Stop Smoking Help Blog

Due with baby #1 7-27-08 says:

QUIT cold turkey!

shadow dweller says:

hw abt join a rehab!!!!!

Cool Dude says:

find something else to do and fill up ur schedule so u have no time to think about it

Beastie says:

Get a better backbone. That’s all it takes to get you off them. If you don’t have a backbone, no amount of meds are going to get you off them because none of them give you the willpower.

kenny says:

it can’t be done! I spend at least fifty dollars a week on the damn things! I’m 58 and have been smoking since I was 12 I think when I am laying in my coffin they will have a lit cigarette hanging from my mouth!

Chillrbob says:

Find a relationship and job that are more important than cigarettes.

Keira D says:

Your lips are used to having something to suck on. Might I suggest you switch from cancer and emphysema causing cigarettes to sucking on the Purple Helmeted Warrior of Love AKA Tom Johnson! It’s like switching from Heroin to Methadone, you replace one bad habit with a more stimulating one, at least for the recipient of your habit!
Your stock will rise considerably~

zane b says:

how long did u try chantix? It takes a couple of months

Dolly says:

Hi chicks. Im off the cigs since 1st of october and still goin strong. I bought Alan Carrs book, Easyway to quit smoking and instead of smoking i read that. In fact, everywhere i went i brought the book with me for motivation and anytime i got a craving i took it out of my bag and started reading! Within no time the craving had passed. Worked for me plus im saving myself a fortune………good luck xxx

Suresh M says:

Your body is not yours. It is the body of the nature or say God. It is given to you to rejoice the joy and distribute the same with others. You are making sin by smoking. Do you agree? Then leave the habit.

groomingal says:

Set a day that you want to quit, mark it on the calender.
Now get a large empty glass jar with a lid, fill the jar about 1/4 full with water. EVERY cigarette you extinguish until your quit day goes in the jar- if you need to add more water do so. Also go ahead and get one pack and open it- let it get stale.
Starting on your quit day- when you want a cigarette- open the jar and take a whiff. If you still crave one- try smoking a stale one- it just isn’t worth it.
A friend of mine that smoked for 20+ years tried this and he still has the jar and he quit about 10 years ago.
I used to smoke but quit due to illness and never picked it back up.

PeeTee says:

Great question, you seem to have a talent for quitting things. But there’s nothing harder to quit than tobacco. Not that you’d be interested,but Zyban worked great for me. It only works on 52% of the people that try it,sorry your in the other 48%. Weed was much easier to quit than cigarettes. Having tried all of those other methods,maybe group support and/or hypnotism is the answer for you. You sound very independant, so group therapy will be a big step (or maybe 12 of them), but it does offer some support and might get you started.

josecervantez7 says:

I quit smoking a little at a time, I started out smoking 10 cigarettes a day and removed one every 6 weeks, when I was down to 2 a day (one am one pm) I asked myself which cigg. I enjoyed the most, the one right before bed time was best for me so I kept the pm cigg. then after 6 weeks I started to skip one day and did that for 6 weeks too, then skipped two days for 6 weeks to the point to where I got to 3 days then I told myself if I can go for 3 days with out a cigg. then I can quit, so I did but then in a stressful situation I picked the habit right back up, so then I started all over again, but the second time I told myself that I was going to quit but if I ever wanted to smoke a cigg. I would and it would then need to stop. So I guess in a sense I never stopped smoking. I just smoke when I feel like it, not when I want to have or must have one. In the past 6 years I have had about 12 ciggs, and one or two in the past 3 years. The only thought I kept in the back of my mind is, I love myself too much to poison me.

uptownsfinest says:

I speak from experience.

Addiction is a both a sign of and a cause of emotional immaturity. You must recognize this before you are able to quit so that you can deal with some of the underlying personality traits that cause you to keep smoking.

For example, many people who are addicted to a drug (nicotine is a drug) are too emotionally immature (ie., senstive to criticism) to even admit that they are addicts. They don’t like the way the word “addict” sounds. They don’t want to be put in the same category as people who are addicted to other drugs. And they don’t want anyone else calling them an addict. Like children, they are very sensitive to how others view them.

Another example of how people with addiction problems are emotionally immature is the fact that addicts who are in the process of quitting tend to relapse whenever they are confronted with a stressful or emotionally drainning situation.

The situation could be as major as the death of a loved one, the end of a relationship, or as seemingly simple as being late to work or being made fun of.

The emotionally mature person allows themselves to “feel the pain” of such situations without seeking out things to help them forget it or avoid the negative feelings. But because a cigarette smoker always reaches for the soothing feeling of a smoke when going through these situations cigarette smokers have never learned to do that.

So in very simple terms… want to quit smoking? Admit that you are addicted (ie., you are an addict). We all have flaws. No one is perfect. This is one of your flaws. But the good news, is that it is possible to overcome it. But you have to admit it first. It’s this simple… if you have ever woke up in the morning and said, “I’m not going to smoke today”… but then smoked at some point during that day… you are addicted. If you’re addicted, you’re an addict.

Once you admit this, you will feel motivated to get help for your addiction. You will read books on addiction. You may get counseling. But if you don’t admit it to yourself, you wont do these things. You will say, “My problem is not that bad. I’m not a crack head or nothing, I don’t need to read books or get counseling, I can do this on my own.”

The truth is you probably can’t do this on your own. Most addicts think they can and it takes them years of trying before they either… 1- die from the addiction OR 2- learn that they can’t. By the time #2 happens though… a lot of irreversible damage has been done.

The fact is nicotine addiction may be powerful than crack addiction.

Another sign of emotional immaturity… overestimating your own uniqueness. Most addicts believe they can quit without the help of counseling, books or group therapy despite overwhelming evidence that most recovering addicts have benefitted from these things. Instead, they will cling to the one or two examples they have heard of people quitting on their own… while ignoring or minimizing the millions who have not been able to do so.

Once you admit you are an addict, the other thing you will do is learn new ways of dealing with emotionally difficult situations. Most addicts deal with emotionally difficult situations like children:

- they medicate/soothe themselves (kids do this by playing games, addicts do this by taking drugs)
- they pretend they are fine
- they get angry or depressed
- they run from the situation (ie., quit jobs, quit school, end relationships). Sometimes it’s ok to do these things. But the addict rarely thinks they were the problem. Instead, the addict usually thinks, “the problem was the job, the school or the other person in the relationship, not me.” But then why doesn’t any relationship or job work out?
- all of these usually lead to using the drug again

The addict in recovery, however, learns a few things to get out of this hole:

- identify his/her feelings
- learns to express feelings without disrespecting others
- learns that feelings are temporary
- learns to patiently wait for the feelings to go away without doing any of the things above
- learns that there are feelings other than anger, shame or depression

The addict who is still using (ie., smoking) cannot do these things because they medicate their feelings with their drugs. The addict acts and feels as if the feeling they currently have will last forever.

But if you can learn to let yourself feel sad, mad, glad, afraid or embarrassed for as long as it takes without reaching for the cigarette… you will begin to see that these feelings usually last for only a few minutes or a day or two at most. And once they are gone, the urge to smoke will be greatly diminished.

Finally, you’ve got to figure out a way to go cold turkey so you can practice the above. And you’ve got to quit marijuana as well. Because you have to smoke marijuana, it will subconsciously remind you of smoking cigarettes. If you keep smoking marijuana… even if it’s once in awhile… you will have a nearly impossible time quitting. Plus, I’m not sure what God you are praying to… but I’m pretty sure God does not want you smoking marijuana. So if you want your prayers answered… a good place to start is to start doing the things God wants you to do.