Other The 'Brooxy is attempting to give up on smoking, and requires help' thread *UPDATED*

Good evening my fellow bit-techians

I come to you on the gravest of news - I have chosen to give up smoking to fund the purchase of a 1.9 MK4 VW Golf next year.

Anywho, I want to give up by October, and am coming to you for advice - I've already managed to half my nicotene intake over the last few days, but am really having trouble getting it any lower without become cranky / having cravings.

Have any of you given up? If so, have you got any tips

Hell I don't even want to smoke anymore, but keet going, as pathetic as that sounds...

 

I highly recommend Allen Carr's book, it helps you realise that the relief you get from smoking a cigarette, is simply the temporary cessation of the nicotine craving. Once you remove the nicotine, the need to fulfil the craving disappears, smoking does not make you relaxed or aid concentration, those feeling post smoke are simply the body's relief from having another hit of nicotine. Anyway helped me, 20+ a day smoker, smoke free for 3 years with no relapse.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Allen-Carrs-Easy-Stop-Smoking/dp/0140277633

 

I've never smoked but I know a few people that do and have quit. You said you managed to half your nicotine intake over the last few days, well done! Since you're aiming for October though, slow down

Once your body becomes accustomed to the new lower levels in a few weeks then half your intake again. Rinse and repeat

Good luck with it all

 

I'd say get hold of the NHS, they've got loads of ways and great support.

 

Dude, I can only wish you the best of luck. I've been trying on and off for a year or so, and the problems I find most are the support of those around you and routine.

Firstly, if any of your friends are smokers, see if it's possible that they don't smoke around you, or at least cut down and let them know not to offer you a smoke if they're having one. Secondly, try and replace your routine "smoke time" with something else. A cup of tea, a play of a sudoku or crossword, anything that occupies your hand in a way that isn't just replacement smoking (inhalators, etc), but is similar enough to retrain it (mug handle, pen). Sounds strange, I know!

My problem is working as a chef, not the least stressful of jobs. I'm also undergoing teacher training. Eep. Almost everyone else at the pub smokes, and the traditional break times are 'whenever it's quiet after a busy stretch', the perfect release after a stressful period for me are linked to cigarettes.

Just make sure your friends support you, and try to rejigger your smoke breaks with another activity. As DougEdey said, the NHS is also a great help.

A friend of mine gave up using the NHS Stop Smoking group meetings, supplemented by a pill called Champix. Champix dulls the nicotine receptors in the brain so that when you smoke the effect of the nicotine is reduced as the dosage of Champix increases to it's week 3 or 4 stage. Eventually your brain stops relating smoking to getting the hit of nicotine, and the cravings stop. The beauty of this solution is that the process of quitting occurs as a natural choice from your brain deciding it can't get it's nicotine fix from smoking anymore. There's obviously the willpower involvement too, and it's far from a miracle cure, but my friend said it was staggering how he felt about having a cigarette after a few weeks.

Hope I can help a fellow attempt-to-quitt-er!

 

I don't want to throw a dampener on things, but do you have to buy a Mk.4? You'd be better off with a Mk.5 or a Mk.2...

Good luck with giving up though, the NHS are supposed to be very good, as are those replacement ciggys.

 

Chantix.

Works.

john

 

NHS! Excellent support network.

And yeah, why a Mk.4? Flabby, to the max - it went from 790kg in the Mk.I to 1260 by the Mk.4, and the horsepower didn't rise at the same rate... Quit now, and get a Mk.V!

 

How strange, I'm at exactly the same point!

I got to the same stage last year, and lost interest, so went back up to 20-25/day.

Need to make a proper effort this year though.

 

I'd agree with the NHS as a starting point.

However, not from personal experience mind, once you 'finish' the NHS system you need your own willpower to not start again, obviously.

Setting something expensive (How much is a golf?) as a goal is great to start quitting anything, and keep off until you get it, but I'd imagine that you'd need to have something else to either do or think about once the car is bought. You might be fine by that stage and not feel the desire to.

Maybe sunflower seeds?

Do you work/live/hang around with smokers?

 

That sounds like a good idea - I was speaking to my dad a few months ago, and he said he only did it with the mental state of 'I don't want to quit, I don't want to smoke' - I've been using that idea so far, and it's going well

October is more the latter limit - I want to be totally clean by that point. I've even got a £150 bet with my girlfriend that I don't smoke anything from the start to the end of October (she knows I'm pretty hepped up on wanting the car, and has done the bet as an incentive)

As for getting used to the limits, I'm already feeling used to them - I've managed to cut a lot out of my routine, like smoking in the car on the way to work - instead I'm just turning the music up a tad and singing - can be quite embarrasing in a traffic jam though, when it's a hot summers day and the windows is open...

I've been avoiding drinking aswell, instead I've been doing the driving for pub trip, therefore don't touch a drop, and feel less inclined to smoke.

Also lots of calling for the NHS going on, and Champix - I'm going to get onto them this afternoon

Sunflower seeds?

And I work with a lot of smokers, and socialise with a lot when I'm not at work. Thats the hardest bit to be honest, when the smell of fresh smoke comes across passively...

To be honest, I'd love a Mk2 or a MK3, the newer they get the less charm they seem to have.

It's looking quite hard to find a good example of a Mk2 in the area (althugh this my change nearer the time I come to buy one), and the MK3...actually thinking about it I can't think of anything wrong with it apart from the age...

As for the Mk4, the main selling point is the inside - it feels like a nice place to sit - and it just about fits in my £2500 - £3000

 

Yeah, I've heard people have success quitting by giving themselves something else to do that's not quite as life threatening. Sunflower seeds are a ******* to open for what you get, but it's distracting from the whole.. "I want to stick some death in my mouth" urge, so I hear.

Yeah, that's what killed my uncles desire to quit, I think. I guess, after time, you'll smell it the same way most of us non-smokers do - badly.

 

I quit smoking 8 years ago last month. I tried the patch, the gum, cutting down...etc.etc. What finally worked for me was just quitting cold turkey.
I picked a date ~30 days away and marked it on the calender. Everyday I would mark off a day mentally preparing for the big day. On the evening before the big day, I washed all my clothes, shampooed the carpet, washed the walls and collected everything to do with smoking (cigs, lighters, ash trays) in one area. When it was time to go to bed I shredded the cig's and broke the ash trays and lighters and threw them in a dumpster.
From the next morning on, any time I wanted a cigarette I reminded myself that I don't smoke anymore and kept myself busy. I also quit going out the boozer for a year to keep from relapsing.
The first week is the roughest and if you can make it 30 days, not smoking becomes a habit.
I still have the occasional dream that I still smoke but no urge.

 

My dad used polo's first time he quit when he fancied a cig, then after he had his second heart attack after re-starting he just did it with will power.

Although NHS programs are good I hear.

 

I was wondering actually, how many people on Bit-Tech forums smoke who want to quit? Perhaps we could arrange some sort of mass quit-a-thon to support each other quitting? Just an idea, sure that over-the-internet stop smoking support groups would be next to pointless, but quitting with someone else always seems to help, because you feel guilty for "cheating on them"

 

My Grandfather had pretty bad emphysema due to smoking for 40 years (he gave up in his early 60s). It still got him - he couldn't walk 10 yards without being out of breath. He also had lung cancer, which spread to many other areas of his body.

Best of luck, and don't end up in the same state as my Grandpa

 

I tried Champix, and it's not for everyone. There is a big list of potential side effects too. I couldn't sleep on them, and ended up packing them in. I wasn't taking them long enough to comment on how successful they would have been in my quest to stop smoking, as you start taking them before you quit, and stop a week or two after starting the course of tablets. By the second week of taking the tablets, I wa getting around 2hrs sleep a night. I was also prone to mood swings with them. I don't want to put anyone off trying them, but they should be aware that there can be problems with taking Champix.

I still haven't managed to stop yet, and have been smoking since I was 14. I am now 36 and I can feel the damage that over 20yrs of smoking has done to my body. My wife stopped smoking really easily, and I tried at the same time, but I still enjoy smoking too much to be honest. Once that changes a little maybe I will manage to stop.

 

This might help.

 

Yeah, just like images like these will stop people drinking





On another note, I hate the fact that people bitch about smoking and the load it puts on the NHS, but many of these people find it socially acceptable to go out and get plastered every weekend. Alcohol abuse is a much bigger social and health problem than smoking ever has been, but it's become trendy to label smokers as second class citizens and the scourge of the modern world. I don't smoke around my family, and only smoke in my garage or outside in the garden. I don't smoke in the car or in front of my kids. I choose to smoke, and I take every precaution to ensure that my habit doesn't affect others, so why should I be made to feel guilty for it by the anti smoking lobby? If I do manage to quit, it will be because I wanted to, not because it was socially correct to do so.

 

Sadly, years of use of the internet has completely numbed me to pictures of grotesquery. When you've seen pictures of a man's head chopped in half by a helicopter, a picture of someone's tumor on a cigarette packet seems relatively tame.