ChatterBank2 mins ago
smoking
23 Answers
Stopped smoking 21st October after smoking 30 a day for the last 30 years. its very hard, any tips out there. how long before the craving goes away.
Answers
Best Answer
No best answer has yet been selected by klinedancer. Once a best answer has been selected, it will be shown here.
For more on marking an answer as the "Best Answer", please visit our FAQ.
No tips I'm afraid but well done, you'll feel better my friend just gave up and hasn't smoked for 40 days. He says that he smoked a brand he hated all day the day he decided to give up so he felt sick, then treated himself to something nice (favourite fruit, cake, fave tipple, etc) so that he remembered the smoking as a bad sicky thing and the treat as a non-smoking feeling. Good luck keep at it I'm gonna give up at New Year!
Well Done!
My dad gave up twelve months ago after having smoked for 35 years. He found that staying out of the pub and other smokey environments for the first few weeks really helped - his physical cravings subsided after only a couple of months and then it was just psychological. He has used the money he saved to buy a new computer and other gadgets for his office as a reward. He used the gum for a while to get his nicotine fix.
The first two weeks are the worst - after that it becomes much easier, although I gave up about 18 months ago after smoking for 10 years and I still get the odd craving. Nothing too bad though, just psychological like rekstout says.
Well done for going for it, just keep yourself busy and stay out of the pub!!
I gave up at the beginning of the year (for the second time having gone back on ity previously after 4 months). I foundthe Alan Carr book really useful as it sort of readjusted my mind set and demonstraed how fallacious some of the defences smokers raise are. I also found it useful (and amusing in a black humour kind of way) to observe my own habits ie have a fag before doing a job to spur me on... and then after to relax me and as a reward. The big cravings for me stopped after about 2/3 week sthe fuirst time and 6 weeks the seciond time. Another hint woudl be try and crack it first time round - i found it really hard this time. Get a ball point pen with a click on/off top, fiddle with that when your hands feel like they need something to do or when you have a drink in one hand. Try and think about how much more freedom you will have: the freedom to get a long haul flight without fear; no smoking bars are easy, ditto no smoking restaurants; long meetings at work will no longer horrify you; you can go to bed without freaking out that there are no cigs in the house; not to mention the extra cash. PERSEVERE. Believe me, I am SO HAPPY to be off it.
-- answer removed --
go to the royal marsden hospital and look at the terminally ill patients still coughing and spluttering on the cigarettes - despite dying - despite beeing hooked upto machines through their chests and throat. They stand outside on the grass, with one foot already out of this world. If you go Inside you can see what they cough up into bowls.
stopped me smoking anyway
stopped me smoking anyway
I don't think the craving ever goes away.
But you have come this far - and hats off to you - great achievement. IMHO there are 2 ways to go about it. Firstly, by now you must be feeling so much better - I.e. more energy, better complexion. Secondly, think about the money you have saved.
Think about it.
I gave up the fags 12 years ago after being a smoker for 10 years 20 a day! I did'nt need anything and I consider myself one of the lucky ones as I dont crave fags at all. My poor hubby gave up his fags a year ago and is climbing the wall and he's on the gum! He had a lung function test last year which showed he had the lungs of a 70 year old,his latest test showed approx 55 years,he is 49.
I smoked 20 fags a day for about 20 years. Then I went onto a pipe to wean me off the fags. That was very pleasant and much cheaper. So mI smoke a pipe for 10+ years. I gave up altogether on 30th June 2004 and, like a previous posting, put away the money I would have spent on smoking. Now I can afford to be an alcoholic. LOLOLOL.
I reckon cold turkey is the only way to go. Just do it for one day. Anyone can do it for just one day!!. Then do it for another one day only. Then another one day. I told myself (and everyone else) that I was only abstaining for a limited but unspecified period. I still get cravings now and then but I've got too much invested in packing it in to give up giving up. Just keep going one day at a time and remind yourself how filthy smoking is and how you always wanted to give up.
And natalie_1982 - don't wait until Christmas - do it now. With the money you save, you can get yourself a decent Christmas pressie. The longer you put it off, the harder it will be. Just do it now. If you really want to - and it's important that you do want to - do it. There are some things you do that involve smoking - like fishing, sitting on a park bench, thinking etc. If you get a craving, go somewhere or do something that you don't associate with smoking - bleach the nets, bath the dog, scrub the bog - do all the housework, until the craving passes. DO IT NOW - DON'T WIMP OUT AGAIN!!
Klinedancer
Well done - keep it up. It'll be worth it soon. When you get a craving, go and do something that can't involve smoking.
I used to go fishing a lot with the same guy. He gave up smoking (20 No6 a day). After a couple of years, I asked him "When does the craving go away?" He said "I'l let you know!".
Sooner or later you will get to a day when you realise that you have made such an achievement in giving up that you won't want to light up even when you get a craving. That's where I am after 3 months. I get a craving maybe a couple of times a week (depending on stress levels) and even if I had tobacco etc, I still wouldn't light up - it would waste all the effort and achievement. Just keep going one day at a time. And here's my hot tip: get rid of all your smoking stuff - get it all out of the house and tell your friends and family to never give you a fag whatever. It's easier to walk past a shop than to stop yourself lighting up. If you've got pets and children, get them out of the house too for the first month.
