Enter At Your Own Risk

Twostep said:
With vapping you jump from the pan into the fire.
GoodEnuff - you can do it!!!
Doc told me to quit smoking or start looking for a very small piece of real estate when I was coughing blood. I smoked at least three cigarettes in my life. SO was a chain smoker, veryone at the office smoked, everywhere you went there were clouds. SO went cold turkey. Patches were not accessible which is a long story. He did gain some weight. I packed nibbles with his lunch and low cal nibbles were everywhere. One evening he came home soaking wet from rain and told me totally fascinated that earth smells. He smoked since elementary and has not had one since.
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Exactly the same with my late husband. I had chronic bronchitis and was developing emphysema at an alarming rate at 27 years old. The specialist said that if I lived with a smoker, I was essentially a smoker myself.

I came home and told my husband that. He had tried to stop, unsuccessfully, several times before but that day he took one more puff, stubbed out the cig and threw the pack in the trash. He never smoked another cigarette in his life.

It took something more than "his health" to get him to quit. Not much was being said about second-hand smoke at the time.
 

I quit smoking back in the 70s. It was so much easier to smoke back then; smoking was permitted in restaurants, bars, movie theaters, airplanes, etc. Today there are a lot of downsides, starting with the price of a pack of cigarettes (when I quit, I was paying 25 cents per pack); today one must be outside to smoke, and it makes one somewhat of a social pariah. Having said all of that, I suspect that if I smoked one cigarette today, I'd be back at it! I quit cold turkey, no patches, no gum; I just stopped. It seemed like the quickest way to get it over with. It took 3 weeks to be done with the cravings.
 
Day 3:

So many good comments in here. I am still surprised at all of these responses and am so grateful to everybody. Thank You!

The first time I quit (for two years) in 1995, it was cold turkey. Quit for a non-related health problem, which was resolved. I don't remember the mental struggle; I was married and working with two children in college so was pretty busy. My husband was a smoker and offered to quit with me but I told him it may not be a good idea for both of us to be touchy at the same time. It did not bother me for him to smoke around me.

He quit about five years later. Eight years after quitting, he was diagnosed with lung cancer. He died after 4 1/2 years of treatments. He had quit for eight years and still developed lung cancer. Interestingly, it was "non-small cell adenocarcinoma", which is considered a non-smokers lung cancer. Some believed it had a hereditary tendency. A couple of years later, his mother developed a small lesion in her lung, same thing, which was treated and defeated. Note she was never a smoker. The death certificate says he died from lung cancer, secondary to smoking.

During those years of treatments, whenever anybody asked him how he was doing, his response was always, "So Far, So Good." I had that engraved on his grave marker.

My BFF called me last evening. We speak on the phone almost every day but it is always during the day when her hubbie is at work and son is at school (she is a stay home mom). When I saw her on caller ID, I was afraid something bad had happened. She asked how I am doing, I said fine but what's wrong? Is everything ok? Oh, yes, just called to see how you are. I asked her, "Are you drunk?" She laughed. So she was just checking in on me, knowing how hard this is. What A Friend.

She and her husband are planning a quit the end of this month. I told her about the comments on here and how helpful it has been. I will have a Comrade at (in?) Arms in a couple of weeks.

Am doing okay, no panic/anxiety freak-outs yet. I remind myself of the many helpful comments on here when I feel that craving coming on.

As a Good Guy once said, "So far, So good."
 
GoodEnuff said:
Thank you for this! It does help. One of the main reasons I want to quit is because I am tired of my life being planned around those damn cigarettes. Everywhere you go, you plan having that last cigarette before going into a store, a restaurant, somebody's house. Took a plane trip that was an all day affair and had to suffer through that. The list is long but you know what I mean.

Best wishes and long life!
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Cut that leash once and for all!
 
GoodEnuff said:
I am not much of a praying person; seems like (S)He has bigger problems to handle than my puny requests. However, I will not rule that out!!!
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The shortest, and simplest prayer is just two words. "Help me".

It doesn't matter what your concept of God happens to be. That is why AA speaks of a Higher Power.

"Help me" is always heard, and answered, but the answer may not be what we expect. Perhaps you have already responded by opening up here on Seniors. Have faith that you are being helped and be strengthened in your struggle.

Prayer is not magic. It is an opening up of ourselves to something that we do not understand, and never will, but it is real, and powerful. Most of us are just too stiff necked to surrender to the unknown.
 
gruntlabor said:
My dear mother was an alcoholic. One day she said aloud to herself, "It's been nine years since I've touched alcohol. At this point I'm sure it will be safe to have a drink."
She did, and she was off again! It took us three months to find her.
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"One is too many and a hundred is not enough". In AA her idea that she was safe to have a drink is called "stinking thinking" and it is deadly dangerous.
 
I tried everything to quit…. The gum, the patch, the drug but nothing worked. Once I quit for a whole year and then something upset me and I thought I’d have just one cigarette and that started me all over again.
Thinking about it all, it didn’t seem to make sense to use nicotine to break an addiction to nicotine so I decided to go cold turkey.
I threw away all ashtrays, cigarettes and anything that had to do with smoking.
I found an online group for quitting smoking and joined for some support.

It was the hardest thing I’ve ever done but I did it. It is now 20 years since I’ve quit.
I craved cigarettes for 10 years after I quit but the thought of smoking now turns my stomach. I have a sort of mantra that I used to help me. I would think of the word nope. In my mind, that word meant “not one puff EVER” and that is true. You must realize that you cannot have even one little puff ever again or it will start your addiction all over. I have never broken that mantra and that is how I stopped smoking. Best wishes for your success, you can do this!
 
Twostep said:
Today will be a good day. Simply because you decided it will be. What house project are you working on?
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None. I can't think. Really. When I woke during the night, my thoughts were, "Where am I and what am I supposed to do? Am I supposed to get up or stay here." Couldn't remember how to use the drip coffee maker. Look around the living area and wonder why I am here? Everything is in slow motion. Feels like I have been drugged. Then I switch to extreme anger just thinking about it. Everything is out of control.
 
GoodEnuff said:
None. I can't think. Really. When I woke during the night, my thoughts were, "Where am I and what am I supposed to do? Am I supposed to get up or stay here." Couldn't remember how to use the drip coffee maker. Look around the living area and wonder why I am here? Everything is in slow motion. Feels like I have been drugged. Then I switch to extreme anger just thinking about it. Everything is out of control.
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That's Brain Fog, a very common symptom of quitting smoking. I know it's frustrating and maddening but don't try to fight it; just let it happen. Won't last that long in the grand scheme of things. When you feel yourself getting anygry at nothing in particular, stop what you're doing and take 5 deep breaths, holding each one in as long as you can one after the other. That should calm you down.

And always remember; if you have just one you'll be right back to where you started and where you started was wishing you could be where you are right now (4 days quit)! Keep the faith. You'll be glad you did!
 
GoodEnuff said:
None. I can't think. Really. When I woke during the night, my thoughts were, "Where am I and what am I supposed to do? Am I supposed to get up or stay here." Couldn't remember how to use the drip coffee maker. Look around the living area and wonder why I am here? Everything is in slow motion. Feels like I have been drugged. Then I switch to extreme anger just thinking about it. Everything is out of control.
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This is part of the process and will pass.
 
GoodEnuff said:
At age 46, 120#, I quit smoking, gained 78# over the next two years; then diabetes raised its ugly head. Joined Weight Watchers and that helped me get down to a healthy weight, along with smoking again. But no diabetes! They tell you "you may gain a little weight, 5-10#". Bull. And even after two years, I still had the cravings. They never stopped. (I have been smoking for 58 years.)

Quit for four months for a surgery, gained ten pounds. Started again after healing from the surgery, lost five pounds of it and held there until October, 2023, when I decided to quit smoking again. THIS time I was determined not to gain weight and be faced with diabetes; diabetes scares me much more than anything smoking can do. So out came the food scale, measuring cups/spoons, nutrition guides, etc. Limited myself to 1,000-1200 kcal/day. When I started, weight was 135#. Actually lost weight, to 113#, which was way too much. And started smoking again at Quit Day 70, after completely losing it and destroying some solar lights outside and did some damage to the fence with a galvanized steel pipe.

The medical community does absolutely nothing to help. Chantix turned me into a monster. Tried meditation, exercise, music, accupuncture, massage, hypnosis, the state quit-line program. I can recite in my sleep "Set a quit date; tell friends and family so they will support you (no, they won't); use nicotine replacements (here, have some of the drug to which you are addicted); chew gum; stay busy" blah blah blah. NONE of that helps! In fact, some of it actually worked against me. Tell someone and then when you slip up and smoke, they will smear your face in that failure.

The only thing that worked to help control the mood swings the first time I quit was ativan, an anti-anxiety drug that is very addictive. I don't want to do that again and possibly exchange one addiction for another. No thank you. Nothing helps with the extreme anxiety and anger brought on by quitting. I am thankful that I live alone.

So, today is Day 1 of another quit attempt. Five hours since my last cigarette, nico patch in place. The food scale etc is out on the counter. I do have two more pounds to lose from the last couple of weeks of eating the wrong things. Then back to normal-for-me meals, just to maintain.

I can already feel my heart rate increasing and the anxiety building as I sit here typing this. In reading over this for typos, etc., parts of it are confusing so now, enter the brain fog. Not sure if it's worth it. Because as so many say, it doesn't get better after a week or two. It didn't get better after two years! And I'm not sure I have the strength to go through this much suffering at this time in my life.
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I just saw this. I honestly read the first few paragraphs and thought I must have written it a few years ago and forgot. Then I checked the avatar. I also quit at age 46, weighing 120lbs and gained 80 pounds (maybe it was only 78 and my memory rounded up.)

I was angry, crying and isolated that whole year. No one who promised to support me ever did. I could no longer read books, but had to read short attention span things like magazines and newspapers. I was living In England at the time and Princess Diana and Prince Charles had their big divorce thing just then, for which I was extremely grateful.

When I came home to America my family did not recognize me. My father and brothers didn't say it, but I sensed they were angry at me. They no longer had their beautiful daughter and sister to be proud of, my father made me hide when we were out somewhere and ran into someone he knew. None of the people who were soooo concerned about my health when I smoked said a word of congratulations when I quit.

It's been 32 years and I've yoyo-ed that weight several times since 1993 but I'm still alive.

On the positive side all my doctors have said I am far better off with the extra weight than the cigarettes. I always tell myself, "Better fat that malignant." I stand by that to this day. Sadly many of my smoking friends have died since then. I also remind myself how much I hate the big drug pushers known as tobacco companies and every day I don't smoke it's hurting them a little bit.

Any time I think of starting again I realize I would have to quit my book club (2 hour meetings of heated arguments, I love it!) I would still be smoking on the porch to save my family and it's 20 degrees out right now. Not to mention I would probably have some sort of COPD by now if not cancer.

I have no special tips. I liked playing solitaire while listening to the radio and doing easy 300 piece jigsaw puzzles. Mainly it was just toughing it out while time passed, which is what you're doing so well.

GoodEnuff quote: "During those years of treatments, whenever anybody asked him how he was doing, his response was always, "So Far, So Good." I had that engraved on his grave marker."

LOL You're amazing! I know you'll succeed!
 

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