Smoking Cessation: Four Ways to Quit

i need to quit AGAIN!!!! i quit for 9 FN years before i started driving school. now with not having construction work to keep my mind occupied all day it is gonna be a BEEEEECH

 

I quit 15 years ago, after watching my daddy die from lung cancer. I'm not going out like that. No frickin way. I'd rather have a heart attack, a stroke, or get plowed into by a freight train. Nothing that slow and agonizing for me, thank you very much.

 

i will continue to support my states economy by purchacing my winstons. im no quitter

 

Before I made the career change to trucking when I got laid off when my old plant was shutting it's doors back in 2007, I made use of my insurance before I lost it by getting a complete physical with blood work and all. The doc wanted to give me a breathing test for some reason while I was there. I failed it miserably.

This was back in August of 2007. I wasn't going to give up my cigarettes. I was stubborn and never got that prescription for Zyban that she wrote out for me filled.

I'm losing my job of several years that I loved, what am I going to do now, and all of that was going on at the time too, no way I could quit now! Are you crazy doc? LOL! I got one month left on my job and the stress is just too great right now, maybe later. There's always an excuse, right?

Well, fast forward to now over a year and a half later after trucking school, OTR with a company for several months, and now several months at a local job 9-10 hours a day and home every night and weekends off. Things are back to normal and I'm in a regular routine again with my life back.

I woke up this morning with an awful cough that I have every morning and it seems to be getting worse. I know since I had that doc visit back in 08/07 that my breathing is still declining. I spent part of this morning reading up on OTC stop smoking aids because I have to do something to kick this habit. #### things are costing me almost double for a carton since January of this year too!

I don't know why I'm posting this, I just woke up early this morning on my day off with my cigarette habit on my mind. I'll be 39 in a couple of months and have smoked since I was 17, 22 years of this. Man, I would love to have every dime I have spent on this habit of 22 years sitting on my coffee table right now as I write this!!! I could probably go out and buy a second home! LOL!

Anyway, we are going to Walmart in awhile to shop for groceries and I think I'm going to buy some gum or patches. I'm seriously thinking tomorrow on Monday would be a good day to try to quit again...sorry for rambling, just something that was on my mind.

 

I do not recommend this method, unless you're a former coke user who has fried every nerve ending in your nasal passages.

$50 for a bottle of chronic sneezing for me. I used it only once, tossed it in the trash after irrigating my nose with warm water.

 

What I'm told to tell you: Buy the latest brand-name quitting drug.

What I actually know:

The only real way to quit smoking/chewing is cold turkey. Now I will tell you why this is true.

Nicotine is a neurotransmitter that binds to receptors on cells. When this happens there is a sequence of events that creates a reward payoff, acts as a stimulant, curbs appetite, increases reflex and response, releases natural sugars and other "high" contributors.

Over time, the surface of each cell actual fabricates more receptors to capture more nicotine to expand this process. With each receptor there is an associated craving to keep them bound and functioning, and this is the larger part of the wearing down process for those who have been able to quit for a few days or weeks but return to it.

Nicotine actually has a very short half life, meaning that it is completely out of your system within 3 days and you are nicotine-free. If only it were that simple. Well after that the cravings are generated by these extra receptors, which, if not fed WILL go away and shut down the same way they were created. You cannot be considered "quit" until these have returned to normal and every day will be a challenge until this occurs.

So if you are using ANY kind of nicotine replacement, you have not even begun the quitting process. Since most people return because they mentally get exhausted from depriving themselves and craving every day, the mental weardown occurs before you are ever completely off the nicotine. You're just dragging out the process indefinitely and it is a battle you will lose. You're going to have a bad day, or stresses, or outside circumstances will eventually justify lighting back up the longer you make the quitting process.

There is still no product with a success rate anywhere near that of the cold-turkey quitters.

Decide if you are a smoker or a non-smoker... be that.

 

i started smoking 2 and a half years ago. im 31. i never wanted to smoke before either. at the time, my gf of 3yrs left me and most of my friends smoked. i decided to buy a pack. i wish now, that i never made that decision. i smoke about a pack a day and want to quit. i have tried a couple of times and failed. i now am starting to wake up with a cough. i am going to try my best to quit again. mark my words, if i am able to quit, then i will never pick up a pack again!