Help

[amykauffman]

I recently had a heart attack and I am told I have to quit yet I keep smoking.   Where do I get the willpower ?

[freeneasy]

We discuss that here. It's not willpower but willingness to start and educate yourself about quitting and nicotine addiction. It's doable. You can stop.

Learn How to Quit Smoking (and Make it Stick) 

[Sootie]

Heart Attacks are scary stuff. You must quit smoking for your health to improve. AND YOU CAN!!! We all did and we are NO different from you. 

Do the readings suggested---they are very important

Stick close to this site and talk to us...let us help you

Put them down and never pick them up again

YOU CAN.

Welcome to EX----we are all here for each other.

Stay Strong

[shashort]

@amykauffman Welcome to the EX community and is great place to get support. I really can't think of anything else to add different. Do the homework, read lots of people blogs here, stay close to this site, and blog about how you are doing, blog if you are struggling before you smoke and give us a chance to talk you down from the ledge. You CAN do this!!  Stay strong!

[c2q]

I felt the same way before I quit.

You don't have to quit smoking. It's your choice. You decide. And you don't need willpower. You just need focus.

Quitting is like competing in an Olympic Event. Get ready, get set, quit. Your cheering multitude is right here.

[bonniebee]

Hi Amy, So much good advice above for you to absorb so I only will add that I smoked for 52 years and thought I would never succeed at quitting but here I am over 2 years later still smoke free and feeling great about it !  I give credit to God first and second to this Ex-Community of beautiful caring people who helped me to get here ...it is a journey travel with Us and you can make it to freedom too !

[shashort]

I love this picture and saying @bonniebee I am thankful I have no more excuses.

[bonniebee]

I love it  too Sharon !

[brittann3]

Wow. You got lots and lots of amazing advice above. The biggest thing (from the advice above) that helped me, when I came here just over 6 months ago, was reading about nicotine and how it affects your brain. I knew smoking was an addiction and not (just) a habit but I always believed (for some reason) that I had to have the willpower to beat it. I'm not sure why we look at nicotine addiction differently than drug addiction or alcohol addiction considering they are exactly the same. Nicotine affects and changes the brain, from the very first puff, exactly the same way that first pain pill or first shot of heroin does to an addict. Nicotine is actually worse because it immediately makes your brain believe that you physically need nicotine in order to survive, like food and water, when the truth is 'once you stop using nicotine the physical urge, the feeling that you can't live without that next cigarette, will actually go away.' The only thing keeping the addiction alive is continuing to smoke. As said above you can't rely on willpower to successfully quit. Knowledge about nicotine and how it changes your brain is the key. You get to a place where you can see that nicotine is doing absolutely nothing for you. Alan Carr's book helps with breaking the cigarette down to it's parts and pieces and once you see that it's difficult to unsee it. I've been almost 200 days without a cigarette but sometimes, now that the weather is changing and getting nice out, picture the days I would ride around listening to music smoking cigarettes with the windows down... but I've seen that the "but I enjoy smoking" mentality is a lie. I know now what nicotine has done to my brain and how it affected me and took things from me; like money and time and I can't go back.

Unless I decide I can control it one day and try to smoke "just one". That is the thing that will keep me chained. Picking it back up. You decide to be done and you choose that every moment, every hour, every day, and eventually you'll not even have to think about it. You'll be a non smoker grateful you quit instead of a smoker wishing they could quit. I promise it can be done and this place is the place to be to see it and know it everyday!!!

Stay on here and stay connected to everyone and you'll do it!

[maryfreecig]

It's an addiction. And it is not easy to accept saying goodbye to cigarettes-- because the addiction makes them seem sooooo important. Before I decided to quit 3.5 years ago, I thought that I would smoke til the day I died--and I was fine with that because I thought I could do no better than smoke and smoke and smoke and smoke (I had a smoke every 20 minutes to 1.5 hours depending on the time of the day, or whether I was working). 

By design and chance the desire to quit hit me in 2013. I should say, the desire to give it a sincere try came to me. So I did. 

It wasn't easy, but, eventually I've come around to knowing that the smokes owned me, I didn't own them. I've let go of the addiction or it has let go of me one day at a time. 

Most important to understand is that you can quit smoking and you can get past the cravings, get past the addiction, get past the desire to have those all important cigarettes. You don't have to be heroic, you just have to make a plan, take it one day at a time, get and keep support. 

[Wantingacig57]

I also, ask the Same Question... Where for I get the willpower? My issue is KEEPING the Willpower

As I Willfully gave them up ONCE and was Happy "as a loon" until I decided to smoke just "One"...Hahaha! That laugh is still on me, as I Roll my Cigs with Tobacco and Cigarette Tubes with a machine...I sound like I'm "buttering up" this Relationship !!! UGH! FAR FROM THE TRUTH !!

4? YRS of this with testing showing on 37-42% lungs left !!! Yikes ;(