Connecting Singles^® Forums100% Free Online Dating

I believe that it is important that the moment you decide to quit smoking, you truly understand that you are freeing yourself. Perhaps easier said than done, we all have the choice to take it into action.

Tonight, I took the last pack out of a carton I had received from my grandmother as an early birthday present. Having a cigarette out of it I had been contemplating ridding myself of this habit that is a cause for un-necessary financial expendature. To boot the health benefits are very much favourable too.

Now I have been smoking for a little over nine years, with a rate of over a pack per day on average. I looked at the new pack and grabbed a pair of scissors and telling myself that I am through. Sounds like a real waste of $9 for a pack but it also has meaning. Since I found a way to part with this habit, I need to move forward.

I am sure after I sleep tonight I will want to regret smoking as cravings flow through me.... but I will make my best effort to keep my hands and mouth more occupied. Any suggestions? lol....

If you have quit, or are planning to quit, let me know how the progress does.

D

it's not easy, it comes in waves...

avoid being around it...avoid alcohol, drink lots of water...

cut down on stress for a bit...

and just do it.

I've had to quit many things. Just remember that you will always have a need to do it but that the hardest thing is not quitting...it is staying quit.

Are you sure it's a need? I think this is a good candidate discussion for 'need vs want'. If you want one, you'll have one. Self-control is what will stop you. If you mentally prepare yourself to stop, you will have no issues with not smoking.

Rich

I haven't had a cigarette since Feb. this year.

Hey Den. Not sure what caused me to wake up from a pleasant snooze, but perhaps i know why now. I felt the need to check CS and low and behold i find your thread...wow, first one in a long time for you, but i guess with your injured knee, you have plenty of time to reflect on your life and what steps you can take to improve it...quitting is one of those steps!
See, i told you that you should start writing again...it is very therapeutic. Glad you actually have followed through with quitting this time, as i know it has been very hard for you...but you definitely need the money Den. Hopefully you are successful with quitting this time, best of luck. Remember, there will always be stresses that come and go, and finding a more productive way of dealing with it is important. I think people tend to use smoking as a way of dealing with stress, an excuse, but in the end, it can cause more problems, more stress.
I know, i don't smoke, but i know from watching people go through this. Smoking can truly suck the life out of you....and on top of that, is very harmful to those around you...you see i am a passive smoker, have been all of my life. There is a chance that i could be the one who gets sick from second-hand, instead of the ones who are actually smoking, how is that fair? It's not, but it's a harsh reality, and a hard lesson to learn...glad you have made the effort to stop before there are more consequences.

Anyway, a bit of friendly advice...with reference to 'making your best effort to keep your hands and mouth more occupied'...well...i would suggest you drink lots of water and play lots of video games, as you like to do or something along those lines...also writing is beneficial as well...however, seeing as you just very, very recently got out of a long term relationship...i wouldn't recommend that course of action. ...as i believe it would be very counter-productive, though you may not see it that way.
What you need right now is this time to think...and make further improvements before jumping back into a relationship
Anyway, just my two cents....good luck Dennis! Hope your knee is feeling a bit better and that you will get that much needed surgery sooner rather than later. I'm sure you really, really want to smoke right now, but be strong, ya don't need it!

I quit 8 years ago, I was at the hospital waiting for my mother to be released. I had one cigarette left in the pack and told myself I would never buy another pack. I went outside and I smoked that last cigarette. To this day I have never bought a pack or smoked another cigarette. I am an ex-smoker! When it is your time to quit, no ifs, and or buts, you just quit.

Oops! i didn't mean to put that last eye roll in! Back to bed i go! Zzzzzzzzzz....

mmm, sometimes people have an inability to control the impluses in their brain that say stop. others are able to stop much more easily

you raise a good point because physiologically, when your addicted to cigarettes, your body wants that nic fix. However, that "need" is only skin deep...or is it...as some people have the kind of brain that makes them unable to draw the line for stopping when a "normal" person would not be affected by these temptations

i think this raises anopther good point in that God made us this way (vulnerableto life's temptatins) and we all succumb to temptations from time to time, but only those of us who are strong enough will not succumb to what we know is a vice. Ultimately, is it ideal for us as humans to be complketely free of vice and concurrently temptation?....Or should we have some measured amount of "acted-upon" temptation....I am rambling but i think some of thses questions are worthwile....

Quitting was so not easy but what helped me was sugarless gum and water. Everytime I had a graving, I reminded myself it would pass if I just gave it that moment..if it was a really bad craving, a piece of sugarless gum took the edge off for me. I know it sounds dumb. lol

Anyway, good luck.

my mind is very strong...if i choose to not do something, it ain't happenin'.

if i say..., "i quit", then you can bet your ass it's a done deal. no half-way...no wishy-washy...no, "i can't control it". it's just done.

and yes, i quit meth that way, as well.

Yea...as much as I always joke about mary jane....I don't actually do it

But....4 years ago if ya would of rolled a fat blueberry blunt...I would of been the first to bust out a lighter.

You must adapt a new state of mind to overcome the old.

and that principle applys to almost everything.