Quitting Smoking for the LAST time.

[Shahed]

Thanks Boyar.

Kekvit Irae, it is as I've researched, but I knew on Friday that I want to quit again. So I guess I had 2-3 days preparation. I realise that people who go cold turkey have the most chances of relapse, but I've chosen to go this way. I'm a man and the whole nicotine patch, slowly cutting down thing just doesn't feel right. Besides I tried nicotine replacements but they became nicotine supplements instead. I'd put on a patch, chew a gum and then smoke 5 cigarettes! So this is just a way for me to OD on nicotine. I may try some gum or patches, not ruling it out, but I want an immediate end to the smoke inhalation. I want to feel the benefits of not smoking immediately. I'm relying on my will, concience and presence to avoid a relapse. I'm also dropping alchohol after I finish this bottle, other than the essential glass of wine with a nice Christmas meal, and the essential glass of champagne on New Year. This is to ensure that I don't substitute the addiction with another one. I will not stop drinking but over the next couple of months I'll be much more aware of what I'm drinking.

It will be painful, YEAH!... I will LOVE the pain and I will get over this for good. I will heal.

[Mouzafphaerre]

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Congrats Sinan!

Due to legal enforcement, they put large black-on-white labels on cigarette packs warning the consumer about several potential harms smoking will cause. Most of them show "Smoking kills" but there are others too.

This guy buys a pack, reads the label "Smoking kills sperm cells and decreases your sexual power", and immediately returns it: "Boy, take this back and give me the one that kills."
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[Kekvit Irae]

One thing cigarette packs don't tell you is that it also increases urination and thirst in some people. Nicotine is seen by the body as a toxin, and flushes it out via the kidneys. However, it forces you to drink a lot more often to replenish the lost water. Most people mistake the increased urination from smoking for diabetes insipidus, which has the exact same symptoms.
It's annoying as all heck to me.

[Caius]

Good luck, you are going to need it. And I don't say it for experience.

[Veho Nex]

Good luck man... Smokings a tough habit to kick

[Shahed]

Thanks for the support everyone! Be assured that I've read everything and will reply where needed, asap. Just wanted to post a little log before I sleep. (AHHHH!)

Progress Log. 00:43 28/12/2007
There is always dark and light, always night and day, spring follows winter as summer follows spring. Today felt a little bit like night. Compared to yesterday it was dark, even though I had a decent amount of sleep I really felt blown. This is normal, the body is readjusting, and I've felt this before at a Yoga camp where I didn't smoke for almost two weeks. I'm expecting sleep, sex and nutrition needs to increase over the next two weeks. My face hurts, and I have some minor swelling. I already got even men, don't worry. ;)

Accordingly my fridge and fruitbasket are stocked! with healthy and nutricious items, all natural where possible and always requiring home cooking. As little as possible processed foods (in fact the only processed food I possess right now is Nando's HOT sauce) I have a date tomorrow which will turn into 'something more'. Don't blame me, I am a strategist.

Mood swings, emotional stability seems to be down.

Perhaps it's the big news about my country of origin which pumps andrenaline, and makes me try to look out for loved ones and family, as a hardwired evolutionary male reaction. But they are not all here, some are there. I don't have any weapons, no uniform, and worst of all I'm not even there, so I can do nothing to protect them in this important moment. I've called and everyone is fine.

In any case the excess andrenaline is certainly in the bloodstream. Seem happy one minute, angry the next, sad the next. Not all of this is due to nicotine withdrawal, there are external factors. Overall I am in good emotions, but seem to be facing a bit of a rollercoaster. How terrible it must be to be a woman ! ( ;P HAHAHA! just kidding!). Fast food and fat craving is increased. Seems I need more 'comfort' food. Eaten relatively poorly today. Didn't eat breakfast till 16:55, ate a plate of rice and BBQed Chinese Duck in Chinatown, watching Cantonese TV! WHOOO!!! That was good for my brain cells. They were like WOW! Chinese MASSAGE ! YEAH !!! I am beginnning to hear the difference between Cantonese and Mandarin. YESSS! I love languages. Good quality but very late in the day, didn't feel too much like eating. NOTE: The few vegetables I got with this dish, tasted absolutely divine. Ate a plate of boiled potatoes with green chillies (imported from THAIland!), accompanied by 3 Heinekens (beers) for lunch around 23:00, no dinner today.

It will pass! and I will heal.

[FactionHeir]

Word of advice: Try to keep meals within their "normal" times even when you don't feel like eating. Creating a (healthy) routine and keeping to it gives you something to fall back on, so you won't be at a loss at what to do at times and think of a smoke.

Also, being around others who don't smoke tends to help I read.
Having something to look forward to as you certainly seem to have is always a good thing!

[woad&fangs]

Sinan, are you a trekkie?

[Vladimir]

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Congrats Sinan!

Due to legal enforcement, they put large black-on-white labels on cigarette packs warning the consumer about several potential harms smoking will cause. Most of them show "Smoking kills" but there are others too.

This guy buys a pack, reads the label "Smoking kills sperm cells and decreases your sexual power", and immediately returns it: "Boy, take this back and give me the one that kills."
.

That MUST have been Sinian.

[Ramses II CP]

I quit, cold turkey, about four times. The first two times were actually quite successful, I've always fasted regularly, including off of cigs, and so the cycle of addiction wasn't really well engrained in me. The trouble was 2-3 months after I quit I'd run into a friend I'd been avoiding specifically because he/she/they also smoked, and we'd have a 'good to see you again' bash that ended with 'Well, one won't hurt me.'

It's all downhill from there.

Then I quit drinking because I realized I was an alcoholic. That was the third time I quit smoking, and the two do not go together. Eventually I had to choose between wrecking my health and life, or just wrecking my health as a stress reliever, and I chose health, i.e. smoking.

Then the wife and I decided it was time to have a child. Before we went off birth control we both quit smoking. Never looked back, never had 'just one more,' or any of that hedging stuff. It's been a little over five years since I lit up.

Good luck. IMHO it's all about motivation. If you really have a reason to quit the power of nicotine is pretty weak, but if you're just quitting to quit you may find that you start back just to start back. It's a very enjoyable habit really, especially if you can keep your use casual to start with, but the consequences are horrific, if long term.

Think about it like this: If you saw a normal, healthy guy go into a building named 'Smoking' and come out ten minutes later hacking up a lung, pushing an IV stand, looking half dead, and sporting a traech tube you'd have to be out of your %^$&ing mind to follow him into the building. Just because you have to be in there for the next 15 years of your life rather than 10 minutes doesn't mean the end isn't the same, it just makes it harder to come to terms with. At least it was for me.

I was just a half a pack a day for ~6 years, and two more on and off. Obviously it's harder the more or longer. Good luck!

[Hepcat]

Good luck Sinan!

One of my uncle and aunts smoked frequently both before and after having children. I'd always thought it a shame that the kids had to grow up with the smoke around, though I'm glad to say that they both chose to quit only 2 years ago and they've stayed off them since and are all the better for it.

[Martok]

Good luck, man. I'll keep my fingers crossed for you.

[Warmaster Horus]

Good luck!

My mom smokes, and a few times tried to stop. She couldn't. My dad smoked, and succeeded in quitting. Now, he's the one going out to get the cigarettes. Poor guy (it's below zero here).

In any case, good luck, Sinan! I'm sure you can do it.

[Mouzafphaerre]

That MUST have been Sinian.

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