Quitting Smoking - the last bastion..

[lestahb]

So I quit smoking. I'm taking champix (chantix in the USA) and it really helps. Cigarettes were my last crutch. When I went to rehab for meth, they said that I would know when I would be ready to quit smoking, and to not try to do it all at once. I latched on to that idea...
I've been clean from meth for 5 years now (on Sept 1), and I had my last smoke 3 weeks ago. I kind of feel like I'm becoming a different person. The old me was chock full of bad habits, now I have coffee. And coffee is so socially acceptable. I was at my nephews baptism and I was thinking, man this is lasting so long, but really it is that I would normally take off for a smoke or six, and miss half of it.
I honestly feel ridiculous with how respectable I am becoming, as I was always a little on the outside.
Anyways, my point was that though Champix works wonders, I am still struggling a little. Champix makes smoking gross, and it made stopping pretty easy. The side effects suck, but how can I really whine about being nauseous and exhausted when the side effects of smoking are cancer and more cancer.
Although, I have noticed a slight improvement in my mood. Like its combining with my anti-depressant and making me happier.
After 3 weeks though, I am craving a cigarette. Not physically, just the action. I'm trying to distract myself, but quitting smoking, even with the pills is hard. Because it is such a part of my life. I'm trying to change habits, like where I eat my lunch, but even the morning is hard. I usually put on coffee, then go outside and smoke. I went outside this morning. I sat down this morning and was looking around for my smokes, and then I remembered that I quit. I'm getting a little frustrated.
Any tips out there to help me through it?

 

[Help me please]

I quit CT years ago. Husband started the patches about 9 weeks ago. He used Chantix a few times with no success. What we did at home was pretty simple. After I quit I asked anyone who needed to smoke to sit at a table near a huge window in the kitchen. I moved the freaking table on him this time. Lol, it's funny. It helps though. I also aired out the vehicles so he didn't have to smell cigs when driving. You just have to change your routine really. When you put your morning coffee on exercise for 10 minutes or so rather than sit outside. Or maybe take a book with you that you have to hold with both hands. I started knitting and crocheting again. Went a bit bonkers actually but it was fun. If you need something as a sub maybe try a straw or even a pen to hold or put in your mouth. Did you ever try the patches or nicotine gums?

 

[lestahb]

I've tried quitting smoking before, but kind of half-heartedly. I used the patch and I quit for about six months, but I started again for no reason at all. I've been eating a lot of carrots. I keep ashing my food. I was eating popcorn and kept tapping the loose kernels like they were ashes.
I was a trooper of a smoker. After my appendix burst, I was so determined to smoke, that I took two elevators and walked through 10 minutes of hallways to have a cigarette. I fell over and passed out because I had just woken up from surgery, and was still doped up. They finally just assigned a nurse to take me out to smoke in a wheelchair.
It is a lot of changes. Even at work, I keep walking out, and I have no reason and I forget. So I just stand outside for about 30 seconds and then come back in feeling ridiculous.

 

[Help me please]

It'll pass. I don't even think about smoking anymore and I was up to 3 packs a day. Now when I walk through the grocery store aisles and someone passes who smokes I cringe and wonder how I ever smoked at all. I must have smelled like an ashtray!

Nothing wrong with ashing food...just don't light that carrot!

Speaking of hospitals, 12 years ago I had three kids in hospital due to a car accident they were in after school. I chain smoked the whole way there and then while in the emergency room I slipped out to smoke but got busted because it was a no smoking zone. I found the entrance to the morgue and snuck there for all my cigs. Yeah there were bodies in there!

 

[rollingstoned!]

I am quitting smoking too. It doesn't suck. Remember that, it helps a lot. Also, you are winning at life by quitting.

If you weak out and cave, SNUS is your answer, not cancer sticks (no MAOIs in snus either, so not nearly as addicting and not nearly as bad on your body).

My grandfather used to puff on a straw to keep the cravings away.
If you feel like you need a smoke, doing twenty or so pushups right then and there helps A LOT.

Those lungs are getting better. USE 'EM!!!!!! Instead of getting a dopamine release from a nicotine molecule, get a dopamine release from running, excercising, etc. The benefits from this are you get your dopamine release AND you get to live longer instead of shorter.

Cigarettes are inherently dumb. Nicotine, eh, it's an alright stimulant, but it lasts way to short. For that it is only slightly above tobacco. So in the end both aren't worth the trouble. Fuck 'em.

 

[User Name Here]

It'll pass. I don't even think about smoking anymore and I was up to 3 packs a day. Now when I walk through the grocery store aisles and someone passes who smokes I cringe and wonder how I ever smoked at all. I must have smelled like an ashtray!

Exactly.

It will pass. The more time that goes by, the less you think about them. Fortunately not many people I hang out with smoke anymore (everyone started having kids and quit). Good god, the amount of money that I have saved by not smoking is staggering!

Enough about me though. I'm going to stick with what everyone else has mentioned. Like I said before, things will get easier and better. If you can take meth head on and quit, this should be easy in comparison. You've made it three weeks and that's awesome. Keep up the good work.

Oh yeah, now that I have quit, I can't stand being around smokers for long periods of time. I mean I can but I'd rather not be, and that's not because I wanna smoke too but because they smell so bad. I didn't even quit because of the health issues, I quit because it tastes and smells so bad. All of my clothes smelled awful, I probably tasted like an ashtray, etc. My family has even made note of the fact that I smell better now

 

[lestahb]

Yeah, I decided to quit because my brother didn't want me holding my nephew if I stank like smoke. It's getting easier. I'm using a lot of the tactics that I used when I quit meth. Sleeping a lot. Staying home, and not hanging out with people who smoke. Also, I carry carrots around. Instead of gum, I don't like gum, so I eat a carrot. It's working out all right. 3 and half weeks so far.
And exercising too. A little bit, because so much crap is being coughed up, but I guess that is my body healing? I still like the smell of smoke, although the smell is changing, I suppose my sense of smell is coming back.
I figured that if I could quit meth, I would be fine at this, but I really, really wanted / needed to quite meth, to live, to become sane again. With smoking, I can do both. So I can talk myself into smoking again. I haven't caved yet, but I can see myself caving. I just miss the instant gratification.