Archive through January 15, 2003
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TV ClubHouse: Archives: 2003 January: Who wants to quit smoking with me? (ARCHIVE): Archive through January 15, 2003

Lumbele

Wednesday, November 27, 2002 - 10:38 am EditMoveDeleteIP
Thanks, Jagger. So far, I am determined to keep at it. You hang in there, too. Not to put any pressure on you or anything, but right now I keep thinking Jagger got down to 2 and then none, you can get there, too.

Jagger

Wednesday, November 27, 2002 - 11:58 am EditMoveDeleteIP
Lumbele if I can do it you can definitly do it, I generally have absolutly no will power. I guess I am lucky it hit me in the old pocket book, that is always an area of concern for me and gets a definite reaction.

Hang in there you'll be smoke free in no time.

Sia

Wednesday, November 27, 2002 - 12:55 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Lumbele, you'll be proud of me for the way I've treated hubby the past 24 hours--since you and I chatted about being supportive of him rather than CRITICAL of him about his smoking. I've been really sweet, if I do say so myself. He feels less antagonistic about the issue now! Thanks for your advice and for listening to me gripe about him!! {{{{Lumbele}}}}

Lumbele

Wednesday, November 27, 2002 - 01:06 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Has he asked you if you were feeling alright yet?lol Keep trying your new tactics, who knows they might actually get him to rethink.

Cmore

Wednesday, November 27, 2002 - 04:10 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Hello, I am so glad I found this thread and I would like to share my "quit smoking" story with those of you also trying to quit.

Let me first say that I was a 30 year pack and a half a day smoker. I had *tried* to quit smoking several times and always used that exact word *trying* to quit. I believe in the back of my mind somewhere I always thought saying I was trying to quit left me an out in case I didn't make it, well at least I *tried*.

Of course all the times I *tried* I always failed, but about 6 weeks ago my life changed, some for the worse and some for the better. I was feeling really bad with some serious lower stomach pain for quite some time ( a period of several weeks in fact) One night while sitting at my computer desk, I noticed that each time I lit a cigarette my stomach pain almost instantly increased. I think at that point I was so sick that I blamed my pain and problems on cigarettes.

It was probably the first time that I really became angry at myself for becoming addicted to cigarettes. I crushed out my last cigarette and said out loud to myself, thats it my smoking days are over. I don't think I ever said anything with such resolve, but when you feel so sick, you will try anything to feel better.

Later that evening I felt even worse, so a trip to the hospital was in order as I just could not take the pain any longer. It was discovered via a CT scan that I had a large tumor on one kidney, which turned out to be cancerous and I had the kidney removed about 3 weeks ago. During my stay in the hospital and the surgery, I was really too sick to care about cigarettes, but the resolve in my mind was strong that if I got through this, I would never smoke again. My body's reward for fighting through this sickness was to never be abused by cigarettes again.

When I entered the hospital, they put a O2 meter on my finger which shows the oxygen levels in your blood. my reading upon entering was 94 which is really not good as it should be 95 or better. After two weeks of no smoking it was at 97, three weeks, 98.

I have been out of the hospital now for a little while now and I am feeling much better, well enough in fact that I have thought about a cigarette a time or two, which I quickly dismissed with a firm no, not now, not ever.

My wife still smokes and she will have to quit in her own time as I learned a long time ago you cannot force someone or be forced to quit. When I see her or others lite up, I no longer want a cigarette, in fact I feel some sense of sorrow for them. The taste of food they are missing, the smells, the ease of a breath of fresh air.

I quit smoking cold turkey, no patches, no puff here or there and any of you can do it too. Once you get the courage to face yourself in the mirror and say your smoking days are over and say it with meaning and conviction, the hard part is over.

Don't wait or put it off till the day your body lets you know enough is enough. If you quit today, your body will thank you for the rest of your life and I can't think of a better reason.

I wish each of you that are quitting much success. Its a great feeling to finally know you have defeated a monster that controlled so much of your life. I only wish I would have found the courage 30 years ago.

Dahli

Thursday, November 28, 2002 - 06:35 am EditMoveDeleteIP
Thanks for your story Cmore and you are so right - if your head 'gets' it the rest is no problem. I hope all is well with you and continues to improve. Congratulations on your new found freedom, the joy that comes from it is at times small and private and at otber times loud and boisterous! I love all of it and know you will too!!

Biloxibelle

Friday, November 29, 2002 - 12:08 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Thank You for such a great welcome. I have still been here but lurking and reading. Everyone is doing such a good job at quiting. Sunday was the day I stopped. And things have been going good considering I have not had the patch or the Zyban. My doctor did give me the prescription but insurance refused to pay for it so I still have not had it filled (yet). I passed what I thought were 2 big tests. First one was hubby is still smoking and I have made a point of not letting it bother me, second was Tues we went to a casino and I thought I would never make it with out a cigarette there but I did. However, the last 2 days have been much tougher then the beginning of the week. Seem it has been on my mind non stop but I was proud of the fact I made it to bed the last 2 nights without smoking. Well today it hit me like a ton of bricks and for no reason that I could see. I started shaking like my nerves were going to explode. And I did light a cigarette and took 2 puffs off of it. Not even sure if it helped or not I know I am not happy about the slip. But not going to beat myself up over it either. I really considered lying to my family about it. Figured that would do no good though. I could see myself becoming a "closet" smoker if I did that, hiding behind a bush out back with a plume of smoke coming out all the while yelling to family "no I'm not smoking". I'm still on track but I might need more help then just not smoking. I was really caught off guard by how intense that craving/withdraw was after 6 days. I really expected that at the beginning and when it didn't happen I figured it would be a piece of cake.
Again thank you for the welcome it means so much to me. And reading here has helped so much.

Jagger

Friday, November 29, 2002 - 12:20 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Biloxibelle it sounds like you are doing great. I know it is really tough, especially if you quit cold turkey. I'm pround of the way your progress has gone so far, keep it up. It is not easy having someone else smoke in front of you, but after awhile the smell starts to get to you and it is one more reason you are glad your not smoking. Going out somewhere, like the caseno is also really hard, your instints take over and you want to fall back into the old routine, it's great to see that you were able to get through it without one.

I loved your comments about being a closet smoker, it doesn't work, people can tell if you've been smoking, that oder gets on your cloths and into your hair and on your body. We have several people at work who do that and everyone laughs at them because it is so obvious that they smoke.

As far as the 2 puffs, it happens, this is a really hard habit to break, not only do you have to break the habit part but you also have to flush all that nicoteine out of your system. It is both a physical and psycological demon you have to concour.

Good luck and keep up the good work.

Dahli

Friday, November 29, 2002 - 12:22 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
HI Biloxi - Welcome and keep up the good work!
I posted this chapter a while back (one of my faves) from the book that made all the difference and showed me to how to be a non-smoker without one single pang! so thought I'd repost it for the newbies...
Hopefully it gives you a bit of insight into what's going on.

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.
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.

Monkeyboy

Thursday, December 05, 2002 - 03:58 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
good job everyone!!!!!

Well its almost 8 weeks being smoke free!!!! What really helps me now is drinking ALOT of Red Bull and Rockstar energy drinks. LOL i hope i dont another addiction.

Juju2bigdog

Thursday, December 05, 2002 - 07:23 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Uhhhhhhh, is Red Bull anything like Red Stripe? Oh yeah, congrats, Monkeyboy!

Twiggyish

Tuesday, December 10, 2002 - 05:10 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
I saw this quote and thought of you all..

"It is now proved beyond doubt that smoking is one of the leading causes of statistics."

Knebel's Law

Just a little humor!

Tashakinz

Monday, January 13, 2003 - 01:26 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
An addict's diary: Day 2

Let's see. I yelled at my husband, chewed through two no. 2 pencils and went through two skeins of yarn on my new crochet project. Got to keep those fingers busy you know...that was day 1.

So far today I've chewed through another pencil and had four sugar-free mentholated cough drops (at three carbs apiece - which I have to keep track of). It's not just the nicotine, it's the menthol I have to be weaned from.

I found a brand of patches that my insurance company will cover and have already made an appointment with my doc to get the scrip. I consider this the equivalent of methadone maintenance. Cold turkey almost drove me insane a few years back. I'll take the crutch if it'll help.

Best of luck to all of us!!!!!!!!!

Dahli

Tuesday, January 14, 2003 - 12:49 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
LOL Tash... love the diary entries, keep it up. But I'm wondering when you chew through a pencil does that include the lead? I'm just askin'...

Juju2bigdog

Tuesday, January 14, 2003 - 05:46 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Tash, dang! Get those patches quick!

Halfunit

Tuesday, January 14, 2003 - 06:07 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Sidenote: Todays pencils have graphite in them, not lead. I have a piece in my upper arm from a childhood disagreement with my younger sister. :)

Llkoolaid

Tuesday, January 14, 2003 - 06:10 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
You can do it Tash, I'm pulling for you.
Dahli and Juju, you guys are amazing, you are still here encouraging people. Tash , listen to these guys, they really helped me out when I quit here last year. They will give you all the encouragement you need.

Dahli

Tuesday, January 14, 2003 - 08:07 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
that's great 1/2 - that sounds tastier for sure! Ll - wasn't this thread started by you?? I can't remember for sure but was so proud of you then and you've done so well, it would be great to see Tash do the same!

Juju2bigdog

Tuesday, January 14, 2003 - 08:38 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Yeah, I was thinking LL started this thread.

Well, let's see, today is the 14th day of the new year. Do we have any closet new year's quitters out there who have made it alone thus far and are thinking of backsliding? Get your butts in here. Heh heh, a little non-smoking humor.

Jagger? You out there?

Halfunit

Tuesday, January 14, 2003 - 08:56 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Lol Dahli, I'm not saying anything about taste, but Tash won't get sick!!!

Jagger

Wednesday, January 15, 2003 - 05:53 am EditMoveDeleteIP
I'm still here, just not doing too good on the not smoking. I slipped big time over the holidays, but I have set a new date of Saturday January 19, 2003 at 11 A.M. as my new quit date.

I really need to work on my roommate to quit at the same time or at least not smoke around me, that has been the hardest part. I can go the day at work without smoking but it gets really hard when he is sitting 6 feet from me smoking.

Good luck tasha!!!!

Tashakinz

Wednesday, January 15, 2003 - 10:13 am EditMoveDeleteIP
An addict's diary - day 4

Day 3 -- Chewed through three more pencils (don't you just love graphite lol - I throw them away once I crack the wood) and added 8 more rows to my rapidly expanding afghan. My hubby avoided me like the plague with the excuse of helping the neighbor move some furniture around - ask me if I believe that old line... I went shopping and bought a new "do me" dress. My motivation being that if I remind myself of how hard I've worked over the last year to lose weight - hopefully I'll be less likely to give in to the the hand to mouth compulsion with food.

Day 4 - They're coming to take me away ha ha ho ho hee hee - to the funny farm. 28 hours to my doctor's appointment. Only one pencil so far today - but I think that has more to do with the fact that I've learned to just hold them in place like a bit rather than actively biting through them. I stopped for more yarn.

Thanks so much for all of the encouraging words.

Dahli

Wednesday, January 15, 2003 - 10:22 am EditMoveDeleteIP
Jagger, not to be a nit-picker or anything, but Jan 19 is a sunday...so I'm wondering - which day do we all send out good thoughts to you??? Now about other people smokin' you gotta remember you're looking for ways to stop poisoning yourself not reasons to keep smoking, so the old parent question comes to mind... "if your roommate jumped off a bridge - does that mean you would too?" LOL

Juju2bigdog

Wednesday, January 15, 2003 - 03:11 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Poor, poor Tasha. BUT, the upside is if you can hang on until you can get that patch and slap it on, you will already be past some of the worst withdrawal. And you may not need as strong a patch, nor have to wear it as long.

I'll be wishing you luck on Sunday, Jagger. I agree it would be a whole lot easier if you could get the roommate to quit with you, so you didn't have to have cigs staring you in the face all over the house. On the other hand, until you can quit seeing smokes as a highly valuable forbidden object that you are depriving yourself of, and start seeing them as a chain around your drowning neck, you might not be really ready to quit. And that's also why nobody can quit because somebody else wants them to. You can only quit for yourself.

Denecee

Wednesday, January 15, 2003 - 03:18 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Juju, how did you know? Closet smoker/quitter here. A little history: Started smoking when I was 28 yrs old and since then I have stopped smoking many times with the longest period of stopping being 9 months. Each time I started back up it was mainly do to socializing with smokers. I am on day 15 of not smoking and each time I think about smoking I think about the stink, the money and my kids. I have not been to a doctor in ten years because I don't want to tell her that I smoke and I don't want to lie about it. I can think of a million and one reasons not to smoke and no reasons to smoke. One day at a time is how I am getting thru this addiction. I wish all of you success in your quitting. Just do it one day at a time!