Give Up Smoking or Die Trying

[22]

Congrats!

As a non-smoking, fat bd I was pleasantly surprised at a new life insurance premium!

[22]

Good on you gents and took me years of trying before it stuck (being accountable to internet strangers on here ready helped).

No idea how long or how much I've saved, still fancy a smoke but know that it can't happen.

[22]

Shuvi McTupya said:

What is the biggest trigger for you?

I must be two or three years off the smokes but still sometimes the smell of someone smoking makes me fancy one. Other times I just feel like a cigarette would be a positive addition to a random given moment. Thankfully, not having one has become the easier choice.

My life was full of triggers, master one and another reared its head, a mental battle of dirty tricks played by my addiction, it creates the triggers for selfish gain. I could smoke at my desk which was a tough battle, think I'd have a cigarette only to see one already smoked in the ashtray without realising.

Daft comment in a shop by a teenage server was ultimately my Eureka moment. Someone without a horse in my race basically telling me I was a numpty.

[22]

evilmunkey said:

Just had the final cig in my last pack this morning , thats it im not buying anymore . wish me luck ! decided at 50 it was just time now.

Good job. Never too late to see and feel the benefits. Make sure to check in on here regularly, it helps.

[22]

Keep it up fellas. I've tried vaping before with mixed results. I found a flavour I really liked, switched to another for a week or so and then back to the nice flavour but no nicotine (at a time nicotine level was low anyway).

If I'm in a heavy group of smokers, I might still take a zero-nic vape out to 'socialise' but it can sit in my drawer for months at other times.

[22]

I started this thread (change of username) in December 2012 (and there have been plenty of others similar).

I think I'm about 2 and a half years off the smokes, so more than half the time since the thread started was a battle. Randomly, new year's eve brought temptation (also a friend's 40th birthday meal). I would still love a smoke today which goes against how most people feel after stopping, but not having one is the easier choice. I enjoy the smell of someone else smoking but don't miss the smell on myself. I've not had a single smoke in that 2 and a half years but before that I'd pick myself up over and over.

Stop! I hope it's easy, but battle and stop, cold turkey, vape, patches, sprays, stumble and try again, try over and over, just stop!

Edited by 22 on Sunday 6th January 16:12

[22]

Relapses galore for me earlier in the thread. I never gave up giving up and July this year will be 3 years clean. My social vape was zero nic for a year+ but no idea where it even is now. New year's eve was the last time I saw it. No inclination to look for it.

I am deeply flawed and if I can make it stick, anyone can.

[22]

Yup. Do what you have to do, any which way.

Way back someone would post they were quitting and, in what seemed no time at all, they'd be celebrating a year or two and for me the battle continued.

If you're thinking of stopping, make yourself accountable to a bunch of faceless usernames on the internet. Bizarrely, it helps!

[22]

Good work folks. I've stopped for 3+ years but spent more of the thread as a smoker (to give you an idea of the struggle).

Let us know your struggles and successes, being accountable to other PHers is a help.

[22]

Ilovejapcrap said:

I CANT EVEN DO A DAY

Sure you can. Your brain tricks you to want to smoke, there is no 'need'. Mine used to fabricate arguments as an excuse. Now I just row with the wife for sts and giggles.

[22]

Don't have that last one tonight. Ceremonially snap it on half for an initial victory of mind over matter.

Would you to use vapes with zero nicotine? If the docs are begrudgingly saying vaping is ok, it probably isn't ideal. Bin the whole lot off, we'll hold your hand!

[22]

Good work. Day 5 is a lot of the battle won. Other threads are around too. Post on any or all, being accountable to a bunch of internet strangers really helps.

[22]

Kewy said:

Oddly I found the first 48 hours the easiest, days 3-6 (which is today) have been the hardest, today is slightly better than yesterday but I’ve been busy which has helped.

I’m a fairly active person anyway and cycle/skate and gym quite a bit so that kills some time. Really finding it hard to enjoy ‘downtime’ at the moment though. Like when I got home earlier after being out all day. Would normally have a cig and then sit down with a cuppa and chill out. Instead I just felt ratty and restless.

I think I once said on the thread that I felt like beating up a random stranger (& I'm no fighter). Then you'll get the bizarre arguments with friends and family as your brain tricks you into finding excuses to smoke. I'll be three or 4 years clean this summer, couldn't tell you which without looking back which is (a) my shocking memory and (b) how over it I mostly am (still fancy one from time to time).

[22]

Awesome work Kewy. No doubt your success will help someone else on here sooner or later. Posting helped me (eventually).

[22]

Any lockdown quitters? Or lapses? Biscuits have been my downfall, smoking I'm over!

[22]

Nice one wiliferus. I vaped on and off through my battle to quit and even carried a zero nicotine vape with me when socialising with friends who smoked. I think it was last summer when I wondered where my vape was. Thought back to when I'd last seen it and it was New Year's Eve. Might have even been the year before and the fact I'm talking in years now is remarkable.

Still fancy a smoke every now and then, sometimes I miss it terribly. I'm deeply flawed and a million miles from having the discipline to drop in and out.

[22]

Good work folks. When I had a vape, I'd stop using my favourite flavour for a few days and then go back - but with reduced nicotine.

Ultimately, I had a eureka moment (while smoking rather than vaping) but at least vapes give you that path to reduce/remove nicotine, cigarettes have you by the short and curlies.

[22]

Mr Tidy said:

I never smoke any "ready-mades" - it seems like they are full of chemicals and other substances to keep you addicted and stop them going out!

And here you are addicted to rollies having already suffered ill health from it.

Mr Tidy said:

We only get one go, so might as well enjoy it doing what we want if that's possible!

If you die from something smoking related then it won't be while sat on the patio enjoying a smoke.

As much as I never wanted to be a militant ex smoker, I think a lot of people realised their brains were tricking them into thinking they enjoyed smoking to feed the addiction.

I hope the choice to give up remains yours at some point.

[22]

Nearly 8 years since the thread started and took me half that time to get off them. Worth every post along the way.

To the Christmas and new year quitters, use the thread if it helps, just do it.

As someone who (very rarely these days) thinks I fancy a smoke, I now know I never will.

You really are not giving anything up, you are taking back control of your devious mind.