As the regulars here know, I quit smoking almost 20 months ago, on my first ever attempt to quit in over 30 years of smoking one to two packs a day. I quit with no planning whatsover. In fact, I had just returned from a midnight run to the store where I bought two packs of cigarettes. I took one puff of the first one, put it out because I had a scratchy throat from the flu, and I haven't taken a puff since. Although, I hadnt heard of Allen Carr until many months after I had quit, I've read his book and think he does a fantastic job blowing up smoking myths and laying out the trap of nicotine addiction. Specifically, nicotine addicts go through life feeling craves every hour or so and must smoke just to get back to to the feeling a non-smoker enjoys all the time. The problem is that smoking the next cigarette guarantees the withdrawal starts again shortly thereafter, requiring another dose of nicotine in a never-ending junky life. The irony is that, if we just stop smoking, in a few short weeks, the craving is gone permanently and we can live like normal people, never craving cigarettes again. I watched an Allen Carr DVD that really captured the feeling I had during my inititial withdrawal from nicotine. Instead of dreading the craves, I loved them. Each one made me stop and think how excited I was to be walking away from the ball n' chain of a nicotine junkie's life. I didn't hate the craves, I embraced them, drew motivation from kicking them in ass. I can't share that DVD, but I did find this YouTube video that I think captures, quite nicely, the mindset that I -- and I know many other quitters here -- used to gain their freedom. Finally understanding the whole junkie thing is the motivation that powered my quit, just like it did for this woman. Maybe it will help somebody else.
hwc..as always, i appreciate your wealth of information and thank you for sharing. i am at almost 7 months smoke free after 30+ years of smoking. this is my first and only attempt, just like you, and i did it cold turkey. its feels good not to have to include cigarettes in my life anymore (how many packs to take on vacation, will there be a place to smoke when i get off the plane, how we i be able to hide that i'm an addict to those that don't know i smoke, ball and chain ball and chain). thank GOD that's over!.
Great video, cwc....What she says in it makes sense to me. I think the reason my quitting is fairly easy is because I'd made up my mind to do it. I smoked at least 3 packs a day and had smoked for 51 years. Before making a trip to my old hometown, Chicago, to see me sis for a few days, I was torn between wanting so badly to be there and dreading the limits that would be put on my habit since my sis is a non-smoker in a non-smoking household in a non=smoking condo...The places in the city where one can smoke are few and far between too! I literally had to start cutting back a month ahead of time to go "in training" for my visit! This made me so mad at myself! I was letting my habit get in the way of something I wanted to do! Anyhow, I was down to limiting myself to 2 or 3 cigarettes a day during my visit and experiencing craves that were out of this world! When I returned home, I made up my mind that I wasn't going to do this anymore and that I was going to start fresh the next morning with no cigarettes, with my coffee or anything else! I gave all my cigarettes away and rationised to myself that I was only extending my misery by cutting back and that it would be better if I just refused to smoke! And it has been! It's better...it's awesome and I am so glad I did it! I started checking out this site, among others, during my training month and all that researching and reading about other people and their experiences has helpe me enormously. The key, I think is when one decides to quit for themselves and means it.
I literally had to start cutting back a month ahead of time to go "in training" for my visit! This made me so mad at myself! I was letting my habit get in the way of something I wanted to do! Anyhow, I was down to limiting myself to 2 or 3 cigarettes a day during my visit and experiencing craves that were out of this world!
It is an amazing realization when we come to see that the drug addiction is controlling our lives to that extent. The fear. The planning how to smoke. It's like being in prison, held captive by a drug addiction that does absolutely nothing positive. The desire to walk away from that jail is so powerful that quitting becomes an exhiliarating experience. A bed of roses? No, but there's something cathartic and empowering about kicking the drug addiction in the ass.
Thanks hwc. That was (other than your writings), probably the clearest and sanest exposition of why it doesn't make any sense to continue smoking. After almost nine months smokefree, I can really appreciate it, truly hear it, when somebody says that people smoke because they are addicted. I am almost nine months quit and yet I still have an occasional flash of insanity where I think I want a cigarette. But by coming here, I know that it's just my junkie thinking trying to lure me back into nicotine's clutches. So far I've been able to resist, but it is an ongoing process. NTAP
Yep, My needles came in a Capri 120 box. After years of listening to my husband complain about my smoking, I found myself in those last month being sneaky with my smoking. I would try not to smoke so much while he was around, then make up for it when he would leave. I felt like a little kid sneaking around so my parents wouldn't catch me. How ridiculous! A week before my quit I was so sick with a respitory infection I would go outside and smoke and actually almost throw up coughing so hard. I would sleep in the quest bedroom so I didn't keep my husband awake all night with my wheezing and coughing. I was so disgusted with myself. I am not sure I even would have quit though, even with as sick as I was and how difficult a time I was having breathing and still smoking. It took being told I had emphysema for me to throw the things away. Yep.... my herion was in a Capri 120 package. Sponsored by Phillip Morris. 🙂
WoW, hwc I haven't logged on in a little while, I was really depressed about my quit. I got a running start and quit before my quit date, but then I started again,and then quit again on my quit date. I'm at the place now where I'll quit for a day or two and then start smoking again. I was writing in my journel today, that I'm going to keep trying until I'm fully quit. And, while I was writing, I kept hearing a voice in the back of my mind saying over and over again, "Denise, You have to be honest with yourself and with God, if you really want this. I'm thiking I am being as honest as I know how. But, I really didn't realize that I wasn't being honest, Until I signed in and watched and LISTENED!!! to this video, what really hit home for me was when she said "You're a JUNKIE!!!! It was as if she was speaking to me personally. And that's when I realized that I have not been honest about admitting the fact that I AM A JUNKIE!!!! the same as any alcholic or drug addict. And although my own shame has kept me from this site, I'm here now. And I'm glad that I signed in today. I want to give a heartfelt thanks to all who send me notes, the blogs, even those who don't realize they're making a big difference in someones life. KUDOS!!!!!!
"You're a JUNKIE!!!! The reason that I like this woman's video so much is that figuring out that I was a nicotine junkie is what also unlocked the door for me. Easy to understand. It takes away alll the guilt and the mindgames and all the rest. It's so simple. I'm a drug addict and I will have to have my drugs every hour of ever day of my life until I just stop taking the drugs, go through the withdrawal and adjustment and live with the mantra, "never take another puff". People cringe at the thought that they are drug addicts, but it's really quit liberating, IMO. Every time I had a crave that first week, I just said, that's the drug addict looking for a fix and the only way to stop it is to break the addiction, right now. It's never going to get any easier. I talked to my father on the phone and said I had figured it out: to quit, you just have to stop smoking. Here's the kicker. As an ex-smoker, I don't have any craving for nicotine. Only smokers have those craves. Once you finally break clear of the addiciton, it's just so obvious what was controlling your life that it slaps you in the face. We are all in the same boat. None of us made a decision to become lifelong smokers. We got trapped, almost always as teenagers, and the only easy way out of the trap is to understand how the trap works. Don't try to out-willpower the trap. Try to out-think it.
