How and when did you quit smoking?

[KAMKIM]

Other thread made me curious about this - if you use to smoke how much did you smoke then, and how did you quit? How long has it been and how do you feel today?

 

[LindaR]

I used to smoke for quite a few years (10-12?). I smoked less than a pack a day, maybe 3/4 of a pack. I quit 16 years ago. Cold turkey.

I was pretty dense about this......my daughter was constantly sick with one sinus infection after another, constant ear infectons, always got strep, colds turned to bronchitis, etc. When I quit smoking........she pretty basically quit getting sick! She might get a cold every season but it was not ALL THE TIME like before. She would no sooner finish antibiotics then she would be on them again.

THAT was enough to keep me from ever smoking again! Yes, I was not thrilled to gain 10 pounds (seemed like overnight!) but when I realized what MY smoking was doing to the most important person in the world.......no brainer!!

 

[KAMKIM]

I used to smoke for quite a few years (10-12?). I smoked less than a pack a day, maybe 3/4 of a pack. I quit 16 years ago. Cold turkey.

I was pretty dense about this......my daughter was constantly sick with one sinus infection after another, constant ear infectons, always got strep, colds turned to bronchitis, etc. When I quit smoking........she pretty basically quit getting sick! She might get a cold every season but it was not ALL THE TIME like before. She would no sooner finish antibiotics then she would be on them again.

THAT was enough to keep me from ever smoking again! Yes, I was not thrilled to gain 10 pounds (seemed like overnight!) but when I realized what MY smoking was doing to the most important person in the world.......no brainer!!

Good for you! How were the first few days of withdrawal?

 

[Stitchfans]

My last cigarette was on Aug 3rd, 1998. Know why I know the exact date because that is the date of my heart attack. Scared me enough to never touch another cigarette again. Two arteries blocked. One-100% the other one was 80%

 

[goaliewife]

I quit June 28th, 1980.....29 years ago and still celebrating each quit-anniversary.

When I quit I was pretty sick with a cold/flu illness and smoking made me cough a lot with that illness, so I put them down and never picked them up again. What worked for me was to make sure that I had a pack there that I could see because it was when I didn't have any that I craved them the most.

It worked so well for me that my mother who was a lifelong smoker, did the same thing, just put them down. She kept gum around and also held a pencil like a cig quite a bit to have something to do with her hands, lol.

Love this thread. It will be interesting to read how other's handled this.

 

[KandD]

I quit September 24th three years ago. There was a lot contributing to my quitting. I had wanted to stop for a while but really had no motivation. Then I started getting what I call heart palpitations...they drove me CRAZY! It would keep me up at night. Lots of tests were done and my doctor pretty much said it was the smoking and there was nothing to be done about it.
At the same time I got custody of my nephew and it just seemed like a good time to quit. So I did, cold turkey. I had smoked about a pack a day.

My boyfriend (who I lived with then and still do) still smokes. He has tried something offline, Chantix, Nicorette and nothing has worked. I don't really think that he wants to quit smoking yet but its his life. He doesn't smoke in the house or when I am in the car. I still have one every once in a blue moon if I have had a couple of drinks but it makes my chest hurt the next day so it really isn't worth it.

 

[ckay87]

I quit cold turkey 6 years ago. People can turn their nose up at me for ever having smoked "ooooh, I would never do anything like that " but quitting has been one of my proudest accomplishments. Not easy. But I just stopped one day (it was a Monday in late April, 9:15 pm ) and never started again. What kept me going was knowing that it was a battle and I was NOT going to admit defeat. Something just got me really determined. Today what keeps me from going back is knowing that I never want to go through quitting again!

Today I am extremely healthy. I jog and do other aerobic exercise
and have endurance and stamina like I never thought I'd have. I almost never get sick. Maybe just a stuffy nose for a few days here and there. I haven't had a cough-cold since smoking. But that's probably just coincidence. But there's so much more than the breathing thing. I used to have sensitive stomach issues (like IBS) that are gone now. My gums are not sensitive and never bleed. Smoking does damage to your entire body, not just your lungs, by depriving your cells of oxygen.

I know the physical withdrawal was an issue, but I don't remember details. That didn't go on for too long, but I remember that I had lots and lots of TIME on my hands. If I smoked 10 cigs a day, that was probably about an hour of every day that I spent smoking.

One thing my friend and I were talking about is that after you quit, if you feel like you "want" a smoke, you have to remember that you really don't. If you were to cave and have one, you'd practically cough up a lung. What you "want" is the feeling of relief you'd get when you'd fulfill your craving. After a certain amount of time, you just won't get that feeling of relief from a smoke anymore and you need to keep that in mind. But I think that's why a lot of people return to the habit when they are under stress - they are seeking that sense of relief. Understanding these things is important when quitting or maintaining a quit.

Please give it a try. You CAN NOT be sorry. Look at it as a challenge for yourself. Keep in touch, people here can help.

 

[PatsMom]

I quit smoking on September 12, 2006 at around 9:00 in the morning. This was about my 20th quit attempt and it finally "took". I used Chantix. It was very new at the time and I actually had to tell my doctor about it. I know it doesn't work for everyone but it was a big help to me. I still had cravings and withdrawal but not as bad as other times I quit. My husband still smokes - he tried the Chantix and it made him clinically depressed and caused chest pains that were like a heart attack. So he had to quit the drug.

He's quit cold turkey a few times but it never lasted long. He's tried patches but they also make him pretty sick. He doesn't do well with most drugs, other than his nicotine addiction. And something about the patches does make him have weird dreams and not sleep. The gum was better but he didn't stick with that. Not much I can do except encourage him to keep trying. Now that he has to go outside to smoke, he has cut back to about half a pack a day. Not bad considering that at one point he was a two to three pack a day smoker.

When I quit I have been smoking for more than 35 years. I started quite young because of a parent who smoked and allowed me to smoke his cigarettes. No need to buy, I could bum from Dad. By the time I quit I was smoking around two packs a day. More on days when I had to travel from my home to my office (110 miles each way).

 

[Dan Murphy]

I started smoking about age 13, smokes were about $2.30 a carton (a CARTON). When I quit smoking, I was about 28, 1972, 2 packs a day. I smoke mostly unfiltered Camels. I had gone to the doctor from my annual checkup. When I cam home, Marie asked me how it went, what the doctor said. I said, all was fine and he said the usual...lose some weight, work out more, maybe quit smoking. She said...'Well'? I...'well what'? 'What about the smoking'? (she never did). I thought, then..'I'll give it another try'. That evening was the last time I smoked. Today I detest the habit. Have seen so many people die before their years, health impaired for so many before they died, most painfully.

I think my biggest failing in life to date is that my son smokes. It makes me sad to no end. I can not see how anybody today, under about age 40, could ever start smoking. When I started, and many older people, it was an accepted thing to do, literally anywhere. For so many years it has been socially stigmatized and unacceptable, and the deadly aspects of it have been known and proven for so many years.

 

[joyjoy]

I quit on August 6th, 2007. I used Chantix and it was the first time I tried to quit. It worked. I had been smoking for over 20 years. Every now and then I think of it fondly, then I remember how gross, expensive and time-consuming it is and I get right over it.

 

[Tigger2252]

I quite April 1, 2000. I had actually quit on New Year's Day that year, but my mother passed away 4 days later and I went right back to it until April. I quit because my mother didn't even see her 60th birthday because of her smoking. It ruined her lungs and her heart, and I didn't want to die like that.

 

[DVC Sadie]

I haven't quit yet and want to so very much. Maybe I am foolish to even post this but I have my flame retardant suit on. Please don't think I haven't tried because I have so many times that I can't even count.

I was one of the smokers you hear saying things like; "I'll quit when cigarettes cost 2.00 pp or "I'll quit when I reach 40". Now that cigarettes cost over 65.00 per carton I shake my head (in shame) at myself in the mirror.

It's very hard for me to admit this weakness in myself because I am so controlled in every other aspect of my life.

Oh well, now I have to pick another date to quit and hope it works this time.

 

[Tiggeroo]

I quit 25 years ago. Dang I feel old. I started smoking during high school and smoked for maybe 4 years. I was up to a pack a day. Cigarette smoking started making me nauseous and I just couldn't be around it. Turns out I was pregnant with DD. After she was born I started smoking again for a couple months and then thought to myself, why was I doing this. I never smoked again. I hate the habit today. I am very upset that both of my sons have experimented with smoking, mostly when out at a club type place. My one son has also chewed tobacco, a habit very big with athletes apparently. Neither one does this on a regular basis but I worry that it will one day become that.
FWIW - becoming pregnant and getting nausea around smoke was a very effective way for me to quit so I highly recommend it. Hehe.

 

[PatsMom]

I haven't quit yet and want to so very much. Maybe I am foolish to even post this but I have my flame retardant suit on. Please don't think I haven't tried because I have so many times that I can't even count.

I was one of the smokers you hear saying things like; "I'll quit when cigarettes cost 2.00 pp or "I'll quit when I reach 40". Now that cigarettes cost over 65.00 per carton I shake my head (in shame) at myself in the mirror.

It's very hard for me to admit this weakness in myself because I am so controlled in every other aspect of my life.

Oh well, now I have to pick another date to quit and hope it works this time.

Keep trying - as I said my final quit (hopefully) was about my 20th time of trying. I did accupuncture, hypnosis, patches, gum, Zyban, and cold turkey. The Chantix really seemed to help me but it was still one of the hardest things I've done. One of these days one of your quit attempts will stick too.

 

[luvmy3]

I was a pack a day smoker when I was younger. I really didn't get serious about quitting until after dh and I decided we wanted to start having kids. I used the patch and quit months before I got pregnant. That was 12+ years ago. I did smoke here and there, like when I occasionally went out with the girls, but its been probably close to 10 years since the last one. I couldn't imagine doing it now, the smell of smoke makes me so naseous and I couldn't imagine inhaling that stuff into my lungs ever again

 

[DVC Sadie]

Keep trying - as I said my final quit (hopefully) was about my 20th time of trying. I did accupuncture, hypnosis, patches, gum, Zyban, and cold turkey. The Chantix really seemed to help me but it was still one of the hardest things I've done. One of these days one of your quit attempts will stick too.

Thanks for the feedback and the support, Lord knows I need it.

I have an appointment (consultation) next week to try quitting by laser.

 

[KAMKIM]

DH and I are supposed to try and quit this weekend. It is getting too expensive. Neither of us have healthy problems YET so really - money is the motivating factor for us at this point. We both smoke a half a pack a day so 1 carton a week, $40 a week

Before I get flamed I'll have you know, we have NEVER smoked in our house or car. We are the idiots standing out in the blizzard puffing away while it's 10 below

 

[PrincessKsMom]

I smoked from the age of 11 (yes 11) until I was 26, when I got married. For the last few years I smoked 2-1/2 packs of cigarettes a day, Newport 100's. And when I say smoked, I mean I never put a cigarette in an ashtray to burn on its own. I married in October and quit the following February 1, 1996, cold turkey. However, I did speak with a co-worker who had quit using Smoke Enders. He coached me and told me to pick a day in the future and use that as a target date. Not to cut back or anything before that date, but to spend every day thinking to myself and reenforcing the idea that on that date, I would quit smoking. So the night before, I sat on my bed with my pack of cigarettes for my last cigarette and cried. Cried like you have no idea. That's when I knew how bad my addiction was. I was crying over an object. So I had my last cigarette and that was it. I am the type of person who always carried around a pack of cigarettes as a comfort. I figured if it got really t bad, I could have one in my mouth in seconds, and that somehow comforted me and caused me not to focus on smoking.

I won't sugarcoat it -- it was rough. Very rough. I was irritable and I ate all the time. Whether it was gum, or candy or something, anything to squash that oral fixation. But I did it. I made it through and my husband quit exactly 1 year after I did. The reason I quit was because at 26 I would spend the first 20 minutes or so of every day hacking and wheezing and coughing and generally feeling like crap until I had sucked in 2-3 cigarettes. My grandmother already had emphysema from years and smoking. And the fact that I knew at some point in the future I wanted to have children and I did NOT want to smoke around them. Because I quit, my mom also quit and has never gone back. It was the best thing I could have done for me, as well as my family. Do it.

 

[PrincessKsMom]

Thanks for the feedback and the support, Lord knows I need it.

I have an appointment (consultation) next week to try quitting by laser.

 

[Minnesota!]

YOU CAN DO IT!!!!

I quit 1/21/2001. I was 23 and had been smoking for more then half my life (started at 11). I actually quit 1/1/01, but we went to WDW on 1/17 and I just couldn't fight the urge anymore. So I bought a pack at ASSp and DH and I sat at the bar at night and smoked. We told each other that was our LAST pack! I had my very last cigarette standing outside of MCO on our way home. Got off Mears, had a quick one and swore that was it. We had decided to start trying to have kids that year and I didn't want them to go through what I did (both my parents were smokers - in the house, car, etc., and I ALWAYS reeked of smoke when I was little). So I just quit.

DH had more trouble and didn't end up quitting until 9/15/2002. It took me bribing him. I told him if he could quit until Christmas I would buy him a new stereo/speakers for his car. And if he could go a whole year, I would buy him a big screen TV. He did it! Had I known that I would have bribed him LONG before.

You can do it! My grandpa quit smoking at the age of 86 after smoking for 76 years. He smoked unfilited cigarettes, too. Just one day said he was sick of it and didn't pick another one up ever!

My dad - when asked how he quit - said "I just never picked up a cigarette again". It's that "simple"...just DON'T touch it!!!!!! I have read that the craving lasts 10 seconds. So if you can distract yourself for THOSE 10 seconds, you have made it one step further. Granted, it might be a LOT of "10 seconds" at first, but it doesn't last forever. Get some gum, get some bubble wrap so your hands are busy.

Good luck!!!!