THE Quit Smoking Thread

[DHTiling]

It is your right though.. just so you know..

 

[SandyFloor]

The way I look at the NRT method is it helps you break the habit first and then weans you off the addiction over a few weeks so you're only dealing with one thing at a time.It seems to be working for me and the habit seems to diminishing but way too soon to get cocky about it. Other methods may suit others. Horses for courses imo

 

[badger]

Day 11 for me now on the nicorette gum.
Going well thankfully although its when i let my guard down, usually 5/6 months in,that i'm hooked again.
This time is for life please God.
Best of luck to all still off them or about to try

 

[Scott]

Congratulations Sandy. :5:

Of course there IS NO WITHDRAWAL when you stop smoking. At least, there is a mild feeling of hunger, but thats it. So why the big fuss about stopping smoking? Why all the rubbish about smokers being addicts who need public support etc. etc.? The reason is that smoking addiction is 99% a phsychological problem, and 1% a physical problem. If you train your mind not to worry about not smoking, you will suffer no reaction. imp2:


That is why the two of the most successful methods of helping people to stop smoking involve either "unlearning" all the myths about what smoking does for you, or else Hypnotism, that simply diverts your mind away from the smoking habit. I know - I smoked for 35 years, and stopped with absolutely no support at all - except to read a book that readjusted my mental perceptions of smoking.

So if anyone else is thinking of stopping smoking - do not waste your money (or that of the NHS) with nicotine replacement. It is a total waste of money. The nicotine is a mentally addictive drug and taking nicotine to help stop the nicotine addiction is as stupid as it sounds when you write it down! :mad2: Dont use nicorette or anything similar - the craving does not exist if you mentally condition yourself first.

Either spend your money buying one of the books, DVD's or CD's that talk to you about your smoking, or join a support group. But keep smoking until the day you light up a cigarette, and realise, it tastes of nothing special, it does not relax you or help you cope with stress, you feel exactly the same after as you did before you smoked that cigarette, it does absolutely nothing to enhance your life and frankly you wonder why you bothered lighting it up. Then you really will stop smoking for good. :hurray:

I 100% agree with all that ^^

I read the book too

The idea of the nicotine replacements is to stop the smoking and not hav to worry about the weaning off the addiction. I personally think its the wrong way to do it but if it helps some people then good on them.

 

[mikethetile]

im sorry but I have to say this, some of the comments being made by ex smokers on this thread are innacurate and unhelpfull

nrt has been proven to be the best method to give up and does work, hypnosis and self help books have a poor success rate, smokera are aware that they are killing themselves but the addiction is stronger and over rides any attempts to sshock them out of smoking, smoking is an addiction not a habit and is now recognised as such and is being treated as an addiction

the cost of dealing with smoking in the uk costs the country nothing, in fact in the long run it will cost the treasury income asthe tax revenue collected from smokers more than covers the cost of dealing with smoking related illnesses and the cost of providing free support for those giving up

a packet of cigarette costs less that a pound to produce and distribute and with the mark up for the retailer still comes in at less than a pound, a fiver on each pack goes to the treasury

I asked at the clinic why they dont just ban it from sale and be done with it and got a detailed answer

its been considered but with the ease of importing tobacco into the country tobacco would be the new cocaine,it would be sought after and sold on the blackmarket cheaper than buying it today and would cost the govt billions in lost revenue and the nhs will still have to deal with tobacco related illnesses. the plan is to mmake this country a non smoking country by encouraging smokers to give up, these are the govt proposals

1 it will be an offence for retailers to display tobacco products, smokers will have to ask or them

2 tobacco products will come in plain wrappers

3 a universal smoking ban in all public areas

4 an offence to smoke in charge of a vehicle, thats not just driving thats having the keys in your pocket so you cant pull up in a layby and smoke, you wont be able to anyway as its a public area

5 an offence to smoke in front of a minor.a non smoker and if two smokers are together they cant smoke in front of each other

not all of these propasals are law yet but thats their intention, but before they do that they need to set up a scheme to help people stop smoking which is what they are in the process of doing

so please ex smokers keep this thread positive and supportive of those wishing to give up and those in the process of giving up

anyone wishing to give up will get all the advice and products foc from their gp as well as support

well done everyone who has given up , ignore the knockers and negative ex smokers , it is hard but with the help available we will all succeed together

 

[Deleted member 9966]

I don't want all smokers to quit. One of my company's biggest product produced each year goes into cigarette filters so if everybody quit, I'd have to either sack 20 odd people or diversify the business so that we could produce other chemical products.

everybody on here is finding different ways of quitting working for them, and it just goes to show how different people are in tackling the issue. as Mike says, the support and advice is there for those people who need it.

keep up the good work guys

 

[mikethetile]

there you go Liz

something else that was discussed at the same meeting and I forgot about it untill you mentioned it

not only do the government make billions from smoking but a lot of people are employed either directly or indirectly by the tobacco industry, these people will have to find new employment if thats possible

this was one of the reasons given for the govt not just implementing a ban

thanks for reminding us

 

[mikethetile]

another thing I remember from the clinic and I may as well post it while im in rant mode

thre biggest stumbling block to quittting is the fear of failure, if there are any doubts whatso ever that you wont succeed in quitting then the addiction has all the ammo it needs to keep you hooked and buying cigarettes

we had long discussions on this as a group and we were told that those who have never smoked will congratulate you for quitting

most ex smokers will be pleased you have quit but there are those who resent the attention you recieve, after all they quit too and no one is congratulating them

and some smokers will be pleased for you but you will lose some smoking mates and some smokers wwill do you a faavour by giving you a ***


I have found all the above to be correct and as they predicted

so dont be afraid of quitting,failing and quitting again , you have still quit and are out from the control of your nicotine adiction

from that first decision to quit your are winning your battle against addiction , you may lose the odd skirmish but you will still win the war

who dares wins

 

[andy8758]

I agree that it's 'all in your head' but, do you not think that the nicotine replacement products are more of a replacement for the ciggies, to help break the habit rather than curing the addiction? You will still have to ween yourself off the nicotine product.

I hear what you are saying - but that misses the point. You will not break the habit until you realise that there is no habit to break. The trouble with nicotine replacement is that you continue to feed the nicotine addiction without tackling the main effect of the addiction - the pyschological issues.

 

[Ian]

I hear what you are saying - but that misses the point. You will not break the habit until you realise that there is no habit to break. The trouble with nicotine replacement is that you continue to feed the nicotine addiction without tackling the main effect of the addiction - the pyschological issues.

I think we'll have to agree to disagree on this one! Habits are just routines of behavior, and whilst I agree there is an element of psychology to this there is still a physical element to overcome.

 

[andy8758]

im sorry but I have to say this, some of the comments being made by ex smokers on this thread are innacurate and unhelpfull

nrt has been proven to be the best method to give up and does work, hypnosis and self help books have a poor success rate, smokera are aware that they are killing themselves but the addiction is stronger and over rides any attempts to sshock them out of smoking, smoking is an addiction not a habit and is now recognised as such and is being treated as an addiction

the cost of dealing with smoking in the uk costs the country nothing, in fact in the long run it will cost the treasury income asthe tax revenue collected from smokers more than covers the cost of dealing with smoking related illnesses and the cost of providing free support for those giving up

a packet of cigarette costs less that a pound to produce and distribute and with the mark up for the retailer still comes in at less than a pound, a fiver on each pack goes to the treasury

I asked at the clinic why they dont just ban it from sale and be done with it and got a detailed answer

its been considered but with the ease of importing tobacco into the country tobacco would be the new cocaine,it would be sought after and sold on the blackmarket cheaper than buying it today and would cost the govt billions in lost revenue and the nhs will still have to deal with tobacco related illnesses. the plan is to mmake this country a non smoking country by encouraging smokers to give up, these are the govt proposals

1 it will be an offence for retailers to display tobacco products, smokers will have to ask or them

2 tobacco products will come in plain wrappers

3 a universal smoking ban in all public areas

4 an offence to smoke in charge of a vehicle, thats not just driving thats having the keys in your pocket so you cant pull up in a layby and smoke, you wont be able to anyway as its a public area

5 an offence to smoke in front of a minor.a non smoker and if two smokers are together they cant smoke in front of each other

not all of these propasals are law yet but thats their intention, but before they do that they need to set up a scheme to help people stop smoking which is what they are in the process of doing

so please ex smokers keep this thread positive and supportive of those wishing to give up and those in the process of giving up

anyone wishing to give up will get all the advice and products foc from their gp as well as support

well done everyone who has given up , ignore the knockers and negative ex smokers , it is hard but with the help available we will all succeed together

OK Mike - we need to keep this positive lol.

Interesting that I was prescribed nicorette to give up smoking in 1990. It worked for about 2 years. The first time I had a personal problem - I started smoking again! I now know that it was because I believed all the social gumf that smoking helps reduce stress, makes you feel better about yourself, helps you cope with problems..... When I finally gave up again it was because I stopped believing this. I have seen many others struggle with patches and gum, only to succomb within weeks of "giving up" - which is another key issue - there is nothing to "give up" just say no!

 

[mikethetile]

I hear what you are saying - but that misses the point. You will not break the habit until you realise that there is no habit to break. The trouble with nicotine replacement is that you continue to feed the nicotine addiction without tackling the main effect of the addiction - the pyschological issues.

you are right Andy nrt replaces the nicotine in your system while you give upand thats the whole point of it and why it works, there are 3 issues with giving up

1 routine - you need to change this as smokers have trigger points in the day where they need to smoke

2 addiction - there are over a hundred chemicals in a cigarette a lot of them addictive, so you need to break the bodies craving for these

3 nicotine- this is the worst offender and screams the loudest at you,

so by replacing the nicotine with a background supply you deal with the first two points in that order and break them while all the time getting your nicotine fix, then after a period you reduce the strength of the nrt and gradually cut down till you stop

you need to remember that smoking is a chemical addiction and the recepters in your brain cry out for it even though its damaging to us

the routine is the easy part to break and you can have fruit or raw veg or whatever to to take when you would normally be smoking, I found driving the hardest and chewed on no end of carrots, this gives your handss something to do insteaad of smoking. after a few weeks your hand dont reach to the dashboard for your smokes.the cheemicals added to cigarettes are the next to go, its surpising how quick your body gets used to not taking in arsenic, carbon monoxide and other poisons

everyone without exception has nicotine senssors but if your sensors dont recieve it then you never crave it, and thats the whole point , the longer you dont smoke the less demanding your nicotine sensors are

phsycology doesnt come into it, its a straight forward chemical addiction that you need to wean your body off

 

[andy8758]

I think we'll have to agree to disagree on this one! Habits are just routines of behavior, and whilst I agree there is an element of psychology to this there is still a physical element to overcome.

This is turning into the kind of event you see in University "debating societies". We all believe we are right, and the only right one! Oh well, I guess I have lectured enough on this one. lol,,

 

[Scott]

The comments are neither unhelpful nor inaccurate, have you even read the book Mike?

 

[mikethetile]

OK Mike - we need to keep this positive lol.

Interesting that I was prescribed nicorette to give up smoking in 1990. It worked for about 2 years. The first time I had a personal problem - I started smoking again! I now know that it was because I believed all the social gumf that smoking helps reduce stress, makes you feel better about yourself, helps you cope with problems..... When I finally gave up again it was because I stopped believing this. I have seen many others struggle with patches and gum, only to succomb within weeks of "giving up" - which is another key issue - there is nothing to "give up" just say no!

believe me there is plenty to give up , I should know

you went back to smoking as a crutch when you were low , it happens , it was you returning to a happier time when nothing mattered


cigarettes are not your friend but you do mourn their passing,they dont calm you at all in fact they speed up your heart, its the first intake of air that calms you and the nicotine hits your sensors 7 seconds later