Mmmmm... Nicotine...

[Stewart]

Really looking for the experiences of anyone who has quit smoking; specifically anyone who quit cold turkey.

I've smoked for about 2 years, probably about 10 a day on average. I've been thinking about stopping for ages, and finally got around to it this weekend, so I had my last ciggie Saturday night.

48 hours later, I've not had so much as a drag. Here's the thing though - I assumed the main problem would be cravings for a ciggie, and all the other stuff would be a minor thing, and it turns out it’s the other way around.

My cravings are under control, but my appetite and my ability to sleep have gone crazy. I'm eating every hour at least, sometimes every half hour, and falling asleep is taking for ever. My mood is a strange one; its not what I’d call a bad mood, because I’m pretty chuffed with the novelty of being a (very new) none smoker, but I do snap if so much as a proton brushes against me in a way I don’t like.

Anyway, the cravings are now (it seems) gone, as of this morning, which seems a little too soon. Was annoying after 12 hours, killing me after 24, pretty much gone after 48. I occasionally get a self-destructive urge to have 'just a drag', but there's no real danger of me actually doing it.

So, is this the calm before the storm, and soon a need for nicotine the like of which I've never imagined will hit me, or can you smoke 10 ciggies a day for 2 years, and pretty much break the habit (and almost all of the cravings) in a little over 2 nicotine free days?

You know how sometimes people say in films - 'that was easy... a little too easy...', I feel like that. Where's the 'omfg it’s harder to kick than heroin' stuff?

Ex-smokers - tell me your experiences of coming off the killer weed! Speshly if, like me, you were a lightish smoker and not coming off 60 a day and a 40 year habit.

And Madduck - don't even think about spaming my thread up like you do all the others, or I'll set fire to your face. (Well F me, he's posted some usefull stuff! )

[MadduckUK]

was smoking 20 a day for about 3 years or so. thaught one week that i was sick of coughing my guts up so decided to have one Friday night out where id smoke as many as i could then after that id stop. it actually went exactly to plan
... was really WEIRD more than difficult being in a pub, and took a few weeks of drinking to stop it feeling like something was missing. however when its gone it doesn't come back...

alcohol consumption went up however as there was nothing for my hands to do i ended up reaching for the glass a lot more.

its very doable, and going back would make you a pussy, are you a pussy son?

[Stewart]

I feel like I want a fight. Or at least a cup of tea, but I'm drinking that by the litre anyway.

[MadduckUK]

go on xbox live and shout at some yanks

[SilentDeath]

.

[Stewart]

Turns my stomach that sort of thing. I have got a picture of a cancerous lung bookmarked though, for just such a purpose.

Its got cancer all over it!

[Clunk]

I gave up in june last year after about 10 years of smoking a lot of unfiltered roll ups. I really hated smoking and got nothing pleasurable out of it and my mate recommended "Alan Carr's Easy Way To Give Up Smoking" and I have to say that I was pretty skeptical, so I went to the docs and he gave me a load of patches and some nicotene tablets for under the tongue. The patches gave me just enough nicotene to remind me that I wasnt having enough and the tablets took the skin off my tongue, so I thought sod it, and went cold turkey and read the above book. It sort of makes you look at smoking in a completely different way, and I know quite a few people now that have successfully used it to give up.

Worked for me and Ive not smoked since.

You can pick it up for about a fiver.

Good luck

[Stewart]

my mate recommended "Alan Carr's Easy Way To Give Up Smoking"

That bloke from the Friday Night Project? I've no interest in his methods for stoping smoking, it probably has something to do with my bum.

I'll do the Justin Lee Colins cold turkey method I think.

Also, apparently its normal to cough up black tar\gunk\cancer pop from your lungs after a while. Did this happen to you lot, and how long after you stoped?

[Clunk]

No, not him. Linky.

You should try it, nothing to loose and everything to gain

I was a bit disappointed, I didnt cough up anything at all, I didnt get the dreaded cold that people moan about, but I did curl up and die for a week, I couldnt keep awake and felt like my batteries had gone flat, on exactly the 7th day, I started to feel better and after that, each day was a bit easier. It is also easier if you try not to put yourself in situations where you would normally smoke a lot, like the pub (or whatever), especially for the first week or two.

Normal chewing gum helped me as well, sort of gives you something to do.

Back to the book, it helps you understand about the cravings and how to deal with them. Seriously, if you are serious about giving up, buy that book, or borrow it, as I said, you have nothing to loose

http://forums.hexus.net/showthread.php?t=77315

[Stewart]

I could do with a nice curl up and die... I've got the opposite problem, can't get to sleep. Been walking the dog and such to kill the time and tire me out a bit.

I'll have a look at this book then, at the very least its something to do that aint smoking.

Cheers.

[ACiD303]

I quit cold turkey (after smoking 10-15 on a normal day for 7 years). . . then slowly went back to it after 1 year

[IBM]

You're drinking tea by the litre and you wonder why you can't sleep? Why not kick the caffine habit too, switch to decaf, or really light green tea (which is really good for you and proven to act against all kinds of cancer and heart disease btw).

I quit after 10-20 a day for about 7 years. Cut down, cut down, cut down over about three weeks so I was only having five a day (very slim unfiltered rollups). Then just stopped. No side effects, the cravings were minimal, no real withdrawal symptoms. Thing was that my son had just been born, and you can't really ask for a greater incentive than that...

[Stewart]

Haha, quit tea. Joker.

Tea is essential to life, I NEED tea; I need multiple cups of tea, every day, without fail.

Plus every time I get that feeling that something is missing, I make a cuppa.

Yeah... I love tea, I'd never have been able to get this far (3 days!) without tea, so forget that idea.

Anyway, I woke up this morning, and actually felt like a none smoker for the first time. I didnt have an ashtray or lighters in the room, and my thoughts were tea () and toast, ciggies werent thought of.

[tiggerai]

Haha, quit tea. Joker.

Tea is essential to life, I NEED tea; I need multiple cups of tea, every day, without fail.

Plus every time I get that feeling that something is missing, I make a cuppa.

Yeah... I love tea, I'd never have been able to get this far (3 days!) without tea, so forget that idea.

Anyway, I woke up this morning, and actually felt like a none smoker for the first time. I didnt have an ashtray or lighters in the room, and my thoughts were tea () and toast, ciggies werent thought of.

Seriously, try some of mine... I know you've joked about it but Decaf tea really isn't that bad... and it might just be the comfort factor you're addicted to. I'd advise Typhoo Decaf.

And you're a terrible liar... but I'm leaving that one right there.

but kudos for finally doing it.

[Moby-Dick]

I smoked for 11 years prior to stopping last febuary. The Alan Carr book was particularly usefull.

Look on the bright side , the nicotine is almost out of your system ( takes about 72 hours )

The first big stage for me was being able to go out on the lash and not smoke.

[IBM]

Yeah, that's the challange, being in the pub. You'll have associated drinking with smoking with so long that you'll suddenly find yourself with a free hand which just fidgets for something to do. I found having a drink in both hands was a good way to do it