smokers I am calling you

[liltnt]

I have been smoking for over 40 years of course I have the dr after me to quit and he has even suggested a hyptotist. I am thinking to myself... Ye right.... wll I talked to my brother who has been a long time smoker also and he just quit... chantix, should I say tht again? Chantix. Brother said it took him six months on chantix and he just didnt want to smoke anymore...So I talked to the dr and got the prescription... not cheap I might add but... I stopped smoking the day before thanksgiving and havent picked one up yet... I realize that isnt a very long time but... its a start and the funny thing is I really dont want one...

If you go by package directions you take the pills for a week and stop smoking then continue to take the pills.. that didnt work for me I continued to smoke for the first two months. the urge to smoke got smaller and smaller until I was smoking only two a day. When i ran out I just didnt go buy another pack of cigarettes. I hope this might help someone else

 

[disneyhorse]

I don't smoke but....

I have a SEVERE phobia of needles and I did try a bonafide hypnotist... Paid $75 an hour for a couple months. I'm generally a nonbeliever of most stuff and was pretty skeptical. However, it was a very interesting experience and although I couldn't cure my phobia, I can see where it would be very helpful for a habit like smoking. I think it would work well for some people, I'd say it's worth looking into.

Andrea

 

[weebiscuit]

I have been smoking for over 40 years of course I have the dr after me to quit and he has even suggested a hyptotist. I am thinking to myself... Ye right.... wll I talked to my brother who has been a long time smoker also and he just quit... chantix, should I say tht again? Chantix. Brother said it took him six months on chantix and he just didnt want to smoke anymore...So I talked to the dr and got the prescription... not cheap I might add but... I stopped smoking the day before thanksgiving and havent picked one up yet... I realize that isnt a very long time but... its a start and the funny thing is I really dont want one...

If you go by package directions you take the pills for a week and stop smoking then continue to take the pills.. that didnt work for me I continued to smoke for the first two months. the urge to smoke got smaller and smaller until I was smoking only two a day. When i ran out I just didnt go buy another pack of cigarettes. I hope this might help someone else

I'm glad it worked for you! I've been smoking for 45 years. I tried Chantix twice, and each time it was horrible. I thought the first time I tried it was just a fluke so I tried it again a year later and the same thing happened. Sure, I was able to not have the urge to smoke, but I had such a horrible reaction to it, each time. I went a bit "mental." The second time I stayed in the bedroom for two days and cried and wouldn't let my husband even say a word to me. I totally withdrew and began having thoughts that were NOT healthy. I'm not sure I'd say I was suicidal, but I kept crying and asking myself what the point of living was.

I am NOT a person who suffers from depression, anxiety, or any other type of mental or emotional illness, but if you could have seen me on Chantix you'd have said I needed to be in a mental institution. Honestly, it was horrible. When I was on it the second time, by the fourth day of my mental breakdown my husband came to me and told me to please quit taking the stuff, that he'd rather have me smoking than losing my mind. (He has never been a smoker). So I quit taking it and went back to smoking.

I KNOW that Chantix works for a lot of people, and it's a wonderful thing for them! I just wish it would have worked for me. In looking back at how bad I was while on it, it sort of surprises me, because I've never had reactions to pain killers or antibiotics or anything. But if I'd stayed on Chantix I probably would not have died from lung cancer, but I think I would have still ended up dead. I just wish it had worked for me!

 

[fourluckyhorseshoes]

Not a smoker-- but good for you trying to quit.

I hope you can quit for good. Think about it that you will have more money to spend on something you love--like minis.

 

[lucky lodge]

ive been a smoker for 3o years i tryed those pills chantix.. did nothing for me i was on them

for 3months...you have to be a 100% in your head that you are going to quit our it just wont work...

but iam very proud of the people who have quit...well done

:yeah

:yeah

 

[Sonya]

I cant take it because I will lose my medical, it is considered a mind altering drug. I do know some who have used it with success, many who havent had successs and had bad reactions to it like weebiscuit. There is alot of

Good for you for quiting, keep up the good work. I have quit many times, 9 months was the longest, quitting wasnt hard for me but staying quit was the difficult part.

 

[Sonya]

ignore the above sentance 'there is alot of' cant correct it with this android application from my tab.

 

[afoulk]

I tried Chantrix in 2007 and was not successful on it. I truly believe that you really have to want to quit for anything to work. I have not smoked since Jan 1 2011 so I am coming close to a year of not smoking and have no urges to return. I got very sick after not smoking and I know that it was not from quitting but it was strange that after I quit instead of feeling better I was very sick.

 

[ohmt]

Smoking is a stress reliever for most people so often the reason people get sick after quitting is due to stress. Your immune system crashes.

Not a smoker either, but my grandmother was a chain smoker and I was proud of her for quiting. She got methicillin resistant pneumonia while having soldier surgery. Doctors have been unable to get rid of it 3 years later, but she quit smoking to help her lungs heal. It's been a while since i've heard her smokers cough which makes me so happy. I'd like my grandma around for a long time.

I am also proud of those that have quit! Yay!

 

[heartkranch]

Some reason when I want to quit something comes around to stress me out to the max!!

Example which seems to happen a lot when I say, I want to quit today: Last night I decided to quit and my friend said she's tired of smelling nasty, went to a friends house so I could work with my weanling so I can take her home when its dry, and her quarter horse wouldn't stand up in the freezing rain. so after halfway holding the horses hip, walking through ankle deep mud, I had 2 cigarettes waiting for the vet, and my friend had 4, being scared that we were going to have to put her daughters horse down.

 

[StacyRz]

I've been a smoker for almost 25 years. I HATE that I smoke. I hate knowing I smell like cigarettes all the time too... I don't think I have ever given 100% into quitting or trying though. They really have a grip on me

The thought of not having my cigarettes actually scares me. The thought of dying a cigarette related death also scares me.

I will cut down for a week or so, then next thing I know I am smoking just as much or MORE than I was when I tried to slow down

I tried a hypnotist but was young and cocky so think the reason it didn't work is because I didn't truly believe or want it to work.

I have been seeing the commercials for the Chantix, but I am really afraid that I will have the same symptoms as Sandy did. And I can get moody and emotional anyway, so when the commercials state the possible emotional side effects it scares me into not trying it.

I also always have some "stresser" that I use for a reason as to why I can't quit "today" ... Reading this thread made me want to pick a date though and give a true effort to quitting. For myself and my family. I never smoke inside but like I said earlier I hate being stinky.

 

[Riverrose28]

My husband has PAD and the Doctor gave him chantix so he would quit, he took it for 5 days and had to stop, he couldn't sleep or function. So he still smokes. I started in 1966, back then everyone smoked. I always quit when I was pregnant or nursing, and of course you can't smoke at work, slways went back to it. I quit in 2006 and stayed clean for almost two years, then I lost a mare in foal and started back up. Worst mistake of my life. How I quit was using the patches and keeping my hands busy such as sewing, but now my hands are crippled and I don't even have a thumb joint in my right one, so I don't sew so much. I can crochet for a while if I use a larege size hook and don't worry about the gauge, so I need to keep the pattern simple. I really would like to quit again, becuae I think if I quit maybe Hubby will too, or at least only smoke outside as he did when I quit last time. My Mother in Law smoked like a chimny, she moved in with us when she was only 62 as her husband passed and she couldn't care for herself. She was also sedentary, liked to sit around and read all the time and watch TV. Whenever I took her to the mall to walk, she couldn't get her breath and needed to sit. She died at age 72 because she was so frail and couldn't survive surgery to remove a tumor that was not life threatening. Smoking had damaged her lungs. Actually my smoking is a sin, because I am not respecting my body, but I do it anyway, it is the worst addition in the world, and it may be easy to quit, but the need is always there. I admit it, I'm a weakling, but then I'm not alone.

 

[supaspot]

I felt like you , even the thought of not smoking would send me in a panic , I smoked for 25 years and I tried several times to stop , I tried cold turkey and the patches , the longest I lasted was 3 months , the problem was I never really wanted to stop , I enjoyed smoking , but then my husband took ill with spasms to the main artery that supplies the heart , the doc said he should stop smoking and of course it would be easier on him if I did too , I bought the chantix and took them for weeks , no effect at all , in the end I bought a book called the easy way to stop smoking by allen carr .. I stopped ...I did need some will power but it worked , the second week of not smoking my dog died , now that might not sound terrible to you but I was heart broken - I cried every day for two years ( I have no children and she was my baby) I was also in the middle of menopause , lots of family problems happened at that time too and I still kept off the cigs , it will be three years at the end of january that Ive not smoked and I know I wont go back on them

my mum smoked all her life too , last christmas she went into hospital and never came out , she died at the end of january aged 74 ..her lungs were wrecked with emphysema , I wish someone had given her the book a few years ago

 

[Marsha Cassada]

My husband smoked for 45 years. Then he got a nicotene-induced autoimmune disease called Buergers. It was either quit or lose his fingers and toes, and worse. The doctor gave him Chantix. It was a rough couple of weeks while he was on it. (It was rough for me, not him. He felt great on it.) It was two years ago in January. He still isn't smoking but I know a day doesn't go by that he longs for one. I remind him of his motto: NOPE--not one puff ever.

I know chantix doesn't work for everyone. It helped him.

He started going to the gym 3 days a week when he quit and I believe that has also helped him. The strenuous excercise makes him feel better.

I have to say he was slowly dying before he found out about the Buerger's and quit. Now he doesn't wheeze any more. His muscle tone is improving. He can feel his feet and fingers again.

I invoke Venerable Matt Talbot a dozen times a day to help him--he is a patron of addicts.

Best of luck in your effort to quit! I can't even imagine how hard it is. Chantix is worth a try.

 

[sfmini]

I quit cold turkey on Thanksgiving day, 1987. One month after watching my Mom die of lung cancer caused by smoking. There wasn't anything available in those days so I 'smoked' pens and carrots and pictured my mother's suffering any time I got the urge to light up and I conquered the beast. Never lit up again. It was a real battle, smoking was allowed at work, in meetings, everywhere so there was no escaping it.

To those smokers who are parents, quit for your children, don't make them watch you die like I had to watch my Mom.

 

[dreaminmini]

Well, I smoked for a more than a few years. Tried quitting a few times, cold turkey was horrible. Then I was feeling really horrible and light headed one day and went to the doctors. I had REALLY high blood pressure. I was told to quit smoking or die. The doctor prescribed me Champix(what it is called in Canada) He gave me a 2 week trial pack for free and told me I would have to probably keep taking it for about 6 months. Well. I started taking them and at the end of the 2 week trial pack I had stopped smoking and I never filled for further prescription and I haven't smoked since. Sometimes I miss it but I know never to take even 1 puff.

Congrats to everyone who have quit. Everyone who is thinking of quitting, you can do this!!! Whether you take the pills, hypnosis, the patch or cold turkey, just know you can do it.

 

[minisch]

I quit almost 20 years ago. I was a very addicted smoker. It was the hardest, and the BEST thing I ever did. Of course it took me having pnemonia and could barely breath for me to quit. But still proud of myself for doing it. Now I have a severe reaction to cigarette smoke, instant asthma attacks (got asthma from smoking) I take care of elderly people for a job. I see the effects of smokers, copd, etc. I have hospice patients dying from lung cancer, it's probably the worst way to die. I literally am gagging with them as there gagging to death. I brought my kids up to hate cigarette smoking, hoping that would teach them to never start. I lost, my 19 year old son, being rebellious has started smoking. NEVER around me as I'd smack it right out of his mouth. I just hope and pray he doesn't get addicted like I did. I wish everyone who smokes the STRENGTH it takes to quit. It's worth it

 

[Jill]

I hope everyone who currently smokes will resolve to quit and stick to it. It is so bad for you!!!

About 2.5 years ago, I was diagnosed with lung cancer. I never smoked. Thankfully, I was able to get fast treatment and am fine today, but with a lot less lung than I used to have!

I will not ever forget the week between the time I found out I had a "lession" in my left lung until I met with a pulmonologist who was able to give me her opinion of exactly what kind of cancer I probably had, and that it was something I should survive. Of course, prior to that meeting, "Dr. Google" had convinced me I would not live long at all, because MOST people diagnosed with lung cancer do not and that absolutely includes the kind you get from smoking.

If you can spare yourself, and more crushingly, your family, the pain of a lung cancer diagnosis and probably outcome -- DO!

 

[sfmini]

I don't think I will ever forget that week Jill! I am so glad that all came out ok for you.

 

[Jill]

Thank you, Jody

It was a time in my life where the support here meant so much, beyond anything I can put into words