing you, you smell and you are spending a fortune" and the devil telling me "you dont want to stop, if you just quit how will you cope with difficult situations, how will you feel normal again without a cigarette" and do you know the devil was always the loudest

That was until I made them both agree. Then I could use my willpower to do what I wanted rather than this internal conflict going on inside me.

If you think of it like a seatbelt. If you lean forward too quickly while wearing a seatbelt it will lock. No matter how hard you try to move forward after it locks, it will not move. If you spent all your energy trying to move it you would get exhausted in the end and just stop trying. Well guess what. if you lean BACK slighltly the seatbelt will release and you can move effortlessly forward.

The same applies to stopping smoking. use the willpower in the same direction with the strategies to cope with anxiety and stress and you will move forward without effort.

I had never before since the age of 11 wanted or needed a coping strategy for stress and anxiety, why would I when I had cigarettes that would appear to do it for me. Learning new techniques allowed me to do what normal non smokers do when the feel stressed or in a difficult situation. Deal with it. not run away and give all the responsibility to a bunch of dried out leaves rolled in paper (oh and I found out there is no magic dust in tobacco - it is just dead leaves)

Someone mentioned deep breathing. Sounds simple but it is one of the most effective ways to cope with stress and anxiety. You may think that sounds silly. "i know how to breath" but doing it correctly makes all the difference

try this

Place your tongue on the roof of you mouth.
Then breath in deeply through your nose until you lower tummy starts to rise.
Then blow out through your mouth as if you were blowing a balloon up
Make sure it takes longer to breath out than in (good way is 7-11 - breath in to the count of 7 and out to the count of 11)
Repeat until you feel your shoulders start to drop.

Once you have mastered this you can then start to say a word in your mind on the outward breaths. for intance I use the word CALM. I just repeat it over and over in my mind as I breath out. Eventually your body will start to remember how you felt when you said your word. Soon you will be able to just say the word in your mind and your body will react by relaxing without even doing the breathes.

It is the reverse of what your body is doing when you subconcioussly think about smoking. whenyou get into a situation the first thing your mind will think is smoking will help. And your body will start to remember how you feel when you want a cigarette. the shoulders and face will tighten up, there will be a hollow empty feeling in your stomach and the fight or flight reaction will be triggered. The only way to switch this off will be to deal with the situation or run away. 9 times out of 10 a smoker will run away i.e smoke.

I hope this helps

Ian

Yes Ian, your informed post is helping I am sure. It is helping me right now! Its all psychological no doubt, and the deep breathing and relaxation technique is an excellent way to overcome difficult times.
Did you use any form of nicotine product?

Hi,

No. On previous tries I had all the usual side effects. annoyed at everyone, making excuses to start an argument with someone just so i could have a cigarette and it "not be my fault". However, this time I decided to wait and see what it really felt like without any pre-conceptions. and do you know what it didn't actually feel like anything really. I think in the past I had expected to wake up one day and feel different, like a non-smoker I suppose whereas this time I decided not to wait. I decided it was different from the minute I had my last cigarette. After all the only thing that made me a smoker was the fact that I smoked. As long as I did not light up again I was a non-smoker.

I did have some physical side effects. The most pronounced being constipation and broken sleep paterns.

I dealt with each situation as it came and coped with it. I stopped giving the repsonsibility to cigarettes and finally grew up.

I managed to give up smoking for 2 years using nicotine gum - I say give up smoking but i didn't give up nicotine as I ended up addicted to the gum and know other people in the same situation. Its not good but better for you than smoking and I didn't put weight on as I was replacing smoking with gum instead of eating more. I did feel at lot better and the gum is cheaper than smoking.

I started smoking again at a very stressful time and now need to stop again - I think the psychological/willpower route is the best one as at least you aren't replacing one addiction with another unlike NRT. Its like giving up twice really, giving up the smoking, then giving up the gum/patches.

I've heard people talk about alan Carr but don't know what that's all about yet.

I am of the opinion if one seriously wants to quit smoking he or she need a lot of willpower. It think it is very difficult to stop if you do not have enough willpower. Besides this it is important that the persons quits smoking because he or she wants to stop and not because anybody else wants the person to stop. It is definitely a long way but if you make it it is a great feeling.