[karizma_devil]

Last Smoke : 13 Dec 2010
eagerly awaiting full 365 days of smoke free life.

Well I actually have tried quitting numerous time , 1 cigarette a day , Goldflake light rather than normal Goldflake , half cigarette .. and what not.

One fine morning on of my smoke partner & best friend, who incidentally was also colleague , quite his job . I threw my last cigarette on his farewell party !

Well i guess we all need some or the other shock or a major change in in life to kick the "Butt".

From my personal experience i would strongly advocate - Just one fine day drop the Cancer Stick !!! Just drop it .. no 1 stick , half stick a day stuff.....

Wish you all the Best !!
Quitting the stick has one of the biggest achievements in my life !

[kiran]

I am failing to convince my 65yr old dad. I have never tried to smoke by looking at his problems. He has been smoking since his college days. A well educated but could not come out of his friends who are spoiling him. Now his lever totally damaged with infection. The doctors already said they can not recover damaged lever as surgery is not possible for his age. They advised only regular medicines for him. He fainted several times with lack of oxygen and has to carry the inhaler always. In spite of this, he says that he needs at least one cig per day.

[Thad E Ginathom]

Though it was mostly on Alcohol and drugs ...

An nicotine is as much a drug as alcohol and the illegal ones. How they measure these things, I have no idea, but nicotine has been said to be more addictive than heroin! That's how serious it is.

[vinu_h]

I cannot agree more with you. Best thing that ever happened to me. Had what was hopefully my last one on Dec 31st 2010 at 11.55 PM. Like yourself, I'm waiting for the anniversary. I've involved myself with regular running, tennis and swimming ever since. Strangely, I've lost 23 kgs since.

A 'stop' rather than 'reduce' has always worked for those who wanted to quit.

Originally Posted by karizma_devil

Last Smoke : 13 Dec 2010
eagerly awaiting full 365 days of smoke free life.

Well I actually have tried quitting numerous time , 1 cigarette a day , Goldflake light rather than normal Goldflake , half cigarette .. and what not.

One fine morning on of my smoke partner & best friend, who incidentally was also colleague , quite his job . I threw my last cigarette on his farewell party !

Well i guess we all need some or the other shock or a major change in in life to kick the "Butt".

From my personal experience i would strongly advocate - Just one fine day drop the Cancer Stick !!! Just drop it .. no 1 stick , half stick a day stuff.....

Wish you all the Best !!
Quitting the stick has one of the biggest achievements in my life !

[georgev]

used to smoke. now completely stopped. i shifted to Davidoff 1 which holds min nicotine/CO content, steadily reduced the numbers and stopped. last leg was just few puffs (1/4 of the cig) and dispose. it worked for me. now i am holding on.

[harishnayak]

Didn't go through the thread but have not smoked since July'10..That makes it close to 1.4 years. The only time that i would smoke is if i ever make it to VEGAS..nothing before that would make me smoke a CANCER STICK

[chbpreddy]

I did not go through the thread so ignore about the book if it is nothing new. I wanted to share my experience and I'm sure it is the same experice many had. I read this book "easy way to stop smoking" to quit smoking. Like it promises, it was a wasy, painless way to quit smoking. It had been 5 years since I quit and now I cannot smoke even if I want to. Tried this couple of times recently but fell sick immediately and did not enjoy the smoke as well. I'm not associated with this book in anyway so please dont think this is advertisement. I'm sure many tried this so please share it since it will help a lot of people. One caution though is that I remember reading that this method only works once. So dont read the book unless you are sure you want to quit. HTH. I seem to have lost the earlier post. (and had to type everything again ) So please delete this post if it is dup.

[Thad E Ginathom]

Every experience is valid, even if someone has mentioned the same before

[Urban_Nomad]

I write this with great difficulty. I have started smoking again. After 45 - 50 days of being smoke free, I started smoking again.

I guess it was around 40th "smoke free day" that I began to feel absoluetly desperate for a smoke. With each passing day, it kept getting worse. Just then, I read a comment from Thad on this thread. It said -

"My very last cigarette was a month or so into the giving up. I found it under a chair, and could not resist. It was dry, disgusting and burnt my lungs; maybe that helped to make it my very last!"

AAHA, I said to myself. This is what I need. A last cigarette to make me realize once and for all how disgusting it is. My urge to smoke will fade away in all that disgust. So the very next day, I marched straight to a paan waala, bought a ciggy and .................... it felt good. Scratch that, it felt GREAT. I have been smoking 4 - 5 cigs daily ever since.

Signing off of this thread till I muster up enough strength to walk the smoke free path again. Thanks to everyone who spent precious time responding to my rants on this thread. Whatever little I could manage would not have been possible without your support. I have let myself down the most, but I feel I have let all of you down in no small measure too.

PS -

@ Thad - I hope you do not read the above comment in the wrong light. I am responsible for my actions, no matter how stupid / dangerous they might be. I understand that what might work for one, may not for another. I thank you for your constant support and I will come knocking for help, hopefully soon. My best regards to you good sir.

Karan

[suhaas307]

Urban Nomad's post has given me the courage to come clean as well.

It took me about 3 weeks to get back to smoking. My body did not crave for it. My mind did. For the first few days, I was fine. And then I felt the urge to smoke after meals, and even in the loo after a few days. And then I felt the urge every other hour. But I refrained from buying them or even holding my friend's cigarette.

Throwing away my matchboxes and lighters did not help.

I feel like I've lost a battle. And I cannot stand that feeling. But at the same time, I wish to continue smoking. And wish not to.

[Thad E Ginathom]

Come on, both of you. Stop it right now!

The first thing that you will realise is that it will be even harder than the first attempt. No reason not to do it, though.

I wish to continue smoking. And wish not to.

No you don't. It's called addiction.

The big mistake is thinking that addiction only gets to you through physical symptoms. Oh no! That's the easy stuff. It's when it starts getting mental and emotional that the fight really gets nasty.

You both fell for tricks nicotine played on your minds. Been there, done that; as, I expect, many of us here have. I didn't pass my driving test first time; I didn't pass giving up smoking first time (or second... or third...).

So, what was the difference when I finally did it? Some genuine fear about my health helped, but what I did was to take what I acknowledged and understood was an absolute and irrevocable decision that, by my 40th birthday, I would be a non-smoker. That was in April: I had until July. I didn't even start for two days. That final cigarette was probably in May. I gave myself no getout clause, not even a chance for failure. Even if I had had a puff on the last day of June, it would have been never again by 4th July. Actually, with patches helping, it was never again from that revolting dry cigarette (your mistake, Urban Noman: you smoked a nice fresh one. Bake it dry first, next time ) and I even started forgetting the patches nearly two weeks before the three-month course was up.

You can tell nicotine that it might have won a battle, but not the war --- and throw the cigarettes away right now. Or not. It is your choice, and, so long as you don't breathe smoke on me, I'll even acknowledge your right to smoke if you want to. Or, if It wants you to

[n_aditya]

Today is Day-30 for me since i stopped smoking. Initially the urges used to be strong, especially on weekend evenings and when with friends who smoked. I realized these urges hardly last a few seconds and it was not that hard to make them go.

When I used to smoke it was around 8-10 cig's a day but these were Wills Navy Cut. Quite strong. Even the Marlboro Red's used to seem lighter.

When i finally quit I took help from Nicorette 2mg gums. I used to chew 2 pieces a day against the dosage of 8-12 pieces. Now its been a week since i even had a piece of Nicorette. Glad i am finally off the bloody stick.

I used to think it was really hard to quit... and that i might only be able to when i get sick. Heart disease runs in my family so i am very happy that i have quit now. I go for chai with my colleagues and while they smoke i am undeterred. Doesn't bother me at all. The achievement of quitting feels great. Never though i could so this makes me feel very good.

Funny thing is i had a dream last night. Was waiting for colleagues to pick me up on the way to work (although i ride on my own to work everyday of the week) and lit up a ciggie in the car. Suddenly realized i had quit and threw the cig out. Then i noticed i had a 20's pack in my pockets.

[noopster]

Urban, suhaas- listen to what Thad is saying. The man makes sense.

Especially Urban- dude, why are you acting so shamefaced and gloomy as if it was the only opportunity you had to quit and you missed it and now you're stuck with smoking forever? Dude, ALL of us have gone through these phases. read my earlier posts: it took me 10 years of "trying" and maybe 5 of those "serious trying" before I got it through my thick skull that "trying", "reducing", "cutting down", "controlling" are all useless terms. You make a choice. And you stick to it. Period.

Am not suggesting even for a moment that it will take you 10 years to quit. Don't even think that far ahead. Just be in the moment.

You smoked a cigarette after you quit? Or a hundred? Big deal, get over it and quit again. Every cigarette you don't smoke is good for you. Getting into aa cynical, resigned frame of mind is not going to make you quit.

[Thad E Ginathom]

Yep, what you say makes sense!

Originally Posted by n_aditya

Funny thing is i had a dream last night. Was waiting for colleagues to pick me up on the way to work (although i ride on my own to work everyday of the week) and lit up a ciggie in the car. Suddenly realized i had quit and threw the cig out. Then i noticed i had a 20's pack in my pockets.

Getting to us in our dreams seems a lot more common than I thought. It's a few of us, now, that have had this: if a few post it here, there must be many more.

[mempheS.D]

haha ! It's that time of the year when people resolve to quit and run the habit stronger than they usually do with the hope that Jan 1, 2012 is the day they'll break free from the cancer stick.