Looking for advice from ex-smokers...

[Banthon]

Hi guys,

So to give a little background here I have been smoking quite heavily for the last 18 years.

This morning I woke up and realised my wife had forgotten to take the cigarettes out of her bag I bought last night before she went to work and that my wallet was in there too. I am not too proud to say I panicked. After much frantic searching behind sofa cushions etc for money, I was able to buy some cigs. It was this douchey little freak out that brought me to post here.

How did you quit? Did you follow a plan of some kind?

What did you use to help? (patches, gum etc?)

I am fully educated in the dangers of smoking and am not looking for people to troll with comments like 'lol it's killing you!1!!!!' and 'ZOMG, the money you save is awesome!' and all that jazz. I am aware of all of those things.

Any help or advice you can give will be enormously appreciated.

[Deleted]

I quit cold turkey after smoking heavily for 10 years, been off them for almost 3 years now. The only way you are going to quit smoking is if you have a good enough reason, not being able to afford it or being scared cancer is not a good enough reason for most people. I quit because my fitness level was dropping drastically, there was a chance of losing my job because of it, hence the reason I quit.

In my experience patches, gum etc are a big money grab. You want the Nicotine out of your system ASAP, those products are more expensive than smoking and will still keep you addicted.

Good luck trying to quit, but don't forget that most people fail to quit the first time. Just think of your reason for quitting and focus on it.

[Ariselia]

Does your wife smoke as well? Might be hard to quit if she continues to smoke around you.

[Djuntas]

Just think about how much non-smokers appreciate it.

You make your country loss money when you haft to get your COLT-lungs cured, and other medical treatments done (No tax money gained trough you buying cigarets dosent make up for it)

You dont haft to stink of smoke, and having other people smell aswell. If you didnt know, but us non-smokers, if we are just in contact with a smoker we soon haft to change clothes, or were stuck smelling like crap.

And besides, us non-smokers are madly annoyed by you smokers having to ruin public places. Its like sitting next to a bon fire where the smoke blows.

[Deleted]

Just think about how much non-smokers appreciate it.

You make your country loss money when you haft to get your COLT-lungs cured, and other medical treatments done (No tax money gained trough you buying cigarets dosent make up for it)

You dont haft to stink of smoke, and having other people smell aswell. If you didnt know, but us non-smokers, if we are just in contact with a smoker we soon haft to change clothes, or were stuck smelling like crap.

And besides, us non-smokers are madly annoyed by you smokers having to ruin public places. Its like sitting next to a bon fire where the smoke blows.

Please don't group non smokers into a category like that, we get it, you don't like smoking. It's a public place for a damn reason.

I smoke around 20 cigarettes a year but will be stopping this Autumn. I've never allowed myself to be dependent on them, it's about creating other forms of relaxation. One of the best is the gym, exercising is a huge stress relief and is amazingly helpful with addiction and depression treatment.

Contact your GP for some more advice though.

[Annu]

First of all: It only works if you really want to be a non-smoker.

Second: Find something else to do. You will automatically start thinking "so, let's go for a cigarette" stand up, go and realize you stopped smoking. Really an awful moment. It might not been very healthy, but I switched to coffee. Just take care you don't have a strong one and die on an heart attack after 20 coffees. If you are in the US you are safe anyways, but in Italy this wouldn't work. I always took a coffee and still joined the smokers. Hence I didn't have the impression to miss something.

Stopping instantly didn't work for me, I extended the period between cigarettes as long as I could and when I was at one day interval I decided I need none at all. Was like climbing a mountain for me: Try harder and harder and finally succeed.

[Bolson13]

Smoked for 10 years about 20 cigarettes a day.

I quit cold turkey about 1 and a half years ago. I didn't use anything and felt like torture. Best thing is to just try to get by those first week/week and a half. Me personally, I avoided any place where I would normally smoke + I went to bed at like 20.00 every day. Just to get my mind off of those things.

You make your country loss money when you haft to get your COLT-lungs cured, and other medical treatments done (No tax money gained trough you buying cigarets dosent make up for it)

Actually I posted some research not too long ago in another thread that was about fat people. Smoking and morbidly obese people are eventually even cheaper in healthcare then somebody who is healthy and dies at 85 after being in retirement homes and taking medicine for 10 years along with things like hip surgeries and heart surgeries in the end.

[Penatar]

I told myself I wanted to quit, and I quit. If you really want to stop smoking, you won't have an issue, and it can be really easy. I didn't even think about it when I quit, and that was going from a pack a day and a tin of chew a day to nothing, cold turkey. The ones that think it's hard are the ones who don't really want to quit, but feel they should.

[Deleted]

Smoked for 10 years about 20 cigarettes a day.

I quit cold turkey about 1 and a half years ago. I didn't use anything and felt like torture. Best thing is to just try to get by those first week/week and a half. Me personally, I avoided any place where I would normally smoke + I went to bed at like 20.00 every day. Just to get my mind off of those things.



Actually I posted some research not too long ago in another thread that was about fat people. Smoking and morbidly obese people are eventually even cheaper in healthcare then somebody who is healthy and dies at 85 after being in retirement homes and taking medicine for 10 years along with things like hip surgeries and heart surgeries in the end.

Absolute lies. Obese people cost the American government approximately $5,000 whilst normal weight people cost $3,300.

But do try and provide some research that somehow healthy individuals cost the health care system more than smokers and overweight people.

[Penatar]

Absolute lies. Obese people cost the American government approximately $5,000 whilst normal weight people cost $3,300.

But do try and provide some research that somehow healthy individuals cost the health care system more than smokers and overweight people.

While your numbers are off, you are correct, being unhealthy and dying young costs far more than being healthy and living to old age. He's delusional to think otherwise.

[Steelyorc]

I have been using electronic cigarettes for 2 months...still get nicotine...but no tar, carbon monoxide, ashes, or smell
Its a great alternative...nicotine is nothing more than a stimulant...e-cigs remove all the harmful stuff...I love them

[Deleted]

You make your country loss money when you haft to get your COLT-lungs cured, and other medical treatments done (No tax money gained trough you buying cigarets dosent make up for it)
.

In England it pretty much does lol.

I have been using electronic cigarettes for 2 months...still get nicotine...but no tar, carbon monoxide, ashes, or smell
Its a great alternative...nicotine is nothing more than a stimulant...e-cigs remove all the harmful stuff...I love them

I've been debating these for some time. I always crave the feeling of smoke hitting the back of my throat though (Dunno if that's weird) do the e-cigs satisfy that crave?


At OP: Sorry for taking over a little i am too, curious about how people are stopping etc. With the tax gone up again with cigarettes I'm feeling i can't afford this habit any more. So this will be helping me out also .

[Deleted]

Smoked for 10 years about 20 cigarettes a day.

I quit cold turkey about 1 and a half years ago. I didn't use anything and felt like torture. Best thing is to just try to get by those first week/week and a half. Me personally, I avoided any place where I would normally smoke + I went to bed at like 20.00 every day. Just to get my mind off of those things.



Actually I posted some research not too long ago in another thread that was about fat people. Smoking and morbidly obese people are eventually even cheaper in healthcare then somebody who is healthy and dies at 85 after being in retirement homes and taking medicine for 10 years along with things like hip surgeries and heart surgeries in the end.

Healthy people can work harder for longer and end up paying more taxes. Morbidly obese people tend to not work 40+ years before needing to leave work for long term medical treatment.

[Mitak]

I quit after 12 yrs of smoking, no patches, no pills just will. It was hard but i did it. I told myself ill never ever smoke again, so far so good almost 2 years and counting. It was easier for me because i like challenges and this is a challenge of my body against my will. My will wins so far because im stubborn as hell. Though the moment i decided to quit them was very important, i wanted to do that but never really put any thought of when ill do it. One day i was called in the hospital because my grandmother had had a stroke. This scared me quite a lot, i was afraid for her life. I made a deal with whomever is out there, that if she recovers from it and lives her years out happy, ill stop smoking at that moment. And i did. The next day i got good news from the doctors that she is better and seems she will recover with no permanent physical defects. I dont want to tempt fate and its a win-win situation for me, she gets to live, i quit somoking. I dont want to question if this is devine intervention or just pure luck. Im happy it is as it is.

in your case, you had a wake up call, good for you! If you want to quit, like really to do it, forget about pills as they jsut put nicotine back in your system, this does not solve the issue. You need to restart your system, reduce the ciggies and stop them. Your body will be into shock for a month as it does not produce nicotine naturally, it stopped as you were providing it externally with ciggies. Once it restarts and starts making its own natural nicotine, you will be fine. The only pills i heard work are Tabex because they contain a natural substitute to nicotine, something from plants.

It is not easy but its damn worthed.

[Deleted]

While your numbers are off, you are correct, being unhealthy and dying young costs far more than being healthy and living to old age. He's delusional to think otherwise.

Those figures are from, I think, 2006 and I did say approximate.

---------- Post added 2012-03-28 at 02:17 PM ----------

Healthy people can work harder for longer and end up paying more taxes. Morbidly obese people tend to not work 40+ years before needing to leave work for long term medical treatment.

You don't even need to include taxes. The fact is that they require more medication, more hours of consultation and their procedures are far more expensive than normal elderly care.

[Penatar]

Those figures are from, I think, 2006 and I did say approximate.

---------- Post added 2012-03-28 at 02:17 PM ----------




You don't even need to include taxes. The fact is that they require more medication, more hours of consultation and their procedures are far more expensive than normal elderly care.

As of this year obese people cost the government $5,500 more than healthy people. That's almost a double in cost in 6 years.

[Deleted]

Hi guys,

So to give a little background here I have been smoking quite heavily for the last 18 years.

This morning I woke up and realised my wife had forgotten to take the cigarettes out of her bag I bought last night before she went to work and that my wallet was in there too. I am not too proud to say I panicked. After much frantic searching behind sofa cushions etc for money, I was able to buy some cigs. It was this douchey little freak out that brought me to post here.

How did you quit? Did you follow a plan of some kind?

What did you use to help? (patches, gum etc?)

I am fully educated in the dangers of smoking and am not looking for people to troll with comments like 'lol it's killing you!1!!!!' and 'ZOMG, the money you save is awesome!' and all that jazz. I am aware of all of those things.

Any help or advice you can give will be enormously appreciated.

I quit after being a heavy smoker for 15-16 years (and by heavy I mean usually smoking 2 packs/day)
I didn't use any "outside" help, as in patches or gum or whatever. I just took one week off from work, because I knew the ... withdrawal would suck.
I simply stayed in, didn't go out, didn't pick up the phone, didn't meet anybody and...time passed.

The following 3 days sucked, it was really bad for me. Sweating heavily (cold), shaking, having trouble sleeping. I bought a bunch of bags of vegetal biscuits (stuff made out of wheat, mostly) to chew on when I needed to do something (because yes, you still feel the need to do something with your mouth and hands all the time - incoming trolls, I know)

However, those 3 days passed while I kept forcing myself to watch crappy series (think Nikita) and to try to sleep....3 days later, that urge was pretty much gone. Yes, smoking was SOMEWHAT tempting, but I just said no to myself and kept watching Maggie Q, the worst actress ever.

At the end of the week, smoking wasn't that tempting anymore and cigarette smoke made me cough. I haven't been smoking for one year. It's not a lot, but it certainly can be done.

P.S Products that claim to "help" you are ripping you off. I'm not gonna bring certain brands into discussion, but whatever nicotine replacer people recommend is a scam. They usually cost as much - if not more - than cigarettes. Don't do it. Take 3-7 days off from work (if you got a job), get something to do (tv series are a good choice, in my opinion, wow may also work) and prepare to suffer a bit, because it's pretty much unavoidable. Oh and...prepare to gain some weight. I've never had weight issues until I quit smoking. Since them, I constantly have to work out and occasionally go on a diet, because I just seem to gain weight. No medical issues or anything...it's just what happens.

Good luck

[Deleted]

As of this year obese people cost the government $5,500 more than healthy people. That's almost a double in cost in 6 years.

Thanks for the update. My interest right now is group formation, structure and solidarity in Asian societies so I'm a bit behind in the Western health crisis.

[Jackmoves]

Find something you like to eat(a snack/chocolate bar/whatever) that you can grab as soon as you get an urge to smoke. Keep yourself busy, the addiction is a mental thing as much as it is a physical thing and as long as you can keep yourself busy that craving wont appear as often as it would do when you are not busy.

Those were the key things for me when I quit, I had smoked 10-20 cigs per day for 7-8 years.

[Bolson13]

Well, Thanks for calling me a liar and then not linking anything yourself. That is always the best idea.

Here is the link to the research I noted.
http://www.plosmedicine.org/article/...l.pmed.0050029

These people came into the research on exactly the same bases as you guys (and me before seeing the study).

Conclusions

Although effective obesity prevention leads to a decrease in costs of obesity-related diseases, this decrease is offset by cost increases due to diseases unrelated to obesity in life-years gained. Obesity prevention may be an important and cost-effective way of improving public health, but it is not a cure for increasing health expenditures.

Regarding the research, it is actually on a person basis in stead of the amount that was mentioned ($5500,-) which is an annual cost of healthcare (I assume since it can just be a random number) in stead of looking over a complete persons life. Which is basically not correct when you tell a single person to quit smoking because it costs them money.

And in regards to working longer so being able to pay more taxes. We are obviously talking about healthcare costs else I can also start about inflation (since healthcare cost rises with inflation) and the fact that a dead person isn't going to claim benefits AND the fact that there is extra taxes on cigarettes and the fact that the average life expectancy is growing rapidly still.
All of this will probably be a lot more then what an average person pays more in the 10 (working years) extra + the 15-20 (pension years) where the government has to pay him.