Smokers who want to quit; Please Read

[Alice I]

Hello everyone

I have been a smoker for 25 years and tried just about every method imaginable to quit. None of them worked
Now I have been smoke free since the beginning of the year and have no desire or urges to smoke, and I don't even miss it

My secret was Quest Cigarettes

My sister who smoked for over 15 years tried them and turned me on to the program. My husband who has been smoking for over 30 years also tried this and he has also been smoke free for three months.

Quest Cigarettes have three levels; 1 - 2 and 3
Level 1 are low nicotine you smoke them for a month.
Then go to level 2 even lower nicotine and smoke them for a month.
Then on to level 3 which they say are nicotine free but they still do have trace amounts of. After an month of them you just sort of stop smoking. They work the same way the patch does only no chemical burns on your arms and legs where you wore the darned thing, and you are still satisfying the need to have something in your mouth.

Everyone that I know who has tried this method to quit has been successful.
My sister smoke free for 6 months
My husband and myself smoke free for 3 months
My brother smoke free for nearly a year.

If you have tried this method and it has worked for you post here to encourage others.

[Hermione Weasley]

wow!thats great congrats to you nad your family!and thats also good news for me bc my boyfriend is a habitual smoker and I have asked him very very nicly to not smoke around me and he has decided he wants to quit and I think he is doing a really good job but he's doing it cold turkey and I was just wondering if Quest Cigarettes was available in the U.S.??

[Alice I]

Yes they are. The most inexpensive way to purchase them is going to ciggerettesamerica.com. They are available in many stores in New York which is where I am from.

Good Luck to your boyfriend. If he wants to quit and he does the program I am sure he will succeed.

[Krum]

my friend was smoking-but what the hell-she just turned 15 today .And i'm still 14, but that's not the point.I mean i was very angry and very sad about her,but i used a very effective(and cruel by the way)method-mental attacks .Using the human psihology against her(i wanna study psyhology,although I'm very good myself ),Waddaya now, it worked.I think it only works on close people-very good friends.It was EVIL, but it was worthed-she's gonna thank me

[Nobby]

i think i'll tell my mum to use them! i absolutely hate smoking and it drives me mad when she smokes in the house! hopefully this will get her to quit! thanks!

[Ravenclawsweety]

Maybe i should also tell my mum about this. Her smokin' drives me nuts...... she stopped for 9 months( you can see why) and then started, some people.......

[SunsetG|rl]

i first started smoking only when i went out. and my friends did also. then i had some big emotional problem (i actually met the perfect guy...but he won't be my guy ) and i really started to smoke a lot. now i feel like i should quit but i just can seem to find the necesary will to do that. whenever i am offered a cigar i never refuse. and if there is no one with cigars i buy them myself. and when ever i am angry or sad i seem to find consolation in smoking. i know it's not healthy or good to hide my problems in smoking. it's just another adiction. and i'd prefer to be independent.

can you offer me a suggestion...how can i find the will t quit?

[Rory Pridinham]

As an x-ray tech in training, I have seen first-hand what smoking can do.

At one of my clinical placements there was a person with throat cancer from smoking who had a tracheotomy (hole in their neck so they can breath) and a gastrostomy (hole from the abdomen wall into the stomach so they can eat because food cannot pass down their throat). While I was taking their chest x-ray they said "Boy, I really need a cigarrette" I was appaled. Later I saw them outside smoking a cigarette through the hole in their throat - ew.

Another thing I've seen is an exhibit called BodyWorlds - I don't know how many of you are familiar with this. They showed three sets of lungs - one normal, smoker's lungs and a coal miner's lungs. The normal lungs are pink in appearance, the smoker's lungs looked grey with black spots all over, like some kind of fungus had grown through them.

Another patient of mine had started smoking when she was 13, and came in for a routine chest x-ray (we do a lot of these) because she had a cough and was spitting up blood. It turned out she had terminal cancer and only had 3 more weeks to live. She died at the beginning of the 3rd week. She was 21.

There are so many reasons to quit. My father has smoked since he was young, and it never appealed to me. To me, smoking is not 'sexy' or 'cool.' It's just deadly.

[Snow_Crystal]

First of All Apologies for this being an ultra long post. Please read ahead if you need a bit of inspiration to quit or if you want to help someone else to quit...

My story...

I started smoking the odd ciggie every other night out but I was always able to stop whenever I wanted. It soon became a different story when I got to the final year of University and the pressure started to mount.

What at first started as a pleasurable experience associated with a good night out then became associated with pressure. Very soon after starting smoking it becomes an addiction to the nicotine (for which I soon craved at half-hour intervals though I would force myself to only smoke only every couple of hours) After that initial addiction you then become addicted to the action of smoking (ie the habit/routine)

It's very difficult to give up, there's no two ways about it. For those non-smokers trying to convince someone that they shouldn't smoke, can i give you a tip - please read Allen Carr's Easy way to give up Smoking.

It talks about all the psychological stuff associated with smoking but it can also be related to other stuff in a very wierd way. That might sound really strange but in fact he talks about addictions. Why we do stuff, what emotions we are going through (a lot of smokers suffer from mild or severe depression for example) etc. He tells you not to give up smoking until you have finished reading the book as you will be more likely to quit.

I read some of his book last year (I'll be honest I never managed to finish it) and attempted to give up 6 times last year alone (using nicotine patches, will power, substituting for chewing gum or water or tea, by trying to eat healthily and even trying to go to the gym to stop me thinking about it) but each time I failed I would go back to his book and try to read it again as I didn't want to give up. In the end I never finished reading it because I had to return it to the person who lent it to me. But importantly I got the gist of what he was trying to say.

You might wonder why I advise you to read it. Well as a non-smoker, the concept of smoking is completely alien and for a smoker trying to give up, you need non-smokers around you who understand what you are going through. It's very easy to say hey look at the money you could save or here are the health reasons etc etc but none of them work as if you are a smoker you muddle through the health issues and also find the money (however skint you are) to finance the addiction.

The point that Allen Carr makes is that unless you understand the emotion you experience that makes you have a cigarette you will never be able to beat the habit.

I am pleased to say that I have now been cigarette free for 6 months. that's the longest I have ever gone without them since I originally started properly 10 years ago.

My other half and I always said we would give up by the time we were 30. I turned 30 in January and he in December. We therefore picked our date 1st Jan 06. We both put on Nicquitin CQ patches (Step 1) and bore the ratty moods, withdrawal pangs and god awfulness of the come-down. It was hideous. I was devastated when my other half fell off the wagon and started again as I really felt he let me down.

One of my friends (who had given up) asked me why it was that I needed him to give up at the same time. I thought to myself - "she's right, I don't need him to give up smoking myself" and so instead of falling into the same old trap of starting because he had started again, I made a conscious decision, that I would not fall into that trap again.

With the patches, they are slightly different in the way they work but I chose Nicquitin CQ (a 24 hour patch) as it meant that I would not heavily crave them in the morning as they would continue to work at night. I always put on my new patch in the morning as it would give maximum effect for the rest of the day and would not wear out before the evening time, it would wear out while I slept when I didn't crave anyway. A word of caution - do not put on a new patch just before going to sleep on Day1 as you will not get any sleep that night.

We had tried to give up with patches before and had successfully done it but I'd always go back to them if my partner fell off the wagon. And this is where Allen Carr's book kicked in for me - I now understood the psychology and so this time I was far more determined to stay off them. I set myself targets (and still do) and this really helps me feel and stay proud of myself.

I decided that this time was going to be it so instead of the 2 weeks on each of the different steps (they have 3 types of patches with different levels of nicotine in them. you start on Step1 which has a high nicotine level and eventually head to Step2 which is less then Step3 then none at all) I decided it would be better to stay on each step for longer - a month/two each. I would always start again after 3 months so in lengthening the steps, I hoped it would take me through the temptation phase I would always enter at 3 months.

This has worked for me but is not necessarily what you might need. It all depends on what you are like as a person. Personally my willpower is appalling so that's why I felt that I needed a bit longer.

The one thing I will say is that this time when I decided to quit, it was what I always called the worst possible time to give up in terms of stress levels. I was working ridiculously long hours (50-60 hours per week), had financial worries, family pressures and all sorts. The funny thing is that it was those other things going on in my life that kept me pre-occupied and stopped me thinking about ciggies. I always used to say when the pressure is off I will give up but in fact when the pressure was piled on, I found it much easier. I also used to say that I needed a lifestyle change (e.g. a job change) to be able to quit but in the past that had failed me as well. This time I didn't change a thing.

And another thing. I read an inspirational leaflet that suggested to me that instead of trying to change my whole life, that I should instead focus on changing just one thing. And that's what I did. I decided this whole year would be about stopping smoking and only stopping smoking. I confess I have put on a little weight, but at the end of the day, I've stopped smoking!

The biggest achievement for me in the last 6 months though (apart from kicking the habit) has actually been my holiday. We left gloomy England behind and headed on holiday to New Zealand for 2 weeks and then for a week of pure luxury in Tahiti. Not once did I pick up a cigarette! Though truth be told when we were in Tahiti, I did feel there were times when I wanted one. Again, because I extended the amount of time I was on the patches and understood my own psychology a bit more I was able to get through it and convince myself that in fact I didn't want or need a ciggie. The funny thing is that after the first month or so off ciggies, yes you do still get withdrawal pangs, but if you just ask yourself "Now why is it I feel I want one now?" and then by the time you realise you can't answer the question you realise the pang has actually disappeared.

I am just about to kick the final step at the end of next week which means on average I've been on each Step for 2 months. I can tell you I am still nervous and fear going back on them. But I plan to pick up that Allen Carr book this weekend and I am going to finish what I started!

If you have made it to the end of my little story then first of all congratulations but secondly - thank you for reading my story!!! I hope that I might have inspired someone else to kick the habit. It has been a long and upward struggle but I'm determined this is it.