[vikramvicky1984]

Originally Posted by vikramvicky1984

Beating my own trumpet
No urges at all not on day 1 not on day 23
went to favourite highway joint with friend- no-liquor no puffs
lockdown boredom exists but still no urge
The book is magic, thank you.

The cedia’s spares aren’t coming though

Originally Posted by vikramvicky1984

I quit in March 2020 just before lockdown and I haven't smoked again, gave up drinking too. Please see my past posts on this thread. Read Allen carrs book, it works. Lighter cigarettes or reducing no of cigarettes makes things even worse if you want to quit. I have also done that for years. People are on gums/ ultra milds ( lightest) for decades.

Originally Posted by vikramvicky1984

Even this couldn't make me quit.



It is worth sounding like a broken record
Read it on 2nd march in 6 hours. Lit up a couple on 3rd and also had some alcohol. Hated both
I am clean since then and the best part is I don't have control myself.
The book is indeed life changing- I read it & quit a time when I have quite a lot of stress in life
Hope to keep going and recommend wholeheartedly to everyone trying.
So I believe quitting has brought me luck too- will be able to restore the Cedia too and also add the Momo steering wheel

Blowing my trumpet and dancing to the tunes as well.
It's been over a year now since I have stopped smoking and drinking. I haven't been this proud of myself ever- not even when I made to IIMA. Thank you Allen car(r).
The cedia was sold though.

[Thad E Ginathom]

Keep blowing that trumpet! So much healthier than smoking

Congratulations on your smoke-free year. Keep up the good work: you have to be on your guard for a while yet. Keep the future smoke free

[noopster]

I went back and read all my own posts on this thread dating back to 2010, the year I joined Team BHP *and* quit smoking (after a decade and half of being a smoker). I stayed quit through to 2018, when I smoked once in August and another time in December. By then I thought I could "handle an occasional smoke" and rationalised that "one should never be a fanatic about anything". Probably true, but the thing is: it just doesn't work with smoking!

My resumption of smoking coincided with a difficult time in my life where I felt I'd been pushed by circumstance to choose an option that my heart was not in, at the time. Things got better afterwards, then worse, then better again. Through this time, I've gone through cycles of on-again/off-again smoking.

Earlier this year I lost a close colleague to COVID. Another close friend went through hell and back but survived. Both were smokers, both in their 40s. You don't know whom this blasted disease will take, or spare. I quit smoking and drinking for 4 months (April through July), not as a conscious reaction to all this but because I just didn't feel like. It was the same time that my parents went through very difficult situations health-wise, sadly my father didn't make it. A few weeks after his death I started smoking again.

I am in that all-too-familiar position now that I recognise from 2010 when I tell myself: enough is enough. I'm a big boy now and need to stop lying to myself that it's external factors that are driving me to these addictions.

I look back at all the wisdom I have spouted on this thread for the past 10-odd years: some of it is actually damn good, even if I say it myself

It's Day 1 of Navratri today, and a lot of my North Indian friends swear off eating meat, drinking, smoking etc. during this 10-day period. So as auspicious a time as any to kick the butt.

Wish me luck. And expect me to be posting here much more regularly now!

[Thad E Ginathom]

The Irrevocable Decision: It doesn't matter what happens, I won't smoke again.

Noopster, you illustrate so well how life's misfortunes can give a nicotine, alcohol, etc, addiction just the shove that it needs to bend a person to its will again. Unless you make that decision.

When I gave up, I thought through, "If really, really bad stuff happens*, I might do all sorts of crazy things, but none of them will be smoking."

Good luck. But you don't need it: you need to make your mind up



*Insert personal nightmares here: loss of job, home, family... the worst!

[noopster]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

The Irrevocable Decision: It doesn't matter what happens, I won't smoke again.

When I gave up, I thought through, "If really, really bad stuff happens*, I might do all sorts of crazy things, but none of them will be smoking."

Yes that clarity of thought is essential. When I was quit for 8 years that was the one thing I held firm and proud to. Like the song goes, "Nobody said it was easy". But worth it? Hell yes!

I look at folks like Thad (whom I have never even met!), bblost & GTO and feel inspired and calmed. You cannot seek validation in the external world: one friend I mentioned this to yesterday retorted: you said the same thing last year. Doesn't matter. Gonna do it regardless.

[roamer012]

Originally Posted by noopster

I stayed quit through to 2018, when I smoked once in August and another time in December. By then I thought I could "handle an occasional smoke" and rationalized that "one should never be a fanatic about anything". Probably true, but the thing is: it just doesn't work with smoking!

I am a quitter for 2.5 years now (After smoking for 12 years or so). Your post couldn't have come sooner. It was just the time when I was thinking to myself about that "one occasional drag". And I was thinking of ways to rationalize it. But I will not do so anymore.

Whatever life throws at you, I believe you will emerge stronger. Personal losses can never be fulfilled but smoking also can not help the matter.

I wish you all the very best in your renewed effort to quit again.

[JoeTheWanderer]

It'll be 10 years for me on the 24th of this month.

I started in college and I really liked smoking. I still have my red anarchy Zippo, it seemed too nice to throw away.

I'll admit that sometimes I miss smoking, but I know its bad for me and I've never started smoking again. To be honest, I've actually become nauseous to the smell so I don't think I can start again even if I really wanted to.

To everyone who's struggling with quitting, I think you just need to hold out during that one moment of weakness. Once it passes, you emerge out of it a little stronger.

[Thad E Ginathom]

Originally Posted by noopster

I look at folks like Thad (whom I have never even met!), bblost & GTO and feel inspired and calmed.

In my turn, I looked at lifelong smokers who gave up and thought, if they can do it, I can. Each person has to do it for themselves, but the successes are an inspiration.

I also know people who were wittering on about long before I gave up, and who are still smoking .

For the record, there are people who can take an occasional drag, or smoke one or two a year. Very rare. Anyone who is thinking of it should think that they are almost certainly not one of them. Don't risk it. Anyway, even an occasional cigarette is unnecessary lung injury.

[Asoon]

I had my last drag on 11th July 2014 (& it was my first attempt (successful) )

I have seen many people attempting to quit, with different caveats
- Only smoke with drinks
- Only on week ends
- Will do 3 a day, then 2 a day, then 1 a day, then 1 a week and so on
- Will do it on special gatherings

Trust me none of this works
You need to prepare yourself mentally (your will power is the only weapon you got), and put a full stop, as some one mentioned before treat it as "IRREVERSABLE"

If you leave even a small gap (for example : I will only smoke when I see a comet {i meant there should be no if / but/ only etc.}) then you will be compelled to do it , and eventually frequency will go up and in no time you will be back to current smoking levels

Will Power > Full Stop > Irreversible (never ever)

[Thad E Ginathom]

Originally Posted by Asoon

I have seen many people attempting to quit, with different caveats
- Only smoke with drinks
- Only on week ends
- Will do 3 a day, then 2 a day, then 1 a day, then 1 a week and so on
- Will do it on special gatherings

Trust me none of this works

Add cutting down.

None of it works, because none of it is actually giving up. It's amazing how people redefine giving up in the face of nicotine!

[am1m]

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-59589775

"New Zealand to ban cigarettes for future generations"

"Anyone born after 2008 will not be able to buy cigarettes or tobacco products in their lifetime, under a law expected to be enacted next year.

"We want to make sure young people never start smoking," Health Minister Dr Ayesha Verall said."

Wow.

I'm all for helping people quit smoking (I quit more than 10 years ago myself and it was a great decision that impacted my life positively) but I really don't think this will work. Aren't narcotic drug sales already illegal in most parts of the world? And how effective has that been in reducing drug sales anyway? (Unless you implement death penalties like some countries! Which is another extreme!)

All I see happening are black-market sales of cigarettes and young people buying them anyway through illegal and dubious sources, and continuing to rely on such dubious sources once they become adults. And another source of income for criminal gangs. Like in the case of anything a government tries to impose a prohibition on. Or perhaps because they are a small island country they are more confident about controlling the entry of smuggled cigarettes?

I think it'll be far more effective to use education and selective smoking bans like around schools and in public and things like that. But it will be interesting to see how this works out in a few years.

[mayankk]

Originally Posted by am1m

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-59589775

".

That's a bally move, And very welcome. I would like to see the same in India. Let's have the government get rid of itc and ban smoking in India.....
Or, if we're fantasizing, let's see them just get rid of itc and get out of selling tobacco.

[Thad E Ginathom]

Originally Posted by am1m

I'm all for helping people quit smoking (I quit more than 10 years ago myself and it was a great decision that impacted my life positively) but I really don't think this will work. Aren't narcotic drug sales already illegal in most parts of the world? And how effective has that been in reducing drug sales anyway? (Unless you implement death penalties like some countries! Which is another extreme!)

Much of the world is getting softer on "softer" recreational drugs. Much of the world has two harmful drugs as perfectly legal. If drugs can be legalised, they they can be il-legalised.

Whilst tobacco is freely available to those above a certain age, it will be available to the younger ones too.

I doubt that prohibition ever worked, but it is an interesting experiment.

[am1m]

A good friend of mine was diagnosed with a blocked coronary artery yesterday. Shocked because he's probably the fittest person I know. He just turned 50 and is the only guy I know with an actual visible 6-pack. We run together sometimes and he easily outpaces me by far (though I'm 8 years younger) and will be waiting for me at the end. Watches what he eats, in fact cooks for himself most meals. Dropped out of the rat race a few years ago and now does some freelance consulting and focuses on his art and woodwork, so I don't think stress is a problem. BUT- he continued to smoke, which of course the doctors have told him to stop now.

[vivek95]

Originally Posted by Asoon

I had my last drag on 11th July 2014 (& it was my first attempt (successful) )

I have seen many people attempting to quit, with different caveats
- Only smoke with drinks
- Only on week ends
- Will do 3 a day, then 2 a day, then 1 a day, then 1 a week and so on
- Will do it on special gatherings

Trust me none of this works
You need to prepare yourself mentally (your will power is the only weapon you got), and put a full stop, as some one mentioned before treat it as "IRREVERSABLE"

If you leave even a small gap (for example : I will only smoke when I see a comet {i meant there should be no if / but/ only etc.}) then you will be compelled to do it , and eventually frequency will go up and in no time you will be back to current smoking levels

Will Power > Full Stop > Irreversible (never ever)

I agree with you. As a Doctor, I would say that gradual withdrawal from any addiction is "recommended". But I as a person who likes experimenting ( experimented), I know for sure that quitting anything "cold turkey" (abrupt stopping ) actually works 100%. You just need to take care symptomatically during the withdrawal phase and endure a bit of pain. A lot of moral, emotional and spiritual support is needed though.

P.S - I have never smoked/did alcohol. Haven't even touched.