Good job, this day is almost done. I really want you to succeed. I’ll tell you about my Grandmother, Father, and step Father sometime. Let’s just say I know how hard it is for you to quit.
By the way, are there other smokers in your house?
Thanks Chip! I’d be interested to hear their stories for sure.
No, thankfully I’m the only one dumb enough to have been a smoker. It’s funny though, while sitting in traffic, I’ll suddenly smell smoke. When I look around, I usually see somebody a few cars away from me smoking away.
It amazes me that either I am a tobacco hound dog, or more likely, tobacco is so nasty that the smell permeates everything around it… even a few cars down with the windows rolled up and the A/C going.
But the smell actually does not make me want a smoke for some reason.
Day three and I’m still going strong. My “instant anger” is going away thankfully.
For anyone reading this who smokes and wants to quit-- do it cold turkey! I’ve tried before with the patches and gum and what they really do is keep you in withdrawal mode by giving you small amounts of nicotine. You need to just get it out of your system!
I’m not going to preach, I’m just going to state the facts of my experience.
Quitting cold turkey with no patches or gum or anything has been the easiest time quiting I’ve ever done. I think the reason is because the 23 years of nicotine in my body is dang near gone— after 23 years of smoking, I’ve gone 3-4 days now without a single drag off a smoke or any patch/gum. And I can say for a fact that I’m not craving a smoke.
Sure I crave them after a meal or other things, but I don’t walk around jonesing for them all day.
So after 23 years, in 3 days I’m pretty much free of the nicotine addiction!! If I was on a patch or something, I would still be addicted, and like before, I would start smoking with the patch on! (yes I have done this everytime I tried to quit while using the patch, in the end I break, and start smoking but I leave the patch on)
Cold turkey! It’s the quickest, easiest way I’ve tried.
Congradulations on Day 3. Keep up that determination.
Thanks Chip! I think writing about it has helped a lot. It may sound weird, but I know if I have a smoke or cheat, I would feel pretty dumb having to admit it here, or I would have to lie, and that’s not gonna happen either.
So writing about it has helped to keep me on track;)
Like I said before, I really want you to succeed, so I will try to check in with you every day. This is one decision that you will never look back on and say, “I wish I hadn’t done that.” Hang in there, I’ll check with you tomorrow.
Hey thanks Chip! I really appreciate both the conversation and the fact that your taking time to help me out! But please don’t feel obligated to have to chat everyday, because I know how busy things can be. I can talk to myself on those days…I’m married, so I’m used to talking to myself and nobody listening;)
But seriously, thanks for taking the time to help me stay on my game here. I figure when I make it 1 month, then I’m golden.
BTW, today was probably the hardest day for sudden cravings. I don’t know what caused it but I suspect it was the rain and not having much to do. Just the smell of the rain when it started made me jones for a smoke… but I allways think about the reasons why I quit, and that helps shift the focus back from the craving.
Man, cigarettes are some seriously addictive stuff. Both physically and mentally. I never realized how many triggers there are that make mr want to smoke. When things are stressed-- I want a smoke, if things are great-- I want a smoke, after a meal-- I smoke, if I’m hungry and can’t eat-- have a smoke, when you first wake up-- step outside and have a smoke, when you smell rain-- have a smoke!
That’s the part that pulls people back in! You have to retrain the mind to not associate those things with smoking. And that’s not easy.
Good job man. I watched my mother try so hard to kick it for years. In the end the smokes won. She went at it from about 14 yrs old until she died at 60. She had some other problems too, but smoking really hit her hard. Fortunately, I never picked it up. Keep up the good work on it. I always like hearing about another quitter…
Thanks Pete! And I’m sorry to hear about your Mom, but I’m glad you never started.
I sure wish as a young kid, someone had forced me to smoke a pack or two all at once untill I got sick and puked! I think that would have taken the coolness of smoking right out of my empty head!
Nate I found this, thought you might relate to it.
You have a “friend” you met in your youth. He made you feel more mature and seemed to help you fit in with your peers. When you were stressed, you could always turn to him for some “relief.” Indeed, you have come to depend on him in many situations.
But in time, you discovered his dark side. He demands to be with you all the time, even if this makes you unwelcome in some places. And while he may have made you feel more mature, he did so at the cost of your health. To top it off, he has stolen a part of your wages.
In a way, he has become your master. You regret ever having met him.
SUCH is the relationship that many smokers have with the cigarette.
How you been doing the last couple of days?
Man that was definitely my old buddy for sure! Never realized how creepy he seemed until I just read that;)
Anyways, I’ve been hanging in there this weekend. Doing good, though I didn’t expect the cravings to come back with a vengeance like they have the last couple of days. I can only assume its my body’s way of going through it’s final “withdrawal death throes”… I hope.
It’s Memorial day so the booze is flowing and that kind of makes it harder-- but not impossible.
Hope your having a great weekend Chip!
My Mom quit about five years ago – cold Turkey after 50+ years of smoking. Growing up, I was alwas told that she was too old to change the habit.
How’d she do it? She quit the day her physician tol her she had mild emphysema…
You’ve go three children who need you healthy and around a long time.
Wow, please excuse the bad pun, but Holy smokes! I’m having a hard time with 23 years, but at 50+, you have to have some serious determination and a true iron will. I’m not sure I could quit anything after doing it for 50 years.
So how is her emphysema now?
And yeah, my kids and wife are my main motivators for quitting that habit.
Stable at the mild stage (I believe there are 4 stages.) Thanks for asking.
Emphysema is one of those things that we all have heard about, but really don’t understand too well. I just had to look up the specifics about it and to see if it was something that can be reversed-- as I’m sure you already know, it can’t. It’s a good thing that they detected it early in your mom.
After reading a bit more about it and how it actually destroys the alveoli by weakening the tissue and allowing them to over-expand then lose efficiency, in other words we slowly suffocate over a long period. Im even happier knowing that I have quit for good.
Man, if emphysema is not enough to scare a non-smoker from ever starting up, I don’t know what would. As for scaring a current smoker…they would be scared, but the addiction would probably be too strong unless they had other motivating factors.
Your mom must be pretty dang tough. My hat is off to her.
Nate,
How you doing and what day are you on?
Doing good Chip, going strong and smoke free 8 days now I think it is.
I still get cravings, they are less often, but more intense when they happen. I think this is why you hear things about smokes being harder to quit than heroine or some other heavy narcotic.
While I still doubt the validity of this kind of claim, I realize that the individual experience is subjective. So having never been addicted to narcotics of any kind, I can’t compare the two, but I will say that cigarette addiction is an addiction that just doesn’t seem to forget you.
Long after the pyhsical withdrawal has ended, the mental withdrawal condition continues on and is brought about by seemingly a million different situational triggers found in everyday life. I smell the rain and I want a smoke, it’s a nice sunny afternoon and I want a smoke… and on an on…
Keep it up!
Will do!
I don’t know about heroine or some other heavy narcotics, but I know a number of people who smoked marijuana and tobacco. Dropped the marijuana without any problems, but struggled for a long time to quit tobacco. Everyone I know who quit said they were never successful until they “made up their mind” that they would never smoke again. So you have won half the battle. One man said he had to decide he would never touch a cigarette again. If he didn’t touch it, he couldn’t smoke it. Worked for him. Hang in there. It is worth it.
