I think you're trying to say you need some time to practice living smoke free. It took me foooorever to be able to drink coffee without wanting a smoke super bad. I am not much help to you. I had big time help... Pregnancy! I cut smoking, drinking, coffee and pop all in the same day... The day i found out. I had headaches for months... Figured it was the pregnancy lololololol. Of course my vices couldnt ever hurt me! I picked the alcohol and coffee back up when my son was 14months old and was close to cigs again... But when he was 17 months I got pregnant again and then I was back to no drinking ir coffee again for another year. So by this time I was 3 yrs smoke free and I had lots of practice living smoke free and doing everything without it became normal. It just takes practice, and it goes away much quicker than you think once you consider it not an option as if not just your life but someone else's depended on it too.
All this talk of cigs makes ME want one - but it's not an option ; ) You can do it!
-- Edited by justadrunk on Wednesday 6th of February 2013 09:21:22 PM
__________________
Thanks for everything. Peace and Love on your journey.
Hey all ya'll Ex-smokers out there ... ... ... I am at, what? ... 31 days without a cigarette? ... yep, I couldn't handle the Chantix any more BUT, I stayed stopped so far ...
Today it's almost 70 degrees and the enticement to work outside was overpowering, SO, I got to work outside cleaning gutters and yard debris from around the trees ... man I forgot how much work this was ... I, of course went about my old routine and then stopped for a cigarette ... WELL, you guessed it, I don't smoke any more so there wasn't a cigarette to be found ...
(one thing I did, was I found and old trash can in my shop and looked in it for a good long butt ... LOL ... then the thought occurred to me, that's exactly what I did when I stopped drinking, I look for a bottle, any bottle that might have even just the smallest of swigs left in it ...) ... oh man are we sick ... ... well, me, anywho ...
So, I don't have my usual reason to take a break now ... this means I work a little longer and Pappy's poor puppys get pooped out pretty quick ... usually when Pappy's poor puppys get pooped out like that, Pappy takes a break to puff for a while ... and when I refer to 'puff', I'm not referring to the Magic Dragon ... Now I'm just too pooped to puff ...
Damn, I know I had point to all this when I started ... and for the life of me, I cannot remember what it was .... Tasha ??? ... I need help ... can you explain to me what I was trying to say here??? ... I REALLY DO WANT A CIGARETTE ... NOW!!!!! ... ... ... Crap, where's my candy???? i wonder if there's any ice cream left ... hey ya'l ... gotta go ...
Pappy ... ... ... ... ... ...
__________________
'Those who leave everything in God's hand will eventually see God's hand in everything.'
Oh my goodness, pappy! I thought I was the only gross idiot who went through the trash to look for discarded butts! I remember when I quit for a time years ago I lived in an apartment complex with a neighbor that smoked. He would only smoke outside, and toss the remainder- usually he only smoked half his cigarette. When I was itching for a smoke, I'd simply collect his remnants off the ground and light em up! Oh Lord- HOW GROSS! I told myself that since he was kinda cute and looked clean it wasn't that bad- never mind the fact that I picked them up off the ground. AND how creepy and weird that I basically stalked this guy from my porch for his tossed cigarettes LOL! Great job on 31 days- go eat some grapes (are they organic??). :)
I ate all my grapes last night ... think I have a few tangerines and oranges left ... I'm almost afraid to go to the store alone, LOL ... the li'l woman is 'out-of-town' ...
Oh, and fire 'n up and old cig stub is something that I have also done ... even when it wasn't a pretty girl that left it ... oooooow-eeeee, that mental picture IS gross ... Okay, wait a minute, actually that mental picture is working ... what a disgusting habit this is ... ok, that's really working for me ... thanks Col ... I just need to go find something now to stuff in my mouth ... Bye!
__________________
'Those who leave everything in God's hand will eventually see God's hand in everything.'
Pap when I quit cigarettes they were .79 cents a pack boy has the economy gotten better for me since I quit...Cigars are anothe thing...I'm about a couple years away from cigars which I inhaled start to stop...stay stopped. Sit in one place outside and inhale deeply, hold it until it's comfortable to let it go and then let it go...repeat 12 times and next week 12 X 12 times. hmmmmm get it?
Jerry? ... I remember when a pack of cigarettes were about 35 cents a pack ... Swore I would quit if they ever reached a dollar pack ... that was when?, late 70's --- mid 80's ??? I had recently bought 2 packs at a 'gas-n-go' kind of place and for two packs, I got 7 bucks and some change back from a $20 ... ... (over six bucks a pack)(premiums, of course)(Marlboro)(state has high taxes on them and that is getting ready to go up again soon, I hear ...)
Okay Tasha, ... I've tried a lot of things to stop smoking over the years, some worked for a while, some didn't ... BUT I am NOT going to try and get 'pregnant' to help with the cravings ... LOL ... Although, if I don't stop eating constantly, I'm going to look like I'm pregnant ... soon ... (since my earlier post, I've eaten 3 tangerines, half dozen of those chocolate covered almonds, 3 Barbecue sandwiches, half a bag of potato chips, some crackers , 4 dog biscuits, and some vanilla ice cream with fudge syrup on it ...) ... if I don't go to bed soon, Lord only knows what might find its way into my mouth ...
Seriously Tasha, thanks for reminding me that stopping smoking isn't just about me .... it's better for all that I associate with ... (and you're right ... coffee is about the hardest thing in the world to drink now without a cig ...) ... I could not have done what you did and quit doin' all that stuff at once ... they would have had to lock me up first ... (the 4 days I spent in jail once about killed me) ...
Mornings really aren't too bad now ... it's seems it's that late day, goin' to a meetin' or being at the meetin' .... or the work in the back yard ... that's really knocking me up side the head with a craving ... but if I stick something in my mouth, it usually goes away in a while ... I've already got plans to 'widen' the doors in our house ... LOL
Oh, believe it or not, prayers are helping a lot too ...
__________________
'Those who leave everything in God's hand will eventually see God's hand in everything.'
Pappy - substitution and / or instant gratification.
I'm 14 days off the smokes - I still get the want for a smoke, but I truely believe the crave only stats if I take the first smoke.
Sure I'm using Nicotine replacement therapy - little nicotine lozenges - I'm down to about 5 a day - that's the instant gratification and the substitution.
Then again there's the maths. My motorbike went up in flames just after christmas. I got £3500 in insurance from it (agreed last Friday) so on Saturday i went and committed all of that and near on as much again to a replacement (which i get on Monday - Happy days!)
then I had a brain wave - I spend £100 a month on smokes. If I commit to £140 a month on finance, I can get the bike and put all of the insurance payout into my savings 9recent divorce well and truely cleaned me out, the solicitors fees etc.)
So for a net pain of £40 a month (the difference between £100 a month smoking and £140 a month finacne for the bike) i get a nearly new bike.............and I cannot afford to smoke now.
Of course there's the health benefits - easier breathing, better endurance, better blood pressure, better performance, better erections. Nasal mucus is clear, ear wax is a light straw colour, skin looks better, mouth tastes better.
then there's the social side - I don't smell like an ashtray, clothes and house smell nicer, food tastes better, mixing with different people, not standing outside in the cold for a smoke.
as John Lennon once sang - 'and curse Sir Walter Raliegh, he was such a stupid get.'
__________________
It's not having what you want, it's wanting what you got. BB
Dear Pappy! I tried the dog biscuits too....couldn't keep the damn things lit.....;).....In the olden days in A.A. (yeah, when we used to walk to meetings...uphill BOTH ways)....WE SMOKED! THAT is what we did! We chain smoked, talked about God and the Steps and drank coffee all night....and we LIKED it that way!!!! Heck Bill W. only quit 2 years before he died....of smoking.......I did not quit untill I was 20 YEARS sober/clean...and then became hopelessly addicted to those nicotine candies (cost me my gums.....awful!!!!)...I believe I spent approx. 6000.00 ON THE LOZENGES!!!!....but I did not light up!!! I was completely 100% INSANE my first 6 months off of cigarettes (there are many more chemicals, that they add, that you are detoxing from...not only the nicotine!!!!) I am stunned....to share that the nicotine was removed from me....2 years ago.......(in fact I announced in an A.A. meeting, that it was my first ever A.A. meeting without nicotine, I used the lozenges EXACTLY like cigarettes!!!! They say "Use for 6 weeks" HA! I used them for about 6.5 YEARS)............and the sugar (that i ate buckets of post-nicotine) has been removed from me, one year ago Jan.......(sugar for me, is exactly like booze.......if I have any....well ....its over....I have no controll) My reason for quitting ... my son.... STARTED smoking..............and there is one, ONLY one reason, I pray for protection from the First cigarette (same with the first drink/drug...and now sugar).........Smoking a cigarette, will NOT make me want to smoke a cigarette LESS!!!!!! Smoking "A" cigarette...will make me WANT TO SMOKE M O R E!!!!!!!! MUCH MUCH MUCH MORE! Dear one.....the cravings will pass, with or without smoking again......and I REALLY do enjoy breathing air now (just not as much as second hand smoke ha!) Bless ya! Bless ya! Bless ya a thousand times over! Us drunks are the kinds of smokers, that take off the oxygen to light up....you know?!? I am prayin' for you! love, Lady Eli
I don't know if any of you have seen the movie Trainspotting. In that movie the guy literally goes fishing in a poop filled toilet to get the pill that he accidentally dropped in it. I liken my addiction to that. Smoking included. I did all the things you and Col mentioned when I didn't have cigarettes or money to get them. With cigarrettes, the addictive process is even clearer because you are pretty much of sober mind while you are feening like mad and willing to do things no sane person would do for the substance. It's a powerful addiction and all I can say to motivate you guys who are working really hard to stop smoking is this:
If you can imagine how good it feels to be free from the chains of alcohol and the self bondage that goes with that....Double it. That is what you HP wants for you so be strong and use his help to stay cigarette free!
__________________
Keep coming back. It works if you work it. So work it. You're worth it!
Thanks you guys for the comments and the encouragement ...
Yeah biker bill, when you put the math to it, it seems crazy stupid to continue to smoke don't it ... WOW, we can buy stuff that we can actually use, AND get healthier on the back stretch too ...
LMAO ... lady eli, ... I didn't try smoking the dog biscuits, they don't taste that bad ... try one ... my son always said he'd never feed anything to his dog that he wouldn't eat himself ... Sooooo ... and you're right, I HAVE seen guys take the oxygen tube out of their nose to light up a cigarette ... (and you know what an open flame around oxygen can do???)
As I drink my coffee this a.m., I have allowed my thoughts to go back a year or two when my very close friend and mentor in the AA program got sick ... He had been a heavy smoker then moving to or using snuff or 'chew' smokeless tobacco ... ... ... and he loved his cigars too ... well, he died last year of cancer related to tobacco use ... they had to cut out half of his jaw and remake it with a piece of his hip bone ... then there was the chemo ... then they tried to implant something for his teeth ... that gave him two years ... then the cancer spread to his lungs ... one was removed ... more chemo ... then the other one was overcome with the cancer ...
Wow, just to have one cigarette seems so harmless doesn't it??? ... ... ... But like the alcohol, it's the avalanche that follows, huh?
Thank you guys for your support and prayers ... Love ya'll
__________________
'Those who leave everything in God's hand will eventually see God's hand in everything.'
As an aside, something on my mind the last few weeks that I wanted to discuss and this thread seems most appropriate to share in on it:
Many of my friends are into this Hookah thing also. They light it up at parties and pass the little hose thing around. I'm like WTF? They keep saying "It's not tobacco. It's not addictive. It's just dried fruit!"
Um no. I pass. Cuz 1. passing around something and putting your lips up to it and smoking it is drug like behavior to me. 2. I can get addicted to anything. 3. It's smoke and I absolutely do not trust that smoking ANYTHING is going to not lead me right back to smoking cigarettes again.
__________________
Keep coming back. It works if you work it. So work it. You're worth it!
I reckon that hookah thing would be like drinking near beer. It'd just remind me enough of the real thing, and annoy me that it wasn't, to get me interested in doing it again.
I love cigars and I'm going to miss them but if that's the price of not smoking 30 ciggies a day until it kills me then so be it.
Thank you 'Lady Eli' ... ... ... it's workin' ... ... .... still 'smoke free' ... goin' 'eff...ing' NUTS, but it's working ...
Actually I think I'm making a bigger deal out this than necessary ... ... After 35 days or so now, I'm really not "Craving" the cigs like at the beginning ... oh yeah, I'd love to have one for sure, but it's not as painful for me now as I would have you believe, LOL ... ... ... most of you can see I'm as much 'starved for attention' as I am anything else ... LOL ...
And you know I'll jump on any subject with both feet once in a while just to 'stir' things up ... hey, it's what I do ... ... ...
Love you guys and gals and God Bless, (thanks for tolerating me, HeeHee)
Pappy
__________________
'Those who leave everything in God's hand will eventually see God's hand in everything.'
