Smoking

[holnrew]

The better half & I quit smoking (again!) 12 weeks ago. We still get the odd urge but know that if you slip & just smoke one, then all the hard work is undone. Really determined this time which has helped a lot.

Very hard to spend an evening with a smoker now though. Maybe that'll pass...

It does when you see how manky and ill they look.

[pintspiller]

congrats to those that posted here saying they've quit. i haven 't had a fag for over two years after seeing a hypnotist. i was only smoking a 50g pouch a week at the end so was wary of handing over £100 to the guy after it seemed like nothing had happened, but haven't had one since and the cravings pass in a blink

[beed84]

I'm not a smoker myself but I hope from what I remember from Derren Brown's Tricks of The Mind (great book, and highly recommended) helps matters.

Instead of being a smoker trying to quit, imagine yourself as a non-smoker. If you slip up and have one, so what? Whereas trying to quit can be a high expectation a place alot of pressure on the quitee.

Avoid negative suggestions, like don't think of a green elephant. You can't help but think of a green elephant. So when you're getting a bit sweaty because it's been a few days, and you really fancy one, it would be a bad idea to say to yourself, "Don't have a cig." The "Have a cig" becomes the instruction and therefore you end up having one because your mind is going crazy and the only way to settle it is by lighting one up. When getting urges, it would be far better to say "I'm okay" and then move on.

I suppose this is some form of mind over matter stuff. I found the latter to help with a case of gambling I went through for a year or so. It wasn't severe but it was enough to be a problem. It only took a short while for me to actually find it difficult to putting money in the bandits, and eventually lead to having no interest.

Good luck

[bochetagrave]

[QUOTE=citizen68;1355304 We still get the odd urge but know that if you slip & just smoke one, then all the hard work is undone. .[/QUOTE]

Wrong attitude, totally. I think you're going to struggle, if you think like that..

[citizen68]

Why so?

You either 'smoke' or 'don't smoke'. There can't be an in-between - not for me anyway. If there's one thing I've learned from trying to stop before it's this..

This will be the first time I stopped during summer rather than winter. I am an asthma sufferer and what always puzzles me is how bad I feel physically in the months after giving up. In fact that has sometimes driven me back to cigarettes during winter months - it's nearly as if the smoking acts as an illness inhibitor which I know is bordering on ridiculous - I've asked my doctor about it & they couldn't really explain it...I know it's the lungs hopefully clearing themselves out but frick me, how long does it go on before I start to feel good again? Mornings & evenings are worse - wheezy city