Who Here Has Quit Smoking And how???`

[Thornie]

Originally Posted by Iggypoppin'

The money I've saved not smoking has gone into my savings and my tattoos. I can't believe how much I was spending on smokes until I noticed the money quite literally piling up in my account. It's pretty good to actually get a shock from checking your bank balance that's not a negative one!
Since the quit, I've worked out roughly 4-6k in savings a year. This is pretty sobering, as I only make 27k annually. So with the saved money I'm saving for my new truck and getting my tattoo finished. So much better than smoking myself to death!

All the money i've saved has gone straight into the missus's purse
i dont even drink anymore also and still can't work out where all this money i should have lying around goes now haha

[SLO AU XR8]

I quit in November last year. I went cold turkey. Slipped up and had a few over New Years, but haven't one since.

[grandpa_spec_F6]

Quit last July with the assistance of both family, friends and AFF members.

Haven't touched one since, but still get the cravings if the pressure is on at work.

[shedcoupe]

and some people find it very hard to stop -

[hendoau99]

im only 18, i started when i was 15 so i haven't smoked for that long compared to others here, and for me quitting is the hardest thing to do. at the moment my HSC is easier than quitting. i've cut down to 10 or so a day from 20 with thanks to my girlfriend, and next week ill cut down to 8 and the week after that 6 etc..... i just dont want to smoke anymore. its taking my money and my health. i do enjoy it but its the $$$ its taking that i could be spending on my falcon thats driving me to quit. i might try some champix. my gf's dad used them and hasent had a smoke for 4 years now.

[Iggypoppin']

Originally Posted by shedcoupe

and some people find it very hard to stop -

Almost as bad as when I broke both arms, before the doctors cut the angles of plaster out, I had my mate light and insert/remove a ciggie for me.
Also, one time I was driving and drinking an iced coffee, so my missus did the same thing. Shocking I know *hangs head in shame*

[atec77]

Originally Posted by BOOSTED-AU

Hey guys who here has quit smoking and how, ive been trying to quit for some time now and just cant : But i want to cause the money i spend on smokes i could pay off a xr6/8/gt, ive tryed just about everything, from champix to patches,

and body got any ideas?

27 years ago I swore when Dr Pats ready rubbed went above $1.00 a tin with papers I would stop , I was weak and it was $1.10 when I did , I got up one morning feeling a bit crook and put up what tobacco was left and some papers on the mantle piece and never had another . I didn't drink or go near a club or pub for 12 months , at about 4 days out I was worth talking to again and frankly I am delighted I no longer do as the smell of it is quite unpleasant , I also found 1okg somehow which left me a while back
It's all about avoiding the stimlants leading to smoke , like booze and stress and other people who still do for a while

[GTJOHN]

I have been on champix nwo for 3 weeks & i have not had a smoke for 8 days... and prior to that i had 4 smokes over 3 days..so 8 days and so far so good..hopefully i can make it through easter and ill be gold ( I hope !!!)

[briank]

I gave up anzac day last year and started again xmass eve and now i have been clean for past 5 weeks.Until next time i guess.

[The R]

i read allan carrs easy way to quit smoking.

he talks alot of ship in the start but bear with him, i learn about that sort of stuff in PSCH at uni and it allmakes sense, he basically un brainwashes you with the wrong stuff and re brainwashes you with the right stuff.

i quit, no with drawels, no massive change in life, just stopped smoking.

ive tried alot of diff ways and he discusses them, the best part about allen cars wa is he gives ya the tools to quit and deal with it rather than a bandaid like a patch or chewie. you have the tools to know why you do it, why you dont want to do it and stay quit. when ever i saw other smokers i felt like i was missing out having quit, i allways said id love a cigerete but i know what they do to me, i was still hooked mentally in the brainwash.

no i say i feel sorry for you when i see a smoker hangng for a daab or chewing them back.

well worth it and the best way in my opinion, if you have a re laps re read the book or the important parts, works a treat

[pottery beige]

well thats my first week down and out of the way.... quite a calm and no freak out session experience... definately a state of mind thing.. had enough of it dominating my life and ready to give up... and yer starting to get a bit grossed out by the smell of others smoking.. hahaha.....

[04redxr8]

Good luck, and keep at it Mitch. It does get easier as time goes. Stand near people you don't like. You won't feel so bad when you go off at them.

Just realised earlier, next is month is 1 year for me. I have felt more tempted to throttle people, rather than have a smoke.

[pottery beige]

that was one of the things i was worried about getting a bit freaky at people.... hasnt happened, then again it has been a fairly dh free week.. hahaha..... bonus reality time this morning (pay day)... time to give that credit card a good smack down with this extra coin thats magically appeared.......

[briank]

Still going strong, after about ten weeks.

[PHANTMXR6]

I just sucked it up one day and stopped.

I believe it's all in the power of the mind. The first thing you need to do is not think or talk about it. At all. Takes a lot of will power for some, but it's all in the mind.

5 years on and still smoke free. Now I can't stand the stench.

I smoked for over 13 years and can't believe how much money I burned. Sad realy......

[z80]

One good reason to give up...

Other people will not need to have a shower to get your smell off them after spending any time with you or in your car.

Giving up and you'll probably find you shower more often cause you'll realize just how much you have let your personal hygiene lapse over the years.

[GTJOHN]

I have been of the lung bungas since 1st April this year and still going strong
feeling good & healthier...plus have about $800 extra

[AustinA40]

I have been off the Lung-busters for 25 years, the only way to give up is by will power and it costs nothing.
Nicotine is very addictive and is hard to fight at first but stick to quitting and you will reap the benefits.
STAY STRONG

[MattSAU2XR8]

First of all I'd educate yourself a bit about what you have to loose. Most anti-smoking adverts talk about lung cancer, and this is true, but only about 1/10 smokers gets lung cancer, and this isn't enough to put them off it.

Much more common and affecting almost all smokers is outright destruction of the lung tissue leading to COPD, ie. emphysema and chronic bronchitis.
The diagram below was originally published in the British Medical Journal back in the '70s and applies to 'people susceptible to cigarette smoke', which is most people. It makes two points. First is that if you don't smoke at all your lungs at age 90 will still work at least 60 % as well as when you were 20, plenty enough to play lawn bowls and walk the dog and annoy your descendants. Second is that if you do smoke then it is likely that your lungs will be pretty much ruined by the age of 65 - this keeps public hospitals nice and busy.

You could print out this picture and get your local GP to arrange a lung function test for you from which he or she could tell you approximately where you currently sit on this chart, and then decide what direction you want to go from here.... The testing is pretty simple, its just a measure of how much air you can blow out in one second after taking a really deep breath. At 20 years of age this is more than 4 litres for most adult males, and if you're a 65 YO smoker then it ends up being less than 1.5 litres. And if you can't blow air out then you can't breath more fresh air in...

Second is that if you want to quit then just make a bet each year with a friend who you trust for $1000. At the start of the year give them the $1000 to hold for you (much less than you waste on cigarettes), and if you bust and have a cigarette they give it to the RSPCA or any other charity of your choice. Otherwise you get it back at the end of the year to buy Christmas presents. As long as you aren't the sort of guy to welch on a bet this will probably stop you smoking, or keep you poor :-)

One more thing - cutting your smoking in half is better than nothing, but does not decrease lung damage by 50 %, arguably a lot less, since part of the damage comes from the immune system REACTING to the smoke and chewing up your lungs.

[landau460]

Anzac day 2007 was my last smoke.
I was 16 when i took it up and quit when i was 33, so i had a fear trot with cigers. Tried to quit numerous times. One way i tried to quit i thought i would'nt wast any, so i smoked till i finished the pack. That way worked for a week or two other occations maybe a month. The second way i tried a few times was to screw the pack up and told my self i was done with it! That only lasted about the same amount of time.
I had thought alot of using patches but heared others smoking while they had the patches on so i thought that sounded like another waste of money.
For some reason near the end i got into my head that if i quit during the winter time whilst quiting might catch a cold and get pneumonia, so i would wait till summertime. That kept me smoking for a couple more years.

The last five or so years i had a mate tell me bout a pothead mate that just went cold turkey. Every now and then he threw that at me how the other mate just kicked the habbit why dont i? I was wondering the same thing then april 24 2007 where at the pub havin a beer im off for a smoke when my mate tells me the same story bout kicken the habbit. I had that smoke we finished our beers i dropped him off an i went home with the pack there next to me thinkin bout that convo and how to do it. I got it F!@# these things i think its time i stop foolin myself bout quitin and just do it.
And rather than finishing the pack, screwing the pack up or even the patches i decieded to keep the rest and put them in the kitchen shelf. They are still there today i look at them now and then and have a laugh at that pack still sitting there all that time right were i could always have got to them and smoked them but never did.
Then there was that craving. I was pretty sure that my mind was over the smokin thing but had to test it went straight out that weekind and get blind and it still didnt get me.
The only other thing i had to do to quit for good was and it used to be the same old excuse was that now its been a while since the last smoke i could just have one smoke and that would be ok. But that was the trap every other time that got me started so even when that craving hit i said to myself not to even have that one little bloody smoke.
So it is only in your mind you dont need patches, got to get your head sorted to quit.

[pottery beige]

[QUOTE=landau460]
So it is only in your mind you dont need patches, got to get your head sorted to quit.[/QUOTEu]
so true i had many half assed pill n patch attempts over the years and the only one that worked was cold turkey and actually 'wanting to give up'...

[pottery beige]

i'm still hanging in there.. nice little lol about giving up.. went for one of those spirometer?? lung capacity tests with a work medical.. pushing 40 but the lungs of a 20yo.. hahaha

[Yellow_Festiva]

Originally Posted by pottery beige

i'm still hanging in there.. nice little lol about giving up.. went for one of those spirometer?? lung capacity tests with a work medical.. pushing 40 but the lungs of a 20yo.. hahaha

Well done!

I had a severe asthma attack last weekend (missed fathers day BBQ with the family ) and shared a room with 3 gents of varying ages with emphysema all from smoking various quantities per day for a varying amount of years.

All were in agreeance after getting there scare of their life from their hospital visit to never touch another smoke again through sheer will power and from fear of dying well before their time.

Sometimes a small scare early on is what a smoker needs to wake up to themselves. Bit like taking a kid who likes to play with fire to the burns unit.

A good friend of mine lost her youngish dad a few years ago after he smoked most of his life. He wasn't able to walk her down the aisle at her wedding last year, but the thing she remembers most was what he said the day before he died in hospital "I did this to myself and I'm truly sorry......."

It was too late for him to change the course his life was going to take. If you're on the fags then read over what I have said a few times.

[Russ]

I gave up cold turkey must be at least 10 years ago or more now, it wasn't easy but one day I ran out of smokes, didn't have enough cash on me for another pack till payday (2 days later) so I decided no stuff it I'm going to try and stop. It was very difficult when people I worked with would light up at morning tea and lunch etc... and on several occasions they would even offer me one, but I stuck to my guns and beat it. I'm not trying to encourage anyone to smoke but one thing I would suggest to anyone contemplating quitting and finding it all too difficult, would be to switch from ready made and try smoking roll your own tobacco, with papers and filters. I had switched from Winnie blues to Old Port tobacco several years earlier and not only did I feel a bit better in myself after changing over but I'm sure that along with will power, contributed greatly to me being able to quit. I also found myself smoking a fair bit less because it was not as convenient as ready made cigarettes, so you couldn't just pop one in your mouth and light it. To prove my point for anyone who doubts this, if you have a friend who smokes rollies and you smoke ready mades (eg Winfield, Peter Jackson.....etc) or vice versa place one of each lit cigarette opposite each other in an ashtray and watch what happens. The roll your own will stop burning pretty quickly whereas usually the ready made cigarette burns right to the butt. Not sure if this true or not so don't quote me on it but I was told many years ago by someone quite well informed in the cigarette game, that much like a lot of food we buy most cigarette brands also have additives, as I mentioned earlier when I quit the ready made and went to roll your owns I started to feel better in myself and it wasn't all that long after that I managed to give up completely. Food for thought

Good luck

[GS608]

i've quit multiple times always gone back to it though..longest i've been was about a week..lately though each packet has been my last only to go out and grab another..do about 25 a day, have done for the last 7 months...want to go back to the days where i only smoked when i drank.

Hello All

Quite just over three years ago used patches worked for me with abit of will power

[pottery beige]

thats the biggest fear i had was getting on the sauce and busting for one.. i was in camp and on it every night with the boys (all smokers) at the bar... was just in that zone i'd had enough and it wasnt a part of my life anymore.. and haha they were awesome wouldnt have given me one anyway....

[MR.BA.GT.332]

just quit about a month ago. Only started smoking full on (upto a pack a day) mid-late 2010 til about a month ago. Used to be a casual smoker when on the booze but been a hell of a few months this year and my smoking certainly was stress related. Also didnt help the habit that the mrs was smoking too so was hard to quit when she smoked.

We both quit cold turkey and first few days were hard (for me anyway, mrs said she was fine) but since then all good, no major cravings

we enjoying the money savings too!

[vibe_xr6]

Quit for 5 days thanks to a chest infection, Then started to get better and the cravings started again, then 1 turned into 25 a day again :(

[pottery beige]

Originally Posted by vibe_xr6

Quit for 5 days thanks to a chest infection, Then started to get better and the cravings started again, then 1 turned into 25 a day again :(

ya knuckle head.. lol..