Has anyone successfully given up smoking?

Question

I am going to try as from today. So far I have made it to lunchtime, but I am severely tempted and am in a really bad mood. All help and support welcome!

Thanks Lucky Chuky, but I do not drink or go to pubs, and none of my friends smoke. My ex partner was a hypnotherapist and he said that I was a resistant subject. I also went to stop smoking sessions at work, and have taken Zyban, which gave me bad dreams.I am now going to bite the bullet and go cold turkey, as I feel that I have been relying on something else to make me stop, and that I know that it is up to me.

Answer 1

I will be joining you on this fight Shan in the near future, I was told to "plan for it", aparently, you are a little less likely to fail, I have stopped in the past but only managed 4 mths, my problem is coping with out a cigarette during bad times, if any of my family are going through really bad times I fall to pieces, I just can't bare to see them suffer....but anyway, I am desperately trying to think of something that may help you to carry on without one, are you going cold turkey, or do you have something to take the edge of the cravings? with you saying you are in a bad mood tells me you may not have anything to help, have you tried the patches, and also, belonging to a no smoking group online would give you someone to turn to any time day or night, and there will be someone feeling just like you do at moment, like I said, when I choose the day for me to stop I will have as many back up plans that I can find and be armed and ready for war...lol
But I sincerely wish you all the best on this and will be thinking of you...good luck ♥

Answer 2

The best way to stop is to never start in the first place.

My Dad was quite a heavy smoker but was able to completely kick the habit. So did a few of my old friends.

It's perfectly possible if you're strong enough. Keep going to the end of the day, make it your target. Then when you get home, make it your target to last until the next morning. Work like that and it can become weeks and months and you can break free.

The answer just above mine is a very good one. When you go to light up, ask why you need it or think of what you could have spent your money on instead of cigarettes. 20 a day smokers on average spend as much a year on cigarettes as someone who has one if not two holidays abroad who never touches them.

Answer 3

I gave up 33 years ago when I got engaged to my future husband who was a non smoker. He never asked me to quit and never pressured me. No patches, no gum just sheer will power and bloody mindedness that I was stronger than a roll of paper filled with tobacco Looking back now I can see the daftest thing I ever did was to start smoking and the cleverest thing I ever did was to stop. I watched both my parents die from smoke related diseases and my husband now has to watch as his father does the same. I will never have to put my children through that.
Think these thoughts to help you.
Next Christmas with all the MONEY you have saved by not smoking you can ;
Be sitting on a sun drenched beach.
Splash out on that 'something special' you have always wanted.
You will not only feel better, you WILL look better. Your skin will look as if you have been reborn (compare a non smoker to a smoker of the same age and you will see I'm right). Your food will taste better. You wont walk round stinking like an old ashtray. And, YOU WILL BE PROUD OF YOURSELF.
Don't worry if you 'fall off the waggon' get right back on and GO FOR IT
My very best wishes to you and to all who want to give up the 'weed'

Answer 4

A friend of mine went to a hypnotherapist ( an accredited one ) a few months ago and she gave up smoking from the time she left the appointment
she says she never even noticed giving up, she was just convinced she was a non smoker!
she had been smoking for 30 years and heavily
thats amazing isnt it? I'm thinking about going after christmas to see if it will work for me

You go for it, good luck and let us know how you get on hun :0)

Answer 5

Yes, many times. Thank You.. Smoking is very nice once a smoker always a smoker but look at the price! Blimey you could be doing some funky stuff with all that cash. Look at all the stuff you've always wanted and now you can buy it, go ahead and spend some of the cash you've saved you deserve it, and let us all know! I'm jealous that you've already taken the biggest step, one smoke now and it's back to square one. My pal started again after 11 years, what a fool. Time to grow up.

Answer 6

You have to change your life-style. When you drink you want a smoke, well drinking is just as bad on your health. So, you have to give up drinking. Your friends will encourage you to smoke, because misery loves company. Also, they will drink and smoke in front of you. So, if you really want to quit change your life-style. Go where there are people that think healthy. Once you see or realized you have quit, you'll be much happier. Also helps to tune out the media including music that promotes drinking and smoking, or magazines, TV, and anything that glamorizes (advertises) smoking and drinking! Good-luck.

Answer 7

This is more support than advice.

I was smoking at least 3 packs a day at one point when I finally looked at myself in the mirror and said enough was enough.

From that day forth I've never picked up a cigarette; that was 5 years ago.

It's only possible with determination. Just imagine what else you can do if you give up smoking, the possibilities are almost endless.

Answer 8

Gave up in 1960, best thing I had ever done, I am now 83, and have lost five friends who had leg amputations caused by smoking related illness, this should be made known, as much as lung cancer, it would give more determination for smokers to quit this extremely hard habit, I wish you luck, do not be tempted to take 'just one drag', that is fatal.

Answer 9

Yes. I was lying in a hospital bed with severe chest pains just over 8 years ago when a Doctor and a Consultant came and chatted to me, they gave me a life expectancy of 5 to 7 years and I've never smoked since. I had given up giving up and smoked 80 to 100 super-kings a day until i had been admitted.

The hard thing is not giving up but rather remaining given up.

A very good tip that was passed on to me many years ago by a chap who had given up for over 40 years was to;
"not destroy my final packet of cigarettes but to keep it and the means to light it in a drawer at home"

The biggest temptation after a month or two is to buy another packet to try one, and if you've got your old packet at home (as i have) you are less likely to be tempted and if you did try, they would be so dry that you would cough like anything and that in itself would strengthen your resolve. This is the longest i have been successful and yes the packet with 17 cigarettes is still in my kitchen drawer with a lighter and i do not intend to ever use them again.

One other thing you should bear in mind is that, if you even have one cigarette after you have "given up" then your period of giving up begins from after that one.

I wish you very good luck and a happy festive season.

Answer 10

smoke free for 10 months now. There's good and bad news. The good news is that after about the 6 month mark, the cravings go away....but the bad news is that it takes 6 months for the cravings to go away. Try using the patch....it helps with the "crankiness" Good luck!!