TVCH FORUMS HOME . JOIN . FAN CLUBS . DONATE . CONTACT . CHAT  
                  Quick Links   TOPICS . TREE-VIEW . SEARCH . HELP! . NEWS . PROFILE
Archive through June 23, 2008

Reality TVClubHouse Discussions: General Discussions ARCHIVES: July 2008 - Sept 2008: Community Corner: Health Center: Who wants to quit smoking with me? : Archive through June 23, 2008 users admin

Author Message
Lumbele
Moderator

07-12-2002

Thursday, June 19, 2008 - 6:49 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post Send Lumbele a private message Print Post    
You're darn tootin' it's normal. Even after more than 3 years, I still get those moments.

Glad to see that you know lighting up is not going to improve things one bit. So the best advice I can give you is D-i-s-t-r-a-c-t-i-o-n!!!
Take those shorts for a walk (pick up a few whistles at the corner construction site on the way), tackle one of those I-ve-been-wantin'-to-clean-out-this-closet kinda jobs, go to the market for fresh fruit to sink your teeth into, pick up some knitting needles, give yourself a pedi/manicure, anything to keep your mind and fingers off the smokes. Sometimes we just have to fake ourselves out until that fit passes. Good luck!

Twinkie
Member

09-24-2002

Thursday, June 19, 2008 - 7:03 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post Send Twinkie a private message Print Post    
Its still normal for me, Geri, and in a few days it'll be 9 months since I quit. But I'm feeling really grateful that I quit when I did because I'd be so much sicker than I am right now if I hadn't. Just think about how much healthier you are now. You did your body a great service by quitting, but your brain still sometimes thinks it needs that nicotine. It doesn't. This too shall pass.

Juju2bigdog
Member

10-27-2000

Thursday, June 19, 2008 - 8:02 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post Send Juju2bigdog a private message Print Post    
Excellent advice Lumbele and Twinkie. Geri, any chance you could do what Pamy is doing and get into a water aerobics class or something like that? Or just take a walk? If you can get up and moving around, you can fight two monsters.

And where the heck is Pamy, anyway? She has not dumped a load of cheer in here for weeks. Okay, probably hours. It just seems like a long time.

Pamy
Member

01-02-2002

Thursday, June 19, 2008 - 10:04 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post Send Pamy a private message Print Post    
LOL I come here if anyone needs me :-) I now spread cheer in wkout/weight loss threads :-)

sorry I am late, went out with girls tonite.

Geri, i chew gum and today I got Stride's new flavor, orange...it tastes like a 50/50 bar or dreamsicle, it rocks and its sugarfree!!! I had some serious shitty days this week and my jaw hurts from all the chewing LOL I think I chew harder/faster when I feel a craving...hope that helps ...if not let me know and I will ck my bag of tricks :-)

Geri
Member

07-08-2003

Friday, June 20, 2008 - 5:54 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post Send Geri a private message Print Post    
Thanks Lumbele, Twinkie, Juju and Pamy.

Just knowing this is normal is a big help.

I had an instructor scheduled to come over and develop a water aerobics plan but she cancelled. Trying to reschedule. The bad thing is that I pulled a rib muscle last week having a little too much fun in the pool. It has curtailed all movement just about.

I should become a gum chewer. It would be lower calorie and give one part of my body exercise.

I took a jewelry class last week. It was wire weaving called Viking weave. It was a lot of fun and I just bought some more supplies to make a second bracelet. (The high cost of silver is offset by the money saved not smoking!!) It takes concentration and keeps my hands busy. It is also a lot of fun and you have something to show for it!

I am taking my first plane ride next week since I quit smoking and I am looking forward to not freaking out over the inevitable delays. Yea!!!

Meeting 3 people that I was actually best friends with at some time in my past but haven't seen in over 25 years. It will be great not to have to get up and go outside for a cigarette.

Thanks again for the advice and have a great weekend.

Juju2bigdog
Member

10-27-2000

Friday, June 20, 2008 - 10:44 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post Send Juju2bigdog a private message Print Post    
Wow, lots of new stuff for you, Geri. You go girl!

Boberg
Member

10-04-2002

Friday, June 20, 2008 - 9:01 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post Send Boberg a private message Print Post    
Good to see the gang all back! And Welcome Bicbicz! My last puff was Feb. 2, 2008 at 5:27pm Central Time. 4 1/2 months and I still have periods that I wish I still smoked, but it passes quickly now. I laugh about it and go on, knowing that to give in to just one will mean a lifetime of slavery AGAIN!

Bicbicz I second Geri's advice....get the book "Easy Way to Quit Smoking" by Allen Carr. I found it EXTREMELY helpful. I saw the articles about Chantix. I agree with Pamy, Twinkie and the others who say they recommend it anyway. I found it took the edge off and was a definite help in quitting along with THE BOOK! Keep checking in here and let us know how it is going...we are here for you and your hubby. We do it one day at a time and you can too!

Lumbele is right on about D I S T R A C T I O N.... I am beginning to use it now to slow down my eating...go for a pedicure, call a friend, come in here and vent, go to the "GAMES" section here and play, tackle a long overdue project, take a nap.

Pamy I tried the "calorie free chocolate sauce" you spoke of, thanks for the information on it.

Pamy
Member

01-02-2002

Friday, June 20, 2008 - 9:27 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post Send Pamy a private message Print Post    
Bo, try the zero cal syrup!! it rocks on waffles!

Kearie
Member

07-21-2005

Sunday, June 22, 2008 - 7:29 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post Send Kearie a private message Print Post    
Does,did Chantix make others really nausous and vomitty? Does this side effect get better?

Pamy
Member

01-02-2002

Sunday, June 22, 2008 - 8:29 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post Send Pamy a private message Print Post    
I felt that way, it did get better. Good luck Karie!! you can do it!

Boberg
Member

10-04-2002

Sunday, June 22, 2008 - 8:33 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post Send Boberg a private message Print Post    
Kearie it helped to eat a little something just before taking it. Chantix really does help.

Kearie
Member

07-21-2005

Sunday, June 22, 2008 - 9:01 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post Send Kearie a private message Print Post    
Thanks Pamy and Bob. I can't seem to hold a 1 mg pill down, so I'm breaking them in half. I see the dr tomorrow and will se what he says.

Juju2bigdog
Member

10-27-2000

Sunday, June 22, 2008 - 9:30 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post Send Juju2bigdog a private message Print Post    
Kearie, you be REAL careful with the Chantix and keep in close contact with your doctor. I think you might be a bit more fragile than some other folks here and could be a bit more at risk for side effects, including the depression part. But, it sure would be good if you can quit the smokes. I hope you can successfully take Chantix and that it works as well for you as it has for other people here. But if it starts getting bad, please have the sense to realize that is what is causing bad stuff and get off it.

Kearie
Member

07-21-2005

Sunday, June 22, 2008 - 10:27 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post Send Kearie a private message Print Post    
I've already noticed a tad of the depression coming on. (Lack of interest in things, apathy) I do watch that, nothing is more important than my mental health.

Thanks JuJu

Tomorrow will be two weeks that I've been on it. My quit date was last monday, but I honestly haven't managed to quit. 2 yesterday. 1 today.
The hardest part, thus far is the side effects.
(And not buying them when I go get Milk)

Part of me feels like I'm failing and part of me says take it slow and steady. I hate failing. I don't want anyone to know I'm trying to quit, because if it happens, I will have to admit failure.

Sooo, just keep me in your prayers and pretend like you never read this. LOL

Dogdoc
Member

09-29-2001

Monday, June 23, 2008 - 4:06 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post Send Dogdoc a private message Print Post    
Prayers for you. (((hugs)))

Pamy
Member

01-02-2002

Monday, June 23, 2008 - 5:04 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post Send Pamy a private message Print Post    
Kearie, most of the ppl I know didnt quit until well into the 3rd week, myself included. Dont rush the quit date, you will know when it feels right.

keeping you in prayers and thoughts, you can do this!!

Stride gum helps me with the times I would have smoked (after a meal, sitting here, etc)

Dahli
Member

11-27-2000

Monday, June 23, 2008 - 10:06 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post Send Dahli a private message Print Post    
Kearie you're moving in the right direction! Do you have the BOOK? Truly changing how your brain views this filthy habit is the key to being free forever. The body will follow where the brain leads. Take care.

Kearie
Member

07-21-2005

Monday, June 23, 2008 - 10:36 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post Send Kearie a private message Print Post    
I don't have a book. I just don't have the focus to read much the last few years...but...

There are several things I am telling myself and am aware of.

1) I know I don't NEED to smoke..because of Chantix. I have NO physical cravings.

2) I may Want to smoke.

3) Smoking makes my mouth tastes nasty.

4) Smoking doesn't make me feel better. It doesn't do a thing for me while I'm on Chantix.

5) I want to quit so I can spend more time with my grandson.

6) I want more money to spend on my grandson and scrapping. Woohoo.

Anyway...those are the things I'm thinking about when I think I want a cig.

Thanks Biped...for all your love, support and encouragement, yer da best.

Thanks Pamy...I guess I'm in good company.
Dahli...anything that specifically helped you in the BOOK that you want to relay to me?

Dahli
Member

11-27-2000

Monday, June 23, 2008 - 12:46 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post Send Dahli a private message Print Post    
There are many but this chapter was one of my faves...

CHAPTER SIX
NICOTINE ADDICTION

Nicotine, a colourless, oily compound, is the drug contained in tobacco that addicts the smoker. It is the fastest addictive drug known to mankind, and can take just one cigarette to become hooked.
Every puff on a cigarette delivers, via the lungs to the brain, a small dose of nicotine that acts more rapidly than the dose of heroin the addict injects into his veins.
If there are twenty puffs for you in a cigarette, you receive twenty doses of the drug with just one cigarette.
Nicotine is a quick-acting drug, and levels in the bloodstream fall quickly to about half within thirty minutes of smoking a cigarette and to a quarter within an hour of finishing a cigarette. This explains why most smokers average about twenty per day.
As soon as the smoker extinguishes the cigarette, the nicotine rapidly starts to leave the body and the smoker begins to suffer withdrawal pangs.

I must at this point dispel a common illusion that smokers have about withdrawal pangs. Smokers think that withdrawal pangs are the terrible trauma they suffer when they try or are forced to stop smoking. These are, in fact, mainly mental; the smoker is feeling deprived of his pleasure or prop. I will explain more about this later.

The actual pangs of withdrawal from nicotine are so subtle that most smokers have lived and died without even realizing they're drug addicts. When we use the term 'nicotine addict' we think we just ' got into the habit' . Most smokers have a horror of drugs, yet that's exactly what they are --drug addicts. Fortunately it is an easy drug to kick, but you need first to accept that you are addicted.
There is no physical pain in the withdrawal from nicotine. It is merely an empty, restless feeling, the feeling of something missing, which is why many smokers think it is something to do with their hands. If it is prolonged the smoker becomes nervous, insecure, agitated, lacking in confidence and irritable. It is like hunger--for a poison, NICOTINE.
Within seven seconds of lighting a cigarette fresh nicotine is supplied and the craving ends, resulting in the feeling of relaxation and confidence that the cigarette gives to the smoker.
In the early days, when we first start smoking, the withdrawal pangs and their relief are so slight that we are not even aware that they exist.
When we being to smoker regularly we think it is because we've either come to enjoy them or got into the 'habit'. The truth is we're already hooked; we do not realize it, but that little nicotine monster is already inside our stomach and every now and again we have to feed it

All smokers start smoking for stupid reason, nobody has to The only reason why anybody continues smoking whether they be a casual or a heavy smoker, is to feed that little monster.
The whole business of smoking is a series of conundrums. All smokers know at heart that they are fools and have been trapped by something evil. However, I think the most pathetic aspect about smoking is that the enjoyment that the smoker gets from a cigarette is the pleasure of trying to get back to the state of peace, tranquility and confidence that his body had before he became hooked in the fist place.
You know that feeling when a neighbour's burglar alarm has been ringing all day, or there has been some other minor, persistent aggravation. then the noise suddenly stops---that marvellous feeling of peace and tranquility is experienced. It is not really peace but the ending of the aggravation.
Before we start the nicotine chain, our bodies are complete, We then force nicotine into the body, and when we put that cigarette out and the nicotine starts to leave, we suffer withdrawal pangs--not physical pain, just an empty feeling. We are not even aware that it exists, but it is like a dripping tap inside our bodies. Our rational minds do not understand it. They do not need to. All we know is that we want a cigarette, and when we light it the craving goes, and for the moment we are content and confident again just as we were before we became addicted. However, the satisfaction is only temporary because, in order to relieve the craving , you have to put more nicotine into the body. As soon as you extinguish that cigarette the craving starts again, and so the chain goes on. It is a chain for life --UNLESS YOU BREAK IT.

The whole business of smoking is like wearing tight shoes just to obtain the pleasure you feel when you take them off. There are three main reasons why smokers cannot see things that way.

1. From birth we have been subjected to massive brainwashing telling us that smokers receive immense pleasure and/or a crutch from smoking. Why should we not believe them? Why else would they waste all that money and take such horrendous risks?

2. Because the physical withdrawal from nicotine involves no actual pain but is merely an empty, insecure feeing, inseparable from hunger or normal stress, and because those are the very times that we tend to light up, we tend to regard the feeling as normal.

3. However , the main reason that smokers fail to see smoking in its true light is that it works back to front. It's when you are not smoking that you suffer that empty feeling, but because the process of getting hooked is very subtle and gradual in the early days, we regard that feeling as normal and don't blame it on the previous cigarette. The moment you light up, you get an almost immediate boost or buzz and do actually feel less nervous or more relaxed, and the cigarette gets the credit.

It is this reverse process that makes all drugs difficult to kick. Picture the panic state of a heroin addict who has no heroin. Now picture the utter joy when that addict can finally plunge a hypodermic needle into his vein. Can you visualize someone actually getting pleasure by injecting him or her self, or does the mere thought fill you with horror? Non-heroin addicts don't suffer that panic feeling. The heroin doesn't; relieve it. On the contrary, it causes it. Non-smokers don't suffer the empty feeling of needing a cigarette or start to panic when the supply runs out. Non-smokers cannot understand how smokers can possibly obtain pleasure from sticking those filthy things in their mouths, setting light to them and actually inhaling the filth into their lungs. And do you know something? Smokers cannot understand why they do it either.
We talk about smoking being relaxing or giving satisfaction. But how can you be satisfied unless you were dissatisfied in the first place? Why don't non-smokers suffer from this dissatisfied state and why, after a meal when non-smokers are completely relaxed, are smokers completely un-relaxed until they have satisfied that little nicotine monster?

Forgive me if I dwell on this subject for a moment. The main reason that smokers find it difficult to quit is that they believe that they are giving up a genuine pleasure or crutch. It is absolutely essential to understand that you are giving up nothing whatsoever.
The best way to understand the subtleties of the nicotine trap is to compare it with eating. If we are in the habit of eating regular meals, we are not aware of being hungry between meals. Only if the meal is delayed are we aware of being hungry, and even then there is no physical pain, just an empty insecure feeling which we know as: 'I need to eat' And the process of satisfying our hunger is a very pleasant pastime.

Smoking appears to be almost identical. The empty, insecure feeling which we know as 'wanting or needing a cigarette' is identical to a hunger for food, although one will not satisfy the other. Like hunger, there is no physical pain and the feeling is so imperceptible that we are not even aware of it between cigarettes. It's only if we want to light up an aren't allowed to do so that we become aware of any discomfort. But when we do light up we feel satisfied.
It is this similarity to eating which helps to fool smokers into believing that they receive some genuine pleasure. Some smokers find it very difficult to grasp that there is no pleasure or crutch whatsoever to smoking. Some argue: 'How can you say there is not crutch? You tell me when I light up that I'll feel less nervous than before.'
Although eating and smoking appear to be very similar. In fact they are exact opposites.

1. You eat to survive and to prolong your life, whereas smoking shortens your life.

2. Food does genuinely taste good, and eating is a genuinely pleasant experience that we can enjoy throughout our lives, whereas smoking involves breathing foul and poisonous fumes into your lungs.

3. Eating doesn't create hunger and genuinely relieves it, whereas the first cigarette starts the craving for nicotine and each subsequent one, far from relieving it, ensures that you suffer it for the rest of life.

This is an opportune moment to dispel another common myth about smoking--that smoking is a habit. Is eating a habit? If you think so, try breaking it completely. No, to describe eating as a habit would be the same as describing breathing as a habit. Both are essential for survival. It is true that different people are in the habit of satisfying their hunger at different times and with varying types of food. But eating itself is not habit. Neither is smoking. The only reason any smoker lights a cigarette is to try to end the empty insecure feeling that the previous cigarette created. It is true that different smokers are in the habit of trying to relieve their withdrawal pangs at different times, but smoking itself is not a habit.

Society frequently refers to the smoking habit and in this book, for convenience, I also refer to the 'habit'. However, be constantly aware that smoking is not habit; on the contrary it is no more nor less than DRUG ADDICTION.
When we start to smoke we have to force ourselves to learn to cope with it. Before we know it, we are not only buying cigarettes regularly but we have to have them. If we don't, panic sets in, and as we go through life we tend to smoke more and more.
This is because,as with any other drug, the body tends to become immune to the effects of nicotine and our intake tends to increase. After quite a short period of smoking the cigarette ceases to relieve completely the withdrawal pangs that it creates, so that when you light up a cigarette you feel better than you did a moment before, but you are in fact more nervous and les relaxed than you would be as a non-smoker, even when you are actually smoking the cigarette. The practice is even more ridiculous than wearing tight shoes because as you go through life an increasing amount of the discomfort remains even when the shoes are removed.
The position is even worse because, once the cigarette is extinguished, the nicotine rapidly begins to leave the body, which explains why, in stressful situations, the smoker tends to chain smoke.
As I said, the 'habit' doesn't exist. The real reason why every smoker goes on smoking, is because of that little monster inside his stomach. Every now and again he has to feed it. The smoker himself will decide when he does that, and it tends to be on four types of occasions or a combination of them.

They are:
BOREDOM/CONCENTRATION two complete opposites!
STRESS/RELAXATION two complete opposites!

What magic drug can suddenly reverse the very effect it had twenty minutes before? If you think about it, what other types of occasions are there in our lives, apart from sleep? The truth is that smoking neither relieves boredom and stress nor promotes concentration and relaxation. It is all just illusion.
Apart from being a drug, nicotine is also a powerful poison and is used in insecticides (look it up in your dictionary). The nicotine content of just one cigarette, if injected directly into a vein would kill you. In fact, tobacco contains many poisons, including carbon monoxide, and the tobacco plant is the same genus as 'deadly night-shade'.

In case you have visions of switching to a pipe or to cigars, I should make it quite clear that the content of this book applies to all tobacco and any substance that contains nicotine, including gum, patches, nasal sprays and inhalators.
The human body is the most sophisticated object on our planet. No species, even the lowest amoeba or worm, can survive without knowing the difference between food and poison.
Through a process of natural selection over thousands of years, our minds and bodies have developed techniques for distinguishing between food and poison and fail-safe methods for rejecting the latter.
All human beings are averse to the smell and taste of tobacco until they become hooked. If you blow diluted tobacco into the face of any animal or child before it becomes hooked, it will cough an splutter. When we smoked that first cigarette, inhaling resulted in a coughing fit, or if we smoked too many the fist time, we experienced a dizzy feeling or actual physical sickness. It was our body telling us,
"You are feeding me poison. Stop doing it."
This is the stage that often decides whether we become smokers or not. It is a fallacy that physically weak and mentally weak-willed people become smokers. The lucky one are those who find that first cigarette repulsive; physically their lungs cannot cope with it, and they are cured for life. Or, alternatively, they are not mentally prepared to go through eh severe learning process of trying to inhale without coughing.

To me this is the most tragic part of this whole business. How hard we worked to become hooked, and this is why it is difficult to stop teenagers. Because they are still learning to smoke, because they still find cigarettes distasteful, they believe they can stop whenever they want to . Why do they not learn from us? Then again, why did we not learn from our parents?

Many smokers believe they enjoy the taste and smell of the tobacco. It is an illusion. What we are actually doing when we learn to smoke is teaching our bodies to become immune to the bad smell and taste in order to get our fix, like heroin addicts ho think that they enjoy injecting themselves. The withdrawal pangs from heroin are relatively severe, and all they are really enjoying is the ritual of relieving those pangs.
The smoker teaches himself to shut his mind to the bad taste and smell to get his 'fix' Ask a smoker who believes he smokes only because he enjoys the taste and smell of tobacco, "if you cannot get your normal brand of cigarette and can only obtain a brand you find distasteful, do you stop smoking?" No Way. A smoker will smoke old rope rather than abstain and it doesn't matter if you switch to mentholated cigarettes, cigars or a pipe; to begin with they taste awful but if you persevere you will learn to like them. Smokers will even try to keep smoking during colds, flu, sore throats, bronchitis and emphysema.
Enjoyment has nothing to do with it. If it did, no one would smoke more than one cigarette. There are even thousands of ex-smokers hooked on that filthy nicotine chewing gum that doctors prescribe, and many of them are still smoking.

During my consultations some smokers find it alarming to realize they are drug addicts and think it will make it even more difficult to stop. In fact, it is all good news for two important reasons.
1. The reason why most of us carry on smoking is that, although we know the disadvantages outweigh the advantages, we believe that there is something in the cigarette that we actually enjoy or that it is some sort of prop. We feel that after we stop smoking there will be a void, that certain situation in our life will never be quite the same. This is an illusion. The fact is the cigarette gives nothing it only takes away and then partially restores to create the illusion. I will explain this in more detail in a later chapter.

2. Although it is the world's most powerful drug because of the speed with which you become hooked, you are never badly hooked. Because it is a quick-acting drug it takes only three weeks for 99 per cent of the nicotine to leave your body, and the actual withdrawal pangs are so mild that most smokers have lived and died without ever realizing that they have suffered them.

You will quite rightly ask why it is that many smokers find it so difficult to stop, go through months of torture and spend the rest of their lives pining for a cigarette at odd times. The answer is the second reason why we smoke--the brainwashing. The chemical addiction is easy to cope with.

Most smokers go all night without a cigarette. The withdrawal pangs do not even wake them up.
Many smokers will actually leave the bedroom before they light that first cigarette; many will have breakfast first; many will wait until they arrive at work. They can suffer ten hours' withdrawal pangs and it doesn't bother them, but if they went ten hours during the day without a cigarette, they'd be tearing their hair out.

Many smokers will buy a new car nowadays and refrain from smoking in it. Many will visit theatres, supermarkets,churches, etc., and not being able to smoke doesn't bother them. Even on the Tube trains there have been no riots. Smokers are almost pleased for someone or something to force them to stop smoking.
Nowadays many smokers will automatically refrain from smoking in the home of, or merely in the company of, non-smokers with little discomfort to themselves. In fact, most smokers have extended periods during which they abstain without effort. Even in my case I would quite happily relax all evening without a cigarette. In the later years as a smoker I actually looked forward to the evenings when I could stop choking myself (what a ridiculous habit).

The chemical addiction is easy to cope with, even when you are still addicted, and there are thousands of smokers who remain casual smokers. There are even heavy smokers who have kicked the 'habit' but will have an occasional cigarette, and that keeps them addicted.
As I say, the actual nicotine addiction is not the main problem. It just acts like a catalyst to keep our minds confused over the real problem: the brainwashing.

It may be of consolation to lifelong and heavy smokers to know that it is just as easy for them to stop as casual smokers. In a peculiar way, it is easier. The further along you go with the 'habit' the more it drags you down and the greater the gain when you stop.
It may be of further consolation for you to know that the rumours that occasionally circulate (e.g. 'it takes seven years for the "gunk" to leave your body' or 'Every cigarette you smoke takes five minutes off your life') are untrue.

Do not think the bad effects of smoking are exaggerated. If anything they are sadly understated, but the truth is the 'five minutes' rule is obviously an estimation and applies only if you contract one of the killer diseases or just 'gunk' yourself to a standstill.
In fact, the 'gunk' never leaves your body completely. If there are smokers about, it is in the atmosphere, and even non-smokers acquire a small percentage. However, these bodies of ours are incredible machines and have enormous powers of recovery, providing you haven't already triggered off one of the irreversible diseases. If you stop now, your body will recover within a matter of a few weeks, almost as if you had never been a smoker.

As I have said it is never too late to stop. I have helped to cure many smokers in their fifties and sixties and even a few in their seventies and eighties. A 91 year old woman attended my clinic with her 66 year old son. When I asked her why she had decided to stop smoking she replied, 'To set an example for him'. She contacted me six months later, saying she felt like a young girl again.

The further it drags you down, the greater the relief. When I finally stopped I went straight from a hundred a day to ZERO. and didn't have one bad pang. In fact, it was actually enjoyable, even during the withdrawal period.
But we must remove the brainwashing.

Juju2bigdog
Member

10-27-2000

Monday, June 23, 2008 - 2:14 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post Send Juju2bigdog a private message Print Post    
Kearie, your secret is safe with us. We won't tell a soul until you have been quit ten years.



Twinkie
Member

09-24-2002

Monday, June 23, 2008 - 2:24 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post Send Twinkie a private message Print Post    
Kearie, I was on the Chantix for 3 weeks before I quit and then stayed on it for another week after quitting. Don't worry, it'll happen when you are ready.

Geri
Member

07-08-2003

Monday, June 23, 2008 - 5:00 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post Send Geri a private message Print Post    
Kearie, go at your own pace. Don't put any pressure on yourself. Do what YOU have to do, not what others have done.

You will be able to do it.

(you friends will know cuz you will stop smelling like smoke, i kept quiet too and then they started asking me when I quit.)

Pamy
Member

01-02-2002

Monday, June 23, 2008 - 7:32 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post Send Pamy a private message Print Post    
Dahli, I loved that chapter too!! Did you type all of that???? wow!!!!

Bill and Dylan surprised me tonite with a cupcake with a lighted candle on it..they came in and said congratulations!!! I said what for, they said for 7 mo being a non smoker!!!!!

I thought that was so sweet of them....esp since I really stopped keeping track!! How awesome is it that I dont even need to write on the calendar how long its been!!???

Kearie, those are great things to remember!! keep that list by the area you might smoke in and look at it. You can do it!

Dipo
Member

04-23-2002

Monday, June 23, 2008 - 11:12 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post Send Dipo a private message Print Post    
I am so sad to say that I have broken my no smoking. It has been long but I smoked. It has been a long time, and I can't believe I lost my way after all this time. I just said okay, smoked myself silly and then said stand I will start to eliminate it again. I will forgive myself and start again, but please lord, help me to let this adication go, I want to live my life free. It is so hard to let it go.

Dipo
Member

04-23-2002

Monday, June 23, 2008 - 11:16 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post Send Dipo a private message Print Post    
please change my quit date to show a restart day of 6/24/08.I do want to be more successful