I Am Tired Of Smoking Cigarettes. Help Wanted!!!

[WideAwakeInAmerica]

OK.  Here's the deal.  If you have stopped smoking, I want to know how you did it.

BTW, if you are a nonsmoker, go away.  You have no idea. 

I do not want to chew nicotine gum.  I tried cold-turkey at least 10 times in the past 5 years. 

I do not want to hear anything about Chantix.

I know the cigarette I crave (right now) is laced with chemicals designed to make me crave it.....which is why you do not understand if you are a non-smoker. 

I need good advice from anyone who has actually stopped after smoking for a long time.

Thank you.....I'll be back in a minute, gonna take a smoke break.

[StrangeFire]

I've never smoked, but I just want to wish you best of luck. I've heard it's nightmarishly hard to quit.

[Skillet-Licker1]

Hello Wide.  No advise.  Same boat as You, and look forward to hearing from ex-smokers.  I don't want to quit, I love smoking.  I just know that I need to.

Back in a few, smoke break!

[Six Gun Jim]

Wellbutrin, everybody that quits without trauma seems to say take Wellbutrin. Apparently the gigarettes taste like shit and it elevates your mood enough to quit. I never smoked much but have seen lots of people quit this way. Best of luck. -James

[DarthBruder]

Oh, man.

You guys need thethirstmutilator, which is a person, not an advice book.

I'm PM'ing her right now.

She's a doomer who WROTE an advice book on this subject.

[Daewoo2]

Go to your doctor and ask for Bupropion

You have to take it for a long time (possibly even months) but it just kind of takes away the desire to smoke.  Then after a month or so you start making a real effort to quit.  It makes it MUCH, MUCH easier. 

[WideAwakeInAmerica]

Funny. 

Hey, one more thing, I started when I was 15.  Not heavy then.  Just to be cool with the crew I hung with.  I smoked until I was around 24, still about three packs a week, not heavy.  I quit for ten years.  Just stopped because I had little ones coming along.  I started back when I took a job working with people who took lots of smoke breaks.  I gave in and have been at it since.  I am 44 now.  Almost a pack a day now.  Sucks. 

A really good partner from work came to me yesterday.  Seemed very meek and sickly.  Talking very faintly.  Said he found out he has emphysema (yes - I used spell check), and bronchitis.  The look on his face.  Cannot get my mind off it.  Of course, he pulled one out while he told me the story.  Cannot imagine not being able to breathe.....

I'm out of smokes.  Gonna have to steal one of hers....oh...another obstacle uncovered!

[WideAwakeInAmerica]

Wellbutrin, everybody that quits without trauma seems to say take Wellbutrin. Apparently the gigarettes taste like shit and it elevates your mood enough to quit. I never smoked much but have seen lots of people quit this way. Best of luck. -James

Thank you.  I remember that now....

BTW I love my Doc.  Asian dude.  I asked him for something several years ago and he told me NOT to take any drugs to stop.  His advice, just stop.  I know, thanks alot.  I would've stopped seeing him for anything else, but he is otherwise great.  Maybe he knows something I don't.....

[WideAwakeInAmerica]

Oh, man.

You guys need thethirstmutilator, which is a person, not an advice book.

I'm PM'ing her right now.

She's a doomer who WROTE an advice book on this subject.

Sweet.  Bring it on.

[Ana]

Try a nicotine patch.  Only you know yourself , whether to wean yourself slowly or go cold turkey. Going cold turkey can cause intense carvings.
If you have children they should be a great motivator to quit and also your loved ones; second and third hand smoke damages their health as medically proven , since they do not inhale smoke with a filter like you do.

[WideAwakeInAmerica]

OK....as far as scrips go, I hate to be picky, but I cannot go that route.  I am a huge opponent of anti-depressents (I have my reasons), and it seems that is the makeup of the two aforementioned scrip options.....

After two knee surgeries for destroyed ACL's in the past several years, I've learned I have the lowest tolerance of anyone on earth for mind altering or even muscle relaxing, drugs.  They make me either shiver, cry, angry, dis-connected, you get the picture. 

Thanks, really, for the advice.

[Hendrek]

I don't smoke... except the very rare cigar, and the drunken cigarette... but since getting out of college, those types of nights have become rare, so you're probably right that I don't know what it's like to be addicted.

Anyway, there was another similar thread on this, and Animus Boreas swore on this book, and I thought it was intriguing enough to remember it:

http://www.amazon.com/Easy-Way-Stop-Smoking-Non-Smokers/dp/1402718616

So, you may want to see if your library has it... can't hurt, right?

[DarthBruder]

thirsty was on here an hour and a half ago, so she's still active. She will check in here.

If memory serves, she chained herself to a radiator and went cold turkey and wrote a book about it.

Anyway, she's cool.

[WideAwakeInAmerica]

Try a nicotine patch.  Only you know yourself , whether to wean yourself slowly or go cold turkey. Going cold turkey can cause intense carvings.
If you have children they should be a great motivator to quit and also your loved ones; second and third hand smoke damages their health as medically proven , since they do not inhale smoke with a filter like you do.

Tried the patch.
Tried cold turkey.
Intense craving occuring right now.  Still haven't taken that smoke break.
I never expose anyone to my smoke.  Always outside, away from my peeps.

.....and I stillllll, haven't found, what I'm lookin' for (U2)

[Ana]

Try a nicotine patch.  Only you know yourself , whether to wean yourself slowly or go cold turkey. Going cold turkey can cause intense carvings.
If you have children they should be a great motivator to quit and also your loved ones; second and third hand smoke damages their health as medically proven , since they do not inhale smoke with a filter like you do.

Tried the patch.
Tried cold turkey.
Intense craving occuring right now.  Still haven't taken that smoke break.
I never expose anyone to my smoke.  Always outside, away from my peeps.

.....and I stillllll, haven't found, what I'm lookin' for (U2)

Even if you don't expose them they are still exposed.  Google third hand smoking.  It's been in news a lot lately. 
Hang in there, revert to this board for support if you have cravings.  Also there are lot of other support groups out there.
One of my colleagues at work does 30 push ups every time he gets an intense craving.