Any advice?
your statement sounds strongly intentional, in which case i can suggest the method i eventually discovered & experienced as 100% successful nearly seven years ago - & that was after having been a smoker for over 40 years & 4 or 5 attempts at quitting over the last 20 of those years: cold turkey, the alan carr technique, acupuncture, nothing worked longer than two months or so.
then, due to health reasons, i became really determined & went to a hypnotherapist who guaranteed that i wouldn't want to touch tobacco again after the 60-minute session, or i could come back for another free session. it was ridiculously expensive, but as it worked just fine so far i got my money back more than 18-fold by now. ... & no cravings!
go for it, Paul, & all the best.
i helped my students to quit. this is what i told them to do (and they told me it worked):
count how many cigs you smoke in a day. divide that by 24.
whatever your result was in #1, smoke that many cigs per hour. i don't care if you're sleeping, in class, with a client, making love, excuse yourself and have those cigs.
after you can't stand this anymore, cut the number of cigs per hour by one.
by the time you get to zero you'll be so happy to have your life back!
g
This is the only method that has worked for me!
@JenBeberstein i am glad it worked!
g
I quit 12 years ago. I started with a list of all the positives and negatives of smoking. Whenever I lit up, I would think of all the negatives. It turned smoking from something I enjoyed, into a negative experience. Then I started practicing quitting, putting myself through the times i thought would be hardest, like in the drive to work, or home after work, after dinner, etc.. On my quit day, I told myself that I choose not to smoke again. There's nothing that a cigarette will help fix. I knew I would feel like crap for a few days, or longer, but that it was easier than chemo, and I would eventually feel better. Get a squishy ball, like something to keep your hands busy. Change your morning routine, take walks. It won't take long to start feeling the benefits.
Side note... I quit, my wife didn't. I just lost her to cancer a little over a month ago.
I quit a couple of years ago for good. I quit before but nothing stuck until I did it cold turkey.
My mother just did. It is very hard to bo but you are fully capable. On the advise of her pulmonologist just quit. He said that the drugs were really ineffective and that if a person wants to really quit they will. The best thing for her was finding something to put in her mouth like chewing gum or tootsie pops and such. She also keeps herself busy to keep her mind occupied. She finally took quitting seriously after being diagnosed with squamous cell lung cancer.
It is really hard to quit, but it can be done. Studies show that the more times a person attempts to quit, the more likely they are to become smoke free. It took me a long long time to quit. I had many attempts and failures while trying to quit. For me, it was limiting the amount I could smoke and the places I could smoke in, that finally worked (smoke free for 22 years now). Right before I quit for good, I was down to 1 cigarette a day for a whole year. You can do it!
Thank you. I have a game plan and I'm going to follow it
A lot of people I know say it’s the habit of doing something with your hands. So they pick up a new hobby. Eating Sunflower seeds, go for a quick light jog when feeling stressed out, carry a jug of water around, or anything to keep your mind and body busy from thinking about smoking.
Yeah me too, I just haven't convinced myself it is worth the discomfort. It's an old friend you know? A stinky, dirty expensive old friend but still....
I used to say that too until I woke up a few days ago coughing and struggling to breathe. I thought it was allergies. The next night I woke up doing the same thing, so I went to the doctors. It's not life threatening yet, but it soon will be. My Doctor said quit now or die a miserable suffocating death. I don't fear death I fear the process of dying.
My ex bought the nastiest pack he could find, locked himself in the garage and smoked until he puked, and smoked until he puked, and smoked until he puked and then he didn't want to do it anymore ? worked though!
I'm afraid at my age that might kill me, but that sounds like something a younger person might want to try.
Get pregnant. That's what finally helped me quit for good 21+ years ago.
Seriously though, one thing I encourage quitters to do is look online to see what happens to your body when you quit. There are timelines that show the positive effects after a few minutes and through the days, months and years. It's very encouraging to read.
A wise man once told me, "The only way to quit smoking is to say, 'I quit smoking.' and not lie."
So believe it until you achieve it?
Stop it!
I'm trying. Desperately. I've read that cigarette addiction can be harder to overcome than heroin addiction. I don't know if that's true because I've never been addicted to heroin but it's tough. I need a place to go to get through the detox.
@paul1967 Quitting smoking is nothing like quitting a heroin addiction. The physical withdrawals from cigarettes are minimal, it's mostly psychological. If you've smoked for long, upon quitting, you may go through a few days of physical symptoms. You may feel somewhat dimwitted is the best I can describe it. Beyond that, it's all psychological. I admit the psychological withdrawals can be bad, though.