Withdrawls, how to deal w/ 'em

[evilmedic13]

Okay, last week i went to see my doc about help in not smoking. He gave this medication thats supposed to help after a week of taking it. Today is my one week day, and I'm sticking w/ the plan no matter how hard it gets. I've been seeing too many pt's w/ lung problems and have had some diff breathing at times myself recently. Not to mention the prize after 1 year off smokes. Honestly though a 2nd bike doesn't mean **** right now, all I can do is think about having a cigarette and honestly it has only been 4 hrs w/o one. I can't sleep because of the fits and there's nothing to do besides watch info-crap-mercials. The dogs are gonna love me now 'cuz they've walked about 3miles longer than the usual 1a.m walk just so I wasn't near the house for the first 2 nic fits.

I've tried before and always found a reason not to. Last year I tried once really hard and a 1/2 hearted attempt but when the wife to be said she wasn't quitting til after the wedding my effort and ambition just jumped out the window. I now realize that I 'm quitting for me and it doesn't matter if she quits or not, I don't wanna die w/ a ****** o2 tank and 80ft of hose attached to me everywhere I go. I'm sorry to be ramblin but I honestly have nobody to talk to on this matter, all the ex smokers I know"just quit" except for my friend Greg,but he goes to AA and said he used that method.

I just wanna know one thing when is the storm over?

I realize I am an addict, i cannot go back, if I do i start back at hour one. Right now I'm counting the hours and soon they will be days and weeks and years, but I will not stop counting. This sound easy to some but if I'm not sleeping or busy I have at least one an hour. The last time I was unable to smoke for 4 or more hours, I was on a plane to hawaii and smoked 4 or 5 1 hr before we boarded, and then slept 5 out of 8 hrs. As soon as we landed I smoked 2 in 15mins.

This is not going to be easy, but nothing worth anyrthing ever is, I guess. There were some easy girlfriends that were worth it but, exceptions rather than the rule.Thanks for any advice, Im going to go vomit now.

 

[C&C]

Best of luck with your decision. Keeping busy in your waking hours may be your best friend. Maybe associating nicotine as your worst enemy and assigning your efforts to defeat this foe as it tries to assault your life, which of course it is, can give you the inner strength to not succumb to its allure.

 

[05fjrBluedevil]

Well best wishes, it is a great choice!

And walking the dogs is a good thing to help keep your mind off of it as well....along with help with the body healing.

 

[tom b]

Hang in there. I'm at two months without a smoke. It's amazing the way addictions can effect you. Even at the two month point I still have days that I ask myself why I decided to quit.

What drug did the doctor give you? Over the years I think I tried everything without making it one day. Then recently a new drug called Chantix came out. I used chantix for one month and cut down my smoking during that month. At the end of the first month I quit completely. I can stay on chantix as long as I want and I'm thinking I'll do one more month.

I hope you make it through the cravings. You know it's worth it.

 

[IndianaTom]

Riding that FJR should help (there, now we are immune to the off topic closing )

Seriously, when my Mother quit, she had Dad cut her a few wooden dowels about the size of a cigarette. She'd take one out of her purse, and use it just like a cig (except for the fire). She'd hold it, put it in the ashtray, flick it, lip it, everything. After a while, maybe weeks, she'd use a smaller dowel same way. then she went to a toothpick... and eventually to nothing. I'm not a smoker, so I can't say, but maybe her addiction was the physical cigarette, not the chemical of the cig.

Hope this helps.

 

[Scab]

I just wanna know one thing when is the storm over?

Never. Cravings can occur and reoccur forever. That's what kicked my ***. I had quit once for over two years. Cravings snuck up on me like I had just smoked yesterday. I cracked.

 

[BuilderBob]

Definately a tough task. As others have said, stay busy. They say that cravings only last a few minutes so take them one at a time. Also said is that it takes 30 days to develop a habit, so it is reasonable to think that it will take 30 days to break one.

Hang in there. I did it 27 years ago.

 

[TheAxeman]

A good friend of mine who was a 2 pack a day smoker quit a number of years ago by doing the following:

He took a big jelly jar, put about an inch of water in the bottom, and every time he got done smoking a cigarette he would put the butt in the jar. Before he would light up another cigarette he would have to open the lid of the jar, stick his nose in it, and inhale the odor as deeply as he could. The first couple of days were not much of a problem but after the butts started fermenting in the water just the smell of the "brew" would make him nauseous enough that he wouldn't want to smoke another. The whole premise sounded kind of silly to me at first but it worked like a charm and he has never smoked since.

Good luck with it Evil and I hope it all works out for you....

 

[red2kcbr]

Smoked for 17 years, quit for three, then started back. Smoked for a couple more years. Now I've not had a smoke in 10 years. I'll never smoke again. I know it.

The cravings may never go away completely, but they have diminished greatly for me. I don't really crave one anymore.

You're doing the right thing for the right reason. You have to quit for yourself. Not anyone else. My wife smoked the whole time. Now, I think she's made up her mind to quit. Using the Commit losenge. Started out on the 4 mg dose, now she's breaking each one in half. It's been a week, and so far so good.

You have to think of it like a chain. Each day you don't smoke is another link in the chain. If you chip one off a buddy the chain is broken, and you have to start over.

It's hard. Probably the hardest thing I've done. And I quit drinking back in '94. July 10, about 0230, but who's counting? Quitting smoking was harder than quitting drinking.

You can do this. Many others have. You have to WANT to quit, more than you want a cigarette. And don't take up dipping to compensate. I just wound up with a dip of Skoal in one corner of my lip, and a Marlboro red in the other.

Good luck. I'm pulling for 'ya.

 

[mdisher]

Nicotine is, or can be a very, very tough addiction.

While I haven't smoked in 15 years, I did smoke from age 13 till about 25. I quit when my son was born because I got tired of standing outside to smoke.

Problem is I didn't really quite, but rather simply switched to chew for the Nicotine.

I now get 3-4x the nicotine from that that I used to get from a smoke. My lungs have thanked me, but if I ever end up with mouth/throat cancer, I won't be happy. I won't have anyone else to blame but myself but I won't be happy.

I did quit chew once for about 9 months using the patch, and it was still a *****.

Good luck on your endeavor, hang with it, and don't consider other nicotine alternatives. Just like it says on the label, it's not a safe alternative to smoking and will only get you deeper in the pool.

 

[snowmonkey]

You can do this. Many others have. You have to WANT to quit, more than you want a cigarette.
Good luck. I'm pulling for 'ya.

I believe that Red nailed it with that simply phrase. You can quit smoking cigs only after you made an honest decision with yourself to never have another cigarette again as long you live.

I quit 5 years ago.

 

[Barabus]

My parents both stopped cold when they found out they were pregnant with me in 1966. This did not mean anything to me when I was young, but now I know what they did. You can do it and several others have done it.

 

[BugR]

Hang in man, I'm @ 6 months (7th attempt to quit, 30 year smoker).

Things which help

Nicotine Patches, get the brand ones not the cheap wally world ones, there is a difference.

Nicorette Inhaler: I use it if I get a panic attack. It's more of a prop right now since I have not recharged it in 3 months.

Give yourself incentives I get to put the $ into the bike farkle fund ( the wife uses hers for golf)

Luck Chris

 

[twowheelnut]

Hypnosis. Word. Did the moogly-oogly-hocus-pocus **** on a Thursday night at 7:00 PM. The session lasted an hour. Haven't had a craving in almost three years except for once recently on a ride. Yuk.

 

[evilmedic13]

Well, 12 hours so far and I'm starting to get used to 'em. Not happy but I'm not gonna kill anybody yet either. Thanks for all the backup on this guys. See ya's at WFO in the non smoking section!!!!!

 

[Waaane]

Well, 12 hours so far and I'm starting to get used to 'em. Not happy but I'm not gonna kill anybody yet either. Thanks for all the backup on this guys. See ya's at WFO in the non smoking section!!!!!

Good luck and you are right. You don't want to die that way. My father died of emphysema and heart failure due to smoking and it wasn't pretty. I quit a few years later and was truely miserable for about 5 days then it slowly started getting a bit easier. I still get the urge now and then but fight it.

Its the best thing you can do for yourself. Hang in there

 

[donaldb]

February 8, 2007 11:05 a.m.

I stood over my father, held his hand, while he died. The cancer had eaten through his lung tissue, causing both lungs to collapse within 3 days. He lived another 3 days after the second lung collapsed, he died with tubes in both lungs. Unfortunately, there has not been a day that I do not have those images in my mind, I hope with time, those memories will fade.

He smoked for 40+ years.

Renegade..........I too use smokeless tobacco.............in honor of my father's passing I quit and am chewing gum as I type this...........it aint easy giving it up!

Here is my father (and mother) last summer

they sayz polka dotz is back in

scotch and water.............his favorite!

 

[OrangevaleFJR]

It has been 2 years, 2 months and 11 days for me.

Everytime I considered the question of whether to smoke, I boiled it down to a decision. I learned to say no.

I started on 3 weeks of Welbutrin and the patch combined. After three weeks, I knew that no matter how hard withdrawal was, the patch was just prolonging the pain. I quit the drugs, I quit the patch and I suffered through the withdrawals with resolve to quit.

It wasn't until about month 4 that I realized how addicted I was and how much your own mind can play with you. I would start feeling ill and my mind would think, "If I had a smoke I'd feel better."

I'd start to get stressed and my mind would think, "If you had a smoke everything would be okay."

I realized that all those times I got pissed enough that I needed a smoke were actually me being irrational at the whim of my addiction. Embarassing! Sure things piss me off still, but I find that now I have figured out the mind's tricks that I am a much mellower person. I am free from my mind playing tricks on me!

It still tries, but the attempts are pretty lame now. Thoughts like, "Just one smoke now wouldn't fire up the addiction after two years!" ********. I will never smoke again. No cigs, cigars, or any other source of nicoteine. So the decision is still NO when I am faced with this decision and it is a lot easier to decide now and comes up much less often than it used to. Frankly, I think it became pretty easy from month 2 or 3. There were some times in irritating times that a craving would come up. 6 months, even 1 year! But each time you say no you are doing yourself a favor. You are becoming more free from a mind altering drug, and you are making the next NO that much easier.

Keep going Medic...2 years after quitting, I still look at it as one of the most difficult and worthwhile accomplishments of my life. Just remember, it keeps getting easier.

 

[FJR919]

Good luck to all of you who have quit or are in the process of quitting. Cigarettes killed my dad at the age of 56. He had smoked for over 40 years, and I remember how difficult it was for him when he tried at various times to give up smoking. Listening to him cough and hack in the morning was enough of a deterrent to keep me from ever taking up the habit.