I was on Rebetron therapy for hepatitis C and I was so weak and tired that I had to do something. I had already quit drugs and alcohol so the cigarettes had to go. April 1, 2001.
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I have been smoking for many years now. I am normally a strong willed person with good self discipline. But when it comes to nicotine, I have been a wussy and nicotine has owned me for half a life time. I can not use the anti-smoking drug, Chantix, as it is on the FAA's no fly list because they say it may cause suicidal tendencies.
What worked for you? I would really appreciate any suggestions you may have.
I was in bed with the worst case of the flu, probably 6 days really sick, then just feeling crappy for another week. I was never one to smoke when I was sick, so decided after I got better to give it a shot. I had broken the physical addiction, it was all in my head at that point and can be a stubborn bastard. So I quit.
I was trying to quit anyway so being sick gave me a head start.
I have friends who have tried and can’t do it. I honestly think you need to want it. Bad.
Good luck.
Vaping. I have 7 years off the smokes and vaping has insured no relapses for me.
Systematic weaning. I broke down my smoking times to certain times of day. First step was half a cigarette each time. Next step was to gradually reduce the amount of times I smoked down to once a day, until I finally let that go, too. It worked.
My late father was a 2 carton a week smoker for a long time. He quit cold turkey. After the withdrawal, etc. it seemed he would be alright. A few years later he was diagnosed with COPD and the last years of his life he could barely get around. A walk from the car to the house was a huge task. It was hard to see him struggle. Please quit as soon as you can.
I used as much nicotin spray as needed to make sure I wouldn't want to smoke too hard. Avoided smoking friends and smokey places for a while.
Then about a year and a half later I quit the spray, which was almost as difficult.
Worked fine for me. Patches don't help quitting, electronic cig looks too much like junkie apparatus and the spray tasted terrible which prevented me from using it for pleasure.
Be humble, never overestimate yourself, don't be in a hurry to get rid of nicotin complements and in case of failure, go back to it asap. It's all I have for you.
Retrospectively, it was one of the hardest things I have done in my life.
Oh yeah there are a lot of funny phone apps to help you. They give simple goals and support.
Then about a year and a half later I quit the spray, which was almost as difficult.
Worked fine for me. Patches don't help quitting, electronic cig looks too much like junkie apparatus and the spray tasted terrible which prevented me from using it for pleasure.
Be humble, never overestimate yourself, don't be in a hurry to get rid of nicotin complements and in case of failure, go back to it asap. It's all I have for you.
Retrospectively, it was one of the hardest things I have done in my life.
Oh yeah there are a lot of funny phone apps to help you. They give simple goals and support.
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Your post reminded me that BEFORE beginning to use the patch I gradually reduced over several months the number of (hand-rolled) cigarettes I smoked so that by the end of the year I was only smoking five per day. Then, at five minutes before midnight on December 31, 2007, I ceremoniously lit up and smoked my last cigarette, snuffing it out right as the clock struck twelve. After that, it was the patch and no more cigarettes. Maybe the last-cigarette ceremony was important, as a way of telling myself that I really meant to quit this time.
(Have to say that I saw that on Gray's Anatomy, and I think it's true. YMMV.)
According to Allen Carr a lot of people quit using strategies that are actually counterproductive. In his words they quit in spite of XYZ not because of XYZ.
Weaning / cutting down is one of the more diabolical. In his experience most who cut down only succeed when that cutting down period is brief and transitions to cold turkey.
Weaning / cutting down is one of the more diabolical. In his experience most who cut down only succeed when that cutting down period is brief and transitions to cold turkey.
This has been very inspiring reading through the different methods above. I have gone back and reread each of your post a few times over. I am just getting ready to hit the hay now. BTW, using many of the suggestions in the post above I cut down to 10 cigarettes today. Please note that I normally smoke well over 30 smokes a day. My plan is to cut down to a few a day then go cold turkey. Thank you and good night to all.
Cutting down makes every smoke "special" thus reinforcing the mental addiction. Where before many of the 30 were smoked down without much thought to it, you now get a solid "Yowser I needed that!" after the buildup of your abstinence. This will cause you to doubt your decision to quit.
Cocaine much, much easier to quit. You might try the 12 step program; at first a smoke every 12 hrs, then every 24hrs(2×12), then every 12 days and some point you will make till noon and realize that you have not thought of smoking all day-then you got it kicked. Or you could keep smoking and check out much sooner. As far as I have been able to discern, once you check out-early or late, the room is gone forever.
Well done sir! I think when you realize that last cigarette you smoked made you feel worse and not better, is when you stop for good. That's what happened to me with a glass of jack every night.
Quitting smoking makes you less gassy?Your flight crew will also thank you when you quit, as you step into the left seat.
Having been through this and given the info you have provided about your nicotine habit I think your going in the right direction. If you can start to limit your intake from 30 to 10 a day do that for awhile, when your doing OK with that , try 5 a day and when you believe your ready for the final push..... just stop. I wont kid you, it will mess with your head in ways you probably wont believe for the first few days. But trust me...it will get better slowly but surely and the more distance you put between you and them the better you will start to feel.
The best part of this is food starts to taste better, you sleep better and best of all you will breathe easier and be less anxious. Keep in mind none of this will happen overnight and it really comes down to going all in on the fight and having the confidence in yourself to know you will be the victor. This will sound kind of corny but imagine it as a prize fight (heavy weight, welter weight) which ever, but your not stepping into the ring to lose. So get in there and kick some major nicotine ass, someone's goin down today and it aint gonna be you RIGHT !!!
oh and a little helpful tip here, when it gets all crazy in your head have something handy that demands your full attention to distract from the craving monster, it will pass. Best of luck
The best part of this is food starts to taste better, you sleep better and best of all you will breathe easier and be less anxious. Keep in mind none of this will happen overnight and it really comes down to going all in on the fight and having the confidence in yourself to know you will be the victor. This will sound kind of corny but imagine it as a prize fight (heavy weight, welter weight) which ever, but your not stepping into the ring to lose. So get in there and kick some major nicotine ass, someone's goin down today and it aint gonna be you RIGHT !!!
oh and a little helpful tip here, when it gets all crazy in your head have something handy that demands your full attention to distract from the craving monster, it will pass. Best of luck
I know a whole bunch of people who jumped on that train and decided that if they couldn't quit cold turkey, they weren't really quit. A lot of them never did quit because cold turkey, for some people, is very hard, and when they decided they couldn't stand the pain and picked up again they also decided that they couldn't quit, period. Some of them eventually did quit using other methods. Some have lost lungs because they wasted a lot of time smoking since they couldn't achieve a "pure" quit fast enough.
Spend 5 years helping people quit like I did and you'll come to discover that there's no one size fits all approach that helps everyone.
Actually, my crew 90% of the time is my pilot wife. That said, she has never smoked a day in her life. She is very supportive and has been asking me to quit for years now.Your flight crew will also thank you when you quit, as you step into the left seat.
