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Old 6th September 2012, 23:37   #1021
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Re: Help smoking Team-Bhp members quit smoking

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Any ideas? Eating or exercise is not working. And it isnt going to be solved by nicotine patches as I am trying to keep myself from starting again.
From experience of "trying" to quit for 5 years and failing, then success striked and now staying quit for 2.5 years i certainly qualify to say that nothing you do will help with the craving. no patches , no chewing gum, no drink loads of water, no eating, no excercise, no take a different route, NOTHING other than nicotine can substitute the sweet smell of nicotine. Quitting smoking is exactly like trying to fall out of love, if you have been in love and then had your heart broken, you will know what i am talking about. In short- ONLY time can heal the addiction, the physical damage done by smoking will get repaired long before you stop loving the smoke. On second thoughts i dont think your love for cigarettes will ever die, just that as time passes it will become easier to live with the fact that cigarettes are not a part of your life anymore. Just like as time passes and you fall out of love but do you ever forget the fond memories? Never! so my advice to you is "Be strong" (theres no two ways about it) and if you feel like saying "Bah what be strong, it does not work" then i should tell you "if it did not work earlier then thats because you were not strong enough" so try harder and remember i was not strong enough for 5 years during my initial struggle to quit , so being strong wont happen overnight. Everytime you feel the craving remind yourself why you want to quit and trust me as time passes (atleast 3 months) it becomes so much easier. but for atleast 3 months your only option is to be strong, i know its no magic pill but thats the only thing that has a 100% success rate.
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Old 7th September 2012, 07:05   #1022
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Originally Posted by adithyakini

From experience of "trying" to quit for 5 years and failing, then success striked and now staying quit for 2.5 years i certainly qualify to say that nothing you do will help with the craving. no patches , no chewing gum, no drink loads of water, no eating, no excercise, no take a different route, NOTHING other than nicotine can substitute the sweet smell of nicotine. Quitting smoking is exactly like trying to fall out of love, if you have been in love and then had your heart broken, you will know what i am talking about. In short- ONLY time can heal the addiction, the physical damage done by smoking will get repaired long before you stop loving the smoke. On second thoughts i dont think your love for cigarettes will ever die, just that as time passes it will become easier to live with the fact that cigarettes are not a part of your life anymore. Just like as time passes and you fall out of love but do you ever forget the fond memories? Never! so my advice to you is "Be strong" (theres no two ways about it) and if you feel like saying "Bah what be strong, it does not work"

Everytime you feel the craving remind yourself why you want to quit and trust me as time passes (atleast 3 months) it becomes so much easier. but for atleast 3 months your only option is to be strong, i know its no magic pill but thats the only thing that has a 100% success rate.
Sorry but with all due respect to your 2.5 years of freedom I strongly disagree with you.
Nicotine is an addictive substance which reaches your brain in seconds and more importantly the smoke gives you cancer. What is there to fall in love with? The only reason we light up is to get another hit because nicotine leaves the body quickly.

There is no love involved. If there was you would still be a smoker and quitting would not have been an option.
What people need to understand that smoking not only has lasting effects on their financial and more importantly physical health but also our psychological health.
There are no fond memories. Its the realization that needs to dawn upon us that it was an addiction and we just were not aware of it. How can inhaling smoke be a part of memories? It is this brain washing that needs to be checked in order to not ever miss smoking. It is a simple fact, you're walking away from a drug addiction that was killing your finances and would have eventually killed you and ofcourse you were chained cause you were an addict.
Exercise helps I can vouch for it. With my multiple quits, the ones which have involved exercise have been easier.

Remember one thing, smoking never did anything for you it always took everything from you. We just need to relearn how to deal with life minus a stick.

But you were living till you started smoking? Did you not survive without it then? Of course you did and now it is time to return to your old self. The one who doesn't run out at 10 at night cause he's running out of stock.
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Old 7th September 2012, 08:23   #1023
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Re: Help smoking Team-Bhp members quit smoking

Physical addiction can be overcome by willpower and discipline but the psychological dependence is tougher to get rid of. THAT is where the element of choice comes in.

I keep harping on that word- CHOICE-and a lot of you are probably wondering why. The fact is that I believe it is the only thing that separates a real quit from a temporary one.

As long as I believe I am a victim of the addiction, that it is somehow stronger than me and will overcome my resistance someday, that I am "weak", that I cannot "control" my urges- my quits will fail. I amnot being cynical, just realistic. Trust me, I went through this several times in my 20s.

So what is this choice? Simple- it is accepting that smoking is a wilful behaviour and it is my CHOICE not to indulge in it. Just like I choose the people I hang out with, or where I work, or whom I marry. Once you choose a lifestyle that excludes smoking, everything else falls in place. You won't worry about hanging out with other people who smoke lest you be tempted, because you won't. You won't obsess about what to replace your oral fixation with, because there is nothing to replace.

From the time you quit smoking to the time you can look another person in the eye and say, "I don't smoke" is a LONG time. Believe me. And you will know when it happens.

If your quit fails, you just weren't ready for it. Stop beating yourself up. Quit again. It's a choice worth making.

Edit: @Abhishek- I disagree with you. I used to LOVE smoking. The health-related consequences are what weaned me away from it eventually but everything else: the feeling, the camaraderie, the taste, the smell of the pack, blowing rings, combining it with chai, after-meal smoking, smoking in the rains, etc. was just AWESOME. I say this with the full awareness and acceptance of the choice I have made.

Last edited by noopster : 7th September 2012 at 08:29.
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Old 7th September 2012, 09:53   #1024
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Re: Help smoking Team-Bhp members quit smoking

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I quit smoking around the first week of September 2009. Still going strong. I am going to start working out soon to be fitter than before.
Completed three years since I quit. I believe it was 7th of September 2009 when I quit.

To be honest, just like noopster, I used to love smoking. I used to weigh 56kgs when I used to smoke. I observed an increase in my appetite since I quit and have put on 20 kgs since then. Time to start gymming to get in a good shape now.
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Old 7th September 2012, 13:08   #1025
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Re: Help smoking Team-Bhp members quit smoking

I remember a study that showed that the symptoms of "love" are very like those of addiction. I think adithyakini has made some good points, even though they do not all tally with my personal experience.

Nicotine patches, for instance, helped me greatly with the craving --- because the put nicotine into your blood just like smoking does. The idea is that they put just enough to keep you below craving level, but not enough to take you to nicotine-hit level. It worked for me. Mind you, each and every dose reduction day felt the same, with that itch surfacing again, but not nearly so strong as cold turkey.
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Old 7th September 2012, 14:06   #1026
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Re: Help smoking Team-Bhp members quit smoking

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Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom View Post
Nicotine patches, for instance, helped me greatly with the craving --- because the put nicotine into your blood just like smoking does. The idea is that they put just enough to keep you below craving level, but not enough to take you to nicotine-hit level. It worked for me. Mind you, each and every dose reduction day felt the same, with that itch surfacing again, but not nearly so strong as cold turkey.
i tried nicotine gums before i quit. It never worked for me since for me its not only about physiological levels of nicotine in my blood but i was also psychologically missing and addicted to the smoke coming out from my mouth. Even though, i chewed nicotine gums the days with quit i was badly missing the idea of smoke coming out of my mouth and am still missing that (though it may sound weird - i used pen/pencil as an object during my initial days of quit imagining it as cigarette and pretend as if I am leaving smoke out )

But my theory was any weird habit as long as it is not harming your health and keeping you away from smoking is fine to continue. Even today sometimes i get a strong urge of smoking, i put pen in my mouth, close my eyes and imagine that pen is actually a cigarette i am smoking

Last edited by lazybrain : 7th September 2012 at 14:08.
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Old 7th September 2012, 15:04   #1027
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Re: Help smoking Team-Bhp members quit smoking

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Edit: @Abhishek- I disagree with you. I used to LOVE smoking.
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Originally Posted by moralfibre View Post
To be honest, just like noopster, I used to love smoking.
.

Interesting counter-point.


Courtesy Navin.
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Old 7th September 2012, 15:12   #1028
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Re: Help smoking Team-Bhp members quit smoking

^ Same here.

I absolutely loved smoking. The feel of that silken smoke as it slowly made its way into my lungs and deposited just enough poison to make me feel so good about everything.

I miss my smokes. I miss them a lot.

BUT

I ain't ever going to light one again. The price they ask is simply to high.
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Old 7th September 2012, 15:29   #1029
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Re: Help smoking Team-Bhp members quit smoking

Sometimes this works -- just assume you have a cigerette in your hand and "smoke" it.. Does wonders actually..

Last edited by Equus : 7th September 2012 at 15:30.
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Old 7th September 2012, 16:42   #1030
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Re: Help smoking Team-Bhp members quit smoking

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Originally Posted by lazybrain View Post
(though it may sound weird - i used pen/pencil as an object during my initial days of quit imagining it as cigarette and pretend as if I am leaving smoke out)
It's not weird, and lots of us did stuff just like that. I was hooked on the whole trip of rolling my own cigarettes, so I used to roll up shop till receipts and suck them

Quote:
I absolutely loved smoking. The feel of that silken smoke as it slowly made its way into my lungs and deposited just enough poison to make me feel so good about everything.
bblost... you'd better go away before we all start smoking again!
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Old 8th September 2012, 10:26   #1031
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Quote:
Originally Posted by noopster

.

Interesting counter-point.

Courtesy Navin.
I will stick to my opinion and go ahead and say I never enjoyed smoking. I enjoyed easing the withdrawal that the last smoke created. I feel better now and I can run a lot. I get a lot more work done and I don't have the love of my life worried about me anymore. My clothes don't smell like an ashtray.

I loved smoking when I was 18-22. Once I realized I was a hopeless addict I hated and detested it. I continued smoking to ease an addiction to subside the withdrawal effects.

I have hated smoking for what it is. It cannot be tasted since nicotine is tasteless. It does not reduce stress. It leads to weight loss given but it isn't a miracle drug.

I once saw a documentary which said if smoking reduced stress then in the early days of advertising this would have been marketed.
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Old 8th September 2012, 10:43   #1032
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Re: Help smoking Team-Bhp members quit smoking

Here's a pic that should help people quit!

Help smoking Team-BHP members quit smoking-228576_421583921210741_1692892027_n.jpg
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Old 8th September 2012, 14:12   #1033
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Re: Help smoking Team-Bhp members quit smoking

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Here's a pic that should help people quit!
It won't. Maybe this was my equivalent of not wearing a helmet on a bike, but the only thing all that stuff ever made me do was reach for the packet . Of course, if the health care gets personal that can be different, and, in the end, that's what worked for me.

It worked for me in the end --- but in previous years I had smoked my way, painfully, through attacks of bronchitis etc,

Quote:
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I will stick to my opinion and go ahead and say I never enjoyed smoking. I enjoyed easing the withdrawal that the last smoke created.
Absolutely true. And this is why I say, of the giving-up pains, You are not feeling bad because of not smoking: you are feeling bad because you smoked.

However, here's the addict trap. Smoking when you smoke twenty a day is not fun --- but when you have not smoked for days, or even hours, that cigarette is a real Oh-Wow sensation. And that leads to another one. And that leads back to not enjoying twenty a day.
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Old 20th September 2012, 16:08   #1034
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My day 4 since quitting. I used to smoke 3-4 a day with friends. Avoiding them till I can control the cravings. Just wanted to document the fact that I quit. It's a bday gift to myself and my girl for next year. It's my bday day after hers was on Tuesday.
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Old 20th September 2012, 16:14   #1035
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Re: Help smoking Team-Bhp members quit smoking

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My day 4 since quitting. I used to smoke 3-4 a day with friends. Avoiding them till I can control the cravings. Just wanted to document the fact that I quit. It's a bday gift to myself and my girl for next year. It's my bday day after hers was on Tuesday.
Congrats to you on this, and your girl is really lucky to be having someone like your. Mostly importantly, all that matters now is how long you stick with this.

Remember, the longer you maintain your resolve, the lesser are your chances of a relapse. All the best.
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