My Quit Method. it works, 7 days now, I posted this in stay quit too
I have to share this with you, I have smoked 20 a day for 5 years+ now, probably longer but we all like to pretend we haven't been long term smokers.
I haven't bought a pack in 7 days and I have no desire to either, here is how I did it.
Half the battle is getting past your cigarettes running out which creates panic in your routine so you smoke again. You know the drill, leave one in a pack as an emergency, buy multi packs so you know you have a big supply etc etc. Promising to quite tomo etc.
All falsitys.
So here is what I did...
I had a metal bucket with sand and a lid and when I smoked I built up a big amount of butt ends. about 200 in all.
So when I smoked my last cigarette I had to just make it through the whole day and night which is the most important task to get done. Fail this and its game over.
So day 2 I had lost some of the strong cravings, I then smoked the cig butts whenever I wanted, usually my brain thought because I had smoked one I could then get on with things.
During the day I may have had 9 butts which really amounted to half a cigarette.
By the end of the day I feeling disgusted about diving into the bin, if you are off to work take some butts with you.
So this disgust continued, I felt like a tramp and yet I noticed that I was going to the bin even less.
By day 5 I visited the bin once or twice in a day
By day 7 I no longer visit it.
and I have had stressful moments to trigger smoking a whole one but I resisted.
I feel so much better, feeling sick on day 3 but that was it, I took a berocca vitamin drink tablet.
You have to try it.
That is certainly a unique way of quitting Dave.
I think you did a fine job because it covered all the criteria
1) You wanted to quit
2) You knew yourself enough to know that not having any available would cause you to panic instead of having a choice and be in control.
3) You had a plan
4) You looked at this as a positive thing and with the confidence that you could do it.
5) The process disgusted you (equivalent to thinking negatives about cigarettes, tasting the poison and retraining your mind)
6) You cut down on nicotine so that you could get rid of the remainder faster, although when we wake, it is 93% gone and diminishes by 50% every two hours. I did cut down too, but I am not sure it is necessary, yet it would do no harm and give you practice at deferring and ignoring the cravings (which are just thoughts).
Great Job and thanks for sharing. Please read posts and Allan Carr's book to reinforce your convictions and remain a non-smoker.
Thank You Happiness, I didn't realise it was 93% gone when we wake, that is amazing and just goes to show how much you can achieve by just getting past day 1! I will read the posts and Carrs book, Thanks again
I'm a bit late in replying Dave, but the method you used I tended to use before in my attempts to quit. Yes it did reinforce my commitment and stopped the panic. Yes it was disgusting when I found myself rummaging through my rubbish bin for that one last drag. Yes it stopped me from buying a packet of cigs. Yes I occasionally bought a pack of cigs to get back to the butt method again, but this was only occasional so as far as I was concerned I had beat the habit. Ultimately I had not got my head around the fact of Nicotine being so addictive, which kept me hanging on. Now I have read Alan Carr's book and realize how much the mental attitude still keeps you in the loop so to speak. Keep reading. Keep on with (No smoking) and check out the posts and all will be well. Well done.