Tealvertigo

Since I quit using stimulants almost a year ago, I have smoked from time to time (cigarettes), and in the last few days I've smoked more than usual due to depression. When trying to quit, I don't encounter the physical problems as much as the emotional ones. I get gradually worse urges to smoke and I get irritable and obsessed with smoking.

I am reluctant to use patches or anything because I don't feel my problem is in the chemistry as much as it is the habit of smoking. I also can't really spend a ton of money on patches or e-cigarettes.

I really want to quit because I feel like the odor of smoke is bugging my roomate, and I want to lead a healthy life. However, this wish becomes lesser when I am wanting to smoke. I am going to a counselor but I don't always have access to his counseling. It seems to only option is to gain control, though I don't know how to do that when I want to smoke real bad.

Any opinions on what I can do?

kiki5711

do you smoke in the house? if you do, try making it a rule to go outside to smoke. I have never smoked inside the house. I don't want the smoke smell and I don't want it to be in the face of my husband and son.

I'm trying to quit also, but being that I've recently gone through rehab (in April) I"m giving myself a little time. I"m still going through huge anxiety attacks and everything bothers me as it is. I know it could be that I'm giving myself thousands of excuses to go and have one outside, but I am trying. I try not to bring any to work. That means no cigarette until I get home. By the time I have one late in the day, it doesn't even taste that good. Which is good. However, cutting it out totally out of my life right this moment, I'd probably end up pulling my hair out.

Dee74

I'd do everything I could to quit before it really takes hold heal.

If simple willpower isn't enough to break the psychological hold I encourage you to look at Smoking | Welcome to Quit.org and/or speak to your doctor.

We also have a smoking forum here - maybe worth checking out if you haven't already
D

SlvrMag

I have a few suggestions for you: Change your routine, if you find that you smoke with your morning coffee, try reading the paper instead (keeps your mind off smoking and keeps your hands occupied)

Don't smoke inside the house.

If you tend to need one after a meal, do dishes or go for a walk instead.

Changing your habits is actually pretty easy. It only takes about 2-3 weeks of doing something daily to make it become a habit.

I am on day 8 of not smoking, and someone here at SR had a great idea and it is working wonders for me; wear a rubber band on your wrist and every time you think of smoking, snap it! Sounds silly, but it really works!

BurningChrome

Hello Teal, I smoked for 20 years and tried many times to quit and could not. I have always been an avid exerciser all my life (thinking in the back of my mind that that would prevent the damage I knew I was doing from smoking and drinking). One of the things mentioned above about changing the routine, that helps you ID patterns. I started keeping my cigs in a kitchen cabinet drawer so if I wanted one, I had to get up and walk into the kitchen. That way when say, the phone rang, I found myself reaching for my missing smokes on the coffee table before picking up the phone; i.e. I Never realized that I never talked on the phone without a cigerette in hand. In the end, I just reached a point to where I decided that every cigerette I smoked was causing me far more physical harm than the enjoyment I was getting from it. I realized it was a _Habit_ and not something I did for enjoyment any longer. Also, I realized I had become a slave to those stupid little tubes of tobacco, they ran my life not me, they told me when I had to go outside, they told me when I had to go to the store, etc., and I realized I did not want to be a slave to such a thing. So, I cut back gradually for a week or two, then purposefully planned the date, April 1, 2000, April FOOLS day, smoked my last cigerette and never had another. Once it was fixed in my mind, it was So easy! At this point, I realized that all my previous attempts to quit were nonsense, I really was not seriouus about quitting. I still had cravings for awhile but it was fixed in my mind that smoking just was no longer an option and once that thought was so embedded in my mind, I could just never bring myself to the point of lighting another... Within a few weeks, you, your clothes, your house, everything smells better! When you meet a new co-worker, you can instantly tell they are a smoker as you can smell them and then you realized, ugh, _I_ used to always smell like that?!!! Give it a try Teal, just fix it in your mind how bad they are for you. One last thing, a Great many smokers end up with emphysema, this is where your lungs lose most of their flexibility and cannot expand. Once this happens, you can NEVER get your lungs back! To get an idea of what life would be like, get a drinking straw, find an empty stairwell somewhere, put the straw in your mouth, pinch your nose so you are _Only_ breathing thru the straw in your mouth, then climb 1-2 flights of stairs (NO cheating!). _That_ is what life with emphysema will be like for you for the Rest of your life! I hope I gave you some small motivation.
....Mike

ItsMe23

i have had 1/3 of a cigarette in the past 24 hours, the hardest part is what to do with that void. Like smoking and driving, smoking after a meal etc. It just feels weird. but i have quit before and i am going to again

edit: my first time quitting in which i quit for 3 years. I picked the habit up stupidly again, but this is how i did it. Was smoking 20-30 a day. I immediately dropped it and i had a plan that went like this.

day 1 - 10 cigs
day 2 - 8 cigs
day 3 - 4 cigs
day 4 - 2 cigs

and that was it, day 5 i was free

Lenina

I've also recently quit smoking. I recommend reading Allen Carr's "The Easy Way to Quit Smoking" as a good way to get to the point of really wanting to quit. It helped me. I also took Chantix as my doctor prescribed. He gave me a full physical first and made sure I understood the possible side effects. It's bit of a harsh drug, I did have some uncomfortable effects. It's not really a magic bullet but I think it helped.

I still have the compulsion from time to time. It passes! It really does! As Slvr Mag recommends, change your routine when and where you can. The rubber band thing DOES help, strange as it seems.

Every day I decide I not going to smoke. Just today, just the next 24 hours.

We can do this together! Do keep us posted on your progress!

Love,

Lenina

LaFemme

I second Peninsula on Allen Cards book...I read his book on drinking and it made a profound impact. I quit smoking (pack a day) 92 days ago, when I quit drinking...despite how much I smoked it was so entertwined in the drinking I never really thought about the quitting of the smokes. Good luck!

eJoshua

I don't know what your story is, but I can tell you how it was for me.

I was a pack a day smoker for 7+ years and finally quit this last July. For me, I had tried to quit a number of times before and finally did it when I just convinced myself that the cravings were just psychological. I did some research on the net and found somewhere that something like 95% of cravings were psychological and that the cravings from quitting smoking were about as bad as hunger pangs. After I was able to get over this psychological roadblock it became a lot easier to quit -- just convince myself that whatever I was feeling was just in my head and it would probably pass really helped.

What others have mentioned about finding something else to pass the time helps a lot too. Whenever I get a craving to smoke (usually at work) I just take a quick break and walk around outside. Fortunately my office building has a nice courtyard area with trees and a walking path. What I do is whenever I felt that urge I just went outside and enjoyed the beautiful day in the time that I would have normally spent smoking. This helped a lot as well.

The good news is, quitting smoking is not as hard as you may have built it up in your head. You just have to suffer through about a week of constant cravings and then it gets a lot easier. Like I said, this was my experience. If you have smoked for a lot longer I think it gets harder since the act of smoking gets built into your daily routine more and more. Nevertheless, the physical symptoms are the same and you just have to break through that psychological barrier.

Good luck to you, you can make it!
-E

PS - be careful with Chantix, as I took it for a while before I finally quit for good. It worked really well at first but after a few weeks I started getting really suicidal and messed up. Sounds like it works well for some people but if you already have a problem with depression it may just make it worse. Check with your doctor.

Tealvertigo

Thanks all. I think I'll try the mindset that works well with me on stopping all bad habits- that it's something I need to do whether I like it or not. I'll read that book, I think, too.

Onewithwings

I like this subject. I just quit smoking, too, on my clean date (because I was brought strait from the hospital I was at for my overdose to a psych unit where I stayed for 11 days, and there was no smoking there.)

I used a patch once when I first got there, but it made my arm itch, so I took in off. Haven't needed a cigarette in 17 days, and I really don't crave them any more. There are still places that trigger me, such as the back porch, where I used to smoke.

Doing good overall, and feeling much better physically after quitting (again!)

getr345

Nicotine Addiction 101

Quitting smoking (breaking my addiction to nicotine) was one of the hardest things I ever did but the most important thing for me to be successful was getting honest with myself and truly understanding what I was up against.