Quitting

[Spikey]

Hi There,

I am having a really hard time trying to stop smoking. Last year I stopped for 5 1/2 months and then got drunk one night and started again. It was the most stupid thing I did.

I have been trying to stop again since and I will go for a few days and then something upsets me and I have a Cig. I cannot seem to help it. Then I will stop again for a few days and start again.

Has anyone got any advice that could help me stop having a cig when I get upset or feel low? I would be greatful of any advice

Natalie *fantasia

[jingle]

Hi Natalie ~ Wow, I remember THAT feeling .... feeling awful and thinking I HAD to have a cigarette.

I learned to tell myself that I COULD have one in two hours or the next morning or after I finished this chore or something. Then I got busy.
I just kept doing that, over and over, until I finally got over the awful desire.

I just kept telling myself I could have one LATER. I don't think that's the PROPER way to quit but it worked for me and I had been a chain smoker for 42 years.

A cigarette won't solve any problem (we know they just cause problems) and last year your quitting for 5 1/2 months proves you can do it .... YOU'RE SUCCESSFUL !! Just do it again. :D

[Christine]

Natalie...

Anyone can quit if they dedicate themselves to themselves. ;) You drive yourself through life. Nobody else but you holds your steering wheel. You quit for over 5 months and alcohol snatched the wheel. I'd say booze and cigarettes can put on quite a show when they take the wheel, huh? They double team for a short time. But only for a short time. Like one evening, then overnight... but in the morning, control of the wheel is back in your hands.

Back to dedication and will power. It could be difficult, if you allow it. If you fall out of a boat, you swim. If you fall off a bike, you pick yourself up... and get back in the race.

"That's life!" :rolleyes:

Take care...
Christine ;)

[hydromom]

Hi Natalie - Just came upon this site. I am a little late in answering your question, but, on April 12, 2006, I stopped smoking and I have never had the desire to have another cig. I started smoking when I was 14 years old and in 2006 I was 68 years old so I had been smoking for a long time and I smoked about a pack a day. I heard that a couple I knew had gone and had a laser treatment. I phoned, made an appointment and had the laser done on April 12. The man told me that the only stipulation he had was that I really wanted to stop smoking. Since my father and brother had both died with lung cancer at the age of 69 I decided I must quit. I really feel a lot better and I am very proud of myself. If you are interested in really stopping smoking then look up laser treatment for stopping smoking and go for it. I wish you all the very best of luck.

Happy New Year.

Jo

[hydromom]

Natalie - I signed in under my daughter's name. I am hydrograndma and that is my beautiful grandson who has hydrocephalus. His name is Raffi. Sorry for the confusion.

Jo

[Vanessa2]

I have personally stopped smoking after a vipassana retreat. Ten days without smoking in the retreat itself and all the emotional stuff coming out it worked great for me but as it is said here (http://www.thestopsmokingclub.com/are-you-ready-for-a-radical-way-to-stop-smoking-26.html)
there are many types of retreats so it can be something that you find appropriate the addition of the healing part is really important as it really gives you tool to focus.

[jomama]

i hope that you find success in quitting! i totally understand the emotional tie in to smoking, and i found myself in a lot of trials when i quit, break ups, job losses, u name it! Then i moderated a website for a crazy wild music band and would get to go to their shows on long roadtrips n such! and EVERYONE seemed to be smoking! it was really hard to not give myself special 'permission' at those times!

this might sound wierd but what i had to do, was not leave it up to me. I convinced myself that the people closest to me could and would see me if i lit up, and that they would leave me behind, though none of that was true, but i figured out that for myself, i wouldnt quit, my mind and body and cravings were over taking me, so i had to envision it for someone else....i still sometimes do that a year later, tell myself that my man, my son, whoever, would not want to talk to me ever again if i did...funny thing is, my friends n stuff all still smoke, but in those early times it reaaally helped. Now i don't smoke Really for me. and still for my son i suppose i can honestly say he was always one of the reasons not to.