Have ANOTHER stinkin' HABIT...ugh

jonibaloni · MIP Old Timer

Have ANOTHER stinkin' HABIT...ugh

soberdrunk · MIP Old Timer

I can sooo relate. I'm not one to make new year's resolutions but this is the last year I will smoke! Hang in there.

Jo · Veteran Member

I quit about 6 months ago and the first month I found a challenge. I met someone who told me an interesting true story that helps prevent me from picking up another one.

This man walked into a room to give a talk to about 15 top professionals. He was sober for many years standing in front of psychologist and psychiatrists telling them how he loved himeself too much to pick up a drink a day at a time. As he is telling them his story he lights a cigarette and they make a big production of finding an ashtray and place to put the match. As these professionals listen to his sobriety story they ask "Well if you love yourself so much and you KNOW FOR A FACT that smoking KILLS, (it is an undisputed fact - a true fact that smoking harms kills and takes lives) why would you continuously tell yourself every day I hate myself, hate myself, I hate myself" with every drag you take. "Slowly committing suicide is not a way to prove self-love." These professions help that man put down cigarrettes for life One-day-at-a-time. Sometimes one second at a time.

It helps me too not pick up a cigarette...even on the toughest days. I had a drag once and ran to a non-smoker and told her what I did. She gave me a loving lecture about how that disgusting taste would eventually start smelling/tasting good again....and so on and so forth. I haven't had a craving since. I really is possible and doable. You've proven it by not drinking one day at a time.

There are many sites on the net that offer support. I found mine at a Canadian Health Site (One of many all over the world) http://www.toronto.ca/health/quit_smoking.htm

I am not posting this to cause shame or anger anyone, it just helped me so much realize that the smell, the harm, the example it leads to kids, the cost, the show of disregard for body and those around me........all of these things helped me stop. I wrote in my journal for many months that I would quit because I loved myself too much to keep going. Finally with prayer and even getting smokers to deter me from picking up one helped. It is possible. I was 1 1/2 pack a day smoker for 25 years. I let it go and even lost 17 pounds doing it. It is possible. Just keep doing it like you are with alcohol. Its an addiction and habit. I can be let go of.

Take Care.....and be gentle with yourself. I send a prayer and a smile.

Sincerely, Jo

Quetzal · MIP Old Timer

Hi Joni,

I, too, am a heavy smoker and I know that I need to quit. But, at the moment, I'm concentrating on my sobriety, (even my GP said that that was fine!). I guess that packing in the evil tobacco will be my thirteenth step! There are a few of us at my meetings who all talk about quitting, but not today. So, Joni, congratulations on all that you are doing.

I know of a guy who stopped smoking using patches and the help of a website. The URL is:-

http://quitsmoking.about.com/

On the left hand side of the page is a link to Forums and apparently the support that a quitter can get there is amazing.

Good luck, Joni. I'll be thinking of you and checking up on you, too!

Take care,

Carol

diddly · Member

I can relate.

Had my first smoke (Pall Mall in the red pack) when I was just seven years old. My first drink at eight.....Can we say 'lack of parental supervision'!! Ha, ha.

The only time I successfully quit both for any real length of time (three years) was when I 'found Jesus'. The rest of time has been an up and down struggle. I burned out on that because I saw myself becoming a puffed-up, self righteous prick. So I left church and now it's just me and Him.

My father-in-law, who just turned 80 in the last month, smoked five packs a day for about 40 years or so. How he quit was a friend made an appointment for him to go see a hypnotist. He went to see him and damned if he didn't quit for good after that. (I love that old fart!)

I am also considering hypnotism for some of my addictions but am a bit scared because I've read it can also be dangerous, however the crap I read came from some Christian fundamentalist sources ("super-fundies" as I like to call them).

Anyway, life is a battle, sweetie. And it looks like it isn't going to change anytime soon.

Keep fighting and never, ever give up.

LisaF · Senior Member

I'm 22 and I smoke about 2 1/2 packs a day now. I have the coughs at night and when I wake up in the morning, and smoker's cough all day, coughing up stuff. I have asthma too, so I wheeze a lot at night. I have to use my inhaler every morning and night because of how much I smoke.

I've tried the patch and it never worked for me, I'd wear it for a few hours and then I'd take it off and go buy cigarettes. I tried giving my husband my checkcard and I wound up scrounging up change and buying cigs anyway. I managed to quit for 4 days in March, I went to stay with my older brother for a week (nonsmoker) and did it without the patch, just chewed lots of gum and stayed busy. After 4 days I was so sick of waking up in the middle of the night with cravings for a cig and all that and my husband called and pissed me off about something and I just flipped out and begged my brother to take me to get cigs. They tasted horrible when I started smoking again, but after a few they tasted right again. During the 4 days I quit, I could still smell cigarette smoke on my clothes and when I'd go to get dressed I'd just inhale my clothes lol

I think I've just never been ready to quit. I've tried so many times and didn't make it. I'm still not ready to quit. I can't even manage to cut down.

Good luck to you, if you're ready to quit, you can do it. If it doesn't work this time, wait a little while and try again. I've heard it helps to set a date, like a month in advance that you work yourself up to saying "That's my quit date" so that you work it up as a big deal and on that date is when you no longer have any cigarettes. Supposedly you get yourself so psyched up about it that you just don't want to smoke on that date.

Phil · MIP Old Timer

Tried the patch once....Finally ran out of places..to put it on my body...Noone told me to take the old ones off...doh!!

Have a good day...

jonibaloni · MIP Old Timer

Thanks so much for all your support, everyone.

I actually did pretty good today, but was certainly not 'completely smoke-free'. I did wear the patch and did not have my usual 2 packs today. I was actually able to enjoy most of the day with my husband doing 'fun stuff' without even really thinkig about it... then we were at the county fair and it was hot and sticky tonight and the patch fell off from the perspiration... I smoked some of my girlfriend's cigs...

Oh well. Not looking for perfection right now. I really have to do some research and find out how I can get support, hypnotism if necessary; how I can use the 12 Steps to help me do this. I do want to love myself enough to stop this, no matter how painful 'getting there' is. I am to the point of 'playing with my life right now'.

There are some things that are changing with my breathing and my lungs, things that have just been happening the past 2 weeks or so... won't go into detail. I have worked in the medical field- even surgery- for the past 10 years and I know something's not right. Am I going to go to the doctor? Not yet. I'm not ready for that.

This Monday, a stop-smoking program is starting at a local hospital, Summa Health System (one of US News and World Report's 10 Best, incidentally).. and it is free. I am going to get involved in any way, and as much as I can.

Thanks, again, for sharing your experiences and support with me... for going 'off topic', as it were, for a moment.

Jonibaloni