Come on Jim, join the party. The clean air is fine:D

That is great Firewall!!! I looked at COPD and what it entails. Really, what a debilitating disease. Then I thought, do I really want to carry around an O2 tank for the rest of my life gasping for air all because of smoking that I could have and should have quit long ago? Hell, no. Time to quit now while I'm ahead of the game. :up:

I'm stuck on HMS Thanatus with a load of sheep atm....may be time to come up for some freash air soon :DL

Congrats on not smoking!!
 

:sunny:Hey Congratulations on not smoking!! I'm smoke-free 8 years now. Toughest thing I've ever stopped doing. I smoked for 36 years and it took me years to stop. I used the gum, the anti-depressants, the patches, and they can help but not for me. Here's what I did.....Smoked the last one before bed and destroyed the rest of the pack, and next day I put off going to get more for 15 minutes, or 30 minutes or 2 minutes. when I reached the end of whatever time limit I set, I would put it off again and set another limit for until the cravings became bearable. I also found that cinnamon sticks would help put off the urge. I guess I went through a thousand of those things. In the middle of the night I would get a Freeze Pop and eat those things till I could go back to sleep. Also try to keep busy it helps to take your mind off the craving. Above all, if something happens and you do start smoking again, be sure to decide on a new quit date. Just keep trying to stop smoking. Eventually you will make it. Just don't stop trying to stop smoking. Also don't hang out with other smokers because it is just too easy to bum a smoke from them. (Most every smoker wants us to smoke with them.) Don't go to places where its O.K. to smoke either.
Chances are that you'll always face times when you will want to smoke till the day you die. That is the nature of the beast. I also called the American Cancer Society and asked them for any literature they could send me. I imagine you can go to their website these days. Hope this helps you and Good Luck!!

Funny you mention cinnamon sticks. Pistachhios help me get past the graving I get every now and then. Even those gravings are getting further apart and hopefully gone very shortly. I started smoking when I was 15. I will be 44 June 30th. So, yeah, it is time to quit after all those years.

Although the chemical addiction can be difficult to break, Its the habit (psychological addiction) that is the most long lasting, and most difficult to control. That is what nags, cajoles, and harasses you to smoke again for weeks to months after quitting. The chemical part goes away after a few weeks, and peaks at around 3 days. The other part though can take months even years (some even say it never quite goes away).

That is why mental discipline and having a list of reasons to fight the urges with helps.

Yeah DRINK'IN....no wait:shifty:

But my hair stylist looks at me suspiciously when I ask him to trim the hairs on the palms of my hands.

Didnt read this trough but why is this a sticky?
I smoked over ten years and just stopped.
Its all mental and very easy if you really want to stop.
All addictions are mostly symptoms of deeper psychological issues.
If you cant analyze yourself, go to a professional.

Sometimes folks just need a little encouragement from their friends?

Exactly, I stickied it as it seemed there were a few of us quitting and though I am finding it quite easy others might not thought with the thread it could give encouragement.

I think that is a bit unfair really. You're lucky others might need a bit more support.

What would happen to you if you walked down the street and shoved a cig in someone's mouth and tried to make them smoke it? you'd get pucnhed in the face that's what. Why don't they want to smoke that cig? You're the one that makes you want to have a cig. Nothing else. If you can go for five days, then you are over the chemical addiction, and that's usually when people decide to have one just to test.. Then because you get the head rush and a fresh input of nicotine you are back on the fags.

The only way to stop smoking is to realise that you want to stop smoking because you don't enjoy it. If you tell yourself that you *DO* enjoy it, then you'll never stop smoking, as you will always think you are missing something enjoyable and wil eventually go back to the 'enjoyment'.

You can never smoke 'just one'. If you do, then you'll smoke the entire packet and then the next one. The notion that if only you could have only the first one, or only the ones after meals is stupid, because of course you can, you just have to not smoke the others. But of course you don't, you smoke even the ones you don't enjoy. That's why you want to stop smoking.

Part of stopping smoking is to realise that there are no 'good' cigarettes. those that think there are the 'good ones' like the ones when you wake or the ones after the meal are going to be living their lives missing the good cigarettes, but of course all cigarettes are the same... they are mass produced in a factory and they don't know when they will be smoked. If you only want to smoke the good ones, never the bad ones, then do that, but of course that's ridiculous. They are all the same, it's only you that makes them good or bad. They're all bad! If you make them good, you'll like them.

So, do you want to stop smoking because you don't enjoy it?

If you do, then simple, why continue to do something you don't enjoy? If you do enjoy it, then logically you should chain smoke - get maximum enjoyment.

There just has to be a lamo joke about "King Size" here... there just has to be. :har:

It is sticked to help others, give encouragement and ideas for quiting or help in quiting. Some are not as stalwart as you after 10 years of smoking and just stopping...no wait....I started when I was 14 and I'm now 43. I just stopped 9 days ago. Was it all mental? Nope, nicotine is a drug and addiction. It takes 3 weeks to have the body 99% nicotine free. That is purely physical. Once the smoker gets past that then it is a mental game. All addictions are mostly symptons of deeper psychological issues? Huh? Do you have some concrete evidence this is in fact the case? :hmmm: