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Giving up smoking

Fitness tips, Relaxation, Mind and Body
WickedLester
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Giving up smoking

#369994

Postby WickedLester » December 27th, 2020, 6:26 am

Is anyone else here a smoker who is planning on giving up in the new year?

If so maybe we could try to support one another through the difficult early stages.

FWIW i haven't been a lifelong smoker, I smoked all through college and university and then gave up for 14 years when I was 23. I started again at 37 after I started going out with a woman who was a smoker and for the last ten years I have been smoking. I would love to give up, there is a history of lung acancer caused by smoking on both sides of my family and I can't afford a 20 a day habit anymore. I would love to get fit again, I remember in my 20's when I gave up and used to play a lot of football I could run all day. In my early 30's I used to swim 2 miles a week.

I have a lot of older acquaintances at my local with COPD and the like from smoking and I don't want to end up like that.

I got a prescription from my GP for a months worth of nicotine patches and they do work as I have used them before.

So if there are any other smokers planning on trying to give up this year please get in touch and we'll share our experiences.

bungeejumper
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Re: Giving up smoking

#370026

Postby bungeejumper » December 27th, 2020, 10:04 am

It's been 44 years since I packed up the evil weed, so no, I don't have much to offer you except for my sincere good wishes. It was bloody hard work, I do remember that! And I failed twice, but got there the third time. Wishing you strength and resolve. :)

Things are probably a little easier these days than in the 1970s, where there was no other method except for cold turkey. No nicotine patches, no nothing. I'd only smoked for five years (caused by peer pressure from living in student Berlin, where you'd never get a girlfriend if you didn't smoke), but I was onto 20 a day frighteningly fast. I knew I was in trouble when I switched to cigars and found that I was inhaling them :? And not even the wall-sized street posters showing cancerous lungs seemed to get to me. Which was really very scary.

Keep a diary. Tell everyone you know that you've given up. Avoid smoker situations, and choose your moment. Particularly stressful periods are not great for a big giving-up attempt.

One of my personal turning points was when I found an unopened pack of cigars in a coat pocket, and nobody knew they were there except me, and I could just feel them calling to me. It took me a whole two minutes of looking at them longingly before I scrunched them into oblivion and chucked them, and I never looked back.

Two years later I bought a new motorcycle with the money I'd saved. Suggest you dangle a similar mental carrot in front of your nose?

Good luck!

BJ

WickedLester
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Re: Giving up smoking

#370036

Postby WickedLester » December 27th, 2020, 10:26 am

I'm planning on giving up on New Year's Day as my resolution. I think it will be easier at the moment due to the pubs being shut.

The money is a big carrot for me. I hope to be able to start saving enough that I can buy a new car so I will keep thinkING about that.

Thanks for your encouragement.

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Re: Giving up smoking

#370069

Postby redsturgeon » December 27th, 2020, 12:05 pm

As a non smoker I just looked it up and was shocked to see the price of 20 cigarettes, a moderate smoker could easily spend £300 per month on them!

For £300 a month you could lease yourself a very nice new car.

John

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Re: Giving up smoking

#370125

Postby dealtn » December 27th, 2020, 3:33 pm

redsturgeon wrote:As a non smoker I just looked it up and was shocked to see the price of 20 cigarettes, a moderate smoker could easily spend £300 per month on them!

For £300 a month you could lease yourself a very nice new car.

John


For £300 a month you could get a nice pension - and the health and opportunity to enjoy it for a long time.

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Re: Giving up smoking

#370131

Postby AleisterCrowley » December 27th, 2020, 3:41 pm

I gave up on the 'real' ones 5 years ago and switched to vaping. It was ridiculously easy...

Now, vaping isn't 100% safe and it does cost money- but it's much safer than smoking and considerably cheaper
I'm going to stop vaping 'eventually' but I have found it a good half-way house between smoking and complete abstinence
Obviously completely stopping is preferable, but better to vape than be in the smoke/give up/fail/start smoking cycle in my opinion. Others may disagree

WickedLester
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Re: Giving up smoking

#370140

Postby WickedLester » December 27th, 2020, 4:22 pm

I also vape which has helped me cut down a lot on my smoking but I want to break the habit altogether and start putting some money away. There really are no upsides to smoking.

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Re: Giving up smoking

#370164

Postby AleisterCrowley » December 27th, 2020, 5:59 pm

Could you start by switching to 100% vaping, then gradually reduce the nicotine levels and phase out the vaping? Once I found the right combination it was easy to go 100% vape. It probably costs me £5-£10 per week - less than 20 fags

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Re: Giving up smoking

#370165

Postby ReformedCharacter » December 27th, 2020, 6:03 pm

WickedLester wrote:I also vape which has helped me cut down a lot on my smoking but I want to break the habit altogether and start putting some money away. There really are no upsides to smoking.

I gave up smoking about 10 years ago but still vape. Of course it's different strokes for different folks but I too found vaping to be a good alternative nicotine delivery system. I've very gradually cut down on the nicotine strength in the fluid. Maybe I'll quit the vaping one day but having given up alcohol very nearly 20 years ago, nicotine is a vice I'm prepared to grant myself for the time being.

RC

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Re: Giving up smoking

#370225

Postby servodude » December 27th, 2020, 10:00 pm

bungeejumper wrote:Tell everyone you know that you've given up


This nugget from an earlier post is gold
Tell everyone; tell them as if you're a newly converted vegan

It will help them help you
- and more importantly it will convince yourself of your intentions in a way that becomes increasingly difficult to break

Good luck it's well worth the effort for many reasons

-sd

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Re: Giving up smoking

#370263

Postby Mike4 » December 28th, 2020, 6:54 am

servodude wrote:
bungeejumper wrote:Tell everyone you know that you've given up


This nugget from an earlier post is gold
Tell everyone; tell them as if you're a newly converted vegan


It will help them help you
- and more importantly it will convince yourself of your intentions in a way that becomes increasingly difficult to break

Good luck it's well worth the effort for many reasons

-sd


Giving up smoking easy, I've done it loads of times.

Now I've got my all time favourite joke out of the way, my last cigarette was on 26th May 1996 after many failed attempts. I tried telling everyone as suggested above but commonly, the response was "Yeah, right" rather than support. So I did it quietly without telling a soul. My wife was the first to notice after about a week. Work colleagues after a month or three. It took a year or so to stop thinking about smoking every day, and perhaps five years to forget I ever smoked. Best not to kid yourself about this, then it comes as no surprise.

The thing that did it for me was being taken advantage of by government and Big Business. Shortly before the price of fags had gone up to three quid a pack, which I thought was a gouging price, much of it tax and I didn't like being taken for a fool. Secondly I'd just had a quote for term life assurance. The figures were something like, £86 a month for a smoker, and £17 a month for a non smoker for the same sum assured. Yes the difference was HUGE, and with great trepidation I ticked the 'non-smoker' box, and never smoked again. The psychology of knowing if I started smoking again I would have to contact the insurance co and have my premia put up to £86 helped me through the worst times.

I also found a series of books and video tapes by Alan Carr (no not the comedian, an American 'giving up smoking coach') at the time very constructive and helpful. I dunno if his books/videos are still available but I'd highly recommend seeking them out.

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Re: Giving up smoking

#370269

Postby Mike4 » December 28th, 2020, 7:47 am

Mike4 wrote:Now I've got my all time favourite joke out of the way, my last cigarette was on 26th May 1996 after many failed attempts.


Expanding on this, one of the wisdoms by Alan Carr is that no attempt to give up is ever actually a failure, because each cycle of giving up/starting again helps teach you what it feels like to 'not smoke', and what to expect it will feel like next time you give up. Just keep on with the giving up/starting again cycles and as you get more familiar with how it feels to give up, your cycles will vary in length. Don't beat yourself up over the length, sooner or later you'll manage a really long one.

My current cycle is just over 24 years long and deep down, I still consider myself a smoker at risk of starting again. The risk is just quite small now I think, but I still treat it seriously.

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Re: Giving up smoking

#370528

Postby TahiPanasDua » December 28th, 2020, 4:26 pm

I was a heavy smoker and tried many times to stop. My last gasper was about 35 years ago and there were no e-fags then. The only option was cold turkey.

What I found was that each unsuccessful attempt to stop seemed a little easier than the last so I would strongly recommend anyone to keep trying and not give up in despair. Another trick I found useful was to avoid thinking about a dismal future constantly plagued by the pain of nicotine deprivation and think only of the present. As recommended by Alcoholics Anonymous for drug users, take it all one day at a time. I would try to convince myself that I was only stopping for the whole of today and tomorrow. It sounds daft but it eventually worked.

Giving up smoking was one of the hardest things I have ever done and I feel truly sorry for those trying to kick the habit. Good luck and keep trying.

TP2.

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Re: Giving up smoking

#370533

Postby EssDeeAitch » December 28th, 2020, 4:45 pm

Good luck, giving up smoking is a very good thing to do (34 years ago for me). One piece of advice, never ever say "I have given up smoking" just say "I dont smoke" as this tends to shut down the conversation (both internal and external).

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Re: Giving up smoking

#370575

Postby WickedLester » December 28th, 2020, 6:55 pm

Thanks for all the tips and encouragement. I have done it before so I know I can. I know the patches work to quell the cravings and with the pubs shut I will have one trigger removed for a while. Depending on the circumstances I don't always find it too difficult not to smoke. Since taking the habit up again I have stopped for about 3 months a couple of times each and one month when I was particularly skint I didn't smoke at all as I couldn't afford it but I went back to it when I got paid.

This time I think I will try to keep reminding myself of all the positives in giving up such as paying into my pension and buying a car as well as the obvious health benefits.

The thing I think i'm going to find hardest is filling time when I used to smoke. Perhaps I'll read or go for a walk but if anyone has any other suggestions i'd be happy to hear them.

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Re: Giving up smoking

#370606

Postby Mike4 » December 28th, 2020, 8:50 pm

WickedLester wrote:Thanks for all the tips and encouragement. I have done it before so I know I can. I know the patches work to quell the cravings and with the pubs shut I will have one trigger removed for a while. Depending on the circumstances I don't always find it too difficult not to smoke. Since taking the habit up again I have stopped for about 3 months a couple of times each and one month when I was particularly skint I didn't smoke at all as I couldn't afford it but I went back to it when I got paid.

This time I think I will try to keep reminding myself of all the positives in giving up such as paying into my pension and buying a car as well as the obvious health benefits.

The thing I think i'm going to find hardest is filling time when I used to smoke. Perhaps I'll read or go for a walk but if anyone has any other suggestions i'd be happy to hear them.


Ah now, the relationship between smoking and alcohol... that must be worthy of a book of its own.

Firstly, I found nicotine patches counter-productive, they induced a steady state low level reminder of what it feels like to be smoking, all the time. So I stopped experimenting with them once I noticed this. I seem to be alone in this though, most people find them helpful.

Regarding alcohol, yes initially I found a pint in the pub a major trigger but this was in the days when smoking in pubs was normal. Similarly with alcohol at home, the desire to smoke at the same time was almost overwhelming. Just hang on to the thought that of the ten quid or so a packet of cigarettes costs, about eight quid goes to the govt and they are all laughing at you for paying it.

What I found after about six months though, was the taste of the beer improved and I didn't actually want that interfered with by fag smoke. Nowadays I can drink and not experience even the faintest desire to smoke at the same time. The problem has actually reversed, I leant quite heavily on alcohol as a nicotine substitute with the encouragement of my very pragmatic GP. He said the damage done by alcoholism is a small fraction of that done by cigarettes and he would find it far easier to treat me as an alcoholic than as a victim of smoking, so fill my boots with the alcohol if it has to be one or the other. So I did!

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Re: Giving up smoking

#370713

Postby bungeejumper » December 29th, 2020, 9:21 am

WickedLester wrote:The thing I think i'm going to find hardest is filling time when I used to smoke. Perhaps I'll read or go for a walk but if anyone has any other suggestions i'd be happy to hear them.

My problem while giving up was to find things for my hands to do. (No sniggering at the back, there. :lol: ) Holding a book was one way; these days I'm into painting, so it would probably be a paint brush and palette. The quickest way to lose yourself for three or four hours, I find!

I will confess that I did hit the Polo mints for a short while when I was giving up. They rot your teeth, of course, but I figured that the worst case scenario would be if I needed to get a few teeth replaced. Easier to fit than a new pair of lungs! (Analogous to Mike4's experience with the beer, I suppose?)

How long does it take to get clean? Experiences seem to vary, but I found that the worst times for me were the end of the second week and the end of the second month. After six months I was fairly sure I'd got it beaten; after two years I could walk into a smoky pub without feeling I was missing something. :| After five or six years I was still getting a bit annoyed when other people fouled the air with their smoke; after that, though, I mostly stopped noticing. And all the while, my house and my car and my clothes all smelt so much better! :D

BJ

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Re: Giving up smoking

#370724

Postby ReformedCharacter » December 29th, 2020, 10:01 am

Mike4 wrote:I leant quite heavily on alcohol as a nicotine substitute with the encouragement of my very pragmatic GP. He said the damage done by alcoholism is a small fraction of that done by cigarettes and he would find it far easier to treat me as an alcoholic than as a victim of smoking, so fill my boots with the alcohol if it has to be one or the other. So I did!

Going off-topic I know, but I find that an extraordinary thing for a GP to say. I wonder how many alcoholics he successfully treated? And of course whilst passive smoking can harm other people, alcoholics often do untold harm to others. I'm an alcoholic, albeit of the non-practising variety, and when I went to my GP about it he was very pleasant but useless. A few years later he left the practice and eventually it became known that he'd been dismissed due to his need to have a few drinks before coming to work.

RC

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Re: Giving up smoking

#370746

Postby Mike4 » December 29th, 2020, 10:50 am

ReformedCharacter wrote:
Mike4 wrote:I leant quite heavily on alcohol as a nicotine substitute with the encouragement of my very pragmatic GP. He said the damage done by alcoholism is a small fraction of that done by cigarettes and he would find it far easier to treat me as an alcoholic than as a victim of smoking, so fill my boots with the alcohol if it has to be one or the other. So I did!

Going off-topic I know, but I find that an extraordinary thing for a GP to say. I wonder how many alcoholics he successfully treated? And of course whilst passive smoking can harm other people, alcoholics often do untold harm to others. I'm an alcoholic, albeit of the non-practising variety, and when I went to my GP about it he was very pleasant but useless. A few years later he left the practice and eventually it became known that he'd been dismissed due to his need to have a few drinks before coming to work.

RC


A couple of points. I may have exaggerated when I wrote that he said 'fill your boots', but his message was very clear that he saw the likely medical damage from alcohol abuse to me specifically as being an order of magnitude smaller than the medical damage to my body being caused by cigarettes. It was quite likely to have been a case of 'know your patient'. He knows I am quite a technical person hopefully able to assess stuff like this dispassionately. He is a customer of mine too. He may well not have said the same to most of his other patients, he was speaking very candidly in response to my concern expressed that I was simply substituting one addiction for another.

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Re: Giving up smoking

#370756

Postby bungeejumper » December 29th, 2020, 11:11 am

Mike4 wrote:
ReformedCharacter wrote:
Mike4 wrote:I leant quite heavily on alcohol as a nicotine substitute with the encouragement of my very pragmatic GP. He said the damage done by alcoholism is a small fraction of that done by cigarettes and he would find it far easier to treat me as an alcoholic than as a victim of smoking, so fill my boots with the alcohol if it has to be one or the other. So I did!

Going off-topic I know, but I find that an extraordinary thing for a GP to say. I wonder how many alcoholics he successfully treated?

A couple of points. I may have exaggerated when I wrote that he said 'fill your boots', but his message was very clear that he saw the likely medical damage from alcohol abuse to me specifically as being an order of magnitude smaller than the medical damage to my body being caused by cigarettes. It was quite likely to have been a case of 'know your patient'.

RC, I might have missed something, but I don't recall Mike4 saying he was ever an alcohol addict - merely that he was aware of (a) the possibility of that, and (b) the implications if it happened. Both of which appear to have been headed off by his own good sense and the depth of his doctor's familiar knowledge.

So we're jumping the gun a bit if we equate a limited spell of heavy drinking with an alcohol addiction, are we not? Whereas the addiction word can safely be applied to anybody who gets past (shall we say?) five cigarettes a day long-term? Not the same thing at all. Just my 5p's worth.

BJ


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