Any advice for quitting smoking?

VARMINT_SLAYER

VARMINT_SLAYER

New member
I've been really trying hard to quit smoking lately.
I went nine hours today and finally couldn't take it anymore.
I think my biggest problem is that I've been smoking for so long that I've forgot what to do instead. For instance, I'm sitting at home watching t.v. or reading a book; it is just second nature to light up a cigarette. Or when I first wake up in the morning I don't even bother to turn on the light before I roll one up.
I figured out that If I stay active that I can go longer without one. Today I mowed, fixed and painted three treestands, shot my bow, and went fishing. But then out of nowhere I just had to have a cigarette. I wound up going out and buying a pack of roll ups, then I smoked one and started feeling bad and flushed the rest of the pouch down the toilet.
Can anyone give me any advice to help me out.
 
I have quit smoking, chew, and drinking. All of which I started when I was about 16.I had tried to quit smoking and chew several times but failed. Patches, gun just didnt cut it. What worked this time ? Well, I was just ready. I tackled each one at a time, cold turkey, and dont feel as though I am missing a thing. You have to be ready, and do it for your self because you want to.
 
Varmint slayer
I quit cold turkey after smoking for 25years I tried all kinds of different ways but so far this has lasted 2yrs. It also helped that I quit drinking to. Two years ago I was having trouble hunting the same hills I've hunted for over 15yrs. I was always running out of wind climbing up those hills so I decided I would rather hunt than smoke. It's worked for me maybe it will work for you. PS quitting will really be one of the best things you could ever do.
Good luck Rick
 
easy...throw them away...my dad used to smoke 3 packs a day...quit in one day...threw them in the fire and never went back
 
Cold Turkey is the only way but first you have got to make up your mind that you really want to do it. I smoked for years then quit for 10 years. Then I started again after splitting up with my wife smoked for a year then quit again.
 
VARMINT SLAYER, I smoked for 40 some years and quit. All I can say is you have to be ready to quit in your own mind. Your mind is much more stronger then a damn cigarette. When you're ready you'll quit, it's not that hard to do...Like drugs, just say no to yourself.....Good luck and God bless.
 
I agree with Billy the Kid. I quit after about 40yrs of 3 packs a day.

You have to want to quit worse than you want to smoke.
When you reach that point, it's easy.
 
I quit cold turkey 30 years ago. One of the best things I ever did. Billythekid has the right idea. Besides being better for you health, take the money you would send up in smoke and buy yourself a new rifle AND a hunting trip somewhere every year.
 
Varmint Slayer-
I second what others have said here. You have to be ready to quit, and want to more than you want to smoke. It takes alot of will power and you get damn mean during the first couple of weeks. Do what you can to get through it. Sometimes it helps to think of your family or the money you save and the stuff you can buy to help with the withdraw can help but if your not ready and want to quit none of that stuff will matter.
Smoking is not natural unless your on fire. Good luck-you can do it if you want it bad enough. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grinning-smiley-003.gif MH
 
http://www.lc-stopsmoking.com/

I was a 30+ year smoker at 2++ packs a day. I did the auricular therapy deal at the place linked above. Short notice, the place I work for signed me up, told me on a Fri. that I had an appointment Tues. if I wanted, they were footing the bill.
Best thing that ever happened to me, haven't had a smoke in 6mos...................1 wk., 4 days, 22 hrs. 15 minutes, and 39.9878656453 seconds!
Seriously, it has been about 6 mos. The treatment consists of mild electrical shock to about 10 places in each ear. The claim is that it gets you to about the 96th hour of withdrawal - past the physical addiction. You'er just left with the mechanical habit to deal with. It all sounded like snake oil to me but worked like a champ.

That's the good news, the bad news is that the money saved just about covers the increased gas prices.

Best of luck to you, it's tough, but not myuch really worth doing is usually that easy.
 
Good luck on your effort Varmint Slayer. I am not a smoker and have never done it more than recreationally to look "cool" with the guys when I was a kid. I was given a body that rejected cigarettes, liquor, coffee and a host of other vices. I spent more time sick from trying those things than I did having fun from trying them.

I learned about the power of addiction to nicotine through an experience I had with a coworker that was a chain smoker. I went with him one day to the hospital to visit his Dad who was dying of cancer. I will never forget the sight of that man laying on the hospital bed with a cigarette stuck to a pipe protruding from his esophogus. He was laying on his death bed still smoking, even with his throat eaten out by the ravages of cancer.

The next day at breaktime, his son Gary lit up a cigarette and I couldn't help but ask him how he could see his father dying from smoking and still light up one. He said "I have tried to quit a hundred times and I just can't". He said "if it means I die, then I die". That was my lesson on the power of nicotine addiction.

I have a son who is trying to quite smoking. I am going to send him this URL. Maybe he will benefit from the dialogue you have started.

Once again I say good luck with your effort. I am rooting for you. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grinning-smiley-003.gif
 
Good Luck! I have quit for as long as five years only to start again. The biggest thing like the others have said is wanting to quit! It will get better after the first couple of days, I tend to gain weight because I eat to replace the smokes! It takes a lot of will power to quit cold turkey so don't despair if you backslide a time or two just make up your mind and do it! BTW I quit Copenhagen in 1986 and I thought I was going to die! To this day when I see or smell that stuff my mouth waters. I have no problem staying away from it though because I know that I would never survive quitting it again!
You Can Do It!
 
Varmint slayer- you and I are in the same boat. I have been fighting it for a few months now, back and forth. I quit for six weeks and started again. My wife is still smoking and we went on trip together and riding in the truck with her smoking away was too much! I have found that the patches really did help with the cravings. But as has been said you have to want it very badly(to stop). I work with people alot with my ADC biz and the patches kept me from killing some of the uneducated customers that I deal with on a daily basis. I bought the "cheap" ones made by Equate at walmart and they did every bit as good of a job as the expensive ones. I say give 'em a try. Good luck!
 
My dad smoked a pack and a half a day from age 15 to 41. He gave up cigarettes while in the intensive care unit on oxygen (major heart attack). I remember my mom walking in to visit him saying an old man in the hall had asked her for a cigarette, dad replied "get us both one"! He had quit several times while I was a child, but being forced to quit while in the hospital did the trick. His hardest times were after a good meal in a restaurant and smelling somebody elses cigarette.
 
This is an interesting thread. I've been fortunate and escaped the temptation of addictive substances or habits. Other than predator hunting, that is. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif I am interested in, and, would like to respectfully ask a question of the smokers on PM. A little background... One of the things I do for a living is working with young people trying to educate them as to the risk of addictive behaviors and substances. Your honest answers may help me to understand the why, and the real power of tobacco. With that short background, if you will allow a few questions:

1) How old were you when you began smoking?

2) Why did you begin?

3) How many times have you tried to quit?

I appreciate the time and honest answers I know I'll receive here. Thanks...
 
im still trying to quit copenhagen,,i went from a can a day down to a can every 4 days,it is saving me a bundle of money
Now i just need to quit completly But i dont know if i can ACTUALLY DO IT ???,,i have lost 2 friends at the ages of 32&36
one from a massive heart attack at 32 and the other at 36 due to a bowhunting accident in Colorado,,and i lost my brother at age 38 due to electrocution at work,,none of these guys died of cancer or by using tobacco,, BUT IT MADE ME REALIZE friggin life is to short and to fragile and WE ARE NOT PROMISED TOMORROW!!!
So it has me down to a can every 4 days,, and i need to pull the trigger on quiting totally,,but like all the people above stated,,,it is HARD,,if it wasnt hard ALL of the tobacco company's would be out of business
Bob
 
It is easy to quit /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gifI've done it a dozen times. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

there is no magic bullet. what works for one doesn't work for all. Any time I've quit, I made a decision and quit. My wife has tried lots and lots no luck yet. She gets overwhelmed by the prospect of quiting for the rest of her life. I tell her it is like eating an elephant, one bite at a time.
Quit one cigarette at a time. Decide to "not have this one".
The first one in the morning is the worst. Skip that one and it will get easier. The craving doesn't last lokg and if you can do something else for two minutes, it will pass. The same after meals. Get up from the table and walk or throw the ball for the dog. Or color another page in your new coloring book. Just find something to break up the routine.

Put the dough you save "EACH" day in a can. After 2 months. I bought myself a new rifle. Now I smoke coyotes!! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Keep trying to quit one at a time, you'll do it. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grinning-smiley-003.gif
 
Having never been a full time smoker, I can't help you much with the cravings but if you are anything like my dad, you need something to do with your hands. Dad quit smoking for 3 years after smoking for over 25 years, and picked it back up because he said he needed something for his hands to do.

I wish he would have taken up fly tieing, loading rounds, anything to keep his hands busy. Dad is in his seventies and still smoking a pack a day. Says he's to old to quit now! We tell him it's never to late, but he's not buying it.

Pick up a hobby that keeps your mind and hands busy, get a roll of lifesavers and eat one when your hands want to poke a smoke in your face.

Red Frog has a good tip there as well. Save the money and get a new gun or bow. Spend your savings on a guided out of state hunt, or something you have wanted to do for a long time but didn't get too from the lack of funds.

Dogn
 
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