I seriously want to quit smoking but am struggling - I do Ok for about 8 hours and then i cave in - I cannot throw out the cigarettes - I don't know why. I am starting a quit smoking course on 1-29-18 at one of the local hospitals and am looking forward to that. Any tips on what helps ?
You are not a failure. You have hope, and that is the beginning....
Welcome to the Ex. That's perfect. You have time to prepare and educate yourself. I also attended a smoking cessation class, but spending time on this site has made all the difference. It will help you to do that in advance of your quit. No one is a failure. You're addicted to nicotine and it's hard to quit. But you can it!
Education is the key to a successful quit. Having a support system is vital. Learning what your triggers are and how to work around them. Making your quit a priority and being committed to really focus on never ever taking another puff no matter how you feel or what is happening in your life. Start with My EX Plan | BecomeAnEX study, read and watch the videos. Learn what your triggers are and track when and why you smoke. To learn to navigate on the site Community Help . Find a mentor and read some of there blogs. Know that quitting smoking is doable. Believe that you can and you will. You are not a failure until you just give up.
Learn about nicotine addiction and the law of addiction.
Read: Freedom from Nicotine My Journey Home and Nicotine Addiction 101 Here are the links http://whyquit.com/whyquit/LinksAAddiction.html and http://whyquit.com/ffn/
Also Read Allen Carr’s book, “Easy Easier Way to Quit Smoking”. Which can be purchased of found pdf format on the internet. You can start here My EX Plan | BecomeAnEX Help Community to learn how to navigate around the site.
Ask yourself "What am I afraid of?" Follow the clues to the emotional resistance and break down your core beliefs about smoking and Recovery.
Face
Everything
And
Recover!
You can do this quit believe it deep gudwitch44 read the links suggested above me and keep reading everything you can about quitting smoking and remaining quit because there's a wealth of information right here on this site to strengthen your resolve to quit and stay quit and we're all here to help you in any way we can you can and will be successful one precious Smokefree Day at a time or hour minute or even a second at a time do the reading pick your quit date and when your Day ONE arrives keep busy and at the end of the day you'll be able to say YAY for Day WON with many more to come .....
I think it's great that you're starting a smoking course! I know you will learn a lot, have extra support people as well as here on Ex, and have more time to plan and visualize for life as a non-smoker. Quitting smoking is not an easy thing to do for anyone and everyone here has been through what you are feeling in varying degrees. We are all recovering addicts from the powerful drug called nicotine. Realization, acceptance and education about that is your best offense to kick the drug out of your life and believe me, it's absolutely worth the work! All of us are rooting for your success and we will be here to help at all times. I look forward to helping you in your quit journey.
Ah Bless your heart, you are not a failure...you want to quit, you are trying to quit and you have a plan to quit. Might I suggest you read Mayo quit smoking site. It has a lot of helpful information. Please don’t beat yourself up ... it is a tough journey, but definitely one that is doable. ((((Cyber hugs)))) Colleen aka sweetp
Welcome to our community!
Quitting smoking takes education, preparation, planning and commitment. If you keep cigarettes around, you are giving yourself permission to smoke. We can help with all but the last. PLEASE do the work to get ready...including the reading I will recommend.
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 also 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. Here's a link to a video here on the site which describes nicotine addiction: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IpWMgPHn0Lo&feature=youtu.be.
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. You should also do the tracking and separation exercises recommended here on the site.
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:
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
WELCOME-please take what HELPS and let go of the rest-to be HELPFUL-is MY only aim-thank you-please
awe - your not a failure-you are addicted to nicotine and do what USING addict do-USE-you are not alone-i used off and on-for 38 YEARS-i was USING 50 death sticks a day-i tried to quiet on MY OWN-i would get down to 2-3 cigs a day and go right back to 50-then i got on MY knees and prayed-dear Jesus-if you dont take these cigs from me i will smoke them until i drop dead in Jesus name amen-i am a born again since nov. 6-1986-i tried quitting since 1988-all gum-patches-open nicotine mtgs-i failed-i am NOT a failure-neither are you-on jan 6-2011-i woke with a COLD TURKEY QUIT-and i been coming here for support-i NEED everyones HELP-thank you for HELPING ME to remember but for the grace of God there go i-WE are recovering nicotine addicts-TOGETHER-just keeg blogging and give US time to HELP-thank you.
Education, support, and commitment are the keys to a successful quit. You will HAVE to throw out the cigarettes and the lighters and ashtrays and anything that reminds you of smoking, it really is not as hard as you think. You are afraid and you are giving in to the addiction, you are not a failure, you are an addict. We are ALL addicts. Read everything you can find about nicotine addiction, come here and read blogs...follow the links that JACKIE1-25-15 and Youngatheart.7.4.12 have given you. Remember to never quit quitting, we all had to start at the beginning, some of us had to start over and over again. Some people quit on their first try (I was not one of them). With the support you will get from this site and with the education that is available to you...the commitment has to come from you. We cannot quit for you but we sure can support you on your journey.
Ellen
You're a failure? Would you ever say that to your mother? Your best friend? Your boss? Then please learn to talk better about yourself You are learning...what works, what doesn't, and what addiction is all about. It's a process and we go through it at our own pace. You'll get there! Keep asking questions, keep looking for solutions, and keep trying!!
Gudwitch44, I know how you feel. As Hemingway said quitting smoking is easy... I've done it a thousand times. It's the staying quit part that's hard. What has been working for me on this quit is really making an effort to try to fully experience the quit. In the beginning I went into it with the knowledge that it was going to be painful and frustrating. So, I decided to observe myself. When I I felt stressed or even felt withdrawal pains, such as headaches and that horrible foggy headedness, I tried to become an observer of what I was feeling and tried to understand it. What was triggering the desire to smoke? What was the pain like? Then i started to welcome the pain knowing that it was something I needed to go through in order to come out the other side of this. I also made a strategy for my biggest triggers. Drinking with friends was out for a while since that was a clear trigger that would make me want to smoke. The other was an argument with the wife. We don't argue much but sometimes when we do, it is usually because of a difference in core values and at those times I can get really frustrated because there seems to be no resolution. I can get really red and angered and typically storm off and run to have a smoke. So my strategy and plan was that if this situation arose, I would first go to the gym and run for one hour no matter what. And if I still wanted a cigarette after, well I'd let myself. So when this trigger first hit on day 30, I was in my car driving to the store to buy smokes and furious and totally in a emotional fog. Then as I got closer to the store I remembered my plan. So, after some hesitation I decided to drive to the gym at least. Still angry, I parked between the gym and a walgreens. I sat there wanting so bad just to go into walgreens and just buy a pack. I finally talked myself into going in to the gym. By the way, I had a set of exercise clothes in the car just for this situation. It was the morning and I decided just to go into work late and follow through with my plan. So I got on the treadmill. Mind you, I was still furious and in that emotional bubble. But, I started to run, not too fast, but just running. At about 20 minutes, my logical mind began to return and the red of my emotional bubble began to fade. I started to analyze why my wife would say the things she said. I started to look for alternative explanations. I pushed myself to do the full hour I had planned. And I finally did it. After the run, I had no more desire to smoke. I decided to do a little weight lifting in order to get some positive energy flowing - to get a pump going. 20 minutes later I was going great. I went back out to my car and texted my wife and told her I was proud of myself for not smoking and that I wanted to have lunch with her later. We agreed that the argument was not a big deal and that we both had over reacted. That night, i was so happy to have my quit still. And I knew my plan had worked. Well, again on day 72, I had another argument with my wife and this time I knew what I needed to do cus I really wanted to smoke again. And the exact same thing resulted. After the one hour of running and 20 or so minutes of weight lifting I felt great and was totally back in a logical state of mind, no longer in an angry emotional bubble. I'm now on day 111 of this quit and I know what my major triggers are and how to handle them now. I also had identified many of my less powerful triggers. In the beginning they are everywhere and are mostly related to simple associations. For me, a big one was that after every hour of work I felt a need to reward myself with a smoke break. Now I take a walk with a colleague at work once or twice a day. I no longer need to take a break every hour though. The result of taking a self analysis approach to this quit has been greater self awareness. This also helped me to think of myself as kind of my own patient or student or whatever. Someone I was responsible for helping. So, I recommend you think about what your biggest triggers will be and have really specific plans for how you will handle those. The key I think is to put something between your triggers and your response. It could be singing a song, running, taking to your friend in the phone, or dancing alone to music. Do something physical that will get the energy out and get you back to your logical brain.
Excellent lasttimeagain thank you for sharing. Colleen aka sweetp
Eight hours in and smoking suggests to me that you are not prepared for cravings. High five for joining a group at your local hospital. Instead of beating yourself up, please use this time to learn about nicotine addiction. Ex is here 24/7. One day at a time you can prepare and succeed in your quit.
yes they allow themselves to go into physical withdrawal and then they smoke
I'd call that "self torture"
No more torture.
Read Allen Carrs book 'The Easyway to quit smoking'. Its a fast read and incredible. It was the key to my quit, perhaps it will help you 2.
Come here often and read blogs. Getting a firm understanding of the addiction to nicotine is the answer I give to everyone. Without it, I would have been doomed.
Good luck. I think a support group at hospital can also help but please try Carrs book.
Welcome to EX!
PS- YOUR ONLY A FAILURE IF YOU QUIT TRYING SO DONT GIVE UP ON YOU AND WE WON'T EITHER