How To Quit Smoking

[hondarobot]

This is off topic, in relation to anything, but who here has quit smoking?

I gave up a year ago, stopped cold turkey, but then started up again recently. I'm finding it harder to quit this second time around.

Anyone got any advice or stories?

[hwbs]

my mothers practice has a service where one of the social workers performs hypnotism sessions....it isnt like what u think as far as them knocking u out under a deep spell and u are cured...while it is part of the therapy,there are group meetings kinda like dealing with other addictions,ie..overeating ,drugs, alcohol,etc... it takes alot of work on your part,but the results so far have been extraordinary.....

[hondarobot]

I'm afraid hypnotism isn't an option for me. I was something of a juvenile delinquent when I was in high school and was sent to the counselors many times. They all ended up very frustrated, but one did make the point of telling me that couseling wouldn't be effective in my case, and mentioned that I had the personality type that hypnotism (or what not) wouldn't work on.

I'll just go cold turkey again, but since I'm going out tonight, it's not gonna be today.

[suckseed]

One way to modify any particular behavior is to work on changing your focus. We tend to focus on what's good about what we do, and what's bad about stopping that and not on the factors that would help us. In this case, obviously, the pleasure of smoking and the pain of not smoking need to be de-emphasized, and you should begin to focus on the pleasure of not smoking and the pain of continuing to smoke.
Strong motivation = results

Pleasure of smoking (your current focus)
-------------------
nicotine hit
relaxing
act of inhaling/exhaling
appeasing the physical/psychological craving

Pain of quitting (your current focus)
-------------------
jonesing
irritability
negative side effects
(weight gain, etc.)

Pleasure of not smoking (what you should focus on)
----------------------------
More attractive to many
More energy
Better sex
Increased activity
Better stamina
Better body
Pleasure of beating it
More pocket money
Praise from family and friends

Pain of smoking (ditto)
------------------
Cost To health
Offensive
$150/mo @pack/day
Decreased life span
Social stigma
Coughing
Stained teeth
Bad breath
Odor/ash on clothes, in car
Effect on loved ones if you get sick/die
Lack of attractiveness to hot healthy girls like Vicki

The key is in making your own list and doing what you have to to internalize your conclusions. Put getting a date with a nonsmoker you're attracted to on the 'pleasure of quitting' list. Write your list down. Post it in your car, bathroom mirror, etc.

Here's a bunch of other things to try:
- Work on recognizing triggers to smoke. Write down what they are -
(after a meal, when you pick up the phone, when you get in the car, etc.)
- Focus on putting off lighting up for ten minutes and see if the craving passes.
- Reflect on whether you are glad or sorry after you do light up.
- When you must buy a pack, smoke one and throw the rest away.
- Hang out with nonsmokers for a month.
- See a doctor for help.
- Push back the time of your first cigarette 15 minutes each day.
- Put your cigarette butts in a bottle with a few inches of water. Look and smell the results, reflecting on how gross it is.
- Look at pictures of diseased organs on the net.
- Talk to others who have quit.
- When you get a craving at home, do 25 pushups instead.
- Do deep breathing exercises 3x/day to increase lung function. Notice the effect this has on your sense of well-being.
- Reward yourself for cutting down or quitting altogether. $150/mo could be several nice things. Like several months of one of Seanchai's websites. Or 20 minutes with Vanity.
I've had several friends quit successfully. I watched my father die of a pulmonary embolism a few days after Christmas when I was 14. It wasn't pretty.
Good luck! You CAN do it. And remember, on average, it takes us three weeks to aquire new habits.

[Slither]

It will sound pretty dumb, but I stopped by chewing on a straw. Whenever I felt the need to smoke I would just stick a straw in my mouth and chew on it for a while, that would fill the sensation of needing the cigarette in my mouth.

[Felicia Katt]

Slither gave you some good advice. Find something else to suck on besides a cancer stick. LOL

meow

Felicia

[fgbz99]

I think there is a lot of good advice in suckseed's post. Much of it is familiar from when I quit many years ago. It was the hardest thing I ever did.

One crucial thing for me was that I had previously stopped drinking. Earlier attempts at not smoking had always been thwarted as a result loosing my will power after a few too many beers.

No smoking, no drinking makes for a longer life, or perhaps it just seems that way.

Good luck.

[Ecstatic]

I never had the habit--tobacco gives me a wicked headache--but when I met my wife, she was a smoker, about a pack and a half a day. I gave her an ultimatum: me or the cigarettes. Fool picked me. :)

She snuck cigs for a while, and I pretended not to know. But after a few months she gave it up completely. That was about 29 years ago. Since then she's a reformed smoker: the worst kind. She hates tobacco more than I do, and can't believe that she used to smoke so much.

[hondarobot]

Thanks for the input everyone. My plan is to gradually reduce my cigarette intake over the summer, then quit entirely.

And, yes, that's a good idea Slither. I can see where something like that would be very effective.