I think it's time

JohnC

Full Member
Jun 28, 2005
2,624
82
62
Edinburgh
I stopped a few years back, at the time, I gve up added salt, meat, avaoided processed food, took up baking bread, the idea was that I was so occupied with making sure I got a decent diet with all the restrictions that I didnt miss the smokes. I also tried to go places where smoking wasnt possible, ie jogging, swimming, sitting in the non smoking sections (it was some years back) It worked for me, I agree that you need to find the motivator for you. (also, I work on oncology trials, so that is a very strong motivator to stay off cigs) Good luck, you will notice the difference, and will be glad of it..
 

Bumbler

Nomad
Feb 22, 2013
256
0
Norway
www.bushcraft.no
I was admitted to hospital in Thailand with severe pain in my guts. They thought it was my appendix, I was operated on. Woke up six hours later with one scar where my appendix is, and one ggoing from my breast bone to my pubic hairs...it was not the appendix so that had to go searching, and found that my small intestine had ruptured so they removed 10-15 cm and sticthed me back together again.
I was out of hospital 1 weel later, and admiytted the next day with even worse pain...the stitching holding my small intestine together had leaked, causing Peritonitis, so that was 1 month in a hospital bedhospital with two drain pipes sticking out of my stumack and Iwent down from 95kg to 73...oh and that whole time my wife refused to buy me any cigarettes...so thats how I quit.

But would not recomend the methiod....at the time I was a 40 a day man...also downed 4-5 beers, a couple of Gin & tonics, 2-3 liters of coca cola and 2-3 bottles of Red bull a day back then....this is 5 years ago and had 2 more surgeries since, the last in November 2012.
 
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plastic-ninja

Full Member
Jan 11, 2011
2,265
274
cumbria
I was a regular and eventually heavy smoker for 30 years.
"Tried" to give up for various reasons but always went back to them after a week or two.
Last time I bought a mountain of patches which were reduced in price somewhere and just
stopped without telling anyone.I put the patches on for a couple of weeks but then couldn't
be bothered to put them on any more.Thing is I couldn't be bothered to go and buy fags
either so just drifted away from them and went from 40 a day to none.
I haven't noticed that I'm miles fitter (damage already done, I guess ) but I do have money
in my pocket most of the time.I don't miss the act of smoking but sometimes I miss the
standing outside and chatting and I guess I did revel in the disapproval of the NoSmo
world a bit!
I figure that I was just ready to stop when I did so it worked.All the other times I was
trying to please someone else so actually resented the fact I wasn't smoking if that makes sense.
I haven't had one for about seven years I guess, although I'm not sure exactly when it was.
If you choose to try not to smoke Sam , good luck.
cheers , Simon
 

Kepis

Full Member
Jul 17, 2005
6,853
2,751
Sussex
I went from over 20+ a day to nothing in three days flat using Champix, thats was four and half years ago, ive had no cravings for a smoke at all and dont mind people smoking around me, doesnt bother me in the slightest, some people have had a reaction to Champix, but Mum, Dad, Sister and I all gave up at the same time using it and none of us had any reaction to the pills.

Even with the pills though, you have to want to give up.
 

JAG009

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Sep 20, 2010
2,407
2
Under your floor
Cold turkey is the way to do it , if you really want to stop you will ,,the first week was the hardest after that its no problem ,,,,,,,,,,Good luck
 

RonW

Native
Nov 29, 2010
1,582
136
Dalarna Sweden
A brave thing to do M.o.T.! And for many it seems like a though one too, but with a little preparation it isn't all that hard. At least not for me now 10 years ago.

What I did was prepare myself mentally. Setting a date and telling myself all the time that was the date I would quit. And I did.
I did tell everyone around me, so they could support me. When the day came I ceremoniously lit my last smoke, enjoyed it, Extinguished it, threw away all cigarettes and tobacco I had and went cold turkey. From an estimated 250 cigarettes a week to none...
The first week was hard as fysical withdrawel kicked in, but after that things went well. The hardest thing to quit was the habit! That proved to be harder; the smoke after dinner, the smoke with a good beer, the social smoke at parties and such...
Growing fat after quiting means you are exchanging the cigarette for food! This way you do break the nicotineaddiction, but substitute it for another and the habitat doesn't get broken, but changes from smoking to eating. You will gain some weight as your metabolism changes somewhat, but that shouldn't be to much.

I did it this way twice. I started smoking and drinking again after 8 years, because I didn't give a rat's bottom about things anymore back then.

Wish you good luck and remember; you can do it if you really want to!!
 
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Opal

Native
Dec 26, 2008
1,022
0
Liverpool
To pack in you really need a goal to aim at, I smoked from aged eight, I could smoke like a chimney, we moved area, one morning I woke up wheezing, our youngest was nine years of age, I thought, if anything happens to me, who will be there for him?

my wife is a good woman, works hard but at the time, let the kids do whatever they wanted, I was brought up different (trying to avoid a leather belt) We were living in an area where the drugs were rife, I vowed then to pack them in immediately and I was gonna be there for our son. I threw them in the bin and haven't smoked or wanted one since, that was 21 yrs ago.

Our son has never been out of work since he was 14yrs of age, he has friends who have gone down a different road, he has what he wants with a decent wage and holidays abroad. If I hadn't of been there I swear he would be sharing a small room with some of his mates.
If you have kids, there's the goal. ;)
 

realearner

Forager
Sep 26, 2011
200
0
kent
I've been smoking on and off since the age of 11. But every time I've stopped it's been cold turkey, but I've wanted to for whatever reason.
And on the same thing I've also started for various reasons, got so far then just stopped again.
Moral once a smoker always in the back of your mind, but good on you and just grit your teeth and stop, it does get better just look out for the times when you can slip.
 

Macaroon

A bemused & bewildered
Jan 5, 2013
7,241
385
74
SE Wales
One of the big tricks is never to give up giving up - at the age of 62, having smoked for well over 50 of them and having tried everything to give up on so many occasions I'd lost count, I've finally done it............
After the last failed attempt, I felt so pi**ed off about failing yet again that I'd decided not to ever bother again, I had the feeling of " the damage is already done " and wasn't in the mood to fanny about any longer.
On the night all this came to a head I suddenly realised that NOW was exactly the right time to do it, and the next morning I went and got a rake of the mint - flavoured lozenges, went through my kit ang sorted out a nice old stainless steel container I'm really fond of and put a day's worth of lozenges in it. I carried this with me at all times and took the approach that I'd attempt the cold turkey thing and use a lozenge only to stop another total failure..............And it's worked a treat; I've now gone 147 days without one, and altough the cravings are still very much there, I'm finding it quite easy to deal with and I think it's 'cause I tell myself that even if I fail again it doesn't matter, I lose nothing by failing and I don't care if I do. It seems somehow to have taken the sting out of it, de - mystified it, and the best bit is I feel better than I have in years.

I still carry a few of the lozenges wherever I go, but rarely have to go for them; and I couldn't care less if I've " swapped one addiction for another " the little sweeties ain't gonna kill me but the oily rags will.

That's how I've dealt with it so far, but it'll never be over for me..........day to day.................Good luck if you attempt it mate.................atb mac
 

Elen Sentier

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
I was a 60/day woman until Hubby came home from work one Friday night to say he'd just had his regular medical where they'd asked him how many he smoked ... he was a non-smoker and always had been! I stopped that night. Cold turkey + peppemints and gallons of tea, grumpiness, going for walks in the middle of the night. There were no patches and things in those days, this was back in 1985. I've never smoked at all since then. It was very bad at first, nicotine is a hard drug (bodily addictive) as I already knew, drugs were the subject of my thesis back in 1971. The very best of luck to you, you've got all my support. Do go for it, it's worth it, for yourself as well as the rest of your family and friends.
 

nuggets

Native
Jan 31, 2010
1,070
0
england
quitting is for quitters !! :rolleyes: and i ain,t no quitter !! ;)


Nah but seriously - I,ve tried and failed a few times - but what ever method you choose - you really have to want to stop ,if it ain,t in your mind set ,then no amount of ,gum ,patches or whatever will do it for you !!!!!

as most of the packs say .....will power required !!

best of luck too ya anyway :)
 

Seagull

Settler
Jul 16, 2004
903
108
Gåskrikki North Lincs
Five weeks today, so it dosn't really count as quitting. Over 50 years of smoking, the last 25 being pipe only.
Cold turkey, and I reckon it was the emotional jolt of of loosing my labrador that has made me use that sad event as a stage from which to do some good for myself.
On the other hand, I wake up with a horrid throat, something I never had when smoking, I get aches and pains everywhere and I,ve concluded that it was probably just the nicotine holding everything together for years and years.
I am not ashamed to say that I couldnt find the guts to do this sooner...there was always some really good excuse.
But my teeth are cleaner, my clothes dont smell and I dont really miss the baccy except after meal times and those many times of late, when I find myself keeping a lone night watch...
We will see what happens in the long run. Though I feel as though I should feel a bit more angst, as though I can,t really accept that it has not yet been too much of a big deal.

Ceeg
 

vizsla

Native
Jun 6, 2010
1,517
0
Derbyshire
Good man I quit the fags about 6 months ago, iv been using a no match ecig and it works great. I started off with one of the cheap ecig that look like a fag but it was rubbish so eventually I brought a proper one for about £35 at first I tried cutting back but having real fags in one pocket and the ecig in the other it was just too easy to have a fag, I did a test I had a real fag In one hand and a tobacco flavour ecig in the other and smocked both and I couldn't tell the difference so I them new it was all in my head and that was enough for me. I then decided to go to a blueberry flavour which also helped as it didn't remind me so much of a proper fag. You can buy different miligrams of strength so I started off quite high and worked my way down to make it easier, I thought I'd have no chance but after a couple of days I felt that proud of myself that I wouldn't of touched a fag if someone payed me and I still wouldn't now. So my advise is get a high quality ecig from a proper shop and commit to it for a couple of days and you might be surprised but you really do need to commit as its all psychological, they taste the same they have the nicotine and even more than your use to is a good idea. Give it a wirl mate
 

British Red

M.A.B (Mad About Bushcraft)
Dec 30, 2005
26,891
2,143
Mercia
None worked for me.So those of you who have managed how did you do it?

Watching my wifes face as they put me back in the MRI scanner for another of the cancer scans. That'll do it right quick Sam - you don't have to trust me, if you keep smoking, you'll probably find out for yourself.
 

TurboGirl

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Sep 8, 2011
2,326
1
Leicestershire
www.king4wd.co.uk
BR, your words are the most convincing I've ever read on the subject.....

I don't know if the chanwotsit is the same as the suppressing drug I used in aabout 2000 but that was a wierd one... would it have been Zyban.... it did have side effects and made me mentally very shaky. Didn't want a fag though ;) but I think it was withdrawn after some suicides. Just check on that one, lovey, it was in some ways harder than the cold turkey method Martin describes and the zyban(?) failed attempt was a shorter duration than with the cold turkey, 18m vs 2 1/2yr, not that the method of stopping would have had any effect on that, I'm sure.

I went back to them like a daft cow. I hope you succeed :)
 

Robbi

Banned
Mar 1, 2009
10,253
1,046
northern ireland
just over 6 months for me now, i am so proud of myself ! :) 40 + a day rollys for the past 45 years and i've done it !! Go for it young Sam :)

BR...powerful stuff mate, probably the most powerful thing you've said in 15 thousand odd posts :) and so very true.
 

Chiseller

Bushcrafter through and through
Oct 5, 2011
6,176
3
West Riding
Smoked since I was 9, chewed since 11.....stopped for a few years thanks to training and using zyaban......started again when depression hit post divorce.....stopped again using champix....lasted a year or so.....another depressing period started me up. Stopped cold turkey for a year or so......all the time I could never give up chewing bacco and snuff. Only thing that could get me to stop chewing was the pipe.....then I started rolling pipe tobacco between pipe bowls.....afore I knew it I was smoking 15g + a day.

Started wheezing like I did when I was 30yr old (60+ Benson's a day and lucky strikes ) ......quit the pipe a month back ? Started chewing again.....now I'm doing both :(

A farmer once said to my mate ....."your mate smokes n eats bacy like its a sport"

I know how hard it can be .....but you are not me......you are stronger.....you can and will stop smoking.......you can and will stop smoking...........

Don't look around the eyes....look into the eyes ....don't look around the eyes....look into the eyes......
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Your under

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When I click my fingers .....you will have no desire or recollection of ever smoking and will post me your predator sf ......

buryhuzy.jpg

Three two one .....back in the room

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Dave

Hill Dweller
Sep 17, 2003
6,019
11
Brigantia
Watching my wifes face as they put me back in the MRI scanner for another of the cancer scans. That'll do it right quick Sam - you don't have to trust me, if you keep smoking, you'll probably find out for yourself.

+1. You might think its very difficult. But you'll suddenly find it very easy to quit Sam, if youre doctor pulls you in for a serious conversation.
 

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