Ok, so whichever peeps wanna take this seriously;

GIVE UP SMOKING 2006


To be serious, I do smoke, I am not proud, I HATE to admit I smoke, I think I am a non smoker, a casual smoker, so it does not count: course it counts! I smoke! Its disgusting!!! But at college I was so anti smoking.. you wouldnt believe the excuse I made when I started!!!Ok, I admit, I am a bit of a snob and do not directly admit to this weakness, but this is where it stops, and whoever feels the same as me and wants to tag along, feel free.

I am not professional, I welcome all advice.

Feel free to join and/or participate, smoker or non-smoker - tell your story, or post your advice, or encouragement. Lets do it together!


Many Thanks in advance.

(if I can admit to smoking online( yes, I would never tell anyone, cos I was so ashamed, and now I have *come out* I want others to talk to and help and they help me, on this thread, by orgnote, in chat, helping each other etc etc. my family look down on it, so I get no sympathy or encouragement in quitting, so if others on the org are similar, I would like to participate in their help, and their - mine also )


PLEASE MAKE THIS A STICKY!
[Edited 1/4/06 18:04pm]

I gave up several months ago, but I had a few cigarettes just a week or so ago over at my friend's house when we were drinking beer. I'll go weeks without one and then just get such a craving when drinking beer. I'd call myself a non-smoker but I still haven't given them up completely, even if it's just maybe 5 or 6 a month.

The important thing is, I never let myself fall back into it full time. I have to keep telling myself that while I haven't stopped yet completely, I have made a hell of a lot of progress and I'm almost there. Just never give in.

Fauxie said:

Oh, my best friend, only buys packs of 10 *cos she really doesnt smoke*

BULLSHIT!!!!

and she would never possess a lighter *cos she didnt smoke*

so I bought her one on holiday and she was horrified!!!

spelling edit
[Edited 1/4/06 17:37pm]

Fauxie said:

so 16 peeps are NON smokers who clicked on my thread, or 16 peeps who clicked on my thread, who smoke and think its bullshit.

S'ok....

Stickyfied

do those patches really work? I keep seeing them on TV.

i re-quit about 2 weeks ago. this time, i'm committed like never before.

Keep quittin no matter how many times it takes is what I've heard from my friends who have done it. One, a friend in British Columbia, dumped them in the trash about 10 years ago and never touched one since ~ Oh, the will power! All the strength to you Red, and madartista ~ I'm cheering you on!!!! (moonsongs aka bratchildsfriend).

screw that. smoke 'em if ya got 'em.

I wish you all the best in quitting Redbaby Cos I really don't like it... now, kick MM's ass into gear on it too, he's a slacker


Btw, I use my cow calendar every day, putting appts and such on there. It's awesome! I love you.

Fauxie said:

same for me. i've quit for about a year without smoking any at all. but it
became a drag when going out to a party a club or a simple dinner to not b
able to smoke whilst drinking. so now i only smoke when going out to some
form of social event. and only during the weekend, never during the week.

it works pretty well since you feel like you've been buggered by a giraffe
after smoking and drinking on a saturday nite. so that makes it easy to do
without smokes for one or two or even three weeks until you go out again n
have some cigs with your beer.

I had a few drinks last night and I admit I had a few roll ups. I feel rotten about it because I said I'd quit and I've let myself down somewhat. I'll just have to start over again.

I gave up smoking 5 years ago with acupuncture. It was really effective. I didn't even want to give up when I went for the appointment - I just wanted something to help me get through a non-smoking weekend visiting my parents. (I smoked in the region of 25-30/day so I was a very heavy smoker).

5 years later and I'm still not smoking.

Good luck everybody!

IstenSzek said:

My friend has been doing this for about six months, only smoking maybe 6 or 7 cigarettes when he has a beer about once every 3 weeks or so. I've started doing the same, but I still feel it's a cop-out compared to quitting completely. It's just that once you have smoked, the idea of never smoking a cigarette even once again in your life is hard to deal with. When you know you'll have a smoke or two when you have a beer makes it easy not to smoke for a long time. Ultimately, I just feel like if I can do this for a while it'll be easier to quit completely compared to if I had just gone cold turkey. For example, if my next year's resolution is to quit smoking completely, that'll be easier from smoking a handful a month compared to trying to do it on the back of 20 a day, which is what I used to smoke.

I quit a few years ago when I was dating a guy who really hated smoking. It was the only good thing I got from that relationship. Anyway, I never smoked more than 10 to 12 a day so all I did was to get rid of everything and ride it out.It took about three tries to completely quit.Sometimes I still get the urge when I'm around smokers but it passes pretty quickly.
Another trick is to save the money you would have spent on cigarettes and do something nice for yourself with it.It adds up very quickly.
Good luck everybody,don't give up!

I give alot of credit to those who will even try.
It is very hard...I have smoked for 20 years..used to smoke
1 to 1 1/2 packs a day...I am down now to maybe 5 cigs a day
and some days I wont even smoke at all...
But DAMN...give me a beer or put me with someone
smoking and I fall everytime....Im weak!!

Fauxie said:

those are my thoughts exactly. and it does work that way. i just keep
cutting it back further and further.

i used to be like "ok, so it's saturday, and i'm going out, so i will
start smoking soon as i leave home and stop once i get back home".

it's turned into not smoking until i get there and then not smoking
once i left. so no more ciggies in the car either.

and now i find that i've often had a beer and didn't even remember i
have cigarettes on me.

it helps that none of my friends smoke though, i guess.

but yeah, i can really see how this is going to work far better once
i decide to never ever smoke again.

I am still gearing myself up to quit at the end of January. It's not long now.

I quit for about 3 years, but lately have been on the slippery slope of bumming from friends.

Need to stop that, like, now.

When I did quit, I went cold turkey, lots of exercise, deep breathing, and for some reason, orange juice.
[Edited 1/5/06 5:44am]

Will all I can say is that smoking is a B*TCH!!!
It's a horrible addiction. I had a 2pk/day habit
for 8 years and stopped for 5 years. I was a non smoking B*tch!
Well I started going out and picked it up and smoked
a pack every 2 or 3 days for 7 years. Today marks 1 year
3 days since my baby girl and I stopped. I won't ever pick
it up again. I'm shocked that I did because I'm so strong.
I like to think of myself as some what smart, but that was really STUPID!

We did it cold turkey! I think you have to stop when you really know your ready.
Don't stop because of pressure, you'll set yourself up for failure.

Much Love,
LoLinex

MendesCity said:

stop that NOW!! it is a very slippery slope. I wanted to comment that my mom smoked forever and she quit using hypnosis and oranges! she said she read somewhere that the citrus somehow curbed the cravings and she swears by it. She's been a non-smoker for about 6 or 7 years now.

My dad quit after smoking for ever too and he did it with a form of acupuncture where they also send a lil electrical charge in your ear (I think the do the same now with lasers) he hasn't smoked in 5+ years

I smoked from about 12 years old till 30 years old! I quit almost 3 years ago cold turkey (a health scare with my husband got us going)
It is extremely hard...but it can be done.

I would also like to say that fauxie and istenszek are not giving good advice! it's very rare imho that people can lightly smoke...sure it starts out that way but...it inevitably leads to more smoking. I feel that to successfully quit you need to be committed to "never smoking again" you have to be OK with that idea....cause in my experience....it's a losing battle otherwise.

Good luck everyone who's quitting! It is the single best thing you can do for yourself! and YOU CAN DO IT!

Shorty said:

Agreed. I quit in December 2004 quite spontaneously, inspired by a thread Isten started. I did well not touching any for about the first 4 months of last year. Then I would smoke occasionally at parties. By July, I was a regular smoker again. For me, it's gotta be none at all.

Congratulations to everyone thats quitting smoking. It's nice to see everyone doing this together.

One thing that helps is to clean out your home/apartment/car of all lighters, ciggarettes, and ashtrays. Do a spring cleaning of your place to get all those smells out, wash all your clothes, etc.... It's hard to commit to quitting when you've got a half empty pack sitting in a drawer or in your coat pocket, or theres ashtrays sitting on your coffee table, and the scent still lingering in the air...

With regards to avoiding cigarettes at bars, it's tough, but the flip side is you stand a better chance of hooking up with non-smokers, LOL. There may be someone out there who's interested in you but put off by the smoking.

Almost every smoker I know (including me) was anti-smoking at one point, and only smoked one cigarette at a party for a laugh. Then they did it at the next party, and ten years later they have a real problem.

I quit again a year ago--It's the first time in ten years I'm not smoking anything, weed or tobacco.

Cigarettes are a function of our nervousness. They're something to cling to. It's hard to just exist without doing something. Why are we so nervous? What is it about consciousness that makes it so hard to be sober or to just be ourselves? To me that's the real issue.

What's the best thing about NOT quiting smoking?


You Get To Smoke.


I'm going for a smoke right now...

I'll be putting down my Camel Lights soon. I got stressed out (REAL life or death kinda stress, some of you know) and started last summer but it's time to quit... again! In my 20s, I smoked on and off for about 5-6 years- quitting for long and short peroids. You just have to be ready. The last time I quit I just got sick of it and stopped cold turkey with no side effects. I've got a box of Commit lozenges (they are soooo damn nasty!) After Drew's surgery, he forgot that we stopped smoking pot and we're also going to work on that.



Fuck now I've gotta light one!

MYSELF AND MY TWIN QUIT 5 DAYS AGO AFTER HAVING SMOKED FOR 19 YEARS(15 TO 20 A DAY,)THE PATCHES DO HELP,BUT I AM STILL CRAVING LIKE A BITCH!DETERMINED TO DO IT THOUGH,PUTTING THE CIG-MONEY IN A JAR.GONNA TAKE A HOLIDAY AT THE END OF THE YEAR WITH IT.I WOULD BE HAPPY EVEN IF I COULD JUST HAVE THE ODD ONE WHEN OUT PARTYING,BUT CAN'T THINK OF A SINGLE DAY IN THE PAST 10 YEARS WHEN I DID NOT SMOKE....THAT IS PRETTY BAD.

When I got married, we made a promise to each other that we would not have any alcohol or tobacco in the house as we planned to have a family.

4 years and two children later, that still holds firm.

But ... There is always a pack of camel light wides in my desk drawer at work. I work 10 to 20 hours a day. My wife is a stay home mom, so I'm the only income and smoking is still like my "coffee" break. Late nights at the studio add a few beers too. Still ... Never at home or on the weekends. That's family time. During that time, I drink a lot of water. It really seems to help that "jones".

For me, it's the fake energy. Caffeine and nicotine. I use it to do what I do for as long as I do while I work. Also for me, they go hand in hand. I don't smoke unless I have coffee, soda or a beer. Never one without the other.

Not saying it's a good thing. I could probably spend that money on B-12 vitamins or something a little more healthy.

Note: I've read that heavy intake of nicotine and/or caffeine makes "genital juices" not taste so good and/or gives a strong odor, so THERE is an incentive to quitting!

Maybe my wife would give me more "special favors" if I laid it down completely!