Quitting smoking

[Mykl]

I had a difficult time quitting. For me the issue was overcoming the mind games. I didn't find the physical feelings of withdrawal to be as much of an issue.

At the time I partially wanted to quit because I was into endurance riding, and I always thought it was really annoying to have to park my motorcycle once an hour to smoke. So I took a three day weekend and every minute that wasn't used for eating, bio breaks, sleeping, or refueling was spent on the motorcycle.

I found it a lot easier to handle the pschological urge to smoke when there was no convenient option to pull over, or even to find a pack of cigarettes in the first place.

 

[nitehawk55]

^^ yes , having something like a project that really involves you will help . DO NOT run to food to sub for it , that isn't the way you want it to work . If you must snack make a point of getting some healthy veggie munchies and dring lots of water to flush your system .

 

[GreeCguy]

I quit about two years ago. When from three packs a day to nothing. The first day was the worst. I chewed enough toothpicks to build a small house. But I was committed and really wanted to stop the habit for a number of reasons. Each day got a little better and after about a month, I could be around smokers, have beer, and not even want a smoke. I felt better, food tasted better, I slept better - life was good and I was proud of myself. Then, for no reason at all, I started smoking again and am now up to three packs a day again. My point is this - do not pick them back up. Once you've made it a few days, you're over the worst of it. Hang in there and beat the habit. To be honest, reading your post encourages me to put them down again and this time, be done with these cottin' pickin' things!

 

[Jimmy9190]

I smoked a pack or more a day for 22 years. On Dec. 4th I will have been quit for 10 years. I quit back when my first wife was still alive, but very sick with stage 4 colon cancer. I saw a lot of very sick patients at the hospital and I saw what my wife went through with her treatments. I made up my mind then that I would not be a burden to my daughter and she would not have to see me die like that. That was and still is my main motivation for quitting. I don't miss it at all, I feel a whole lot better and will never ever smoke again.

I went cold turkey. I picked my date to quit, tried to smoke less each day leading up to my quit date and at 11:45 pm on Friday 12-4-03 I had my last one. The first few days were tough, especially with trying to take care of my wife but I started feeling better by that Sunday. I got progressively better and am doing fine now. I remarried last April. I have a beautiful wife and daughter, I love them both and I want to live as healthy as I can now to have as much time with them as God will allow. When my time does come I want to go peacefully in my sleep, not spitting up blood and unable to breathe in a cancer hospital or nursing home.

 

[jrustles]

I've spent many years trying to get addicted to cigarettes (so it seems), but have never been successful; they just taste and smell absolutely horrible. Also, it really affects my cholinergic system. ie. If I smoke, my bowels speed right up (parasympathetic CNS stimulation), if I keep smoking, then it habitualizes. Then if I stop, I'll be somewhat constopated (as well as the withdrawal-depression of all other aspects of the cholinergic/parasympathetic CNS). And it may remain slowed for days after, before regulating back. The more I smoke, the longer it takes to return to normal.

I totally get the physiological reasons why smokers don't want to quit- it's rather unpleasant.

SO Clevy, whether or not you're still inhaling nicotine, I wish you two the best of luck !!


Originally Posted By: Clevy
Originally Posted By: Pop_Rivit
It's a good start, and at least you're trying.

You'd be better off breaking the crutch habit, but at least for now you won't be wrapped in the filth and stench of cigarettes.

Originally Posted By: TTK
and don't worry too much about the nicotine. It is about as bad for you as caffeine from coffee.


Nonsense. Nicotine is a natural insecticide produced by the tobacco plant to protect itself against insects. It takes just 50 to 60 mg of nicotine to kill a 160 pound human (about 3 drops), it would take 10,000 mg of caffeine to do the same.


I don't know for sure about the toxicity of nicotine in humans however I saw a program this weekend about corn and soy seeds that farmers buy that are pre-treated with insecticide called neo-nic's.
The show was about the bees dying in recent years. Apparently some researchers have found a connection between these crops that come with these neo-nic's and the hives kill rates.
Of course the seed and pesticide producer says there's no connection but the beekeeper's observations,and of course his living depends on the bees,has found that when he takes his hives anywhere near the crops he's identified as being "protected" with the neo-nic's he sees hive depletion within a week.

No on topic but what effect does that have on humans. These crops have these pesticides engineered into them so they emit their neo-nic pesticide when they first break ground,then again when they flower,which means its in their genetics.
What does that do to the humans that eat them?
Does anyone know anything about this stuff?


Neo-nics work the same way as nicotine does in terms of pesticide potential as I understand it, but it's alleged to have lower bioavailability than regualar nicotine in mammals, but no where is it proven to have zero effect on mammalian cholinergic systems.

tl;dr neo-nicotine for food might have more than insecticidal effects

 

[Fleetmon]

I quit after my 8th heart attack....smoked for 45 years prior to that. The main reason I quit was I thought my employer might have something to say if I returned to work still smoking since this was my second H/A (#'s 7 & 8) in 18 months.....he would have every right to determine I was too great of a risk to keep around. Number 8 resulted in yet another triple by-pass on the same vessels that had been done eight years before. I am/was not overweight, exercised, ate right and only smoked as my "bad habit".

My wife and I quit at the same time and used the patch for a couple of weeks.....that was two years ago next week.

Good for you and good luck....you CAN do it!

 

[crinkles]

I have smoked in my life.

Stupidest thing i ever done. Well, almost.

Watching someone die from lung cancer sucks, knowing how preventable it was. Yet my BIL took up smoking after. Go figure!

 

[HTSS_TR]

Originally Posted By: GreeCguy
I quit about two years ago. When from three packs a day to nothing. The first day was the worst. I chewed enough toothpicks to build a small house. But I was committed and really wanted to stop the habit for a number of reasons. Each day got a little better and after about a month, I could be around smokers, have beer, and not even want a smoke. I felt better, food tasted better, I slept better - life was good and I was proud of myself. Then, for no reason at all, I started smoking again and am now up to three packs a day again. My point is this - do not pick them back up. Once you've made it a few days, you're over the worst of it. Hang in there and beat the habit. To be honest, reading your post encourages me to put them down again and this time, be done with these cottin' pickin' things!

Three packs a day is too much, 1 cigaret every 10-12 minutes. Currently I smoke 5-6 cigarets a day, so 1 pack lasted 3-4 days. I don't plan to quit yet, but I plan to reduce to 3 cigarets a day, one in the morning, one in the afternoon and one in the evening.

 

[UncleS2]

When you really decide to quit smoking, you *Will* be able to do it. I quit in July 2004 after smoking for many years. You can do it too.

 

[GreeCguy]

Originally Posted By: HTSS_TR
Originally Posted By: GreeCguy
I quit about two years ago. When from three packs a day to nothing. The first day was the worst. I chewed enough toothpicks to build a small house. But I was committed and really wanted to stop the habit for a number of reasons. Each day got a little better and after about a month, I could be around smokers, have beer, and not even want a smoke. I felt better, food tasted better, I slept better - life was good and I was proud of myself. Then, for no reason at all, I started smoking again and am now up to three packs a day again. My point is this - do not pick them back up. Once you've made it a few days, you're over the worst of it. Hang in there and beat the habit. To be honest, reading your post encourages me to put them down again and this time, be done with these cottin' pickin' things!

Three packs a day is too much, 1 cigaret every 10-12 minutes. Currently I smoke 5-6 cigarets a day, so 1 pack lasted 3-4 days. I don't plan to quit yet, but I plan to reduce to 3 cigarets a day, one in the morning, one in the afternoon and one in the evening.


You are so right. The worst is when I work outside. I smoke non-stop lighting one from another. Yesterday was a perfect example. I got up around 7, went to work around my parents place loading and burning yard trash and worked solid till noon and kept a cigarette in my mouth the whole time. Stopped for lunch about half an hour, then went back to work and burned trash and did general property clean up till seven last night and smoked the whole time constantly. Yes, it's a stupid thing to do especially as I watched my Uncle die of lung cancer and all he had to go through. Watched my Aunt die the same way and she begged me on her deathbed to stop smoking. I'm an idiot and I know it. I've got two little grandbabies now who are the joy of my life and I'd really like to be around to be with them as they grow up. So I need to put these things down for good.