New Here/ TRying to quit

[arielskies]

Im new here. Ive been smoking for about 38 years.  Ive been a 2 pack a day person for a long time as well. Now I have cut down to about 9 cigs. a day. Im having problems getting beyond this. Ive been working at this for aboiut 3 months now. My partner doesnt really understand, he thinks I should just be able to quit,  just like that.    

                        Im tierd of sneaking around corners and knowing he can smell smoke on me anyways. I also know that quitting is something I have to do for myself and not anybody else.

 

                              I get anxiety attacks and want to smoke.  Im pretty sure this is one of my triggers. Pychologically  as far as  I can tell my reasons for wanting to smoke go much deeper.   If I feel vulnerable,  I want to smoke. It's a coping mechanism obviously.  I need advise on how to find other coping skills to depend on instead of smoking.  Like I said Im a newbie.  I need all the advise I can get.  and friends going through the same thing.      Thank you     

[beacon]

Hi Ariel and welcome aboard! Do you think you are ready to quit the rest now? I think most smokers feel anxiety or withdraw feelings when they quit. Nicotine is a very powerful drug. When I quit, I learned the coping skills as I lived as a new nonsmoker day by day. You don't need to do learn the skills before you quit. I smoked for 30 years.

[Colleen]

Welcome to the QT Ariel :) Have you checked out the Newbie Database? http://www.quittrain.com/topic/11-how-do-i-quit-smoking-the-newbie-database/

 

Please don't skip over the link titled gradual withdrawal for your worst enemy. Also smoking causes anxiety, it doesn't relieve it. There are lots of coping methods to combat anxiety, exercise for one.

 

Quitting smoking is not something that can be done overnight, it is a journey and is not always going to be easy. However, if you trust in the journey then it will be easier than you thought possible.

[Boo]

Welcome Ariel.  If you're having anxiety issues the nicotine withdrawal is only compounding your problems.  When you smoke you temporarily replenish the nicotine in your body, but any underlying issues are not addressed by smoking.  During times of anxiety, the nicotine reserves in your body diminish more quickly, causing you to want to smoke more frequently.  It is a vicious cycle, but it can be broken.

 

As for coping mechanisms...Deep breathing is always good.  Physical activity, be it a simple walk or more intense exercise, helps alleviate stress and anxiety.  Simply immersing yourself deeply in anything you enjoy is a great way to refocus you thought patterns.

 

You will find many resources here that will help you learn more about your addiction and the members here go above and beyond to answer questions and provide support.

 

Best wishes.  

[Sazerac]

. I also know that quitting is something I have to do for myself and not anybody else.

 

                                 

 

Welcome arielskies,

Quitting is something YOU CAN DO.

Educate yourself.

We will give you all kinds of support.

Tough Love, Fluffy Love, All Kinds of Love.

[IndigoChilde]

Welcome aboard! You should talk to your doctor about your anxiety. After one of my failed quits, I was really depressed. I found I need to have my meds adjusted to help with anxiety and depression. It's worked out really well!

[Evelyn]

Welcome, I quit, we all quit, so can you :) even with anxiety ;) and no I'm not making it smaller the quiting is the easy part, the anxiety is the harder part but you will know the quit will lesson your anxiety. 

If you're doubtfull there's no shame to ask support or advice from a doctor :)

[Doreensfree]

Hi and welcome to this wonderful place...

If you havnt read Allen Carr the easy way to stop smoking... It's a must...this guy has help millions to quit...

Included myself...

Education...understanding.,how this terrible addiction works...this is what you fight with....

You fight the nico monster... With knowledge....

We will support you all the way along your journey...

Congrats...

[joe]

Welcome to the QT!

 

Lots of advice already givin....all of it great.

 

Check in and let us know how it's going for you.

 

The journey can seem impossible, but one step at a time gets you there.

[Sazerac]

I see you have a quit date set for June 30.

Sometimes the anxiety ahead of the date is worrisome.

You can solve that by quitting at this moment or the next moment.

The power is in your hands.

You can also spend these two days educating yourself about Addiction.

Education, as others have said, is a big tool in your tool box.

Be Kind to yourself  :)

you are about to embark on a marvelous adventure

and we will be right along with you so, shout out whenever you need or want.

[Sunnyside]

Welcome aboard :)

[MarylandQuitter]

How are you doing, Ariel?  Smoking and anxiety is a never-ending cycle.  At the very least, smoking increases anxiety, when you think about quitting and not having nicotine that causes anxiety and then you could have anxiety for other reasons.  I know how you can get rid of two of the causes.  :)

 

Short video discusses key topic areas that enhance an individuals ability to quit and stay off of smoking.

 

 

The following videos explore these individual areas:

Topic one: Why you smoke

Video: Why do smokers smoke
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9AmZ...
18 minutes 9 seconds

Topic 2: Why you should quit

Videos:

Heart and circulatory diseases
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Xt9v...
19 minutes 19 seconds

Lung cancer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NFNv8...
18 minutes 49 seconds

Feel what it is like to breathe with emphysema
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gf0ts...
8 minutes and 47 seconds

The palmolive bottle demonstration
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MVbUG...
7 minutes 46 seconds

Premature deaths caused by smoking
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5a7D...
12 minutes 34 seconds

Topic 3: How to stop

How to quit smoking
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l27zW...
13 minutes 47 seconds

Topic 4: How to stay off

Never take another puff
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYNWI...
4 minutes 22 seconds

Total time for all of the videos above is just around 91 minutes.

[arielskies]

Thank you everyone for your help and the videos. It's funny but I'm finding a lot here with in my personal struggle that is showing me that I'm not alone. I'm finding for now that I cant just quit cold turkey.  I feel seriously that I just cant handle it.  I am how ever working with my self patiently and doing things such as,  instead of smoking a whole cigarette when I feel I have to have one, I will only smoke 3 or 4 drags and then put it out.  The other day in this afternoon time I smoked 2 , today I smoked one by dividing the cig. in half and I felt fine with it. I felt like I could cope just with 3 or 4 drags just fine.  Is this an ok way towards quitting?  Does this process have to be so horrible and painful??  Does it get easier the closer you get to , or what I mean,  does it get easier as your intake goes down.  I quite personally think it has for me. My goal now is to stop smoking whole cigarettes. To put it out way before even the mid way point.  Im sure there is more then one way to quit and it's different for everyone.    Someone here mentioned finding the things you enjoy doing, doing these things when you feel you want to smoke. I know that there is an actual addiction going on in my body but I cant help but to think that also a large part of this problem is psychological. I have all ready cut down from 2 packs a day to around 9 cigs a day. My next aim is to stop smoking whole cigs. which I started to day and it feels ok.  I feel ok. I feel like I can function.  But going cold turkey at this point to me feels like drowning in a pool of water. ,like I cant function or focus on anything.  It feel like my whole life is going to go down the drain and I think it would if I couldnt take this gradually. Its just too much at this point, but not too much to taper off.  Is this an ok tactic?   

[Nancy]

Hi, ariel...it is an okay tactic if you enjoy torturing yourself...please take a moment to read, here.  You are prolonging the agony.  You CAN do this!!

[Sazerac]

You have to come to grips that you have a nicotine addiction.

This is serious.

Addiction sucks.

You can't just be 'a little addicted'.

Give yourself the best gift in the world, freedom from nicotine.

Do this anyway you can.

NRT's, Medication etc. are great tools.

Just stop putting a cigarette in your mouth and lighting it on fire.

You will not regret it.

[Doreensfree]

Well done for wanting to quit...and well done for cutting down to a few...is this good idea...no...

Your still putting all those cancer inducing chemicals in to your lungs...

Cutting down rarely works...your body will crave a little bit more,and a little bit more gradually...

This is how this addiction works...

Education...knowledge...understand this awful killer addiction...try reading

Allen Carr the easy way...you can read it free on line...it has helped millions and some here..and me...

Watch the documentaries.. The tabacco industry...they want you to stay hooked..they are getting rich by killing people.

See this addiction for the truth it is..feel happy not miserable you are freeing yourself..

[El Bandito]

Hi Ariel

 

Great decision on deciding to quit. A huge decision.

 

OK - time for another challenge.  - Believe that you can quit. 

 

I was a two to three pack a day man for 30 years. I have the will-power of a small sheep. I quit. So can you.

 

Lots of great advice above - the Allen Carr book, 'The Easy Way to Stop Smoking' was what really helped me.

 

You can quit however you want Ariel. It's up to you. But, there are hard ways and easy ways. You have chosen possibly the hardest.

 

By cutting down, you are making yourself believe that although you want to smoke, you are not going to, because actually you don't want to smoke.

 

Read that again. It is as crazy as it sounds. You are confusing me (which is easy to do) but most importantly you are confusing yourself.

 

If you want to smoke - smoke.

If you don't want to smoke - don't.

 

Do one thing or the other. But believe me Ariel. You can quit. You really can.

 

There are lots of things that can help - and again I recommend buying and reading the book. It's a lot cheaper than smoking and a lot more fun than dying.

 

You can do this - we'll hold your hand while you do it. ;)

[arielskies]

Well,   it seems to me that everyone on here has all ready quit.  This doesnt help me. sorry.  I have too much pressure going on now to handle cold turkey. I will not be able to function and possibly lose my job. This isnt practical to me, also guilt tripping someone to quit doesnt work either or shaming a person for this. Telling to just quit is not helping at all.    

[Sazerac]

Everybody on the train has quit smoking.  

Some only a few hours, some are on NRTs,  some are going Cold Turkey.

Don't you want to talk with people who are quitting ?  Who are successful quitters ?

Would you rather talk to cigarette addicts who are still smoking ? 

Where's that at ?

 

You don't have to go cold turkey, you can do NRT or perscribed meds, gum or lozenges.

Nobody cares how you quit.  We only care you do quit. 

Nobody gets a gold star for quitting cold turkey or a gold star for any other method.

We all get gold stars for quitting.

The POINT is simply to QUIT SMOKING, innit ?!

 

We are not shaming you in ANY way and I am sorry you have misunderstood our help.

No one is ever under too much pressure to loose the ability to quit smoking.

The addict, which is you, is telling you LIES.

YOU can quit.

 

You will quit when you want to quit more than you want to smoke.

Think well and hard, arielskies.

You only have one life.

Love,

S

[bakon]

You can listen to us, who successfully quit, but had all the same reasons you are giving. We won't give you bad info.

 

As for something else or some other way to quit??? Well if taking advice from your smoking buddy, his record isn't very good.

 

Yes we all quit here, that will help you because we did it and can show you the way. There are no special secret or snowflakes here. You don't smoke and you post. Let the group tell you the rest. Easy peasy

 

But if you feel pressured then maybe your not ready. And if you can stop because you have anger issues and will loose your job, or diagnosed with a case of irequirenicotinetolive. Well guess what, we know how to fix that too

[Cristóbal]

Well,   it seems to me that everyone on here has all ready quit.  This doesnt help me. sorry.  I have too much pressure going on now to handle cold turkey. I will not be able to function and possibly lose my job. This isnt practical to me, also guilt tripping someone to quit doesnt work either or shaming a person for this. Telling to just quit is not helping at all.    

 

Hello Ariel,

 

The reason why you are not getting much support for the "cutting down" method you have chosen to quit, is because it really does not work well.

 

Please read the link that Nancy posted, this gives you some great education about nicotine addiction.

 

 

All of us here are nicotine addicts.

 

Smoking (and by doing this feeding our nicotine addiction) caused permanent changes in our brains that cannot ever be reversed.

 

To explain this simply, all of us have grown millions of nicotine receptors in our brains that will be there for the rest of our lives.

 

When you are smoking, every time these receptors are fed nicotine, they do not bother you. However, when you stop smoking (and stop feeding them), they then start screaming for nicotine and this is what causes many withdrawl symptoms.

 

As long as you feed these receptors, you continue to keep the addiction alive, and that is what you are doing when you are "cutting down".  The only way that you can put these receptors to sleep permanently, is to never put nicotine into your body again....this means even just one puff.

 

It is important to understand that once these receptors go to sleep, that your withdrawl symptoms will end and you will be free, and feel just as a non-smoker does.....for the rest of your life......just as long as you never feed them again. EVER. NOT EVEN ONE PUFF.

 

This concept is key to understanding quitting smoking.

 

This foto shows the changes in these receptors with just one puff.....a few puffs....and then a few cigarettes.

 

 

 

When you cut down, you are continuing to excite these nicotine receptors, as you can see in this foto, and you put yourself into awful, continuous withdrawl.

 

The only way to stop this awful situation, is by:

 

 

1. Going back to smoking the amount you smoked every day before you started to "cut down". This means a failed quit.

 

2. Not putting any nicotine in your body, ever again. This means a successful quit.

 

 

There is no gray zone, when it comes to nicotine addiction. There is only black, and white.

 

 

Understanding nicotine addiction, this nicotine "Law of Addiction", and the process of quitting smoking, is critical to growing a healthy, permanent quit.

 

I strongly suggest that you continue reading at whyquit.com, especially the article in the forum where this foto is located.

 

The link is here: http://ffn.yuku.com/topic/116

 

 

I also strongly suggest that you pay attention to what the long-term quitters (1 year +) have to say in the comments to your posts. They have already been where you are......and they are also way ahead of you in their quit journey. Learn from their experiences; realize they are here specifically to help new people such as you; take their comments seriously; and let them guide you to the freedom that you are so desparately looking for. Right now, they are already at the place where you want to be in the future. 

 

Quitting smoking permanently is completely doable, for *EVERYBODY*. Your success depends on the amount of education about quitting smoking and nicotine addiction you give to yourself, and on the strength of your commitment to never taking another puff (NTAP).

 

 

Cristóbal

[sgt.barney]

Now I have cut down to about 9 cigs. a day. Im having problems getting beyond this. Ive been working at this for aboiut 3 months now. My partner doesnt really understand, he thinks I should just be able to quit,  just like that.    

                       

 

You should .. and *can*!

 

You're not doing yourself any favors by "cutting down".

 

It's time to just let go, right?

 

 

BTW - You don't need "other coping skills". All you need is to NOT smoke.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Easy Peasy

[sgt.barney]

I'm finding for now that I cant just quit cold turkey.  I feel seriously that I just cant handle it.  

 

That would be The Junkie speaking to you. The Junkie is wrong. Always wrong. Very wrong. You can handle Cold Turkey as well as anyone,

 

Is this an ok way towards quitting?  

Nope.

 

Does this process have to be so horrible and painful??  

 

It is only as "horrible and painful" if you want it to be.

 

 

 

Is this an ok tactic?

 

Nope. Not if you want to be ... y'know. .. successful at it.

 

 

 

 

Easy Peasy

[Petra]

Hi Ariel, 

 

It may sound like people are not being supportive, but the opposite is true.  yes, we have all quit - some cold turkey, some using patches or other nicotine replacement, some with Chantix.  

We are all addicts and being rid of smoking is incredibly freeing, and you will feel so much better, stronger and confident.  

 

Do some reading on this site, keep posting.  We would love to help you become a non-smoker.  

 

It took me a couple of "tries" to quit for good using various methods, patches, ecigs, will power, gum, etc, etc.   I would go a couple of days or a couple of weeks and be back smoking.  Finally,  I chose not to smoke.  I quit cold turkey and even through very tough cravings, I kept choosing NOT to smoke instead of smoking.  

 

I remember one day in particular - about 10 days into my quit on my way home from work.  Oh, I wanted to smoke so badly.  I drove by every store and kept telling myself , go to the next one, go to the next...  I pulled over into my neighborhood, about to make a u-turn and head to the nearest store to buy smokes.  Instead, I logged in and read and posted.  It got me through, and I remained smoke free.  I'm sharing this to let you know it can be a struggle at times for all of us, but we need to make that decision to not smoke and stick with it no matter what.  

[Petra]

Well,   it seems to me that everyone on here has all ready quit.  This doesnt help me. sorry.  I have too much pressure going on now to handle cold turkey. I will not be able to function and possibly lose my job. This isnt practical to me, also guilt tripping someone to quit doesnt work either or shaming a person for this. Telling to just quit is not helping at all.    

We were all smokers before we came here.  Some of us did smoke when we first logged in and quit on the Board.  However, we aren't here to tell you it is okay to keep smoking.  Cutting down is not quitting and none of us support that method.  If you want to quit, we are here to help and support you.  If you want to keep smoking, well, we can't really help you there.  

 

I have heard that Chantix works for many people to help with anxiety.