any ideas on how to give up smoking?

Question

i wanna quit but finding it hard ive tried most of the nicotin replacement products but i still cant do it

Answer 1

i am smoking again after not smoking the whole of last week...i've given up before and for nearly five years but started smoking again when i started drinking in pubs again!

the thing that worked for me last time was having something i REALLY wanted to do that i couldn't as a smoker...and i'll be stopping again tomorrow and doing the 15 mile circuit on my mountain bike i really struggle to do as a smoker that is a pure JOY as a non-smoker!

thing is, in my opinion, it really is incredibly hard to stop - i struggled with feeling 'skinless' for the first six months - an d it took me a while to realise just how subtle and pervasive the effect of nicotine is. essentially, i'm a very different person as a non-smoker and there are things about smoking i really miss - for me it 'takes the edge' off how sensitive i am and that is VERY hard to give up! on the up side - after a while i found more and more ways that the extra sensitivity was really a very cool thing in my life - sure i could feel more emotional about the tough things...but the same was just as true about the good things in life.

so - carrot and stick time for me tomorrow..carrot? being healthy and blissed out and relaxed as i can only be when i don't smoke. stick? the unavoidable truth that your erections are gonna get softer and softer, year in, year out, as long as you smoke...but i guess everyone has their own 'soft spot' as it were.

wishing you well with it though - you're not alone in struggling with it.

Answer 2

You know you can find a lot of motivation to quit if you will just sit down and take a few minutes with yourself and think about how important this is to you, and how you're going to feel when you have made it through the first two months. Finding motivation is the whole thing. Motivation comes from knowing in your heart how important it is to you. It starts and stops with you. I quit alcohol over twenty years ago and it was not courage nor strength of character that did it. It was fear. Fear can be a great motivator. I realised the alcohol was killing me, literally, and it scared me sober. Here I am, over twenty years later, completely sober, so much healthier, reconnected to society and having a decent life, able to write this to you and not slobber drool into my shirt or bump into furniture or fly into a rage for no reason. What a difference. And I get good nights' sleep now and no more hangovers. I wish you good fortune in your effort to redefine how important being smoke free really means to you because when you have answered that one question honestly with everything you have inside you the rest is just mechanical. Like another person here said, you just stop putting them up to your mouth and lo and behold, smoke-free! Focusing on the importance of it all makes your priorities right. Take good care, now. Chris!

Answer 3

I stopped cold turkey without any replacements 15 years ago ;
the trick was to tell myself constantly that I didn't really want a cigarette , it was the last cigarette that wanted one .... Whenever the craving got bad , I brushed my teeth and had a Fisherman's Friend or a very strong mint and any thought of a smoke would disappear . Hang in there , it really is in the mind - get yourself busy , use your hands (writing , typing etc) and it will get better and easier . Wishing you all the best !

Answer 4

I think you should ask..... WHY should I give up smoking. If you have tried all the nicotine stuff then maybe you don't want to give up enough.
However, there are drugs your doctor can prescribe such as Zyban. these are anti depressants and take away people's desire to smoke.
If you want it enough you will be able to do it. Although if you try and fail many times you will teach yourself that you cannot control your addiction and quit.
Decide when to do it and stick to it. I have chosen my 30th.birthday.
Hope this helps

Answer 5

you have to change the things that you connect to smoking.
e.g.
I used to smoke if I was alone in the car, replaced it with chewing gum, same after meals.

Stop smoking in the house, gets to the point where you cant be bothered to go outside.

Its really down to will power, takes three days to break the habit but longer and forever to beat the cravings. You need a distraction.

The best thing that worked for me was a 'fake cigarette' along with patches. You get the tatse but no nicotine.

Answer 6

you have to make the commitment yourself to yourself then remove any kind of cigarette apparatus from your home and get loads of water bottled in because you are going to need something to do with your hands, then try nicoderm CQ and use willpower man you can do it. get through the first 10 days and you are home . I did it and I had a bad bad habit! I am rooting for you! cheers

Answer 7

Yeh Dave, I sympathise...really. I keep packin it in and then after three days or a week or two...I light up. Sometimes it's cos I've actually FORGOT that I have stopped ??? Sometimes it's cos I'm climbing the walls and sometimes its cos I just want to fill in time while I think and think and think.

Maybe if we all thought of our partners, our kids, our parents, our mates...and the whole we'd make in their lives if we were to die.......then just maybe, we'd want to live that little bit longer. What do you reckon?

Answer 8

Read the book Allen Carr's Easyway To Stop Smoking, I read it as did my husband, parents and friends and it worked for all of us.

Answer 9

A Yahoo search for "how to quit smoking" will tell you.

Answer 10

Put some else in your mouth like gum or lollipop.
Don't buy any more cigarettes. If you don't have any, you won't be tempted to smoke any more. Good luck!