Advice from ex smokers please!!

[crookesey]

I'm currently 17 days smoke free and using patches. I was smoking 25 to 30 a day, but brought large quantites back from Spain twice a year, they are half the price. The volcano fiasco put paid to a trip to Spain and I'm buggered if I'm going to pay £50.00 p/w. I needed an excuse and this was it, had I travelled I would still be smoking, thank god for volcanos.

[*Peaches*]

It will pass, just keep focusing on how fit and great you will feel for kicking the habit!

[SaxonLeigh]

I stopped smoking 2 & 1/2 years ago now & its is totally the best thing i have ever done. I couldnot have done it without the use of the internet & the bags of information & suport i found.

 

The best site & the one i used daily is the one i have posted in my signature. Nearly all the other quite smoking sites i looked at encouraged you to buy nicotine replacement products & i had countless failed atempts at using various things. I decided that the only way i was truley going to quit was cold turkey. I know this isnt for everyone & many many people quit using quit aids but it just wasnt for me.

 

What helped was understanding what my body & mind was going through & what i could do to help it & what attitude to aproach it in. Everything you are experiencing now is normal & you can get through it.

 

I tried to keep in mind what having a cigarette after having quit for so long would achieve. How would i feel if i had one. I knew it would only make me feel more depressed because i had failed in yet another quit attempt & those feelings wernt worth it.

 

I would only tackle that day. In a morning i would get up & say to myself that i could get through another day of not smoking, i had done xamout of days & one more day wouldnt hurt. At the end of said day i would reward myself & pat myself on the back for a day well done. This helped keep me positive about quitting.

 

Turn all the negative thoughts about quitting in to positive ones. Dont be thinking that you are depriving yourself of smoking, you arnt. Tell yourself that you are doing yourself a favour by not smoking.

 

I kept a quit smoking diary & read it back to myself quite alot, i still do now sometimes even tho i dont get any cravings what so ever anymore (sometimes i forget i ever smoked). It helps me to remember just what i have come through & how hard it was. I dont ever what to have to do it again.

 

Keep positive, you will get through this, you have got this far & that is amazing.

[Bloomdido]

I am almost two years stopped. I went cold turkey the day we moved house and after a few weeks, I didn't miss them at all. Still don't. My daughter smokes and it smells disgusting.

[Ms Macbeth]

Its more than 15 years since I stopped after smoking for over 30 years. I would encourage anyone who has managed even for a short time to stick at it, because it is worth it and you'll feel so proud to be a non-smoker! Now I have grandchildren, I'm ashamed I smoked round my own children when they were young. They luckily haven't suffered and don't smoke themselves - big relief. Now I'm retired, I don't know how people on pensions can afford cigs as well as food - it must cost at least £30-£40 a week.

[rosie]

I am on my 8th week of not smoking and did it with out patches or anything,mind you its been har but i do think i am over the worst now.Absynthfairy keep going your doing good;-)

[pippadoll]

I am almost five years as a non-smoker now and it was the best decision I ever made. i went through exactly the same absynth but vowed never to give in when I had got that far. Not a sniff or a drag.

 

It is really difficult, but you are doing so, so well. The worst is over; you will still eat more for a while and you will probably get a few infections/sore throats.

 

I hope you make it through; don't worry about any weight gain, you can lose that when you are over the cigarettes when you will probably want to take advantage of your improving lungs and take up some light exercise. Another advantage of giving up.

[iansheff]

Just keep abstaining, I stopped almost 31 years ago, I just said thats it and stopped, I used to smoke Park Drive for years then B & H. To be honest never missed them.

[harvey19]

It is all down to willpower. If you really want to stop you will do.

My father stopped smoking at 80 years old after smoking all his life from the age of 15. He did not have any patches or any other aides to help him stop.

[Spacecat]

Well done Absynthfairy !!! I stopped 16 years ago.... (cold turkey....from 40-50 a day to 0 instantly )....and it was the best thing I've ever done in my whole life .

I've no experience regarding the aids that you've so wonderfully made use of ..but ... I do have a little tip I'll share with you regarding your motivation ... KEEP YOUR HANDS BUSY.. . In my case I started knitting again and bought some gorgeous white baby wool and a new pattern . The concentration level took away my craving for a ciggie and my hands out of the biscuit barrel ...lol.......I would have been ashamed to hand over a beautifully knitted matinee jacket covered in choccie fingermarks and smelling of stale smoke .

Keep up the good work ...you'll have every reason to be chuffed with yourself ..