How can I quit smoking for good?

This may not be terribly helpful, but I quit on a dime after getting a call from my Oncologist. “Breast calcifation is malignant,” he said. I never picked up another cigarette after that; my terror over the cancer wiped out any iota of craving. What a relief not to smoke and to be 11 years in remission. Second-hand smoke or smell on people’s clothes and breath now make me gag.

Congratulations on making it thry 24+ hours. Try anything when you feel like lighting up. Go for a walk, bike, get outside and admire the foliage, visit a museum, make love, sing, dance, wash windows, play air guitar, make an apple pie. Eat a raisin, slowly. Google lung cancer images..

*thru

I’m not the best example, since I failed many times before finally winning the battle. I know determination is your biggest alli. Doing it with someone is great, you can support each other. The last time I quit I did it cold turkey. I took ten days of work to ensure less stress.
I went for long walks every morning, then came home and cooked nutricious meals. I ate often, small meals, and drank a little wine to ease the body stress. On the tenth day I went back to work and around 10:30am I felt some phlegm coming up and spit out a wad the size of a quarter! Gross! I’ll never forget that. How could I give in after all that with the blessed ending?! Exercise is the best remedy. Deep breathing, like you’re smoking but not taking in any harmful substance, just fresh clean air. If you slip? Doesn’t mean you have to smoke the whole pack, throw them out and start over. I’m like Gail now, can’t sit next to a smoker on the bus without gagging. I can smell the residue in a room. You will always have a sensitivity to it, just change the direction it plays.

I packed my schedule with non-smoking activities and avoided smoking situations. Example- Went out to museums, movies, visited with non-smoking friends more. Coffee was a trigger to smoke so I had tea for the first 2 weeks.

Each wave of wanting one would hit me and if I could just breath clean air deeply and slowly for 90 seconds it would start to wane. The urges arrived less frequently and less strongly as time went on after having been a 20–30 cigarettes per day person.
The first two weeks were hard, the 16 years since then have been easy and the reward well worth it.

Yes, what a relief to have that monkey off my back! I feel better, breathe easier, my skintone looks fresher and I don’t have nicotine breath anymore. I gained a few pounds initially but find that way easier to keep under control than an addiction. I forgot to mention to replace smoking I started painting, and snacking on corn chips.

I found that surgery, chemo and radiation kept me sufficiently distracted, but would not recomment it as first-choice. I now pass for about 10 ys younger than my age – I walk every day and notice how beautiful the world is. Being a few lbs above the norm and alive is better than the alternative.

I have watched loved ones (all smokers) die of emphysema and lung cancer…pretty horrible.

Use us as a daily diary. We will send words of encouragement…like having many sponsers at AA, I guess.

I used acupuncture a couple of times. It can ease the body stress of withdrawal symptoms.

googling lung cancer images was mentioned above, and as others said, my first thought was in that category of getting yourself to feel grossed out by smoking.

i have not smoked and quit, but i have heard, and can easily imagine, that having something around (that you see all the time) that reminds you of your reason is really helpful. for example, an image of a smoker’s lung on your computer desktop, a personal story on your door, a statistic on the fridge, a photo of someone negatively impacted by smoking, whatever really gets to you. each person is emotionally impacted by different types of things—maybe think of the main guiding reason or inspiration(s) behind your decision to quit, and have that thing right in front of your face. it could be positive, not negative – a clear sky poster above your bed, or a health-oriented something in the place you would smoke. maybe a super anti-smoking friend that calls you every day. at least for the first few days, weeks, or months.

best wishes!! congratulations.

My close friend’s father was a smoker. Until he quit cold turkey in his 30s.

What was helpful my friend mention is replace a new habit with an old habit.

My friend’s dad was gum. They kept gum filled in a kitchen’s drawer, compartment in the car, and work lots of gum in hand. Or cut in quarters from Wrigleys gum. When you have a craving, do a new habit.

Congrats!

I never found scary images to keep me from wanting a cigarette. Nicotine is a powerful drug once you’re addicted. My own father died from lung cancer and I continued to smoke for 19 years after, though I only smoked 3–5 per day and constantly tried and failed to quit. You must be ready to give it up or you won’t do it. You have to be sick to death of the habit and what it’s taking from you. Scare tactics don’t work in the good ole US of A. We’re used to taking risk.

well its been 4 days now and still going. I really do want to quit but it has been do hard. I get these attacks where I want to smoke so bad I can’t breath but then it subsides. My wife and I have been cooking together a lately and cleaning up the house. You all have had very good suggestions and I’ve read them all to my wife and she said it helps. So thank you.

Just remember when you’re in the thick of a nicotine fit that it’s TEMPORARY. Do what you have to do to get through it. Don’t fight it, breathe… Drink some fruit juice, do 20 jumping jacks.

Good for You! Keep going! Each wave of wanting one is definitely hard but every time you say No to that little tobacco monster, the next wave is a little less strong and passes a little faster. Really it does.

Start looking for the signs that will be an ongoing journey as you recover from smoking -

Your throat will heal which wil feel like a bad sore throat for a week or so but that wll pass and then you’ll have this odd healthy feeling in your throat and lungs that you haven’t had in years.

You’ll be able to smell smoke on other smokers when you’re near them and you’ll notice that it really is unpleasant. As you turn your head to catch a breath without the stench, you’ll swear to yourself that you never ever want to smell that bad to others ever again.

You’ll be able to casully converse with people and relax while giving the conversation your full attention – you won’t have 60% of your brain devoted to counting down to your next cigarrette and planning your polite exit to go grab a smoke outside. Your brain is all yours again as a quitter and this adds a lot to your happiness.

You’ll notice you can walk further.

You won’t get every virus and cold and flu that’s going around.

Food will have flavors you haven’t tasted since you were a kid.

If you were a heavy smoker, no smokers hangovers in the morning.

As a non-smoker, your breath is actually acceptable and stays minty. People you kiss actually do want to kiss you.

And dozens of other benefits… keep adding them!

“I don’t know why people say quitting smoking is so hard,” said Mark Twain, “I’ve done it about a thousand times.”

That was my motto during the four or five years that I wanted to be, but wasn’t serious about quitting smoking. When I finally decided to quit, it took me another year or so to finally consider myself a non-smoker. I found that my cravings weren’t unbearable, so I gave into them. Then I’d feel disgusted at myself for wasting six bucks on a pack of cigarettes. I’d smoke three or four and feel guilty about throwing away the pack so I’d just keep smoking until the pack was gone. Of course, by then, I’d feel guilty about not quitting, so I’d turn to smoking because I was depressed—you get the idea.

When I cut myself some slack, it became much easier. I called myself a non-smoker, so it made it easier to act that way. I stopped kicking myself for giving into cravings. When I’d buy another pack and smoke three or four and then decide I didn’t want any more, I’d throw the rest of the pack away. Realizing I was spending two or three dollars per cigarette was another helpful quitting device.

An old friend of mine who started a very successful physical fitness company once told me, “Either you choose your addictions, or they choose you.” It made a lot of sense to me. I started replacing smoking with exercise. As I smoked less and ran more, I started seeing the effects on my body and on my performance. Soon I found that I was as addicted to running as I’d ever been to smoking.

The key is perseverance. It took me a long time to understand that word (in many aspects of my life, not just smoking). Perseverance doesn’t start when you decide on a course of action. Nor does it start when you are successful at following said course of action. Perseverance starts when you fail. What you do after failure is the true measure of your dedication. Are you going to be a smoker again, or a non-smoker who slipped-up?

Quit today, quit tomorrow—quit every day for the rest of your life if that’s what it takes. Just quit.

I have a friend who put the ciggie money in a jar every time he was tempted to buy a pack. At the end of a year, he had big bucks and did something nice w. his wife and two kids.

I know that isn’t helpful w/o some strong motivation.

What about the patch or gum, about which I know nothing?

patches and gum are doses of nicotine – pure poison. The nicotine is out of your system in the first couple days, the patch/gum route just prolongs the difficult and costs a lot.

The hard part of quitting, for me, wasn’t nicotine based it was the habit. Having the 5 minute breaks to punctuate the day. Nicotine was over with by day 3 for me.

How long has it been? Use us to help. Can you jog around your desk, gossip w. an officemate, call your wife, chew on a pencil, do some stretches, etc. in order to have a break without the smoke?

Do you have kids? They are a huge incentive.

how’s it going?

I just visited my mom in the Hospital last night she’s back in for a few days Congestive heart failure fluid on the lungs, she also has COPD basically a part of her lungs don’t work so it’s harder to breathe. Both these are from smoking she’s been rushed to the hospital 3 times this year due to these problems It’s a toss up between heart failure and lung failure as to which may take her first.

She takes a lot of medications to help one if she didn’t have coverage would cost her $300 a month helps her breathe.

I hope you will consider the possible torture you may bring to your loved ones, who have to fret over whether this may be the time, should you find yourselves in this condition. My step father died 3 years ago Christmas Eve due to smoking related heart failure.

Personally I hope your successful Merry Christmas.

I don’t smoke but I researched this product for investment potential. I got it from a Walgreens store let a couple of my friends try it and both of them stopped smoking. It’s a natural product works by both reducing the craving and has a natural stress reliever. It was originally designed for smokers who were inside and couldn’t get out for a smoke break. However many people started using it as away to stop smoking.

http://www.nicodrops.com/