OT: PING ex-smokers

Take a full pack of cigarettes and nail it to the wall in a spot you can't miss seeing everyday. Every time you walk by it, ask yourself who is stronger or more hardheaded, the pack of cigarettes or you.

cheers T.Alan

Do you smoke because you want to? Or because you *have* to?

I'm so thankful I don't *have* to smoke any more. Doesn't mean I don't want to... But I don't. And that's really all that matters.

When that old addiction cranks up, do something else for a while. Let it pass.

Richard

I'm hiring a concubine when I stop smoking! LOL

JC

LOL! Well, do ya feel lucky, punk?

Hey Tom,

I probably "quit" 10 different times, so this is not a tip, but for me it was a case of just saying "Thanks, but I don't smoke." ......both to myself, and to anyone who asked or offered. Nothing a smoker likes more than tempting anyone who says "I quit." Of course, that all happened after I had only smoked for about 30 odd years. Little over

Take care. Good luck.

Brian Lawson, Bothwell, Ontario.

I got awful damned lucky when I went on the patch 16 years ago, Perhaps it was determination or to quote SWMBO "Pigheadedness" Gerry :-)} London, Canada

I went to a hypnotist once. That worked for about a year and a half. But they had cigarettes at that Seven-Eleven as I was driving past and I caved.

Try the hypnotist. It actually works. They will tell you to replace cigarettes with Tic-Tacs for as long as it takes the urge to settle down and get you over the hump of quitting. Then it is just a daily fight. Dave

On Wed, 25 Mar 2009 22:51:28 -0400, the infamous "Buerste" scrawled the following:

Remember that quitting smoking is a simple decision. Make the decision to stop and you're more than halfway home, but until you do, it'll be hell on you. It's your choice.

Taper down to less than half a pack a day. Going cold turkey after that is much easier on the bod. I took up chewing sugarless bubble gum to replace the oral fixation and playing with my pen/pencil to handle some of the manual fixation.

Cold turkey is the way, because as long as you're putting that drug into your system (patches, gum, etc.), it's going to want you to keep doing so. Patches and gum are expensive substitutes, not a cure.

Repeat to yourself "I no longer wish to smell like a dirty ashtray to myself and everyone around me." Once you've quit, you'll realize more and more what that smells like on your friends and workers who smoke. It will reinforce the decision.

G'luck, Tawm.

P.S: What type of aliens were you inhaling, sir?

--LJ, 21 years stink-free in Feb. (and 24 years sober in Aug)

Hypnosis follow by nicotine gum.

I took a group Hypnosis session offered locally by the American Lung Assn. years ago. Fortunately they offered a cassette tape for later reinforcement. I used this tape for quitting several times over the next few years with great success.

In the early years I also used the nicotine patch. It too was very helpful, but the gum worked best for me. The gum puts immediate relief right where you crave it the most. Read the instructions carefully though, you have to learn how to chew it. If you try to just chew it like regular gum, you will not like it.

I found that between hypnosis and nicotine gum it is actually pretty easy to quit. The hard part is not relapsing a few weeks later. I wouldn't recommend using the nicotine gum for more than a few weeks either. It becomes a habit in it's self that will cause you to desire a cigarette. Switch to tic tacs, or sugar free gum to loose the nicotine gum after three to four weeks.

Good luck, and don't give up. It will be three years for me in July.

Have the doc tell you in graphic detail what your prognosis is if you don't quit. That's what worked for me.

Buerste,

In addition to the good advice so far, try to put together a support group prior to quitting. Talk about it to family, friends, co- workers, doctor, even the folks here on RCM ;-).

The more people who are pulling for your success, the easier it will be.

I'm about 18-months smoke-free now, still want one some days. I was able to quit a 35-year habit with the help of the patch, three-steps down over 6-weeks. YMMV as they say. Good luck and let us know how it's going for you.

"Buerste" wrote in message news:J4Cyl.10661$% snipped-for-privacy@nlpi070.nbdc.sbc.com...

well like everybody else I had no trouble quitting. It was just stayin quit that gave me the problem. What finally worked was when my two daughters gave me a goodnight kiss they would say: " You smell like a dead ash tray". With this buggin the back of my mind, I attended a managment seminar where one of the excercises was to stand really close, nost to nose, to a series of people and say something to them. In that series was several really attractive ladies. During that excercise my daughters reminder kept burning my ears. I don't know if I just imagined it but I think that I could see those ladies flinch back away from me "Smelling like a Dead Ash Tray". I knew, and I really mean that I knew, that I was quitting. It was two days later I smoked a cigarette and with a partial pack in my pocket didn't light one up for several years. I literally did not have the urges that I had experienced in my prior attempts. Then one night at a party someone lit up and it smelled good so I tried one. Waugh!! I was a non-smoker. I haven't had an urge since then. The only thing that I can account for in my success is that my decision to quit came from a very deep commitment. I now know it can be done, but I don't know exactly how to tell someone else to do it. You might try standing very close infront of some very attractive women. Watching them flinch was very motivating for me. I would like to try it again now that I'm a non smoker. It should be a lot more enjoyable now.

Hello Tawm,

It took a couple of motivators. I told everyone I knew, "You'll never see me smoke again." It would have made me feel like an idiot if I'd started again. But the main thing that worked was the realization that someone else---the cigarette companies---had been pulling my strings and pushing my buttons for about ten years. Once I really realized that---in my gut---it was like a hammer blow; and quitting suddenly became a lot easier.

It's not easy, though. 23+ years later, I occasionally smell cigarette smoke and think "I could start again, just like that." But it's more of a casual thought than a real temptation. Usually I find tobacco smoke offensive.

(Have to say that I married a gem. She hated the smell of smoke but married me anyway. Never nagged me about quitting but I knew how she felt about it. She was just patient...and eventually it paid off.)

Best -- Terry ...who would really like to have your participation and advice on RCM for the next forty or fifty years, if that's ok... :-)

A ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm (Medical AAA) done it for me. Haven't smoked since. My feet hurt too, just months before it happened. Had stints put in iliac arteries earlier.

I was lucky. I can hear the squad leave the firehouse from my house. Hospital was near by. My cardiac surgeon was in the hospital and my wife found him when she heard him paged and beat him to where he was going in the hospital. He ordered me prepped for surgery. Everything came together at the right time for me to still be able to type this.

My understanding is a low percentage survive these when they rupture. On a scale of ten, the pain is an eleven or higher. You'll want to miss this opportunity.

I was in the operating room 10 plus hours per wife. Week in Critical Care Unit (CCU), week in recovery. Got to come home then because of good behavior and Wife's prior medical training.

I take a nap about 2pm every day now still because my feet start to hurt by now. Still have low curculation in lower limbs.

Still don't smoke anymore.

I psyched myself up by telling myself how stupid I am to be smoking when I know it is draining my wallet and is going to kill me.

Then one night a rather arrogant coworker that I had to work with announced that he had will power and could quit anytime he could. I said fine, you quit and I'll quit too.

He stayed quit while we still worked together but years later, I ran into him, he had started again.

The extra incentive to win was what worked but as I said, I'd been working on myself mentally so I was ready on that day. May 6, 1986 7:25PM EST

Wes

Tell everyone you're going out of town for a week, buy several dozen packs of Trident gum, go home, and don't expect to leave.

FLUSH (don't throw them away, you'll crawl on the floor and pick them out of the trash) every cigarette and every butt you can find, and break all of your ashtrays.

For three days you will be literally stark raving mad. Expect this. Don't fight it. Let yourself go mad.

During this time, you can do anything else you want. Overeating. Breaking windows. Kicking the wall. Screaming and cussing at the wall. Whatever it takes (probably except for drinking or other smoke-enabling activities).

Whatever it takes.

After 72 hours, you will be over most of the physical addiction.

Whenever you would normally smoke, chew the Trident. You can worry about breaking the Trident habit later.

Good luck.

Jon

There is a clue! Just quit buying the damn things!! I quit 25 years ago, and still would get cravings until a few years ago. It was maybe 5 years ago the last time I thought I "needed" one. Greg

Does she have a sister?

Tom

I quite for the 99th and final time about 12 years ago, the patch worked for me YMMV. For me I just had to realize that I couldn't have "just one". I had "just one" the 1st 98 times. I still can't and never will be able to have "just one". I needed about 12 hours of sleep a night for month and slowly tapered down to my normal 6 over about 18 months. It took about 3 years for all the areas of my lungs to open up again.

Best wishes and good luck

CarlBoyd