I have recently stopped smoking and now need help!?

Question

I stopped smoking around Christmas time (yey me) and I'm doing quite well with the cravings and that, but my habit was more of a social thing. Since stopping I have found that I have nothing to do with my hands and its worse when I’m in the pub and I have started to bite my finger nails again, something that I have not done since I was about 13!!

Can anyone give me any good tips on other displacement activities I can engage my hands in instead or either smoking or nail biting...and clean ones please...

Answer 1

Well done on kicking this dreadful addiction!
You're managing the cravings, the habitual element will take more effort.

It may sound a bit glib, but if you have most trouble in the pub, then maybe best avoid the pub at least in the early stages of your withdrawl. Go somewhere, do something which focusses you, which draws your attention away from the fact that you don't have a cigarette in your hands. Maybe and arts and crafts evening class, archery, bingo, yoga, tai chi, something which demands your attention.

For things to do with your hands, try this: http://www.coinmanipulation.com/
Steeplechasing is quite an impressive way to fidget.

Good luck, and be strong!
Cheers.

Answer 2

Firstly congratulations, make an appointment with your doctor tell him you've stopped he then will offer you patches that you either pick up from your pharmacy on a weekly basis or give you a months supply in one go, entirely up to the doctor. That should help with the cravings. This will sound bizarre if you can't knit already, why not learn it will take your mind off cigarettes and keep your hands busy while at home, mind it's not easy as it first looks but keep at it,you might even enjoy it!! and produce a scarf or something else. Another suggestion when your out and about what about carrying a small pencil that way your hands are busy playing with the pencil, chewing gum also helps. good luck

Answer 3

I to have just quit. The empty hand to mouth thing seems to be harder than the cravings for the cigarett itself. The best I have come up with so far: I took a Bic pin and cut it to the size of a cigarett. I then put a small hole in he bottom cap of the pin and also put a small amount of cloth in the pin tube.
This gave me the same sinsation of drawing on a cigarett without continuing the addiction to the nicitine.
I hope this helps, good luck and God bless

Answer 4

Friends and drink. A combination that has proved a tricky prospect to many quitters. Perhaps if i explain some things you may not realise it may make you consciously think about smoking rather than automatically lighting up.

Drink.
Two things happen when you drink, 1. your inhabitions dissapear and 2. drink is a form of anasthetic on the throat. So firstly all the barriers you put up against smoking are quickly taken down with the thoughts. "who cares if I just have one" or "I'll start my quit again tomorrow". These thoughts are not questioned at the time as your conscious mind gets disorientated. So many do try one. Because as stated in 2 before your throat has been numbed by the drink that first one doesn't seem as harsh as you thought it would be. Again the "good idea" bubble pops into your head. You wake up in the morning with a sore throat, head and concience. Many think "what the hell I smoked i may as well carry on" and your back to square one.

Friends.
If you think back to when you started smoking, many times it is to fit in. To be part of the group or gang, You do not want to be the odd one out. But ask yourself "Am I still the same awkward teenager that needs approval"

There are two types of people in a group. There are followers and leaders. Many smokers are followers. 'Everyone else was doing it'. Why not become a leader. The strength position has now changed. The strong are not the ones smoking but the ones not smoking. Many think that they smoke to hide there emotions but look in the mirror when you smoke or at other smokers. They are displaying there fears, weaknesses and frailties for the world to see. If a non smoker is anxious you may not be able to see it but if a smoker is anxious we all see it. It is now a matter of choice. Do you choose to accept that you are not in control of smoking or stand up and accept that you have been conned. That cigarettes do not actulally do anything for you. It is what you 'believe' they do for you.

One thing i did find was that far from exclude me from conversation. For the first time I was actually listening to what people were telling me and repsonding with a deep conversation rather than my mind being sidetracked constantly by the thoughts of smoking. Your mind is like a computer. When you open a large program all the smaller programs running in the background slow down or stop responding until eventually the large program has opened and the power is restored to the others.
Your mind works in a similar way. When you become anxious your mind looks for away out. It is called the fight ot flight response. As it says it prepares you to stand and fight ot run away. This works fine when there is actually something in front of you to be anxious about. Move away and the anxiety deminishes automatically.

However with smoking you do not know why you are anxious so there is no way of getting away from it. Your mind protects itself by not registering any thought that is not directly associated with finding the solution. So for instance the fact that smoking is bad for you does not register as that only makes you more anxious rather than less.

What you have done is Light a cigarette, Take a deep breath as you inhale and the anxiety has lessened. This has led you to believe that the cigarette has done this. It didn't it would have happened with the deep breathe anyway. It's just that you done't 'believe' that yet. As soon as the anxiety drops the rest of your brain starts to function again and all the guilt and self loathing comes in.

Once you understand that smoking has produced this false anxiety in the first place you can start to rule smoking out as an answer. It will become one of the thoughts that does not register because you now know it is not the answer.

Remember one thing and say it over and over to yourself.

"If I want to feel anxious, I'll smoke a cigarette"

What this does is tell your subconscious the truth and it will start to agree with you. You will be amazed at how quickly your body and mind will start to reject smoking.

Answer 5

Big yay you!

To be honest I think it would be easier to remove yourself from your old smoking situations for a while.

You'e still repeating your smoking pattern, just replacing fags with a 'new' addiction.

Other than taking up knitting, you're going to have 'empty hand syndrome' for a while, and being in your usual smoking haunts will make the problem more obvious.

I took a break from my usual routine for a month, not only did I save money & get some sleep and all that, but when I returned to my usual social life I was used to having empty hands. Staying away from it all for a month was no problem as I knew it was only ever going to be a for 4 weeks.

Good luck whatever you do x

Answer 6

I quit smoking nearly five years ago now and i found that avoiding pubs and clubs for the first few months for me worked because there was no temptation, but i suppose you could chew on a straw or suck a loly pop, if i did go somewhere i used to crunch on ice, as for the hands i really don't know i never really had the idle hands problem mine was more the inhalation problem.

Answer 7

i would personally stay away from places where smoke is as much as possible, i have been off and on for past 3 years but before that i had smoked for 11 years, i quit cold turkey due to health reasons last april and am doing fine, no cravings, carrying loose change around might help, excercise balls that fit in your palm, write a journal of your thoughts, dont worry you will get the hang of it.

Answer 8

there is a kit you can get from the tabacco quitline, and they have things like a mint toothpick, if you smoked menthols that would help, and a paperclip, ect. what i would suggest is taking up a hobby like knitting, or drawing, or puzzles ect, where your fingers and hands would be busy and active, while you wernt thinking about things like that. and good luck, ive wanted to quit, but havent had the guts to do so! having the guts is the first great part that shows your really trying!!! congrats!

Answer 9

That is the challenge. Congratulations to you! Actually by now all of the nicotine should be out of your body, and you are over the physical addiction. The habit is harder to break. Try chewing gum, or carrot sticks. They even sell fake cigarette inhalers so that you can wean yourself off of the habit too. Best of luck.

Answer 10

Well done! I really wish you well and hope that you can really give up the noxious weed for good. In the pub I tend to tear up beer mats! Odd I know but better than filling my lungs with a deadly chemical.