I, like many people, have tried and tried again to quit smoking. I generally dont smoke anymore that 10 cigs a day but even that is 10 too many. I have freinds that have smoked a pack all thier lives and just one day quit never smoking again. I tried and i cant seem to go anymore than 3 days. I quit for about a week one time but i had a chest cold and started smoking again before it was over. If you have any suggestions to help me i would greatly appreciate it.-Markus

Two things to say -
1. You have to really want to stop. So many people say they want to stop beacuse they feel they should but in their heart of hearts they really like smoking so they "try" but fail. You have to think about this - I was in the category for years. Once I actually decided I really did want to give up - I did. Like that. No problem - no patches or wny of that stuff.
2. It is a habit and ritual so you have to break the rituals that go with it which does mean changing your life alittle - say if you always smoke after a meal - do something else; if you always smoke in a certain place - don;t go there and so on. The habit side is worse tahn the addiction to nicotine in my opinion and experience. You hear a certain bit of music and - oh I fancy a fag cause last time I heard this I was smoking....that sort of thing.

It is a mind over matter situation - which makes it both incredibly easy - and incredibly hard because your mind knows what you REALLY want and goes with that. So if you don;t REALLY want to give up - you can't.

Hope that is a help and doesn't sound preachy - I smoked for years and years and gave up so anyone can - but not the first fourteen times - cos then I was only doing it because people told me I should.

If nothing else stop becasue you don't want to end up in the radiotherapy/ chemotherapy and trauma wards with me.

Best wishes mate
Tony

Thank you Tony. This is all great stuff. I have found myself panting/short of breath for doing some of the most common day to day things. I do want to quit just because of this reason and not by anything or anyone else. Although not winding up in the hospital should be the be a good enough reason.-Markus

Hi Markus

I've never been a smoker, but my mom was until I was 30. She quit through hypnosis and has stayed quit for 15 years now. But, like Tony said, if you don't really want to quit, you won't be able to.

Good luck!

Julia

Hi Markus - well I just loved smoking - was giving up for no-one!!!! 7 weeks RT along with weekily chemo has put me off now though miss it immensley!!!

Good luck with giving up!

Love Chloex

Here's an informative thread that was started earlier this year that contains all sorts of ideas about quitting smoking, from natural methods to discussions about patches, gum, etc.

Natural Way to Quit Smoking

Best of luck to you,

Mimi

Good Morning Markus,
Take note of what Tony has told you, you have to want to give up and generally need to have a good reason for doing so. The trouble is there are always many reasons why you "need" to wait a while, maybe the job is extra stressful at the moment and you need a fag to get through the day, perhaps you are going on holiday next week and not being able to smoke would spoil the event, and there is the weekly card game with the boys; if you didnt smoke you would be the odd man out and probably be regarded as a wimp.Yes there are lots of reasons why you should not give up and very few reasons why you should; but lets take a look at a couple of them. In the UK we have a population of around fifty million and someone dies of a smoking related complaint every five minutes so in the states I suppose that equates to one person every fifty seconds or so, just about the time it has taken you to read this posting.
A high percentage of people diagnosed with mouth cancer are smokers, most of them tend to give up shortly after diagnosis, in some cases they see the damage smoking has caused, or the surgery/radiation/chemotherapy makes it impossible to continue smoking or they simply die.
I quit smoking about thirty years ago, had I not done so the cost in today's terms would have been around $150,000, the price of a small house.
When you had your first smoke it induced a feeling of well being, but this wore off and your feeling of well being dropped to very slightly below the normal state so you had another smoke , and so on but the peaks got lower and the troughs got deeper until you needed to smoke to raise yourself to the state enjoyed by non smokers all of the time.
Markus let me ask you this "do you want to give up smoking?" I think you do because you have taken that first important step of asking for help,you probably appreciate the damage you are doing to yourself and the risks you are taking. The next step is to fix a date when you are to become a non smoker, not next week or next month. How about tomorrow morning? when you climb out of bed don't reach for the dreaded weed,it is weekend so no work pressure,it is not the holiday season and to hell with the card game your life is more important.
If I ask your opinion of cocaine and heroin users I am sure you will agree that Drugs are for Mugs, but nocotine is addictive and it will take determination and will power to break the addiction, you can do it.
Just one last point, never again be tempted to have a single puff of a fag not even in twelve months time when you are sure you are completely cured.
Sorry to lecture you old chap.
Keep Smiling
John

Hi Debs..........My heartfelt sympathy to you and your family.......I've always enjoyed your and Trevors posts and will miss them as many others will but hopfully you will continue when you're up to it. I've been where you are now and it's not easy but you will get through it, time and memories helps the healing.....Joan P.

Marcus........I couldn't have said anything better about smoking that John Spencer has. All of my live I was around smokers (I didn't and will never) father, uncles, riends, two husbands and they were also heavy drinkers (I wasn't and never did) and no I'm not a saint but if anything I thought that I would get lung cancer due to the fact that as a child I had asthma and constantly had bronchitis. You can only imagine my shock when my swollen glands turned out to be the beginning of my roller coaster ride with this B.... of a disease. Now it's almost 3 1/2 years of lots of up, downs, side effects but Marcus I like many othere have survived and you will also. Giving up the first smoke is a beginning and it only gets better because things will taste better, cloths will smell better and no more smoke films in the house. My sister still smokes and I very seldom go into her house because it smells so badly and everything picks up that nasty smell.
I sell at flea markets and if someone comes near my booth smoking I ask them to please smoke elsewhere and they do. People do understand. Everytime you think about smoking go back to Johns post and read it over, print it out, enlarge it, hang it where you can see it maybe on your bathroom mirror, highlight parts of it and someday you will thank John Spencer. By the way all those people in my family that were smokers and drinkers are long gone and the one cancer victim is still kicking and giving advise..........good luck Marcus......Joan P.