I am a 25 year smoker. Yes, 25 years, sometimes 2 packs a day. I am tired of it and I am ready to quit. I have chosen my quit date as Friday evening, July 10th. Why Friday? I want to spare my co-workers from the probable effects of withdrawal for the first copule of days. My body it seems will be nicotine free after only 72 hours, possibly sooner if I drink lots of water. The rest and hardest part to overcome is psychological! There will be habit triggers...like that first cup of coffee in the morning...after a meal...last one before bed...you get the idea.

My body is actually going to have to learn how to function without the continuous feed of toxins. Some of the withdrawal symptoms that I may be facing are headaches, irritability, nicotine cravings, anxiety, fatigue, depression, drowsiness or insomnia and weight gain.

I don't mind telling you all that I am scared.I have been giving myself a pep talk for days now. Smoking has been a part of my life for a very long time. That is why I am posting this. I am told that a support system can play a vital role in my success. I would love the support of my fellow ATSers!! I am on ATS every night! I spend a lot of time here and have made some great friends and hopefully I will make some more. I will post daily if possible on how it is going for me...kind of like a journal.I think that this could be beneficial to others. I will be open and honest with what I am feeling and who knows, hopefully we can help others in their struggle to quit!

And those of you out there that have already been through this, please share your story!! I can do this!

[edit on 8-7-2009 by Greenize]

Good luck man!!!

It's hard, but doable.

I'll give you some crazy counter-intuitive advice.

Try to quit coffee at the same time. I know it sounds like it would make it worse, but for me it didn't.

First of all, like you said, the coffee is a huge trigger. I also found booze (obviously) and oddly enough sugar to be a trigger.

Secondly, I found if I wanted to cheat, I would have a cup of coffee and consider that the big cheat for the day and the little buzz I would get from not having caffeine for a few days would augment the nicotine I was missing.

Another weird thing I did was when I would break down and have a smoke, I would take a sharpie (seriously the permanent marker kind) and draw a hash mark on my arm. I told everyone I was doing this so basically I set myself up as to where there was no "sneaking" a smoke. When I did cheat the momentary satisfaction was left with a permanent reminder that I was cheating.

Anyway, that probably all sounds weird, but try to find something that you can relate to that will help you get through it.

Oh, and another thing, put the money you would have spent on smokes in a jar everyday. After a month, besides the health benefits, you will se a real tangible reason for quitting.

Best of luck.

Originally posted by Greenize And those of you out there that have already been through this, please share your story!! I can do this!

I used the patch to quit (after some 30 years). It took three tries, but I finally won out. The patch allows you to wean yourself of the addiction, while you work on the psychological aspect yourself. A generic version is also available in Canada...likely the US as well, so it comes in cheaper.

Either way, it's cheaper than smoking.

You're in for a struggle, but cold turkey is worse. Good luck, and if it doesn't work this time...try again.

It takes a brave person to quit smoking.

I quit 6 months ago. It was rough on the nerves but I got through it.

I had smoked for over 40 years.

Tried many times to quit before but used nicotine patches. That didn't work.

You've got the right idea to quit and get that demon drug out of your system.

I had moments when I felt I could smoke one a yard long but I didn't give in. And it feels good to be able to not be chained to a pack of smokes.

It gets easier as time goes by.

Best of luck to you. If I can be of any help just let me know.

You can do it.

Smoker for 11 years here myself. I tried quitting a few times, didn't work too well so I have given up on it. I will say however, that quitting is the best thing you can do. If you succeed, I will applaud you greatly.

Ase speak, my father is in the hospital fighting for his last breath from smoking 2 or 3 packs of camel non-filters a day. He has begged me to quit my habit. I have not.

[edit on 7/8/2009 by bourbon2nite]

A friend of mine recently quit (I'm thinking about it, myself). the first two weeks are the killer.

His solution was to take a 2 week vacation. Something about being in a new environment with a new routine made it a lot easier, or so I'm told. Gets rid of all of the normal triggers and so on.

I cant seem to edit my post quit yet. should have said as we speak.

It takes 21 days to form a habit. Of course the habit you are wanting is to lose another one.

Everyone is different in how they go about it. Personally, I quit cold turkey. Remove every cigarette, ashtray and butt you can find in your house. You cannot be surrounded by anything that constantly reminds you of smoking.

Being out in the "real world" this can be a challenge.. but it is all about will power. If you truly want to quit.. you will.

21 days.... if you can get through those, I have the highest confidence you will succeed.

Good luck.

Actually, THE hardest part of all... honestly, is the waiting time... The time when you are waiting for a ride, 15 min, well have asmoke ant the time is up... wating for someone who runs inside the store, no problem have a smoke or two... Waiting is the worst part, cause that is when it seems like FOREVER.. the time you would be smoking is the time you need to find something to fill up. I have no answer to this yet. But i know that those triggers you spoke of coffee and befor bed, are asy because you realise them as triggers and you can use them as anti-trigger
what i mean is "Made it through my coffe without a smoke, not bad"
" I dont really feel like a smoke befor bed i just think i do"
easy

But when you are waiting someplace and even if you dont have smokes youll be thinking dag if i had a smoke right now....I hope you are fortunate in your attempt. Dont be discouraged I am giving you a heads up.. Use it.

and by the way quiting coffe and diet cokes can healp you health in other ways.... quit coffe reduced blood pressure and insomnia type symtoms
and the diet coke reduce your weight in the mid section and reduce the chances of cancer due to aspertame related causes

Hey friend!
I have been a smoker for 5 years now and nothing seems to kill that craving I have for a sick stick, cancer rod, etc... lol

Anyway I have tried quitting multiple times and have failed every one of them. I honestly feel your pain in regards to this relentless battle with this addiction. I haven't tried the patch and am waging some kind of psychological war with myself, constantly saying I don't need the patch, don't need outside help but alas, I do need outside help and the hardest part is admitting it as I can be stubborn when it comes to such things. So you have already finished the hardest step.

The longest I quit was a few weeks but my substitute and remedy was mint flavored toothpicks. Pick up a few boxes and every time you want to smoke pop one of those in and chew on it. It helped me seriously with the oral fixation.

Too many things set it off for me when trying to quit. Too many little habits are established. Like seeing someone light up in a movie is a nightmare, not lighting up after eating, missing the morning wake up smoke, the before bed smoke, the before and after work smoke, the break and lunch smoke, the after gym smoke and on and on.

I'm on that same boat with you, believe me.

Look. You want to stop? You just stop. Did it long time ago. I just stopped because I no longer wanted to do it. It's that simple. If you continue to smoke? it's because you choose to. It's like anything in your life. You realize you don't like it. And you really want to change? Change.

I knew people that quit smoking before I did. They became serious "nazis" about it all. Making rules, dictating, constantly sermonizing. That sucked.

One day I just quit. And I never dictated to people what they did on their own. I never sermonized them. Yes, some people who knew I quit smoking would apologize and ask if they could smoke around me. I said I didn't care either way. Smoke or not smoke, It's your choice. You smoking is not going to "make" me smoke.

Just put them down. If you really don't want to, you won't do it.

Originally posted by vox2442
A friend of mine recently quit (I'm thinking about it, myself). the first two weeks are the killer.

His solution was to take a 2 week vacation. Something about being in a new environment with a new routine made it a lot easier, or so I'm told. Gets rid of all of the normal triggers and so on.

I had a mate whom took of 2 weeks and just slept through the whole thing. He said he didnt have the same difficulties with cravings as his other mates seemd to.