Care to cross fingers for husband and me? We're trying to cut back or stop smoking!

[DDD]

Thanks Esther. When I finally quite (almost 14 years ago and lasting 12 years) I did cold turkey with Nicorette to supplement the addiction. Now after a year and a half "back on the weed" I am not psyched for that stress. I detest husband's cigar smoking and since he is 79 there's no doubt that he will benefit from quitting. So...I'm trying to work in tandem with him and using the same rules you have. It's amazing how often the habit has nothing to do with need. Analyzing it...I smoke to relieve stress, I smoke when I'm bored, I smoke by habit with coffee etc. Most of the smoking I do is not based on nicotene need. Like you I will be satisfied if I get down to five or ten a day. Then, after I'm accustomed to that, I assume I'll be able to dwindle down to an eventual zero. I'm glad to hear that you have made such progress. Thanks for the support. DDD

 

[HaoZi]

As for during the deed - THAT takes TALENT...

Nah, just the right position. Cig and ashtray over here... book right there... If he didn't get the hint that I wasn't interested, sooner or later the sound of page turning would, lol.

 

[DDD]

DDD

 

[Hound dog]

 

[ML]

Good luck D, you can do it!

 

[DDD]

For some reason we did not do as well over the weekend. I tried to stay busy. husband kinda settled into his old habit pattern. Trying to face the work week with renewed dedication. Yuk! I'm not giving up. DDD Thanks for all the support....and especially the HUGE laugh I got from HaoZi's post! DDD

 

[Hound dog]

Being distracted by school or work always helped me. My smoking will drop dramatically with both. Home is just harder........unless I can find enough things to keep me busy. Which I mean seriously there is only so much cleaning/yard work a person can do before there isn't any more. Then I try to take on walking the dogs when I want one........cuz I won't smoke on a walk, ever. Now if the weather would just cooperate, I'd have it made.

 

[Star*]

Licorice root - kinda pricey but helps the hand to mouth habit and tastes like cigarettes......

Also - find a pickle jar -fill with 3 cups water - and dump all your old ashes an butts into it. The Lung assoc. said the jar was your lung, the water was your villae(sp) and the butts and junk was what cigarettes do to your tissue. Take a whif every time you get an urge - lid on no problem - lid off inhale? OMG - barf.

Put up pictures of putrified lungs - all over the place - visual reminders of what you do NOT want to happen.

Write the Lung association and the American Heart Association for free information - they LOVE to hand out stuff.

Tell yourself every cigarette or cigar is really a dog turd - tastes like a dog turd, smells like a dog turd. It worked for me. No joke. Not that I ever smoked dog turds but you get my point.

And tootsie pops.....suckers helped me more than anything - again - mouth to hand habit. eventually tell yourself you will have LESS suckers -

 

[AnnieO]

Hmm... I still have boredom problems. But given what I am doing right now... I'm having NO problem overcoming that!!!

 

[Junglelandmama]

You can do it DDD! I am on 2 1/2 months of NO cigs, zero! But...I do chew Nicorette gum about 8 times a day. So, still getting nicotene, but in a slightly more healthy way. I will start cutting down the gum soon, but at least I don't smell like an ashtray anymore! I hated that part.

Hang in there, keep your hands busy, chew gum, eat sunflower seeds, whatever works!

Hugs of luck

 

[HaoZi]

I've been told that the Pyramid brand cigarettes are so nasty you'll quit. I said the same thing about those Marlboro Virginia Blend. Ewwwww.

 

[DDD]

I'm slipping today. Geez, what a complicated addiction this is. I haven't given up but have to admit I am on the slippery slope as new stressors hit my life. DDD

 

[AnnieO]

It never mattered to me what cigs I smoked. Hated Camels but would smoke them if they were there!

Funny though. I'm doing better on sheer willpower than I was on Chantix. I ***knew*** I could. I just needed the proper incentive! LOL

 

[DDD]

I tried Chantix about six months ago or so. It really sapped my energy and made me nauseaus. Once again I am waiting for a little calmness to come along and then I'll try harder. Meanwhile, I am back a few steps but not chain smoking. Guess that will have to do for this week. DDD

 

[AnnieO]

The nausea and anxiety while I was on Chantix was AWFUL. I put up with it for a while, then just dropped it. I still have most of the box on my dresser - I figure when husband needs it, it's there. Too expensive to throw out.

 

[Hound dog]

Chantix worked miracles for me.........but I still couldn't just put them down after only a week. I was no where near ready. Almost 3 wks in it had me down to maybe 3 cigs a day.....sometimes less than that even. Was getting ready to just forget the cigs........when we needed to refill and didn't have the cash to do so. ugh Now they advertise that dosing is different for people with kidney issues.

Darringer (probably spelled wrong) cigars.....same size as cigarettes even has a filter. Will knock you on your butt. A pack cost under 2 bucks. I smoked MUCH less on them...........also developed a nasty cough, so stopped.

 

[Malika]

Good luck DDD! As an ex-smoker (gave up some years ago and can't imagine being a slave to cigarettes again - but it's probably like an alcoholic and one should never say never...), here is another voice saying you can definitely do it. And not only that, that life is incomparably better without the wicked weed...
Do you have the Allan Carr books in the States? This is how I gave up and it is truly very effective. Basically his premise is that you are not GIVING UP anything by stopping smoking, not sacrificing any pleasure... you are freeing yourself, walking out of prison... Alleluia!!
His idea, which makes sense, is that the idea that having a cigarette is a pleasure is an illusion. It seems like a pleasure because it relieves the nicotine cravings. If you don't have nicotine withdrawal symptoms, there is nothing to relief and no "pleasure". Try a cigarette after years (or even weeks) of not smoking - it tastes truly disgusting. No pleasure in it at all.
And the freedom of not having to even think about when I can get my next "fix"... of having to clog up my arteries and make myself wheeze... I hope you can step outside the prison gates too

 

[DDD]

Malika I quit for twelve years. It was wonderful being free of "the need". About eighteen months ago I was under extreme stress and made the BIG mistake of lighting "one". How I wish it had tasted gross but it didn't. It was like rediscovering a long lost friend. :2dissapointed: Major bummer!

I started smoking a bit when I was twelve. My BFF and I would hoard butts and then have a smoke athon when we could escape adult eyes. I did quit when I was pregnant in the 60's but once I had GFGmom I started back in a big way. Many times I tried (with varying success) but I didn't really quit until I was 56! At 68 I made the dreaded mistake of having one. Dumb!

On the brighter side I do believe I will kick the habit soon. It may not be in a week or a month but I will have the right combination to get back to my smoke free days before my next birthday....and likely before summer. I'm not giving up! Thanks to all for the encouragement. DDD

 

[Malika]

DDD, I perhaps should have explained that I am intimately familiar with the processes of giving up and re-starting smoking... At one time I thought I was the world's expert on the psychology of why giving up seems so impossible when you are a smoker and why smoking seems so disgusting and unnecessary when you are not!! I too gave up for many years first, then started again because of a big emotional stress, like you. And actually that was always my trigger - stress, like the alcholic with the drink. When you say that first cigarette after 12 years tasted great, I do understand that - not the taste of it, but the sensation of something that somehow "contains" or "alleviates" the trauma... And there is something in cigarettes, so I have read, that does actually act on some part of the brain that calms stress - I am not a scientist, as you can tell, and have retained none of the details
Anyway, suffice it to say that overcoming that stress cigarette compulsion is NOT easy but can be done nevertheless... I think I always need to make a mistake again and again, right to the end of the mistake, until I finally learn that it's better simply not to make it...
GOOD LUCK!

 

[AnnieO]

I never thought cigarettes tasted nasty. The smell, on someone's breath or clothing? UGH! But not the taste. So I get that, too.