Hi ....I am Jeanne & I want to quit smoking. Scared to death & this isn't my first attempt! Help from anyone would be greatly appreciated! TY
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Hi ....I am Jeanne & I want to quit smoking. Scared to death & this isn't my first attempt! Help from anyone would be greatly appreciated! TY
Nancy and Jackie just gave you lots of places to start. Let me add just this: Make a list of what scares you. Are you scared of withdrawal symptoms? They don't last long. Are you scared of relapsing when with friends? There are things you can do about that. Are you afraid your life will change? It will! And for the better! Let us know what you come up with.
Welcome! Change is scary. But you can ease into this experience with education. It's a matter of getting your bearings. Reading on here will help you understand what the journey will be like. Part of our fear is not really knowing what's going to happen. How you think about it will have a great bearing on how it will go for you. Thinking of it as a learning experience and a challenge, a chance to grow and discover new things about yourself is a lot more uplifting than thinking of it as a mountain, a struggle, an unpleasant thing that you have to do. Stick around,read as much as you can, and make a strong preparation. We're here to walk the walk with you. It's Gonna Be Okay Chin up!
I remember feeling very scared to quit ....my fear ? I was afraid that I would completely lose my mind ! A little over the top .......yes , but I really thought that would happen . I was challenged to go just 24 hours without a cigarette and if I could not do it I could pick up that cigarette well ,I did it and it was hard but I didn't lose my mind and I ended up going 48 hours ....lol ! That was the first time in 20 years that I had gone that long without smoking .
I also thought each day would get worse and worse but found for me it levels off at 2 days , stays hard for a few more then gradually gets easier !
Do all the things everyone has advised you to do and your fears will be alieviated and your enthusiasm to quit will be ignited !
Welcome to Ex Jeanne !!!
I smoked for 52 years and now I have over 3 years of freedom .......1,143 days to be exact!
You can be free too ,stick with Ex !
jbollweg, hi there, Jeanne....The more prepared you are, the smoother things are going to go. Education is number one and you can get all kinds of education right here on this site...see Youngatheart.7.4.12's comment. I used the My Quit Plan on here...tracked my cigarettes, and learned a LOT about myself. I identified my triggers and just that identification took away some of their power. I rated them on a scale of one to five with five being the strongest... I did nothing about trying to cut back on my smoking during that time, it was merely a "study" of what my "reasons" were. Once I had identified those triggers...I made plans for how I would deal with them without smoking...when I came to that point. I had different interventions for different triggers and I had to change them many times when I actually DID quit. I read blogs on this site....I read and I read and I read. THEN, the unthinkable happened, I got sick, I mean REALLY sick. I got pneumonia and my COPD was exacerbated and I seriously could not breathe. My doctor wanted to admit me to ICU and I absolutely refused...as a retired RN, I was absolutely convinced that I could take care of myself as well, if not better than anyone else. After all, the only thing THEY would have would be a ventilator and there was NO WAY that was going to happen. It took me a week to even START to improve, with three inhalers, two antibiotics, mucinex, a warm steam vaporizer, and postural drainage. That last one was literally hanging myself off the side of the bed...head on a pillow on the floor to help any mucous to drain down so I could perhaps cough it up. My husband and son were terrified, they checked on me every few minutes and the looks on their faces were so sad that I never want to see them look like that again ...at least not because of me. I did not know if I was going to survive but I DID know that I would not smoke again if I did. That was in January of 2014, I have not smoked again. I have had many rough times...many challenges, BUT I have not smoked and it is the best thing I have ever done for myself. This is a journey, it is not an event...it is one day at a time and sometimes one hour at a time or one minute or one second. You CAN do this. You need to be willing to go through some hard times and you need to know that all of your feelings are going to seem more intense than they were when you stuffed them down with cigarettes. It CAN be done and YOU can do it. Read, plan, stay close to the site and know that we are all here to help you in any way that we can.
Welcome to EX,
Ellen
Welcome to our community!
It is natural to feel scared to death. This is new territory, but with education and support, it will become less hostile!
The most 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 is an easy and entertaining read. 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, quitsmokingonline.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. You should also do the tracking and separation exercises suggested in My Quit Plan http://www.becomeanex.org/my-quit-plan.php
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. 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. I do not recommend the e-cigarette for three 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, and 3) the batteries can spontaneously catch on fire. . But – any method that you think will work well for you will be best for you.
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-instead-of-smoke
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