Quittin' Smoking

[pumpy]

Are there any ex-smokers out there? My Jackie is making yet another valiant attempt to quit, but she is struggling! Any words of encouragement from me are meaningless. She needs some practical advise from someone who has been there. ( we are now on day 4). Any herbal aids, or similar? In the past, she has taken a course of tablets( zyban, champex),to no avail. At the moment on patches, which were working last December, until a good friend of ours died (ironically, from cancer). Any ideas?

[Millymollymandy]

Can't help as I failed miserably with Champix but interested in any helpful replies you get!

[Penny Lane]

I quit a year and 5 months ago but I don't know if it'd work for your Jackie - I got pregnant

I know how hard it is, tried quitting so much but I always went cold turkey. Tried nicotine gum once but it drove me back to them!

Not much help sorry, I wish Jackie lots of luck in quitting

[lsm1066]

I know how hard it is to give up smoking because I did it dozens of tiimes. I know that sounds like a cliche but it's true. I decided to try to give up when I had kidney surgery 7 years ago but all that happened was that I didn't smoke for the week I was in hospital or the week after when I couldn't leave the house. But they first place I went when I was allowed out (and the 5 minute walk took me nearly and hour and a half) was to the shop to buy fags.

What did it for me was hypnotherapy. I had one session and I've not wanted a cigarette since. For some people it takes a few sessions. It just depends on the individual. And on the face of it, it can be expensive. But if you compare it to the cost of smoking (and I'm talking money here, not health), it's not that bad. But what surprised me was that I had no withdrawal, no mood swings, in fact none of the symptoms you'd normally get when going cold turkey after taking a drug for a long time. And I suppose that helped me too, because I didn't see myself as a smoker. I saw myself as a drug addict. I smoked my last fag on my way to the appointment and that was that. But the other good thing about it has been that even though I don't smoke, other people smoking doesn't bother me at all, which it always did when I tried to give up before.

So good luck from me, because it's a pig of an addiction to try to kick (nicotine is more addictive than heroin, which is why 3:4 women give up alcohol altogether when they're pregnant but only 1:4 smokers manage to give up).

Hope that helps
Lynne

[Millymollymandy]

Lynne I'm interested to know if you still put on weight or not with the hypnotherapy? Presumably you didn't eat more after quitting that way? It does sound an interesting option but I don't know whether hypnotherapy in French would work for me!

[Odsox]

Can't really help either other than to say if she's got to day 4 she is just about over the worst of it.
I gave up smoking about 5 years ago after smoking continuously for 40 years and what did it for me was a silly cliché remark Robin Williams gave in one of his films.
He said "In this world there are smokers and non-smokers, you have to decide which one you are" and I decided I wanted to be a non-smoker.
No patches, chewing gum, pills or hypnotherapy, just a desire to be free of it.

[Loobyloo]

My OH has tried giving up a few times over the last 3 years, what always lures him back is a) stress and b) the company of other people smoking when he's out socially.

Interested by the hypnotherapy, might look into that for him......

[Annpan]

A friend of mine used to lend out a quit smoking book, all her friends quit immediately after reading, but not the friend who owned the book..... different things for different people....

The book was full of sudo-hypnotism phrases like "cigarettes are not addictive, the tobacco companies just want you to think they are" - If anyone can help me with the title, that would be great.

I never smoked very much, and one day decided it was to expensive (in so many ways) a social habit, and stopped. I can imagine that it is easier now that smoking is banned everywhere.

But I think ultimately as Odsox says, you have to really want to stop.

[lsm1066]

But I think ultimately as Odsox says, you have to really want to stop.

I totally agree. I gave up when I was pregnant with my first and only started again after my youngest was born. The problem there was that I was giving up form them, not for me. You have to want to do it or it's never going to happen.

And to answer a couple of other questions, no, I didn't put on any weight. I was already a lardy to start with ;) and hypnotherapy might work better in another language because it works on the sub-concious, and there's not much more sub-concious than a completely different language. If you're surrounded by it every day, your sub-concious is taking it in, even if you're not. It's how people who believed they were German (for instance) in a past life discovered that they actually had a German child minder or nanny when they were a baby.

hth

Lynne
xxx

[Millymollymandy]

Can't really help either other than to say if she's got to day 4 she is just about over the worst of it.

From personal experience day 4 was easy in comparison. For me it got harder and harder and I started again on day 21 which was the day that stupid Alan Carr book said the drug had left the body and one was no longer addicted. I could think of NOTHING else except cigarettes for the 3 whole weeks and the cravings got worse and worse until I decided I would rather die of cigarette related disease than live my life in a constant craving and unable to think of anything except I NEED A FAG NOW.

My husband managed 12 weeks the year before and it got worse and worse for him too until he got to the point that he either lit a fag or drowned himself in our lake. That bad.

Would still like to stop but next time I get into the mood to do it I will use nicotine chewing gum as I know that actually takes away the craving as I used it when it first came out.

I tried patches and lasted 4 whole hours and I climbed the walls in madness during those 4 hours!

[Annpan]

.... I would rather die of cigarette related disease than live my life in a constant craving and unable to think of anything except I NEED A FAG NOW.

That makes me so sad MMM, please don't say that

[Enormous Sage]

A friend of mine used to lend out a quit smoking book, all her friends quit immediately after reading, but not the friend who owned the book..... different things for different people....

The book was full of sudo-hypnotism phrases like "cigarettes are not addictive, the tobacco companies just want you to think they are" - If anyone can help me with the title, that would be great.

Sounds like "The Only Way to give up smoking" by Alan Carr.
Tis a good book. He was on 80 a day (yes 80!) and gave up.
Edit : I see it's already been mentioned. I should pay more attention!

I've been going since christmas using the patches (on prescription - you need to visit a "smoking cessation" clinic at the doctor and they'll give you a couple of months supply).
I don't want a cig anymore. I just don't want one.

The thing I found that helped the most was to work out how much money I was spending on cigs : £5 a day. Then add it up (even over a week) and see what else you could have bought with just that money. Then add it up over a year.
Then over 10 years...

How much have I spend in the time I've been smoking? Enough to buy myself a brand new Land Rover Defender, that's how much.

[TheGoodEarth]

The book was full of sudo-hypnotism phrases like "cigarettes are not addictive, the tobacco companies just want you to think they are" - If anyone can help me with the title, that would be great.

Was it Allen Carr - The Easyway to Stop Smoking? This is the book I used and I can't recommend it enough. It was enjoyable stopping using this method. It has a 95% success rate. If anyone is serious about stopping you must read this. My only words of caution would be to ensure to set the time aside to read the whole book because you will find an excuse to not finish it (the evil weed at work). You should also continue smoking until its finished.

[Annpan]

Sounds like that was the one then guys, but as I say, never worked for my friend.... just all the people that borrowed it.

[TheGoodEarth]

She probably didn't finish it or follow all of the instructions. This is crucial. For the 5% who fail there is also a follow up called The Easyway to Stop Smoking - PERMANENTLY. You can also get these on CD - good luck.