I want to quit desperately but not able to quit - can anyone help?
I want to quit smoking and did tried earlier on my own but was never able to stop it. If anyone can help me with how to stop smoking would be of great help. I think it's not possible but still I would like to try and not give up.
Red67 is absolutely right. We are not trying to be mean , but you will fail with your present way of thinking.
Read, learn and accept to change your way of thinking. We were drugged by nicotine, and fed lies to accept our addiction. Yes we are addicts! Legal ones but addicts all the same. It was socially acceptable and other smokers made us feel like we must like it. Why else would we do it?
The withdrawal does last a few days, but we are stronger than nicotine. Nicotine causes the cravings because we do not feed it . It causes the discomfort which are mere thoughts. We have been trained to feed it before those thoughts come creeping in. We don't smoke because we like it, we just don't like how we feel if we don't. We made excuses to smoke because we were addicted and it was easier to give in than to fight back.
Fight for your freedom. Fight for your hard earned money going up in smoke and your health constantly at risk.
Feel better, breath easier and feel the pride and confidence once defeating the nicotine addiction. We all started out with doubts, but you have to leave them behind and learn to think positive. There is no reason why you too cannot stop smoking.
Choose to change your life for the better. Have you ever heard anyone wish they smoked?
Hi there, SKS!
I'm only on my second day as a non-smoker but I spent over a week preparing for a smooth take-off. There's a few things I found helpful that you might want to try:
(1) Get a blank piece of paper and draw a line down the centre. Label the left hand side 'PROs' and the right hand side 'CONs' then list every smoking benefit and drawback you can think of.
It might seem like a stupid exercise - you can mentally calculate in a few seconds that there are no benefits - but actually going through the process of writing it down and thinking hard about every aspect of your habit puts your brain in the right frame of mind. I pinned mine to my bedroom wall and I read it in the morning as I lay in bed. It reinforces my decision...how could an intelligent, sensible, strong-willed fighter like me be so loyal and protective over a habit that has the potential to obliterate my life? The amount of money I spend on cigarettes every month is tantamount to a second mortgage payment...I spend money on vitamins and health foods to enhance my health and then spend double the amount on something which is a guaranteed fast-track to Cancer and lung disease. Smoking defies logic - it is a vile and damaging addiction, not a life choice. I have accepted that I am an addict because there is no way that I could consciously defend what I'm doing to myself with cigarettes.
(2) I found the hypnotist, Paul McKenna on YouTube. I played his 'Stop Smoking' meditation every night for about five days before my quit date. I believe it has helped me, so I have linked it here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VEsOthTgXu4
(3) You will hear the name 'Allen Carr' mentioned repeatedly here. It's not coincidence that his books are discussed amongst successful quitters - the books are amazing. I gave up smoking about ten years ago with only his book and a bit of will power. He creates a compelling and positive way to view quitting which doesn't involve any feelings of deprivation or loss. I strongly recommend you buy his book. (Yesterday, I saved £20.80 by not smoking - I treated myself to two new Allen Carr books from Amazon.)
I hope you'll be sharing your quit journey with me soon. Good luck, friend!
@Percy @ Red Thanks, a lot for the tip and motivating words. I will surely give them a try but your words build a lot of confidence to quit this waste out of my life. I am glad to have friends like you on this path. I have chosen 1-Aug as my quit day. Already started preparing for it. I am glad I joined this forum and able to share how I feel. I wish these words could have come from my spouse which could have made me more stronger.
@SKS: Is your spouse a smoker? Be prepared for subtle sabotage!!!
I remember trying to give up many years ago - my husband was a smoker who didn't want to quit. My success made him uncomfortable with his own habit so he used to 'accidentally' leave a pack of ciggies and a lighter on the kitchen table...in my car...by the sofa...or he'd say "Could you carry these in your jacket, hon - they keep falling out of my pocket". :)
I have no support outside of this forum, either. My best friend is a smoker. If I phoned her in a moment of weakness, she'd be round here before I'd disconnected the call to shove a lit cigarette in my mouth. "Never mind, love - better luck next time". I tried to give up last year and rang her crying on day five - she was here like a St Bernard in a storm with a barrel of tobacco round her neck - bounding to my rescue within minutes.
My mum is my strongest critic about smoking. She's never smoked or had any experience with addiction so she's taken every opportunity over the last three decades to tell me just how weak and stupid I am. If I'm still not smoking in a few days time, she'll cause a row or go out of her way to upset me so I'll go scuttling back to my addiction. Without it, she CAN'T tell me just how weak and stupid I am... empowering myself will disempower her. I've seen this pattern so many times on previous quits - she's jubilant, victorious and superior when I fail. When I smoke, she berates me for it.
I'm sharing all this because the one thing I know for sure is that even people that love you are manipulative and have their own agenda. The beauty of this forum is that the only motivation for anybody to be here is to genuinely quit or genuinely help others quit. Give up for YOU and accept that you'll have to fight and win the battle alone. It's your health, your money and your future being stolen by cigarettes - be deaf to anybody else's approval or damnation and marvel at your own strength in the process.
If you beat this - you'll know you can beat anything. x
When we quit this we feel so good about ourselves and it really is a boost to our ego and confidence. We take pride in our personal accomplishment and feel like we are in control of our lives. We are no longer ruled by addiction, plagued by quilt, destroying our temples and shunned by a majority of the public.
Those who cannot support an ex-smoker are envious that they haven't found the key to freedom. (if they smoke) or the self confidence to change things in their own lives. Smokers still have to hang on to the belief that they like to smoke, they CHOOSE to smoke and that smoking is some miracle drug. The truth makes us feel stupid, but the truth will set us free.
All here have found the desire to change. We all like our comfortable ruts and don't usually like change. But some changes are good, and we do adapt. It is easier when we look for the silver lining instead of using resistance. Embrace being a non-smoker.....you will love the changes it brings.
I can't thank you enough to you all for taking out and writing. I am definitely feeling a strong vibe here to quit ( All thanks to God and you appearing as angels in my life. I am able to gather this courage and confidence because of you all) and I am pretty much sure that this time when I give up I don't wanna look back. I am still planning for my quit date but everyday this feeling of over powering my thought of taking one more of cigarette. soon I will put up a date and will start counting from there.
@Percy, No my spouse doesn't smoke and she hates smokers. And now when I become one she is pretty neutral but sometime she behaves like your mum. At this time I feel so lone struggling and fighting this battle and instances of some arguments compels me to chose this path of smoking. True, that someone who has not done it will not understand the vein of a person going through the constant battle in mind.
I am excited for new me! A re:birth and a gift to myself and my soul and body. This goes out for my spouse and kid!
I can't thank you enough to you all for taking out and writing. I am definitely feeling a strong vibe here to quit ( All thanks to God and you appearing as angels in my life. I am able to gather this courage and confidence because of you all) and I am pretty much sure that this time when I give up I don't wanna look back. I am still planning for my quit date but everyday this feeling of over powering my thought of taking one more of cigarette. soon I will put up a date and will start counting from there.
@Percy, No my spouse doesn't smoke and she hates smokers. And now when I become one she is pretty neutral but sometime she behaves like your mum. At this time I feel so lone struggling and fighting this battle and instances of some arguments compels me to chose this path of smoking. True, that someone who has not done it will not understand the vein of a person going through the constant battle in mind.
I am excited for new me! A re:birth and a gift to myself and my soul and body. This goes out for my spouse and kid!
Hi sks.
Welcome to this forum. All great advice here from the responders to your plea.
In a nutshell when it comes to cigarettes, one is one too many, 1000 is never enough!
Day one has began. I woke up this morning and somewhere in my mind this strong thought came in to stop it today. It's very hard to stop the morning puff with all the conflict and battle in my mind I won over it. And here I am, not taken my first puff. My packet got finished yesterday night so this morning my brain was pushing me hard to buy that packet and just open and smoke only one cigarette and not to do after that. But this has happened so many times and my brain has tricked me every time on compelling me to buy that packet and me ending finishing it gradually. So this time I stopped the roots. "If I don't have the packet then it's as good as I am not doing it" :-)
I am really so happy to take this decision and I am feeling so fresh. The air is so fresh. It's a happiness I can't explain. I want to really see more of it ..
The journey has begun already. God give me strength and all support to fight this evil inside me and everyone.
God bless everyone! May all beings be happy.
It's almost 19 hours 49 minutes the last time I smoked and I am feeling great and proud about it. :-)
And the best part is I have one old packet lying around with two or three cigarettes left but never felt like having it till now. God give me strength and all power to fight.
@SKS: That's wonderful news!!!!!! So pleased for you!
Keep us posted - we can do this!
It’s 2days 13hours 2 minutes already with full of fresh air.
I took a rebirth and excited to see new me with unlocking full potential of my mind and body. Thanks to almighty for sending his angels for my rescue.