View Full Version : Taking the plunge and trying to QUIT
Well I'm not good at making decisions, too much thought and i dither too much , its a Libran thing. BUT i can't resist a bargain.
SO, on Friday i went into Boots the Chemist for some pain killers for my knee and there was the sign that said "BUY ONE GET SECOND HALF PRICE" so me thought I'll have some of that and walked out with a load of Nicotine Patches :cry:
Every Monday morning i have over 30 odd miles to travel to work and chuff like a chimney down the road when the traffic eventually moves and got there without having a chokey stick. Also trying to avoid situations where i would smoke more, like when on the :phone: have moved that into cold hallway rather than warm lounge. Another place to avoid is the :lmao: and another is the :toilet: (that one is a joke esp for HN)
So, day three and lost will power twice :(
Good going for me as i have smoked for just over 25 years and i ashamed to say have got to the stage over the last 6 months of over 30+ per day :blush:
Am now expecting to pile the weight on but will cross that bridge when i get to it.
So we will see what happens over the next week.
Yours in :smoke:
maria
Blue Cow
05-01-04, 11:33 PM
Maria - seriously well done for trying.
I smoked for about 10 years and gave up for good last January (so have been smoke free for a year now). It helped that I had complete support from my partner (and that I always had to go outside for a fag).
I think that I gave up about four times in total - and seriously the only answer it to keep at it. If you have decided to give up there's so many good reasons to keep at it.
My steer-clear was alcohol (as it always reduces my non-smoking willpower).
I really hope that you succeed :)
BC
hollygolightly
05-01-04, 11:39 PM
Maria, I wish you all the very best with it.
Keep at it. :D
I'm a :smoke: too, but I have to say I find it very easy not smoking in the house (even after :wine: :wine: :wine: :lol:), I can sit :lmao: for hours not even thinking about them.
Good luck :thumbs: we'll be watching you now :lol: .
sapphirelily10
05-01-04, 11:57 PM
Well done for having a go Maria.....hope you succeed! :thumbs:
An example to us all....well, me, anyway ;)
Sapph :D
Have an extractor fan in me new loo as it doesn't have a window for me to hang out of :hihi: :hihi:
"A good example to you all" oh heck, i'm not even one of them to meself :lol:
:) Sounds like you are doing well Maria so keep it up.
A few little blips you've had, that's all, so you just go for it. :thumbs:
I promise you will feel POUNDS lighter for it ;) :D
And you'll get a real buzz off all that extra oxygen flying round your veins B)
:clover:
Mistyeyeddreamer
06-01-04, 03:28 PM
Good Luck, Maria :) :clover::clover::clover:
I'm a smoker and since I got :lmao: my consumption has gone up alarmingly :(
I've tried a few times to give up but have always relapsed :smoke: See? I'm doing it again :o
Think positive ;)
Misty
Day 6 or is it 7 :huh:
feeling happy cause i think "i need a ciggie" :cry: then i remind myself i've gone without so why? then feel o.k.
Not grumpy AT ALL O.K. ;)
Have blipped a total of 5 or 6 times now tho :blush: but having said that i am finding the smell offensive.
Onto week number 2. :crazy: :smoke:
bulliedbutbolshieboutit!
11-01-04, 09:57 AM
:thumbs: Well done Lass! Keep it up! :thumbs:
Do the patches help?
I'd love to quit, I seem to smoke more when I'm at the computer :(
:clover: Good luck Maria ;)
sapphirelily10
11-01-04, 01:02 PM
Go get it, Maria!! It's within your reach ;)
I'm very pleased for you that you're doing so well :D And blips are just that...blips. So if you have one, just treat it as that and carry on ;)
Keep at it :D
Sapph (Still a smoker, but admiring of Maria ;) )
Mrs. B.
The patches do seem to work. But I have the 24hour patches so i'm basically smoking in my sleep :o
I don't sem to have a craving as such its just the what do I stick in my mouth and hand syndrome :blush:
So I've taken to eating smarties :wub: smarties. :thumbs:
Can I just also say Mrs.B, like the picture of your washing out on the line :thumbs:
And yes, me too. Always smoked more at the computer but just keep falling over empty smartie tubes all over the floor at the moment.
I hope by mid April to have kicked it completely.
Then someone else's turn eh?? Mrs.B ? HN ? Sapp ? Misty? anyone else not mentioned here? :)
I dont think you ever really kick it completely, I've been off them just over a year, and still want one every couple of days :blink:
But once you get through the first couple of weeks, you're over the hardest bit :)
Matthew
13-01-04, 12:09 PM
Good Luck with it Maria. :D :thumbs:
Just seen this, useful at all?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/3390661.stm
rockbank
13-01-04, 12:19 PM
Good luck with this Maria.
I don't smoke myself but with any habit the real test will come when you are feeling low or under stress or peer pressure from other smokers.
That's when you have to be at your strongest.
The other factor is breaking the neural pathways in your mind. What your brain has done is set a neural network that demands a cigarette.
You need to break these pathways. Fro other people I've spoken to the hardest time comes after about 3 months. Get through that and the pathways that led you to smoking begin to break down.
I don't smoke like I say but I do know its very hard to stop but sounds like you're up to the challenge.
Have you thought about starting running? Just half a mile or mile to start with.
Klaxon man
13-01-04, 12:53 PM
Hats off to all of you that have or are at least trying to quit one of the most disgusting habits going.
If you want a good reason to give up smoking, go to the heart and lung ward in a hospital - it will stop you overnight.
I 'once' went out with a smoker - I'm a non smoker by the way.
I was up at 2am and for most of the night with the most disgusting taste in my mouth after the first amd only time we ever kissed. She tasted vile.
Even NEAT TCP, brushing with and using a tongue scrape did not re-move the taste - it was disgusting.
I brushed my teeth to the point that gums bled, I stripped (burnt off more like!) the inside ligning of my mouth and the surface of my tongue using the TCP too. It took weeks for it to go and just as long to get the smell out of my home.
I was not popular at work i can tell you - TCP stinks but it is a cleaner smell than nicotine and smoke laden clothes and a smokers breath - :sicky:
Fine! You lot can puff away and fill your lungs with 132 highly toxic chemicals with each drag you take.
The worst of these being
acetaldehyde (1.4+ mg)
arsenic (500+ ng)
benzo(a)pyrene (.1+ ng)
cadmium (1,300+ ng)
crotonaldehyde (.2+ µg)
chromium (1,000+ ng)
ethylcarbamate 310+ ng)
formaldehyde (1.6+ µg)
hydrazine (14+ ng)
lead (8+ µg)
nickel (2,000+ ng)
radioactive polonium (.2+ Pci)
Most of these are heavy metals - as in they accumulate in the body and poison you slowly.
Then you have all the wonderful lung diseases on top of them to deal with.
Smoking took my parents and one brother and has taken nearly all of my elderly relatives and friends to their early graves.
I'll be honest, what actually turned my stomach was the British Heart Foundation ad on t.v. where they showed the gunge being squeezed out of a real persons artery.:sicky:
See, I'm very squeamish.
My mum in 1986 had to have a by-pass op and they told her to stop smoking she was 66 then and had only ever in her life smoked 3 ciggies BUT for many years worked in a big tobacco company up until the 70's and mu Dad and Step Dad were big smokers and I think that was the connection and trigger for me to try and stop.
RB is right. The patches are stopping my cravings but I have smoked for so long my brain is having difficulty accepteing the actual "act" of not lighting up.
Will keep going with it........I have to........I've told too many people now and I HATE losing a challenge.
T B C
Maria xx
Thinking of changing my Board name to Patch too :lol: ;)
P.S.
Thank you for that link Matthew........am going to stick with it.
Patch ;)
Matthew
14-01-04, 12:50 AM
Good Luck Maria, whenever you get a craving for a smoke, come on here and post instead. :D :thumbs:
Non smoker here - never have, never will, but saw and supported my husband through many failed attempts at him giving up. I never at any stage put him under pressure, he did that enough himself! he tried patches, gum, willpower, cutting down, hypnosis etc etc every attempt ended in him getting extreemely short tempered to the point where he punched walls and after years of that managed to get him to the doc who prescribed anti depressants, and still he got bad tempered until he gave in, had a cigarette and returned to normal once again :( poor guy got *so* frustrated.
he was *so* desperate to give up, so i did some research as there must be a method out there somewhere that would work for him!
then i found this site!
http://www.allencarrseasyway.com/new.htm
thought yeah yeah, american hype. found a local clinic, rang them. didn't hold must esteem for them at all, questioned them till i was blue in the face, emailed them more questions, every one was answered fully and to my satisfaction, again expressed my worries for my hubs sanity if he failed again as he really was getting to breaking point, and was assured that it was normal to be anxious when trying something new, but that they had a money back guarantee so why not give them a try?
so he did.. last feb 1st, went in with an open mind, came out 4.5 hours later a non smoker. still is a non smoker - not an *ex* smoker - an ex smoker is someone that continues to crave and has the will power not to have one. hubs is a non smoker - has no inclination to have one whatsoever!
it is expensive compared to other methods - approx £180, but if i hadn't seen it with my own eyes, i'd never have believed the results!
hubs is a different person now, and *so* happy that he no longer is a slave to smoking :)
I hope it helps someone else :)
Hi Troika.
A Big Thank You too for that link. Will follow that one up too. At present I am neither a "non smoker" or an "ex smoker" (just turning into a big fan of smarties :rolleyes: )
Was this Hypnotherapy or something? I am interested.. Coping with the patches and have no cravings just struggling with the, as I said before. "hand - mouth" habit..
Maria
Third update........and am totally ashamed of myself :(
Didn't have a patch for yesterday and didn't have time to get into town to Boots for new supply but, I felt great all day and had no worries.
However, cannot say the same for today :blush: have had 8 ciggies today. Yes, it's way below the number I would have normally smoked (prob about 4 times or more less) BUT it is STILL 8 too many........
Huge blipp and I know full well that when I wake up in the morning my chest is going to feel very sore indeed. Only myself to blame.
Onto week 3.................................... 8-X
Maria
I do have appointment at Docs next week - will ask for their support. Thanks fot that :notworthy:
Just a little laugh some may appreciate of find just as gobsmacking as me.... my buddy went in on Friday morning for her Hysterectomy, she been on patches for four weeks now (she didnt want a bad chest even moreso after the aneasthetic) they told her on Friday morning that and I quote "she couldn't use the Nicotine Replacement Patch. However, if she went through the exit door through the day room there was a smoking area if she needed a cigarette" UH!!
What I have found tonight tho, am now on a total of 11 today :blush: is I cannot stop sneezing aaaaarrrrrrrrgggggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhh
:cry:
Maria
Never thought of that HN....good thinking young person ;)
My 'Owd Fella' reckons he's giving up, he's been to one of these 'help groups'
He's pretty optimistic about it !!...
Just have to wait and see !! :unsure:
Good Luck !!
Hello again.......
Had some blips again in the week and for those in chat last night a couple then :blush:
Still trying. However, I am finding that the patches are making me itch around the area where the adhesive is.
Never mind, after next friday (praying for contract exchange) I will be in a
no-smoking house ;) new house so new rules apply :thumbs:
Am saving an absolute fortune (I think) only because I don't have to draw as much money out when I go shopping AND I am saving time because I don't have to stand in the queue at the supermarket to get my weeks supply.
So far have calculated patches (still on offer at boots) work out at £12.60 for 7 day supply. Cigarettes WERE costing me £38.00 per week (and sometimes more).
Shameful........have to save that money now for the dentist to do my fillings because the smarties are rotting my teeth :tooth:
t b c ....
goosegirl
25-01-04, 09:33 PM
Hi Maria2,
Keep at it, you're doing great. I don't smoke myself. But I know what it is to have dodgy lungs. I don't have the full use of my lungs, so I cannot run or walk uphill without having to stop for a rest. I'm only 40. So help yours and stick at it.
GG. :thumbs: :thumbs: :thumbs:
Thank you GG.
I really don't know what to say :blush: except its amazing how much we can abuse and take out bodies for granted.
I thank YOU for your support.
Maria
Moving will help you a lot, you wont want the smell in everything and your walls turning yellow :lol:
And going outside in the cold everytime you want one will get old fast :)
Tina, its me thats getting old fast at the moment :hihi:
HN - have another 10 days of patches at this strength (24 hour ones) then I go on to the lower strength for about 3-4 weeks. Then there is an even lower strength after that. In total it should take 12 weeks.
And the treat for myself as I said in my pervious post, will be paying the dentist for fill my teeth after eating all the smarties ;) OR even order my toilet rolls from Harrods :jump:
I don't really know, am wanting a new mattress so I might just go overboard and buy myself a new bed :D