Hardest damn thing ever. Trying to get this done though. Day 4. Cold Turkey. Now I wish I tried Chantix
Quitting Smoking
- Thread starter Efejle
- Start date
Stay with it. Everything going on right now is all physical. You are withdrawing. By Saturday or Sunday the urges decrease signficiacnly
Hang tough, it is the "hardest damn thing". Drink lots of water and keep yourself occupied. Let us know how you're doing in a few days.
i used dip to wean off of cigs, then i used the tobacco free stuff to wean off of that. that wasn't the intent when i started to quit, it was just the way it happened
nicotine addiction is freaking hard....
nicotine addiction is freaking hard....
Before my heart attack my BP was horrendous, Cholestrol was 296, no exercise, diet was Philly cheesesteaks and Italian sandwiches, business pressure was extreme putting a new company together and smoking 2 and a half packs per day.
My cardiologist said as he operated - you decide - Live or Die...... I changed my diet, stopped smoking cold turkey, finished the company and listened to my Doctors.
That was May 14, 1999 - today I'm hangin' in - with heart meds, 6 heart ops with 4 stents, and beat Cancer with 28 radiation sessions.
Take care of yourself for the ones you love - after so many years, the body hurts but live the best you can.
My cardiologist said as he operated - you decide - Live or Die...... I changed my diet, stopped smoking cold turkey, finished the company and listened to my Doctors.
That was May 14, 1999 - today I'm hangin' in - with heart meds, 6 heart ops with 4 stents, and beat Cancer with 28 radiation sessions.
Take care of yourself for the ones you love - after so many years, the body hurts but live the best you can.
Keep moving. Don't sit here. Seriously. Keep moving, doing things, drink water when you feel a pang. It wears off and your body gets stronger every second, every minute, every day you don't smoke. You can win.
Very difficult. I finally kicked it using the patch but it took a couple of times.
If it could help my dad use to keep a toothpick in his mouth. And he kept a full carton of Winston on top of the fridge that he never smoked after he quit. He loved smoking and he never smoked after he quit. He also quit drinking a few years after that. He drank ginger ale to help with that. Miss him a lot.
Good luck, it's a pain but worth it! I'm not sure how well it works for cigs, but I used cytisine tablets to get off of nicotine pouches (I was using a ton of 15-20mg pouches per day). It's a nicotinic receptor agonist from Eastern Europe so it partially removes some of the cravings, to a manageable extent IMO. You do a cycle of tablets (take one every 2.5 hours for X days, then every 5 hours for X days, etc until 0) which lasts around a month.
Not sure why the Amazon link won't embed/show up, but you can Google around for cytisine/Desmoxan/Tabex. Can be hard to find as it's foreign but like I said worked for me.
Not sure why the Amazon link won't embed/show up, but you can Google around for cytisine/Desmoxan/Tabex. Can be hard to find as it's foreign but like I said worked for me.
I had to just decide. I was in a hospital, on oxygen, had to do exercises to reinflate my lung after falling and brake seven ribs along my backbone on one side. Had a tube in to the chest cavity for when I was doing lung inflation exercises, so the air in my chest cavity would escape, when I did my exercises. Just said I'm done. That was it, just quit.
Everybody has the best stop smoking device in their home. When you want a cig just take your pillow and hold it up to your face and try and breath through it, that's what your life will be like when you get older,. That is what my dad said when he was suffocating to death from a lifetime of smoking 2 packs of winstons every day.
I quit smoking at 38 when I watched him die from them. Quitting smoking was the hardest thing I ever did. I've read where it's as hard to quit nicotine as other hard drugs like heroin or cocaine etc, You can do it though, but you have to be a tuff f'er , and not a *****. It will be you against the nicotine beast that lives inside you. Everyday you must do battle with him, and you will win the war against the beast.it will just take time, a long time. Every day when you lay down to sleep you can say you won the battle that day with the beast but tomorrow will be a new battle you have to fight. Thats the little game I made of it to win the nicotine war within me.
I did use chantex, I couldn't take the full dose as it messed me up and would cut the pill in half.
Good luck!
I quit smoking at 38 when I watched him die from them. Quitting smoking was the hardest thing I ever did. I've read where it's as hard to quit nicotine as other hard drugs like heroin or cocaine etc, You can do it though, but you have to be a tuff f'er , and not a *****. It will be you against the nicotine beast that lives inside you. Everyday you must do battle with him, and you will win the war against the beast.it will just take time, a long time. Every day when you lay down to sleep you can say you won the battle that day with the beast but tomorrow will be a new battle you have to fight. Thats the little game I made of it to win the nicotine war within me.
I did use chantex, I couldn't take the full dose as it messed me up and would cut the pill in half.
Good luck!
Stick with it! Everyone is different but I was a 3 pack a day guy. Cold turkey quitter and about a week later I felt like a new man. Cough was gone, felt like I had more energy, and never looked back. Strange thing though, it took me about a year to not to reach in my shirt pocket to grab my pack out of my shirt pocket when talking to people. Looking back, I now think that was one of the easiest things I've ever done. Good luck!
I started out with Kool and Newports and then settled on True Menthol. Haven't smoked a cig in 20+ years.
Many of my friends were black.
I also was not a heavy smoker, maybe 1/4--1/2 pack a day at the end.
Last edited:
I admire the fortitude of each and every poster who has successfully kicked the smoking habit.
I smoked for 30 years and quit 25 years ago. Haven't had a single cigarette in those 25 years. I used Zyban to help. It is doable, but you cannot give up. It also takes most people more than 1 try. Hang in there and good luck. It can be done.
Quitting smoking is supposed to be harder than quitting heroin. One of my college roommates at Penn State smoked and I tried to get him to quit in coliege back in the late 70’s. I told him if kept on smoking he would die from lung cancer. He just couldn’t break the habit and only a couple of years after retiring my prediction unfortunately became true. The last time I saw him was at my daughter’s wedding and he was uncharacteristically quiet. I was told later he had developed COPD (emphysema) and was embarrassed to tell anyone about it. A couple years later he passed away from lung cancer, only about 3 months after he was diagnosed.
So I encourage you to follow through with your quitting the habit and the get surveillance lung CT scans in the future since you are at a higher risk of developing lung cancer. A small lung nodule can later turn into cancer, although a lot of nodules are benign, most are granulomas. That’s why follow up is important - just my two cents worth.
So I encourage you to follow through with your quitting the habit and the get surveillance lung CT scans in the future since you are at a higher risk of developing lung cancer. A small lung nodule can later turn into cancer, although a lot of nodules are benign, most are granulomas. That’s why follow up is important - just my two cents worth.
Sorry to see this thread (but glad you’re seeking some support!) as a reminder that smoking is still a thing. I recall dreading going out in my Boystown/Wrigleyville neighborhood for a quick weeknight meal or drink knowing that those clothes would need washed after only 1-2 hours. Ironically I packed up and moved to Seattle Jan 1, 2008, the exact day Chicago’s smoking ban went into effect (Seattle had been a few years ahead on that). I don’t miss the days of asking for a non-smoking section in a restaurant only to know the smoke was going to drift into it anyway.
(If I can find the right cue point maybe I’ll share Carlin’s routine about airlines where he asks about the pooping in the aisle section of the plane.)
(If I can find the right cue point maybe I’ll share Carlin’s routine about airlines where he asks about the pooping in the aisle section of the plane.)
A shot of really cheap whiskey, and a smoke. The next day, you'll wish you never saw a cigarette.
One after another.
One after another.
I quit 43 years ago. When I asked my wife to marry me she said only if I quit smoking (1-2 packs a day at the time). This was over Christmas/New Years, not a good time to try to quit.
I got a book, I think entitled "How to quit Smoking". The author quit smoking, decided to write a book and started smoking again to document the process that the body goes thru while withdrawing. I found it very close to the mark. Make it 2 weeks and you are over the hump. He had a couple incentives to quit. He said to put the money you spend on cigs away and buy something nice for yourself from time to time. He also said that when you have the urge to smoke have an alternative. I used Andre Mints.
I was told by my doc that I would gain 20 pounds after quitting. Gained about 40 and am now working to get that gone.
Good luck. It is worth it and in a year, you will realize it was the hardest physical thing you ever did but worth it in the long run.
I got a book, I think entitled "How to quit Smoking". The author quit smoking, decided to write a book and started smoking again to document the process that the body goes thru while withdrawing. I found it very close to the mark. Make it 2 weeks and you are over the hump. He had a couple incentives to quit. He said to put the money you spend on cigs away and buy something nice for yourself from time to time. He also said that when you have the urge to smoke have an alternative. I used Andre Mints.
I was told by my doc that I would gain 20 pounds after quitting. Gained about 40 and am now working to get that gone.
Good luck. It is worth it and in a year, you will realize it was the hardest physical thing you ever did but worth it in the long run.
Who knew this thread would end up being about how tough people are? Kudos, one and all.
Smoked a pack and a half a day for 45 years then quit almost 16 years ago. Very difficult but doable with the right mindset. Think about every day as a battle, not a war. Victorious armies may lose battles but they win the war eventually. That thinking got me over the hump every time I couldn’t resist lighting another one up until my war was won. Good luck.
I've been reading along here for a few days. I and many of my PSU brothers (and sisters?) have very similar experiences obviously. I am very impressed by these stories of perseverance. I've been in the unenviable position to have to quit both heavy smoking and drinking and neither was a picnic. Personal, dogged determination was the only real remedy for me, along with some help.
Smoking: I got lucky and contracted a major case of pneumonia. That may sound really strange, but I could not inhale any sort of smoke for more than two weeks. I was sicker than I've ever been and that became the catalyst for quitting cigarettes (Lucky Strike!). It has been 13 years, and I don't think about smoking every single day anymore. I still crave a smoke when I'm bored, stressed, frustrated, happy, sad, relaxed, etc. a few times per week. Bottom line; expect to crave cigarettes on some level for many years after you actually quit. The psychological associations that you've created over many years of smoking are some of the most enduring. When those 'triggers' pop up acknowledge them in your mind and move on.
Alcohol: In the end, I was so tired of being sick all the time that I had to quit drinking. I had tried to quit on my own more times that I can count but just couldn't do it on my own. It took me way too long to admit that to myself. People of a certain age are supposed to be strong and take care of things, but I couldn't. This became a mental roadblock and lent itself to more frustration and, of course, more drinking. I finally checked myself in to a detox and have not had a drop of alcohol since (6 years+).
Moral: Allow yourself to ask for and accept help. Positive supports are 'force multipliers' for overcoming difficult things. Giving up an addiction (or two) is a VERY difficult thing. Even then there will be many times that you are alone and completely free to f*** up your recovery. That's where the dogged determination will be needed.
Much luck!
Smoking: I got lucky and contracted a major case of pneumonia. That may sound really strange, but I could not inhale any sort of smoke for more than two weeks. I was sicker than I've ever been and that became the catalyst for quitting cigarettes (Lucky Strike!). It has been 13 years, and I don't think about smoking every single day anymore. I still crave a smoke when I'm bored, stressed, frustrated, happy, sad, relaxed, etc. a few times per week. Bottom line; expect to crave cigarettes on some level for many years after you actually quit. The psychological associations that you've created over many years of smoking are some of the most enduring. When those 'triggers' pop up acknowledge them in your mind and move on.
Alcohol: In the end, I was so tired of being sick all the time that I had to quit drinking. I had tried to quit on my own more times that I can count but just couldn't do it on my own. It took me way too long to admit that to myself. People of a certain age are supposed to be strong and take care of things, but I couldn't. This became a mental roadblock and lent itself to more frustration and, of course, more drinking. I finally checked myself in to a detox and have not had a drop of alcohol since (6 years+).
Moral: Allow yourself to ask for and accept help. Positive supports are 'force multipliers' for overcoming difficult things. Giving up an addiction (or two) is a VERY difficult thing. Even then there will be many times that you are alone and completely free to f*** up your recovery. That's where the dogged determination will be needed.
Much luck!
Best of luck quitting. My last cigarette was on October 24, 1980 at 3pm. I decided the day before to quit. I smoked 3 packs a day. I've held lit cigarettes at bars for friends who needed to visit the loo but never took a puff. Did I have cravings when I stopped......NO.
I cold turkeyed it 50 years ago. I went to a place where I had no access to cigarettes for 4 days. It was not fun. I have since given up alcohol and caffeine. Heart problems at 34 and today I am 78. Breathing is better than those three vices. Keep the faith.
My electrician Forman rolled in super hot one Monday morning we were like ‘wtf is your problem? “ he quit reds that am, we said hell no and bought him a lunch truck pack. Some things you should do by yourself
went from Pittsburgh to California for residency in 1989. In 1989 in Pittsburgh the "no smoking "section of a restaurant if there was one, was a table without an ash tray. But everyone in same dining room, so basically one big smoking section. And Pittsburgh in 80's was a heavy smoking town. Went to California which even then was called "Americas no smoking section". And related to your story, being away from smoking for even a little while how sensitive I became to the smell. We would go back Pittsburgh and boom right back into smoking culture and smell!! walked into hotel lobby in Oakland and smelled smoke because half the lobby "no smoking" and the other half "smoking". Brilliant!!
Father quit smoking on New Years eve 1979-80 after being a life time WWII 2 pack a day smoker. He went through bags of hard candies to help with the "put something in mouth" habit. But added years to his life. he still died from smoking related lung disease unfortunately. Years after he quit he said especially after good meal he still craved a cig, Hang in there your life will be better and longer
It's funny how you can remember things like that for this. I don't remember the day I quit but the week was in October 2002 and we were playing Wiscy out there, It was a very good game I think we won by 3 at the end. I figured If I could make it through that I was good to go...and I was for a while. I had a relapse probably about 4 years later but it only lasted a few weeks and ad then I quit for good. But yea it's tough to kick and I still every now and then have a craving but it goes away pretty quick.
And I was an Art Major so you're lucky they weren't Clove Cigs.
Guy on mhy dart team league was a pack a day guy. Smoked between matches all the time. He finally quit and now his dart averages have dropped considerably. It's a real problem in our line up now. Many on the team feel he needs to smoke one for the team.