Hi everyone, I don’t think I have ever made a thread on SRK, so I guess this will be my first and very important thread for my own well being. I want to quit smoking cigarettes. Reason why I started was when I was in Iraq, I had a number of close calls and cigarettes ran very cheap(1 dollar for a pack of Royales, Pines, and 5 bucks for an entire carton.) Every time I attempted to quit, there was always outside influences that hindered and ultimately prevented me quitting in the long run. Even though I go to school for automotive and it seems like everyone and the instructors smoke, I really want to make this permanent. Any tips would be appreciated. I’m sick of spending 5 bucks plus every other day for something that isn’t food.
Create a list of goals you want to reach and then place a reward at each goal, something you really really want. Something like
Week 1 of no smoking=Videogame
Week 2 of no smoking=A steak dinner
so on and so fourth. Use the money you save from not buying cigs to make these purchases instead when you reach your goals. It’s awesome you wanna quit but I personally think having rewards for meeting difficult benchmarks makes for good motivation to stick with the plan. In order to stay motivated for work i give myself a goal of something i want, something material and not a necessity and when i reach that goal I buy it for myself and it keeps me motivated to get up for work every morning.
Now I;m not saying quit cold turkey this is just an example. Set up a system that works for you but I deffinitly think having some kind of reward for sticking to your goals helps in sticking to your guns.
I smoked for a few years, and I know what you mean, everyone smoked at the school I went to (Automotive Tech) and people still smoke here at work, however, I just quit. One day I woke up, and I was tired of it. I couldn’t justify myself spending 8 bucks every two or three days on cigarettes. And you know, I just quit. It took me three tries, but on that third one, I quit, cold turkey.
.
It takes a lot of will power, and a lot of people smoke, not out of addiction, but HABIT! I will be honest, I did gain a bit of weight after I quit smoking, but it went down eventually. I did find myself snacking a bit more, and eating a bit sooner than when I was smoking. I feel so much better since I’ve quit, I can take deep breathes, food tasted so much better, and I didn’t smell like smoke.
It’s hard, and even with me, it took a few tries. Don’t get discouraged! Just keep trying, and you’ll eventually nail it!
It took me a long time to quit smoking. I used to smoke 1 pack every 2 days. I quit by cutting down. Gradually. Went from 5 a day for a 2 months then 4 the next month for 2 months. Then to 3. When I was able to stick to 2-1 a day for 3 months I quit and went on the nicotine patch.
Even if you ultimately fail on trying to quit, every attempt at quitting brings you closer to quitting for good.
Cigarette Smoking increases the risk of coronary heart disease, the leading cause of death in the United States. Cigarette smoking also causes reduced circulation by narrowing the blood vessels (arteries) and puts smokers at risk of developing peripheral vascular disease (i.e., obstruction of the large arteries in the arms and legs that can cause a range of problems from pain to tissue loss or gangrene). Smoking causes abdominal aortic aneurysm (i.e., a swelling or weakening of the main artery of the body—the aorta—where it runs through the abdomen). Smoking causes lung cancer, as well as lung diseases (e.g., emphysema, bronchitis, chronic airway obstruction) by damaging the airways and alveoli (i.e., small air sacs) of the lungs.
Smoking causes the following cancers:
[LIST]
[]Acute myeloid leukemia
[]Bladder cancer
[]Cancer of the cervix
[]Cancer of the esophagus
[]Kidney cancer
[]Cancer of the larynx (voice box)
[]Lung cancer
[]Cancer of the oral cavity (mouth)
[]Cancer of the pharynx (throat)
[]Stomach cancer
[*]Cancer of the uterus
[/LIST]
Smoking also has many adverse reproductive and early childhood effects, including increased risk for—
[LIST]
[]infertility,
[]preterm delivery,
[]stillbirth,
[]low birth weight, and
[/LIST]
sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS)
If that isn’t enough to help, consider this:
Smoking cigarettes reduces the size of your penis and puts you at risk of erectile dysfunction. Yeah, if that isn’t reason enough to quit, I don’t know what is!
Here are some effective tips for quitting smoking.
[LIST]
[]**Start exercising—**Exercising does a couple of positive things that can help you stop smoking. First, it releases endorphins into your body. These are “feel good” hormones that give you a buzz similar to that you might experience when smoking a cigarette. Secondly, exercising helps you relieve tension. Many people smoke as a way of dealing with stress. Exercise lets you burn off all that stress, eliminating your need for a cigarette.
[]**Avoid tempting situations—**Do you tend to smoke when you visit your favorite bar? Are there certain smoker friends that cause you to light up more often? Do your best to avoid the situations that cause you to crave a cigarette the most. This will help reduce your urges so you can get past the hump that causes many would-be quitters to fail.
[*]**Use herbs to quit smoking—**Herbal stop smoking products provide a natural way to stop smoking. Herbs help ease nicotine withdrawal symptoms, allowing you to gently kick your addiction.
[/LIST]
Good advice in here! A couple of things that helped me quit a 10 year pack a day .
Nicotine replacement therapy helped me greatly. I did e-cigarettes and then switched to gum because e-cig was very inconsistent in term of how much nicotine I was getting.
Valerian root capsules helped chill me out when I was having serious withdrawal. Also having a repetitive task (like learning combos) can help ride out symptoms.
Know the situations and triggers that make you want a smoke and be extra careful and conscious of them. For some it is when drinking, for me it was that first leisurely smoke in the morning
Talk to your doctor about quitting and possible prescriptions. They work but have side effects.
Have someone manage your money, dont let yourself have access to it for 3 weeks. The person you trust should only allow you to buy what is actually necessary.
My buddy started smoking during his freshman year, now he’s a junior. I think it’s either trying to fit in with the crowd or stress. Whatever it may be, I don’t think he’s gonna stop smoking any time soon, eventhough he said he will… It sucks to see someone you know from childhood taking the path that he’s taking.
I was a dedicated smoker on and off for years. I only do it now when I manage to get my friends all together, which is only every few months. I never really experience any intense cravings, and I think I can give a bit of advice.
I personally find that this is something you’re going to have to do yourself. You can ask for the support of your friends and family, but you’ll only really kick it if you yourself are decicated and willful enough.
You’ll need something to a) fill the void in your schedule reserved for smoking (I know you know what I mean) and b) find something that gives you the fix\high of your cravings. I would start jogging. I’ve been excercising for a full year now, and the results are amazing. I find I can turn my interest in smoking on and off.
If you become a decicated enough runner, you’ll realise that smoking will hinder your exercise, and you will avoid it. The sweating will also detox your body. The quicker the chemical is out of your body, the quicker you’ll start wanting\ resisting it.
Let me know if there’s anything else I can help with.
I have been an on and off chewer for 5 years ish and about a month and a half ago I decided to just stop. Just had bought a fresh can too and only had like 2 dips out of it. Went outside and chucked it into the woods.
Honestly, I have had some cravings but nothing crazy to the point where I almost went and bought one. You can do all these fancy ways of stopping but the most effective way is to just do it. Its a test of will power and how much you care for yourself.
Just cut back; don’t even quit. I smoked a pack a day for 6 years. I quit, gained a bunch of weight, and became the pre-smoker grouch I had been prior.
Took it back up, smoke half as much as I used to, and dropped the weight. Awright!
I haven’t touched a cigarette in almost two years.
The first few times I tried to quit all went down the same way: I stopped smoking for a week or two, then I’d see a friend light up and it’d be over for me.
I came to the conclusion that you’ve got to identify your triggers and then work against them.
Since my triggers were social situations, I pretty much had to hibernate in order to kick the habit. Many people within my circle of friends were smokers. We’d hang out all day (which always involved chain smoking) and we’d go out for drinks multiple times a week (which always involved chain smoking). I had to stop going out for a long while, and I had to temporarily sever contact with most of the people I was used to smoking with – truthfully, I think I lost a couple of friends in the process! It was a pretty extreme method, but I really wanted to quit. And when you really want to quit, you’ll find a way to make it happen.
Easiest way out is to use varencicline, get your doctor to prescribe it (known as Champix in Australia). It’s a total 3 month course and makes cigarettes taste gross and you get no enjoyment from smoking, making quitting much easier.
Warning, can give you tummy aches and fucked up dreams. Enjoy.
