Author |
Message |
Juju2bigdog
Member
10-27-2000
| Monday, February 23, 2004 - 8:48 pm
Congratulations, Wendo. You have made it to the easier part, but you will still get urges for a while. And then one day you will have a surprising thought, "Hey! I haven't even thought about a cigarette for days."
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Tabbyking
Member
03-11-2002
| Tuesday, February 24, 2004 - 12:40 am
remember, taking one drag only lasts for a couple of seconds, but then, if you are honest, you have to start counting from THAT point to say, "i haven't had even ONE drag since....." after i had stopped for about six months, i was so excited to be on my way to a full year. then i had a dream where i took one drag. and, in this dream, i was so bummed to have to say 'i haven't even had ONE drag in a week' instead of 'i haven't even had ONE drag in over 6 months!' i hated the backtracking! when i woke up, i think i even smelled my fingers to see if i had smoked! i was so happy it was only a dream and i felt the guilt and disappointment in myself as if i had smoked in real life! i am so proud of all of you for quitting, whatever route you take, whatever setbacks you have. i know you can do it!! i lied to myself for a long time, because most people had no idea i was a smoker. i didn't smoke a lot, i didn't smell like smoke, i didn't smoke in my house ever, even when i lived alone, etc. then i just bummed one here and there--as if not purchasing my own meant i wasn't really a smoker! (I apologize to all the people i bummed from, because i know what cigarettes cost!) i also noticed that insurance forms would ask about tobacco usage in the last 12 or 24 months. that scared me. my life insurance probably would be worthless. i'd die and my kids wouldn't even get college money! LOL i remember one of my cousins, who had started smoking at age 12 or something. when i moved back to california after living in quebec and NYC, i was 23 years old and smoking. my cousin came to visit my dad and i was there that day. she went outside to smoke and i went out with her and lighted a cigarette, too. and she started crying and told me, "i always thought you were too intelligent to smoke." i was pretty sure that going into the medical field would help, but all the docs i worked with smoked and the paramedic crew were all smokers, too. we would fight over who got to leave the e.r. and clean and restock the ambulance while the other person had to complete forms inside the hospital, because the person outside could grab a smoke. we saw so much trauma, we all just thought, 'why stop smoking? we could totally die tomorrow.' the stupidest group of caring, smart, emergency-trained people i have ever met! all under the curse of the nicotine 
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Wargod
Member
07-16-2001
| Tuesday, February 24, 2004 - 12:50 am
Congrats, Wendo!!!!!!!!!!! Have you tried using febreeze on your car's interior? It may not help 100% but it will take some of that smell away.
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Kristylovesbb
Member
09-14-2000
| Wednesday, February 25, 2004 - 9:58 am
Just checking in to give some high fives to everyone!!! I have been very busy putting hard wood floors in my home, doing it myself, so I haven't been posting much lately. Congrats to everyone and keep up the good work.
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Juju2bigdog
Member
10-27-2000
| Wednesday, February 25, 2004 - 4:42 pm
Congratulations on 2 months, Kristy!!!
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Kristylovesbb
Member
09-14-2000
| Thursday, February 26, 2004 - 10:16 pm
Thanks Juju!
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Dipo
Member
04-23-2002
| Friday, February 27, 2004 - 12:32 am
For some reason I am having a want to smoke tonite. I officially stopped smoking on 1/9th, but had a couple of relaspes; my most recent "havn't had a drag" date is 1/22, so it is 37 days. I have been doing okay but for some reason I am craving now. So I decided to come in here and type, that will keep my fingers busy. I know that a lot of people have said to clear your house of temptation but for some reason it is important for me to have smoking stuff here. I have one cig that has not been smoked, and a box of butts. This makes me feel secure. When I did not have this stuff I got panicked. Others say don't have anything in the house because you won't go out for it. WRONG!!!! I went out at eleven at night to get cigs and I don't drive(another issue) so I walked, and it is about 1.5 miles, this was not a smart thing to do, but I was just incensed to get those cigs. And once I got them I smoked them, but I will say I did not smoke as much as I had before. Now, since I have some little bits in the house I don't feel a need to go out and get some, I only have to confirm my desire not to smoke or access them. So thanks for listening, the need has passed, I am just happy to be non smoker.
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Herckleperckle
Member
11-20-2003
| Friday, February 27, 2004 - 12:36 pm
Just sending you some support in the form of a gif. Hope it is taken in the spirit intended. I'm rooting for you all!!

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Juju2bigdog
Member
10-27-2000
| Friday, February 27, 2004 - 3:48 pm
Rats, Dipo! I'm not sure what to suggest for you. You see, as long as you still consider having some backup smokes as a safety net (if that is true), you may not have the mindset that is going to allow you to successfully quit. Help! Somebody go find Llkoolaid! Maris? To be sure you are going to succeed, you have to somehow convince your head that those things you are hoarding "just in case" are NOT your friends that will help you out if things get a realllly tough. They are, instead, just like a spider web waiting for a fly, waiting to suck you back into poisoning yourself again. That said, Dipo, you did really good resisting the siren's call and coming here to post instead of giving in. You have come a really long way. If you have to go back to taking it an hour at a time instead of days or weeks at a time, that is what you have to do. What you are doing is really, really hard, and you are on the brink of success. Hang in there. There really are better days ahead without the monkey on your back.
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Tabbyking
Member
03-11-2002
| Friday, February 27, 2004 - 4:07 pm
for me, they had to be totally gone. whenever i bought 'the last pack', to get just "one" smoke, i would smoke them all. i mean, they cost good money, i was going to quit after 'the last pack', yada yada. if this works for you, dipo, and you haven't smoked them...well, we're all different...but, i almost gagged about the box of butts. i never re-lit a cigarette--supposedly even worse than lighting a fresh one! people used to get mad at me because i only smoked half a cigarette and i 'was wasting' them. i would see old ladies at bingo smoke 1/3 of a cig and stab it out, relight it at the next break and then finish it at the last break. ick. if you want that box of butts to help you, put the butts into a little jar with some water in it. open the jar and smell it every time you think you want a cigarette. puke city.
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Halfunit
Member
09-02-2001
| Friday, February 27, 2004 - 6:57 pm
That jar idea, as gross as it is, sounds like a winner!
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Tabbyking
Member
03-11-2002
| Sunday, February 29, 2004 - 12:34 am
someone who went through a hypnotist for quitting smoking told me one of the things she remembered was to do that with the butts (i have smelled butts in empty beer or soda containers and it isn't pretty!)...my friend--who like me, has a tremendous phobia of spiders--said that somehow while she was under, the hypnotist put in her mind that when she opened that box of marlboro lights, there would be a tarantula in the box, not cigarettes! she didn't want to open any cigarette packs! she quit from the hypnotist; i quit on my own. whatever works! how are you doing, sweet halfunit?
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Hootyhoot
Member
12-18-2001
| Sunday, February 29, 2004 - 11:25 am
I just stopped by to say don't give up ... I quit about seven years ago, and what a relief it is to be free of it! For many years, my family and friends had wanted me to quit, but I really wanted to go right on smoking. But gradually I came to see what awful things I was doing to myself (and my friends, my furniture, my car, etc.!) When I finally reached the point where I wanted to quit, I just couldn't seem to find a way to do it. After a couple of failures, I wanted to quit trying, but I knew I couldn't do that, so I decided to give myself permission to fail as long as I kept on trying. From then on, I tried everything I heard of ... hypnosis, acupuncture, private counseling, American Lung Association group, more hypnosis, medication tapes, etc. Finally, a neighbor asked me if I wanted to quit with her, we picked a day, and I quit! And it was easy ... I guess I learned a little from each of the tries I had made. Whew. Am I glad that's over! Good luck to all of you who are still trying to quit ... don't give up trying!
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Halfunit
Member
09-02-2001
| Sunday, February 29, 2004 - 12:14 pm
Yay Non-Smokers ! Today is 14 weeks for me - woo hoo!
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Juju2bigdog
Member
10-27-2000
| Sunday, February 29, 2004 - 4:51 pm
Yay Non-smokers!!! Hey, somebody go round up Llkoolaid for while I am gone. LOL. Only a week this time.
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Llkoolaid
Member
08-01-2001
| Sunday, February 29, 2004 - 8:12 pm
Hey Juju, I am back, I have been busy with a friend of mine who was battling colon cancer and haven't had time for the computer, plus I am trying to lose weight so I have been trying to stay off my big butt. My friend is over her surgery and they are pretty sure she is going to make a full recovery. Anyway I am back and will try and help out. I have to go back and do some reading to catch up, so I will post tomorrow. In the meantime, congratulations to the new quitters. Juju, enjoy your little vacation, everyone will miss you here.
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Llkoolaid
Member
08-01-2001
| Sunday, February 29, 2004 - 8:40 pm
Dipo, I just read your last post. Don't feel bad it is quite common to get cravings after you think you have it beat, that is when the darn things can hook you back. Whether or not you keep cigarettes in the house is up to you but I could never do it. When I quit, I really enjoyed tearing the remaining ones up and I put my ashtrays in a couple of paper bags, several layers in fact and took a hammer to them. I found it was great to destroy those filthy things. Anyway, you got past the craving so good for you. Just remember that the only thing you have to do to not be a smoker again is give up ONE cigarette, and all it is is the NEXT ONE. If you can refuse that cigarette you will never smoke again, but remember if you have it then it will lead to another and another and another. I quit so many many times and every time I started again it was because I fooled myself into thinking I could have just one. You would think after this happening several times I would get it but I didn't, I must have done this at least 10 or more times. It has been 2 1/2 years since I started this thread, asking for help and encouragement to quit smoking and boy did I get a lot of encouragement. Juju was there from day 1, along with several others. I wish I could remember everyone that helped me and all the advice they gave me. I remember one person telling me when I was having a bad craving at about 2 months to not look at how far I had to go because I was already there but to look back and see how far I had come and to make my own decision on wether or not I wanted another cigarette. It worked, I thought of how hard the first few days were and how good it felt checking off the weeks and how much better I was feeling. I really saw all the positves of quitting and all the negatives of smoking lined up and it made it so much easier to resist the urge. So, you beat this last craving, good for you, look it at winning another battle and give yourself a big pat on the back. It is so darn hard to finally rid yourself of these things and yet it is really so simple, all you have to do is not smoke that next cigarette when it starts calling your name. I know you can do it, you know above everyone else that you are worth it and you should be so proud of yourself. Keep positive, that is the only way. Be positive you can do it, be positive you are worth it and be positive you will do it. I am cheering you on and I can't wait until you are here handing out tips to the newbies who are quitting. That is the day you will know that you have won. Sorry for the long winded , sometimes sappy, sometimes preachy posts that I can make. I only do it because I want to give back to the people that held my hand and helped me get cigarettes out of my life. Remember, you ARE a non-smoker.
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Juju2bigdog
Member
10-27-2000
| Sunday, February 29, 2004 - 9:18 pm
Yay, LL!!! I can go in peace, lol. And hey! Congratulations on losing the weight! Even if you hadn't lost the weight, you know you are still better off with the weight than the cigarettes, but you did both! Yay!!!
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Halfunit
Member
09-02-2001
| Tuesday, March 02, 2004 - 9:40 am
My cigarettes are my friend. Friend or master? What kind of "friend" would deprive you of oxygen, take away your ability to smell, burn your clothes, destroy your teeth, harden your arteries, elevate your blood pressure, daily feed you 4,000+ chemical compounds that include arsenic, ammonia, acetone, formaldehyde, butane, massive doses of carbon monoxide, hydrogen cyanide, methane, stearic acid, vinyl chloride, mercury, and lead, together with 43 known cancer causing agents (one of which is created when nicotine breaks down - NNK), before finally killing you with cancer, a stroke, a heart attack or emphysema? Imagine seeing your executioner as a friend. Such protective denial thinking shows the amazing grip that nicotine imposes upon the mind. I enjoy smoking. This may be the most deeply engrained rationalization of all as it has a solid basis in the following flawed denial logic. "I don't do things that I don't like to do." "I smoke lots and lots of cigarettes." "Therefore, I must really enjoy smoking," instead of the correct conclusion, "therefore, I must really be chemically addicted to smoking nicotine." Did you enjoy being the unaddicted "you" or have you forgotten what it was like to live comfortably inside a mind that does not crave for nicotine? If you cannot remember what it was like being "you" then what basis do you have for honest comparison? If you truly enjoyed being addicted to nicotine then why are you here reading these words? Is it that you liked smoking or that you liked not having to experience what occurred when you didn't smoke - withdrawal? Studies have long ranked nicotine as a more addictive substance than either heroin or cocaine. In fact, cocaine's generally recognized addiction rate among regular users is 15% while nicotine's addiction rate of over 70% is at least five times as great. Imagine convincing your mind that it " likes " being addicted to the drug that addiction scientists now rank as the most addictive substance on all of planet earth. We are nicotine addicts . A pack a day smoker smokes 7,300 cigarettes each and every year. How many of your last 7,300 nicotine fixes did you really enjoy ? How many of the next 7,300 will bring tremendous joy to your life? My spouse, close friend or family member smokes. I'm waiting for them to quit with me. Procrastation recovery denial makes the next puff of toxins easier to suck down. Nicotine tells this junkie that they cannot quit until their friend or loved one quits too as they're around their smoke, smells, cigarettes, breath and ashtrays, and quitting is thus impossible. It's pure denial and often both friends or loved ones use the other as their excuse to remain enslaved. How long will you continue to destroy your body while waiting for someone else to quit with you? A lifetime? If and when they do quit with you, what will you do if they relapse? Will "love" cause you to do the same? One of you needs to stand tall, continue on and lead the way. It's okay to have hope for a loved one but you must quit for "you" or it's doomed from the very start. Why make your freedom, health or life dependent upon another person's decision. As for being around smokers, don't we all do it? Isn't it just a matter of degree? Will planet earth's 1.2 billion nicotine smokers disappear once commence recovery? Won't you still see them and smell their smoke at restaurants, as they stand around outside stores or even hospitals, or as they puff away in the car beside you? Will all the stores pull-down their cigarette displays or move them from arms reach just because you are trying to reclaim your mind and life? Don't live the lie that "I smoke for love!" It reduces my stress and helps calm me down. This health intellectualization is false. The body's pH balance is delicate. Nicotine is an alkaloid and stress an acid producing event. The more stressful the event the quicker the body's remaining nicotine reserves are neutralized (in the same manner as pouring a baking soda solution on an acid covered car battery terminal). The stressed smoker is thrown into early chemical withdrawal adding additional anxiety to the underlying original stressful event. It's why the anxiety associated with a flat tire causes smokers to reach for a cigarette while the non-smoker reaches for a jack. The anxieties build until the doubly stressed smoker cries out "I NEED A CIGARETTE!" Within eight seconds of the first puff, the smoker's nicotine blood serum nicotine level rises and their withdrawal anxieties subside. The addict is left with the false impression that smoking cured the underlying stressful event when in fact the tire is still flat. All non-smokers experience stress too. The difference is that they don't add early nicotine withdrawal to each stressful event. In truth, stress nicotine depletion causes smokers to experience far more anxiety than non-smokers. In truth, it is much easier and calmner being the real "you" than it is living as a chemical slave. My friends smoke, I'll lose them. The nicotine smoker's mind has been conditioned to believe, through association, that smoking is central to their entire life. Telephone calls, computer time, work, meals, driving, talking, walking, stress, joy, sorrow, and even romance, may have developed a subconscious association with smoking. The truth is that none of these activities will be altered whatsoever by the absence of tobacco. The truth is that quitting smoking will not deprive you of even a single friend or loved one. The truth is that smoking is costing you new friends and possible relationships as fewer and fewer non-smokers are willing to tolerate being around the smell and the smoke. Can you blame them? With the exception of quitting, your current life doesn't need to change at all unless you want it to change. It might be nice to enlarge your circle of friends to include those who don't stand around the community ashtray, but that's totally up to you. My concentration is better. Vast quantities of carbon monoxide do NOT improve concentration. Although nicotine is a stimulant and does excite certain brain neurons, it also constricts all blood vessels. Feel how cold your fingers and toes get when deprived of blood flow while smoking. Imagine what's happening to the blood vessels in your brain. If nicotine results in a stroke we probably won't need to worry much about concentration. Fresh air and exercise are far healthier brain stimulants. When quitting it's important that you understand the role that nicotine played in regulating blood sugar as its absence may cause the temporary impairment of concentration and clear thinking. If you are experiencing any concentration problems be sure and drink plenty of fruit juice (cranberry is excellent) while your brain adjusts to your body's needs. Also don't skip meals! Nicotine released stored fats into your blood and in a sense fed you with every puff but not anymore. Don't eat more food each day, just spread your normal intake out more over your entire day so that you keep fuel in your stomach and your blood sugar level. It's something to do with my hands. So is playing with a loaded gun and they both have the same potential for harm. This weak addiction rationalization ignores that doodling with a pen, playing with coins, squeezing a ball or using strength grippers may be habit forming but are non-addictive. You might get ink on yourself, rich or strong wrists but your chances of serious injury or death are almost zero. My coffee wouldn't be the same. More junkie thinking! Your coffee's flavor will remain identical. In fact, it may even taste better once your taste buds heal after years of being numbed, coated and poisoned. Your sense of smell may become so refined that you'll smell fresh coffee brewing more than one hundred feet away. Although you don't need to give up your coffee or any thing else except nicotine during recovery, be aware that nicotine somehow doubles the rate (203%) at which caffeine is metabolized by the body and as a new ex-smoker you may only need half as much in order to obtain the same effect. If you are a heavy caffeine user and find yourself experiencing increased anxiety during recovery, or encounter difficulty sleeping, try reducing your intake by roughly half. There's lots of time left to quit. This year tobacco will kill 4,000,000 humans, 1.5 million in middle-age who will each die an average of 22.5 years early . In order for 22.5 to be the average, how many hundreds of thousands had to die even younger? Maybe you've got time left and maybe not . But, dying in your thirties or forties is a powerful price to pay for guessing wrong. The numbers above only reflect DEATH by tobacco. You may be lucky enough to be among the millions of nicotine smokers each year who SURVIVE and "only" have a heart attack, a stroke, a lung removed, go onto oxygen, or who receive news of permanent lung disease as you struggle for every breath. Which puff, from which cigarette, in which pack, will pull the trigger that fires the gun? The odds of a male smoker dying from lung cancer are 22 times greater than for a non-smoker. His odds of dying from emphysema are ten times greater. How lucky do you feel? It's one of my few pleasures in life. Does that mean that it's better than the pleasure of having a throat to deliver fresh air and great food, two lungs with which to laugh, a healthy heart to feel love, or an undamaged mind which dreams of a wonderful tomorrow? Pleasure from your addiction or pleasure in committing slow suicide at the hands of a mind that thinks it can only live with the aid of a powerful stimulant? What do they call someone who derives pleasure from self-inflicted harm or who slowly puts themselves to death? Pick your own label! Which nicotine fix out of the last 5,000 was the one that brought you tremendous pleasure? Which cigarette out of the next 5,000 may be the one that sparks permanent damage or disease, or that carries death's eternal flame? If bad news arrives tomorrow will "pleasure" cross your mind? Your only pleasure is in postponing the challenge of the initial 72 hours that it takes to remove all nicotine from your blood. Dad just died, this isn't the time! Smoking won't bring dad back nor cure any other ill in life. Success in quitting during a period of high stress in life insures that future high stress situations won't serve as your excuse or justification for relapse. If you think about it, if we continue to live we will all see someone we love die. Such is the cycle of life. It's extremely sad but serious illness, injury, or the death of a loved one are the most convincing justifications that quitters sell themselves on, in order to justify keeping their drug. There is no better time to quit than before your next mandatory feeding. Don't allow finances, work, illness, education or relationships to serve as your excuse to remain an active addict. There is no legitimate justification for ever putting nicotine back into our body - none, zero, never! Lots of smokers live until ripe old age. They are much rarer than you think. Look around. If you do find old nicotine smokers almost all are in poor health or in advanced stages of smoking related diseases, many with oxygen. Laboring for every breath with lungs on their last leg, is that ripe enough for us? Nicotine smokers tend to think only in terms of dying from lung cancer. Tobacco kills in many ways. For example, circulatory disease caused by smoking kills more smokers each year than lung cancer. How long would George Burns have lived to be if he hadn't smoked cigars, 115, 125? What's wrong with dying healthy from natural causes! I get bored. It helps pass the time. Tobacco does not control any clock on earth but it does control you . For the pack a day nicotine smoker it takes about 30 minutes before their blood's nicotine level to drop to the point where their mind sends them an "urge" of discomfort to remind you that it's time for a feeding. It doesn't matter where they are or what they're doing. Depending upon your daily nicotine requirements, the voice inside your head will let you know when it's time. All you're doing when bored is being alert enough to what lies ahead, so that you keep topping off your nicotine tank before the next message of discomfort arrives. It's my choice and I choose to smoke! It's a lie and you know it! You lost your "choice" and the ability to simply walk away the day that nicotine feedings became mandatory. The only choice you have now is how EARLY you feed the beast within. The ignorant nicotine addict still believes the "choice" myth pounded into their brain by an endless stream of highly effective tobacco company marketing. All the pretty colored boxes, the displays, the sea of ads, how often have you seen any smoker switch brands? It's a well set trap from teens and a way to keep you from looking at the man behind the curtain - nicotine. You uneducated smoker associated smoking with the newspaper, coffee, travel, stress, other smokers, telephone calls, meals, celebrations, romance, or even as a necessary step prior to walking into a store. The educated nicotine addict sees all nicotine fixes as either mandatory, or an early feeding, in order to avoid the onset and discomfort of chemical withdrawal. You smoke nicotine after a meal because it's time for a nicotine feeding and you smoke before a meal because it isn't polite to feed yourself nicotine and food at the same time. If your regular feedings are spaced thirty minutes apart, at least every thirty minutes you're going to start sensing the need for more nicotine regardless of the activity. A cure for cancer is coming soon. Between Europe and North America tobacco will kill over one million this year. How many of them thought that a cure was on the way? Sadly, it was false hope. As hopeless drug addicts they waited, and waited and waited. What type of lung cancer are you waiting for them to cure - squamous cell, oat cell, adenocarcinoma, or one of the less common forms of lung cancer? Even if a cure is coming for all forms and types of cancer caused by tobacco (and there are many), what will be left of your lungs by the time it arrives? If you're gambling on "how" tobacco will kill you, don't forget to consider heart attacks , strokes, and emphysema. Which cure are you betting on? I smoke lights and they're not as bad. Lights and ultra-lights are capable of delivering the same amount of tar and nicotine as regular brands, depending on how they're smoked. They do not reduce most health risks including the risk of heart disease or the risk of cancer . In fact, their smokers often take longer drags which means far more tar and more nicotine than advertised. Others simply smoke a higher number of lights because they feel short changed. Quitting causes weight gain and it's just as dangerous. This intellectual denial pre-assumes a large weight gain and then makes an erroneous judgement regarding relative risks. Quitting does not increase our weight, eating does. Some assert that metabolic changes associated primarily with the heart not having to work as hard could account for a pound or two but as far as being "dangerous," you'd have to gain an additional one hundred pounds in order to equal the health risks associated with smoking one pack a day. Keep in mind that your general health, physical abilities and lung capacity will all improve dramatically. If patient, you will develop the physical endurance (a 30% increase in overall lung function within 90 days) and mental recovery tools (the same tools needed to take control of your addiction to nicotine) necessary to shed any extra pounds just one pound at a time. Remember, smoking was your cue that a meal had ended. Unless you develop a new healthy cue there may be fewer leftovers. Also keep in mind how easy it would be for a drug addict to use intentional weight gain to a ploy to sabotage recovery. It's too late now to heal these lungs. Nonsense! If you have not yet caused permanent lung damage you should expect to experience an almost one-third increase in overall lung function within just 90 days of quitting! It's amazing how much damaged lungs can repair themselves unless disease or cancer have already arrived. Even with emphysema, although destroyed air sacks will never again function, quitting now will immediately halt the needless destruction of additional tissues! You only have two options - decay or heal. Which cigarette in which pack will carry the spark that gives birth to that first cancerous cell? I'd quit but withdrawal never ends! False! If you remain 100% nicotine free for just 72 hours, your blood will become nicotine free, your withdrawal anxieties will peak in intensity and the number of psychological craves will peak in number. The greatest challenge will be over. Within 10 days to two weeks, actual physical withdrawal is substantially complete as your mind has physically adjusted to the absence of nicotine and accustomed to natural brain dopamine levels. What then remains will be to encounter and recondition your remaining psychological habit crave triggers and to learn to live with the millions of smoking memories stored deep within your mind. You will experience your first day of total quit comfort, where you never once even "think" about a cigarette or smoking, by at least day ninety. The sad part is that you won't even realize that it has happened. After the first such day, they grow more and more frequent until they become your new norm. The deep sense of lasting comfort and calmness that awaits you is probably beyond your comprehension. The real "you" is in total control! But the craves last for hours! Just like the lingering thought of a nice juicy steak, lobster in butter sauce, or fresh baked hot apple pie, you can make yourself "think" about having a cigarette all day long, if that's what you really want to do. Unlike thoughts, crave anxiety attacks last for less than 3 minutes. It's important that you look at a clock and time them as your mind can make those minutes seem like hours. The bulk of the anxiety surrounding each crave is self induced. Such "thoughts" can be controlled with honest answers and through the power of positive thinking . Strip away all the self-inflicted anxiety and what remains on Day 3 for the "average" quitter is just 18 minutes of true crave anxiety (an average of six craves each less than three minutes in duration). I'll quit after the next pack, next carton, next month, my next birthday or on New Years'. Oh really? Can you count on both hands and all your toes how many times you've lied to yourself with such nonsense? And which pack, carton, month or birthday will give you the best chance for success? Forget buying nicotine laden cigarettes by the pack or carton. A case is even cheaper! With the way that cigarette prices are shooting through the roof, you might as well calculate how many it will take to keep you in nicotine for life and buy them all now. The only problem with that is in determining how long you have left to live. How many more pack, carton, birthday and New Year's lies will you tell to yourself? When will they stop? If you continue on your present path, many Birthdays are very likely be cancelled by your early Deathday. Will your family celebrate without you? It's too painful to quit! Compared to what? Three days of physical withdrawal (just 72 hours) in no way compares to the pain of months of chemotherapy, lung removal surgery and a two foot scar, a losing battle with throat cancer, years of trying to recover from a serious stroke or massive heart attack, or fighting for every breath through emphysema riddled lungs as you drag oxygen around for the remainder of your life. If you're really worried about hurt then why continue your daily destruction? If I quit, I'll just start back again. I always do. The truth is that you don't have to relapse. We relapse because we rewrite the law of addiction, we forget why we quit, or we invent lies and stupid excuses, such as those that fill this page. Your next quit can be your last but you need to learn how to care for your quit , while always applying the only rule that you'll ever need to obey - NEVER TAKE ANOTHER PUFF OF NICOTINE! I'll cut down or quit and smoke just one now and then. You are addicted to a substance that is five times as addictive as cocaine (15% vs. 75%). You may be strong enough to cut back a bit but you'll remain addicted, the decay will continue and a recent study indicates that your health risks will remain unchanged. If you were a pack-a-day nicotine smoker and after quitting you decide to smoke just one cigarette, you might as well get ready to smoke the other 7,300 for the year too as full and complete relapse is virtually assured. The Law of Nicotine Addiction is simple - one puff of new nicotine and it's over! Yes, 95 to 97% of those who smoke nicotine from just one cigarette will immediately or soon thereafter experience full and complete relapse back to their prior level of nicotine intake or higher. Your addiction permanently transformed your brain into a highly efficient nicotine processing machine capable of generating a steady output of dopamine. Quitting is a process where the brain learns to function without the extra dopamine but it does not alter your processing potentials. After quitting, the jail remains but is empty and you're on probation for life! I tried quitting but my family stopped supporting me or was giving me such a hard time that it caused me to throw in the towel. It's a lie. You gave up because you used your family as a cheap excuse to get your drug back. You exaggerated everything they did or didn't do. You were looking for any excuse. You're the drug addict yet you expected them to understand the weakness and thinking of a drug addict's mind. Maybe they didn't pat you on the back as often as you wanted, but if they've never been through chemical withdrawal themselves is it really fair to expect them to appreciate the magnitude or duration of your challenge? They just want you to be normal. They don't know how to react. Do they pat you on the back and keep reminding you, or hope and pray that the worst has passed? Feeling unappreciated, picking fights and creating confrontation are tools of the addict's mind that are often used as weapons in order to reclaim their drug. Some know that if they inflict tremendous stress on loved ones that they may even convince their loved one to beg them to start smoking nicotine again, or to buy their relapse cigarettes for them. That way they can blame their relapse on their loved one. "They just couldn't handle my quitting." "Maybe next time!" The lengths to which the nico-addict will go in order to feed the beast are almost beyond belief. Yes, some will even hurt those that love them most. Ok, I'm going to quit! Now I can enjoy my smokes until then! If you've done this more than once, isn't it just more junkie head games ? This addict wants to feel good about smoking nicotine and they've learned that by saying that they're going to quit, that they make themselves feel better even though deep down they know that it's just another lie! Unless something awakens this addict, there may never be a serious quit in their future. I've got to die of something! True, but if you knew that tomorrow morning at 9:22 a.m. a massive smoking induced stroke would bring your life to an abrupt end, and you'd die on a cold floor with a cigarette beside you - just as tens of thousands of smokers are found each year - would you light that last cigarette at 9:21 a.m. and pull the trigger that kills you? Would this be one or your primary recovery denial rationalizations? Look around at all the smokers you see today. The death certificates of half will read, "cause of death - smoking. " Yes, they had to die of something but not an average of more than 5,000 days early. Would any non-addicted human spend each and every day of the remainder of their life intentionally destroying a little bit more of their ever shrinking lung capacity? Why continue doing so until physical exercise is no longer an option, or until your chemical dependency begins burdening and wasting the lives of others who'll be forced to care for you, as they watch you struggle just to suck oxygen from tanks and machines 24 hours a day? Which family member have you spoken with about taking care of you once you've almost finished destroying that body? Can you imagine what it's like trying to breathe through a straw? It's called emphysema. Since you've got to die of something why not try it out now. See what it would be like to have advanced emphysema by spending just five minutes learning to straw breathe. What has nicotine done for you lately? It's true - there's no one worse than an ex-smoker! 
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Llkoolaid
Member
08-01-2001
| Tuesday, March 02, 2004 - 9:53 am
Hey Half, where did you get that, it is all so true. Hope everyone is having a good day being smoke free.
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Halfunit
Member
09-02-2001
| Tuesday, March 02, 2004 - 10:13 am
www.whyquit.com Under "Why We Died Young", click on "Nicodemon's Lies?".
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Dipo
Member
04-23-2002
| Tuesday, March 02, 2004 - 10:31 pm
Thanks Half, that is a great article I can use when I have the "weirdness". I must say that things are not going well, NOT. I am afraid to jinx myself. Thanks everyone for your thoughts on those secret non friends that are in my house. For some reason they made me feel good at the time, but I don't even think about them being here and had to try and remember where I put them. So I might be throwing them out soon. Will wait just in case of an unplanned anxiety attack. I am happy to say I am at 42 days as a Non Smoker, and I love it. I want to thank all of you so much for supporting me, I didn't think I needed that kind of help but I find that I am little unhappy with my best friend. She had been on my case for a couple of years to quit and I told her about 3 weeks ago that I had, she was very happy but hasn't even asked me how I am doing. I know she is very wrapped up in her own problems, but I am a little suprised by this. I am a little unhappy with her about this, but have let it go for now. You guys keep me remembering that this is a good thing. Thanks for all the support.
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Tabbyking
Member
03-11-2002
| Wednesday, March 03, 2004 - 12:30 am
i think maybe your friend is afraid to ask you about it, in case it reminds you of smoking! like maybe the word 'cigarette' has somehow just left even your vocabulary--and if she brings it up, you may relapse. people sometimes don't know what to say. you can bring it up to her. this will sound strange, well to those who never smoked, but quitting was almost like losing a friend; it had been with me for so long, in two countries, in 4 states, etc., since i was a teenager...i smoked, on and off, mostly on, for 30 years. and i think my husband was afraid to ask how it was going, because it might make me miss that 'friend' enough to invite it back in my life.
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Wendo
Member
08-07-2000
| Wednesday, March 03, 2004 - 3:45 am
Quite a treatsie Half! I read it all though. Thanks for posting that. Well, I've hit 37 days. And, I can honestly say that I have had days where I didn't think of smoking or of a cigarette at all. For instance, didn't even think about it today until I came to this thread. LOL! It is something I'm aware of other days though. For instance, on the way to my doctors office last week. I'm walking down the side walk and the person a few feet in front of me lites a cigarette. The smoke wafts around my head. Ah, the memories. But, I did not go and buy any smokes. Congrats to all those who are struggling everyday to quit!
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Llkoolaid
Member
08-01-2001
| Wednesday, March 03, 2004 - 7:44 am
Way to go Wendo, everytime you resist you win. You should have gotten a little closer and smelled her clothes and breathe, I bet that urge would have passed real quick then. Good for you, you are now in your second month, the urges will get less and less. I know I get boring repeating this but don't let yourself get fooled into trying one just to see if you can do it or for some other stupid reason. I can't believe how many times I convinced myself that I could handle one cigarette. It is an easy trap to fall into, or maybe I am just an idiot but that is what ruined it for me so many times. Good for you, be proud of yourself.
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