JH63

@Dogbelly HI! and Welcome!

When I was young I never worried about smelling like smoke.  Then over the years smoking became less and less popular.  As I got older I just avoided people as much as possible. When I did have to talk to someone I distanced myself automatically. About the same as people are doing now with co-vid.  I would also hold my breath as I passed by people.

There are lots of people here that will help you with your quit! There is also a ton of information to read and videos to watch.  I see that you have already learned to change up your routine at the times you know you would have usually smoked. That's Great!

You Can Do This!

I'm Happy to be here with all of you!  I'm doing alright at this point. I don't feel good all the time, but that is to be expected after 50 years of poisoning myself.

On the other hand there are times when I feel perfectly normal. Mornings are absolutely the worst time of day for me. Once I've been up for awhile and get my thoughts together, I have an easier time "kicking cravings to the curb."

 Jeff

@ItsDeb Just wanted to let you know that I am still here and taking it a day at a time. Today was full of cravings, but I fought them off one by one. I hope that you are feeling better and still on track with your quit!

  Jeff

That's Great News!  I'm glad to hear you are feeling better! 

I somewhat understand what you are going through. My wife has had chronic bronchitis for about eight years (OPD). She uses an inhaler daily. When she gets really sick, she also has to take antibiotics and prednisone. Several times she has been given so much prednisone that she gets real puffed up and it can take months for her to get back to normal. She has never smoked, the doctors tell her that her attacks are triggered by allergies. Mostly certain types of mold. It's rough at times.

 Well, it's day seven for us.  We can do this!

    Jeff

No, I will not smoke today!

I hope you get some help with your coughing issues when you go to the clinic. If it doesn't feel right to you, you should get it checked out.  Especially with everything that is going around right now.

Day 5 is behind me also. It was a little better day for me too. I pray that tomorrow is as good.

I'm spending a lot of time using distractions to get past the urges and cravings. An air cigarette made out of a straw, hard candy, etc.. Sometimes all I need to do is just change what I'm doing, or where I'm at in the house for a little while. For as severe as they can be at times, they really don't last that long.

Take Care!

   Jeff

  I am hanging in there!  I don't feel very good at times.  I slept a lot today!  I'm happy to talk to someone else who is also this early in their quit.

Sorry to hear about the headaches! Part of my quit plan is to cut my caffeine intake in half.  I learned that from one of Joel's videos. He explains that caffeine reacts differently in our bodies during the early part of our quit. I don't know if you drink caffeine regularly, but if you do you might want to reduce that drink and replace it with something that has no caffeine.  He explains that we can return to normal levels after we have been quit for awhile.

I'm saying this because early in one of my past quits I had headaches at times and noticed I was drinking more caffeine than usual.  It did stop the headaches and also reduced my level of nervousness.

Just a thought!

Take Care of that Great Quit you've got going!

   Jeff

HI! Just Deb,

                   Welcome to the train. You will find a lot of help here! I can relate to the health problems you're talking about. We can do this with a total commitment not to smoke!

Jeff

HI People,

               Day three is done! It was better than yesterday, but not as good as day one.

@MarylandQuitter I understand what you are saying. I've always been a person who thinks about the glass being half empty, not have full. This goes for everything in my life not just quitting smoking.  It's a wonder I have been able to do the things in my life that I have, considering my negative attitude.

               I was thinking today about all the people I know who have quit smoking, and how many people I associate with, both family and friends who smoke. The number is zero! I see other people who smoke when I'm out, but  I don't know one other smoker. My bother quit smoking four years ago, but he started using snuff as a replacement. I won't do that!

              I'll keep going and try to think more positively about what I am doing for myself.

Take Care!

    Jeff

Welcome from me as well! I just finished day two also. These are helpful people here on the train.

You can do this!

Day two is done!  It was much worse than day one. Praying for a Better day three. After the fog finally lifted, I spent the rest of the day nervous and jittery. I know from past quits that I don't normally have many days like this, but I'm bound to have some. I can't wipe out 50 years of smoking in a day, a month, or even a year.

@Doreensfree Thanks for your replies! They are encouraging and appreciated! I see that you have been quit for a long time.  Congratulations on being able to beat this addiction!

 It's day two!  Woke up this morning to a case of  brain fog. Took me about three hours to come around. Drank some caffeine, took a shower. I know a shot of nicotine would have brought me around. But I abstained from doing that! I don't have any cigarettes here at home anyway!

Take Care!

    Jeff

  Got day one behind me! It wasn't that bad!  But I will keep my guard up.  I'll try to protect my quit. 

Need to be thinking about the value of the quit.  I cannot understand how I can throw such a valuable thing away time after time.

Thanks Everyone!

       Jeff

Day One is going well so far! I keep catching myself heading back to the spot I normally smoke during the winter. Then I distract myself by going somewhere else or doing something different. I'm positive right now!

Watched one and a half hours of Joel's videos this morning. I've watched many of them multiple times in the past. The one titled "Waiting to bottom out" really described my thinking ( or attitude ) towards quitting smoking.

I've been waiting on some bad news ( health-wise ) to force me into quitting. I talk my doctor into running certain tests on me thinking something will show up that forces my hand. Now that is just more proof of how messed-up my thinking about this addiction is.

As he explains hitting bottom with smoking can be crippling or deadly. Waiting for a health problem to happen in order to convince yourself to quit may be to late to help at all. I believe him!

Have a Great Day!

    Jeff

HI!

    I'd like to wish everyone here a great New Year!  

I haven't posted here for a long time, but I have been lurking. I have decide to start my New Year with a new quit attempt. This past year I didn't smoke for 121 days total, seven different quits. The longest for 31 days the rest for various lengths of time.

   Nicotine addiction has a death grip on me.

My health is getting steadily worse all the time. Shortness of breath, poor circulation in my legs and feet, I've already got a pacemaker.

With any normal person that would be enough to motivate them to quit for good, not just stop for awhile and then go back to it. But not me! That nicotine monster is embedded into my brain 50 years deep.

   I know that I have to do this myself, for myself. I've known this since I quit drinking almost three years ago. Either way it goes it's on me. There is no substitution for my own willpower.

I have a quit plan, but it doesn't very much from past quit plans.

I'll let you know how things go.

Take Care!

    Jeff

Part of a straw with a piece of a cotton ball in the end of it have gotten me through many a craving. Deep breathing has also helped me. Sometimes all I need to do is just get up and move to a different place in my house. It's odd, but almost anything that that causes my mind to change directions will get me through that craving.

5 hours ago, Linda said:

This chantix is my last chance to do it.

HI! Please don't think that Chantix is your last chance at quitting. As long as you are still breathing you have a chance of quitting. I'm on my seventh quit this year and I'm not about to quit trying. Who knows, we might make it at some point!

Don't give up on it!

  Take Care and Cheer Up!

On 10/11/2020 at 9:57 PM, Margeetx said:

Hello all.....should I spend $199.00 dollars for the Allen Carr system

No, I wouldn't pay for it! I found a link to it. Read it 3 times. From everything I'd heard about it, I thought I had missed something. Don't get me wrong, it's a good read for some extra motivation. He makes some very good points. But there is no magic trick there, you still have to quit for yourself by a comment made to yourself.

 Good Luck! I hope your quit is still going well!

Matthew, I couldn't help but to chime in here. I am a recovering alcoholic. Been sober for over 3 years now. I don't know about you, but I could not drink and quit smoking. I have had some luck at quitting smoking without drinking. I don't understand it, but the two just seem to go together for me. I could never quit smoking while drinking a six pack every evening.

I wish you Luck with your quit!

I have had many excuses over the years. But as I got older the big one has been, the damage is already done, so why put myself through it.

The truth is that it is never to late to quit. I'm not in the ground yet. Even with the damage I've done over the years, my life will be better and longer by quitting now.

@Kate18 Hi!

     I have stopped again. Just finished day three. It hasn't been too bad. But it is the seventh time I've stopped this year. I almost feel normal stopping. Something disturbing came up today, but I didn't turn to the cancer sticks.

     I understand what you are saying about the "why". I have lots of whys. A whole list of them. But to me they don't seem to matter. My health problems alone should be enough  to motivate me.

    Smoking is so ingrained in my life that I have never actually quit, only stopped. I can't think like a non smoker. If I could, I could stay quit. Maybe I'll figure it out some day. I have been stopped for about 100 days so far this year.

   Take Care!

        Jeff

HI!

    I haven't posted on here for awhile. I still come on and read from time to time. I have had two more quits since I last posted here, one for 13 days and one for 10 days. I decided not to bother you all after losing that 30 day quit. I'm the one who has to do this. But don't think that I don't appreciate everyone here, because I do!

    I am answering this post now because I am ready to do this again!

    I've been smoking exactly a half a pack a day, but even at that amount my lungs hurt early in the day and late at night. I'm also having a sharp pain in my left side from time to time. I've noticed it's always right after I smoke. My doctor is sending me for a CT scan of that area. I don't worry too much about it. If I've got cancer, I did it to myself. God gave me a perfectly healthy body. I've ruined it. 

    I'm thinking about an NRT this time. My last three quits have been Cold Turkey.  This will be my seventh quit this calendar year. I have used Patches before. In fact my longest quit, 17 weeks several years ago I used the patches for the first four weeks.

   I will let you know how I get along.

   Take Care!

I'm guilty of not using the SOS part of this forum properly! I've been on another forum for several years and lost many quits there. But I always told the people on the forum that I had lost my quit, just like I did here. Afterwards!

 I will be honest and say that I didn't tell anyone here before I lost my last quit, and I knew at least two days before I lost it that I was in trouble. That's my loss, you might have talked me out of it. Junkie Thinking!

@idontsmoke Yes, I'm still here. I'm back to lurking, like I did before I became a member of the forum. I hope your quit is still going well!

      I am reading all I can about nicotine addiction long term. I have know for many years that I'm a nicotine addict. I think the part of my addiction that I've had trouble accepting is the fact that I will always be a nicotine addict. I will always have to guard any quit, no matter the length. I know now that back in my mid teens, when I smoked that first cigarette I changed my brain forever. It's a bad situation and very depressing!

Take Care of your quit!

    Jeff

@jillar I have the wrong mindset. I have done nothing but think about this since I relapsed. As I said, I set myself up for this. It's like everything was going along fine, then I hit my one month mark and something changed in my thinking. It was like, goal achieved, game over. I'm not sure I said that right. I felt shaky or fragile about this and other quits all along. I don't have the resolve I need to succeed at quitting. Honestly, I don't know where I'm going to get it from! I can quit again, but without that resolve it won't last. I don't expect any sympathy from anyone. It's all on me!

Yes, it would have been better for me to have spent time here on an SOS! I did come back here and read my own pre - posted SOS. I even posted in the forum, but I didn't tell anyone straight out that I was in trouble.

No, while I'm quit I keep no cigarettes in my house or truck. On the way home from town, the day before I started smoking again, I consciously stopped at the store and bought two packs of cigarettes. I didn't open or smoke them that day. But I opened them and smoked two the next day. Then within the next few days I went right back to where I was before I quit.

Take Care!

     Jeff