Smoking: Have you tried to stop?
Discussion
Smoked 20+ B&H a day since I was a teenager. I enjoyed smoking, didn't really want to give up, but wife, kids etc.........
The big problem with e-cigs is that it's all way too complicated. The cig-a-likes that you buy from Sainsburys are not up to the job, and those sonic screwdriver type things have tanks, mods, coils, cartos, vv/vw batteries and God knows what else that you need to understand. Have a look at a few e-cig sites and you'll see what I mean. Hopeless.
I got some good advice from Cotty's e-cigs thread in The Lounge and spent about 60quid on e-cig gear. When it arrived I put it away and forgot about it for a couple of weeks. Finally got around to putting it together one evening, and gave it a try. It was really good!
That was 2nd September. No cigarettes since.
The e-cig industry has a lot to offer, but it needs to drop all this geeky stuff and concentrate on offering solid products that don't require the user to have a degree in electronics. E-cigs work, no question.
The big problem with e-cigs is that it's all way too complicated. The cig-a-likes that you buy from Sainsburys are not up to the job, and those sonic screwdriver type things have tanks, mods, coils, cartos, vv/vw batteries and God knows what else that you need to understand. Have a look at a few e-cig sites and you'll see what I mean. Hopeless.
I got some good advice from Cotty's e-cigs thread in The Lounge and spent about 60quid on e-cig gear. When it arrived I put it away and forgot about it for a couple of weeks. Finally got around to putting it together one evening, and gave it a try. It was really good!
That was 2nd September. No cigarettes since.
The e-cig industry has a lot to offer, but it needs to drop all this geeky stuff and concentrate on offering solid products that don't require the user to have a degree in electronics. E-cigs work, no question.
telford_mike said:
Smoked 20+ B&H a day since I was a teenager. I enjoyed smoking, didn't really want to give up, but wife, kids etc.........
The big problem with e-cigs is that it's all way too complicated. The cig-a-likes that you buy from Sainsburys are not up to the job, and those sonic screwdriver type things have tanks, mods, coils, cartos, vv/vw batteries and God knows what else that you need to understand. Have a look at a few e-cig sites and you'll see what I mean. Hopeless.
I got some good advice from Cotty's e-cigs thread in The Lounge and spent about 60quid on e-cig gear. When it arrived I put it away and forgot about it for a couple of weeks. Finally got around to putting it together one evening, and gave it a try. It was really good!
That was 2nd September. No cigarettes since.
The e-cig industry has a lot to offer, but it needs to drop all this geeky stuff and concentrate on offering solid products that don't require the user to have a degree in electronics. E-cigs work, no question.
Its not my thread, it was around long before I started posting on it. I made some mistakes, bought things that don't work well, im just trying to help people avoid the issues/problems/mistakes I made.The big problem with e-cigs is that it's all way too complicated. The cig-a-likes that you buy from Sainsburys are not up to the job, and those sonic screwdriver type things have tanks, mods, coils, cartos, vv/vw batteries and God knows what else that you need to understand. Have a look at a few e-cig sites and you'll see what I mean. Hopeless.
I got some good advice from Cotty's e-cigs thread in The Lounge and spent about 60quid on e-cig gear. When it arrived I put it away and forgot about it for a couple of weeks. Finally got around to putting it together one evening, and gave it a try. It was really good!
That was 2nd September. No cigarettes since.
The e-cig industry has a lot to offer, but it needs to drop all this geeky stuff and concentrate on offering solid products that don't require the user to have a degree in electronics. E-cigs work, no question.
Glad it worked out for you.
I quit in May 2013 after 10 years of smoking. Towards the end I was on 30-40 a day. I was between jobs at the time and I simply couldn't afford to spend £10+ a day on fags. So I decided to stop, simple as that. It was incredibly difficult, but hand on heart, I haven't touched one since. It helped having supportive family, mates and colleagues. The best tip I got was to have visual motivation, and reminders everywhere around the house. I made up posters which I stuck all over the place, with stuff like how much money I was saving, how my lungs were recovering etc etc. It helped. Alot. Although I would imagine if your decision to quit isn't financial it may not have as much impact as it did for me. The "£3000 A YEAR" really hit home for me.
The hardest part of it all, for me anyway, was not having something in my hands. I'd never really considered it before, but I spent the majority of my waking life fiddling with a little white stick in my hand. I still even now have a pen with me most of the time, otherwise I start getting fidgety and subsequently wanting a smoke. And I do seem to have developed an addiction to mints but I'd take that any day.
Best thing I've ever done.
The hardest part of it all, for me anyway, was not having something in my hands. I'd never really considered it before, but I spent the majority of my waking life fiddling with a little white stick in my hand. I still even now have a pen with me most of the time, otherwise I start getting fidgety and subsequently wanting a smoke. And I do seem to have developed an addiction to mints but I'd take that any day.
Best thing I've ever done.
I have stopped by using an e-cig but only since Monday but have not touched a real smoke since and as it is in my mind set to quit the e-cig is only used sometimes.
The chest pain did a lot to convince me and those have now gone in the last 3 days (They were only sporadic but still there), there are 24 real cigs still in the house that I will dispose of, but they for the 3 days had to remain to act as a barrier.
It makes sense to me anyway.
My mind is set and I am happy so long live it.
The chest pain did a lot to convince me and those have now gone in the last 3 days (They were only sporadic but still there), there are 24 real cigs still in the house that I will dispose of, but they for the 3 days had to remain to act as a barrier.
It makes sense to me anyway.
My mind is set and I am happy so long live it.
Simes205 said:
Fags were £3.25 for 20 when I gave up!
68p for 10 when I started!
Paid for my car when I gave up!
30p for 20 No.6 when I started - 1975.68p for 10 when I started!
Paid for my car when I gave up!
I smoked until about 2001, then gave up for three years, just stopped. Five years or so I started smoking those small Hamlet cigars, but recently kicked that as I was smoking 10 a day. If you can just go cold turkey and stop. If you can do a fortnight without them, you can go a month. Once you lose that craving for the taste (and so the nicotine), you won't be looking to smoke. So job done ...
Just don't have the urge to go out now for a smoke ...
I too used the Allen Carr book and quit 5 years ago.
It was the hassle that prompted me - the indoor ban had just come in and I really didn't fancy spending the winter in the pissing rain smoking outside.
There was then the hassle with travelling, finding somewhere to light up, etc, etc.
I was a smoker that enjoyed it, but deep down I was pretty fed up with the cost and baggage so wanted to quit.
I wouldn't say it was a piece of cake, but it was quite straightforward to do it once I'd read the book and understood what was happening re: cravings, etc.
You do have to want to stop though. Those that can't quit or start again do so by choice at the end of the day.
I don't miss it. I only get a little wistful when in a pub garden on a summer's day with a cold pint.
It was the hassle that prompted me - the indoor ban had just come in and I really didn't fancy spending the winter in the pissing rain smoking outside.
There was then the hassle with travelling, finding somewhere to light up, etc, etc.
I was a smoker that enjoyed it, but deep down I was pretty fed up with the cost and baggage so wanted to quit.
I wouldn't say it was a piece of cake, but it was quite straightforward to do it once I'd read the book and understood what was happening re: cravings, etc.
You do have to want to stop though. Those that can't quit or start again do so by choice at the end of the day.
I don't miss it. I only get a little wistful when in a pub garden on a summer's day with a cold pint.
DaveOrange said:
20 a day for 25+ years (Red Marlboro)habit.
Decided enough was enough when I did a quick fag pack calculation and worked out that if I put all of the ciggies I had smoked on top of each other the stack would be 3 times higher than Mt Everest.
I went to see the doctor who put me on Champix tablets. With these tablets you carry on smoking but pick a quit day within 2 weeks of starting them. After a few days the enjoyment from smoking becomes much reduced and by day 10 I really got nothing from smoking at all. In fact it made me feel quite sick so that was the day I stopped.I took the tablets for a further 6 weeks although towards the end of that time perhaps one tablet every two or three days. I have now been smoke free for 18 weeks. The tablets at times did make me feel a little queasy and did give me some very vivid dreams (best one involving fighting off an alien invasion with my first true love, but that's another story).
Has it made a difference to me? Well I now detest the smell of ciggies and smokers and have zero cravings. I am over £1000 better off. It takes less beer to get me drunk. I have started exercising regularly both cycling and at the gym. I have lost over 20lbs in weight and 3" inches off my waist and got my blood pressure down to a much more acceptable level. Food tastes much better and I no longer smell like a stale ash tray.
The question remains, Why the f
k did I take so long to decide to quit?
Good luck to all those that try to quit.
Closer to 30 a day for about 18 years for me. Stopped with chantix/champix (different brand of pill in the US).Decided enough was enough when I did a quick fag pack calculation and worked out that if I put all of the ciggies I had smoked on top of each other the stack would be 3 times higher than Mt Everest.
I went to see the doctor who put me on Champix tablets. With these tablets you carry on smoking but pick a quit day within 2 weeks of starting them. After a few days the enjoyment from smoking becomes much reduced and by day 10 I really got nothing from smoking at all. In fact it made me feel quite sick so that was the day I stopped.I took the tablets for a further 6 weeks although towards the end of that time perhaps one tablet every two or three days. I have now been smoke free for 18 weeks. The tablets at times did make me feel a little queasy and did give me some very vivid dreams (best one involving fighting off an alien invasion with my first true love, but that's another story).
Has it made a difference to me? Well I now detest the smell of ciggies and smokers and have zero cravings. I am over £1000 better off. It takes less beer to get me drunk. I have started exercising regularly both cycling and at the gym. I have lost over 20lbs in weight and 3" inches off my waist and got my blood pressure down to a much more acceptable level. Food tastes much better and I no longer smell like a stale ash tray.
The question remains, Why the f
k did I take so long to decide to quit?Good luck to all those that try to quit.
Edited by DaveOrange on Thursday 13th November 16:29
It's a hugely impressive drug. I still have the occasional craving 18 months on, but I can't see myself going back to them.
Took the full 2 months worth that I got issued with, and like you said, after 10 days I'd lost interest in smoking; was getting nothing out of them. Stopped on day 14.
No dreams for me, though the wife had them. A colleague tried it twice, made him very depressed and emotional both times and had to stop the pills after 4 or 5 days.
Powerful stuff, I'm hugely impressed with it.
I gave up 10 years ago,read the Alan Carr book and went on holiday with threats of extreme violence if I smoked on said holiday.
For me,and I think most smokers, the most difficult thing is not the addiction to nicotine(which I think is a fabrication made up by vested interest companies,gums etc) but being able to cope with the anxiety of not smoking and not having a routine built around smoking.
For me,and I think most smokers, the most difficult thing is not the addiction to nicotine(which I think is a fabrication made up by vested interest companies,gums etc) but being able to cope with the anxiety of not smoking and not having a routine built around smoking.
If you could meet the shopfitter I was working with today, you would give up now.
He has smoked about 50 a day for the last 30 years. He now has to have an inhaler in the morning to "wake" his lungs up, another midday and also evening. He really does struggle at work and his coughing in unbelievabley violent.
Doctor has told him it won't be long before he has to go on oxygen. He has now cut down to about 10 a day.
He is 52.
He has smoked about 50 a day for the last 30 years. He now has to have an inhaler in the morning to "wake" his lungs up, another midday and also evening. He really does struggle at work and his coughing in unbelievabley violent.
Doctor has told him it won't be long before he has to go on oxygen. He has now cut down to about 10 a day.
He is 52.
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