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Give and get support around quitting

victressinHim
Member

Big life changes!

I don't want to continue to be a smoker! I started at 15 yrs old then quit at 18. I was smoke free for 19 yrs then due to extreme stress bought a pack of ciggs & smoked for about a yr then quit cold turkey. It's been a cycle of smoking & quitting the last 20 yrs with each time quitting it's become more difficult.    It's been four yrs now since I last resumed & I'm having a difficult time stopping for more that two weeks. 

I have an extremely stressful life with big changes. I'm not ready to make a quit date yet, but I'm always thinking about it while waiting for these life changes to settle somewhat. 

Thank you for your encouragement via daily texts! 

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5 Replies
JACKIE1-25-15
Member

Welcome to EX you have come to the right place for support.   Relearning your thinking and understanding the truth about the addiction to nicotine will make the difference.  The first truth that I would like to share with you the smoking does not relieve stress but adds to it.  The second thing is that if you commit to never to ever take another puff no matter what is happening in your life you will learn new behavior to deal with life on life's terms without sucking on poison.  Develop a plan on how you are going to do about your quit.  @My EX Plan | BecomeAnEX  read study and do the exercises.  Stay close ask questions be in it to win one day at a time. 

Barbscloud
Member

Welcome to the Ex.   I also signed up for the daily texts as I prepared for my quit date.  I found them very inspirational and I looked forward to them.   We're here for you when you're ready.  Take the next step and begin you're journey to be smoke free.

Barb

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PastTense
Member

I feel your pain, victressinHim‌;  I, too, have been a "serial quitter".

I think I "quite" every Monday for the past 20 years!!!

I am having better luck with this quit because I am finally taking it seriously.

I developed and wrote down my quit plan.  Writing down my plan helped me remember that I had a plan when the cravings got bad or I got tired (always the danger zone).

I also made a commitment to be on this site every single day.  It has helped me remember why I want to be a non-smoker and how much I have to gain by letting go of cigarettes.

I encourage you to spend some time on this site, read other people's stories and their hints and tips.

I'll be keeping an eye out for you!

PT

Keep the Quit
PT
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YoungAtHeart
Member

Welcome to our community!

The important thing you can do right now is to educate yourself on what nicotine does to your body and mind. To that end, I highly recommend Allen Carr's “The Easy Way to Stop Smoking.” This easy and entertaining read provided a world of good information about nicotine addiction, most of which I was not aware.  I credit it in large part with my success at quitting.   You can search for it online or at your local library.


 You should also read the posts here and perhaps go to the pages of folks who you think might be helpful. You might visit whyquit.com, quitsmoking.com and livewell.com for the good information contained there. @https://excommunity.becomeanex.org/groups/best-of-ex has lots of blogs written by members of this site with their experiences and guidance. Here is a video to inform you further about nicotine addiction: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IpWMgPHn0Lo&feature=youtu.be.

After you have completed the recommended reading, it will be time to make an informed choice of the quit aid, if any, you will use. If you go that route, I personally recommend the aids that don't let the addict control the dose such as the available prescription drugs or the patch. If used properly, gum, lozenges and inhalers are fine, but they need to be used only as a last resort after you have tried to delay and distract.   I have seen folks become addicted to them if they substitute them for every cigarette they used to smoke - just trading one addiction for another.  You need to start out with a plan to reduce use of them over time - which the patch does by decreasing the dose contained in them..  For the gum, you can start by cutting each piece in half, then in quarters, then sub regular gum of the same flavor in between, adding more and more regular gum.  For the lozenge, you need to start subbing a mint in between to begin, increasing the number of them over time. I do not recommend the e-cigarette for four reasons: 1) the vapor has been compared to the polluted air in Bejing on a bad day, 2) they just provide another nicotine delivery system while continuing the hand to mouth smoking motion,  3) the batteries can spontaneously catch on fire and 4) you can become addicted to that and it has not yet been proven safe .
 

It will be informative if you do the tracking and separation exercises recommended here on the site. As you track each cigarette smoked, note its importance, and what you might do instead. Put each one off just a little to prove that you don't NEED a cigarette just because you think you do.
 

The idea is to change up your routines so the smoking associations are reduced.  Drink your coffee with your OTHER hand in a place different from when you smoked. Maybe switch to tea for a bit.  If you always had that first smoke with your coffee, try putting your tennies on right out of bed, going for a quick walk, then taking your shower and THEN your coffee! Rearrange the furniture in the areas you used to smoke so the view is different. Buy your gas at a different station. Take a different route to work. Take a quick walk at break time where the smokers AREN'T.
 
You need to distract yourself through any craves.  You can take a bite out of a lemon (yup - rind and all), put your head in the freezer and take a deep breath of cold air, do a few jumping jacks, go for a brisk walk or march in place, play a computer game.  Keep a cold bottle of water with you from which to sip. Don't let that smoking thought rattle around in your brain unchallenged. Sometimes you need to quit a minute or an hour at a time.  You will need to be disciplined in the early days to distract yourself when a crave hits.    Get busy!  Here is a link to a list of things to do instead of smoke if you need some fresh ideas:
 https://excommunity.becomeanex.org/blogs/Youngatheart.7.4.12-blog/2013/02/25/100-things-to-do-instea...


The conversation in your head in response to the "I want a cigarette" thought needs to be, "Well, since I have decided not to do that anymore, what shall I do instead for the three minutes this crave will last?"  Then DO it.  You will need to put some effort into this in the early days, but it gets easier and easier to do.

Stay close to us here and ask questions when you have them and for support when you need it. We will be with you every step of the way!


 Nancy

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maryfreecig
Member

Welcome to Ex. I quit once at the age of 25 for two and a half years. I loved my quit, was proud of it. At 27 I sobered up and thought I couldn't take the stress so I smoked. Up until age 54, six years ago, I thought I just couldn't quit again (I'd had some short lived attempts--nothing solid). But suddenly I found myself deciding to quit. Did it cold turkey, not much support (found Ex about 2 years 10 months in). I struggled to make sense of quitting because I felt that I was A SMOKER--in my DNA. Something like that. But something happened along the way as I continued to not smoke and continued to face my life's ups and downs, I smobered up. 

Smobriety isn't about the number of days smoke free, it's about my state of mind. Even in my early quit, I realized that I wasn't quite right--that needing to smoke couldn't be true. But it took a while for me to break my dependency. My smobriety has taken time to come into shape and it still is a work in progress. Part of that smobriety comes from engaging with Ex. Here I meet and hear Ex friends talk about their journey, some have COPD, other health issues but they accept staying smober. I began to see the bigger picture of what smoking is and what it does to the smoker (all of society) and how smobriety can repair the mental and physical damage of addiction. 

This is a one day at a time journey and it is so worth it. Quitting has to happen on your say so, your terms, but I hope you know that Ex is a community that will be here for you 365. 

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