Eight Months Smoke Free!!!

[csabo]

Stopped cold last July 4. Anniversary coming up. 

[Samui Bodoh]

15 minutes ago, AsiaCheese said:

Thank you!

 

Yep, started off at 15. Not on 2 packs a day initially, but with later, stressful years and almost chain smoking, the average holds, and we're looking at almost 39,000 packs or 773,800 cigs. So what made me stop? Nothing. I just decided to give it a serious try. Like anyone who has ever smoked, I've heard my share of "it's gonna kill you", and every good doctor I've ever met in my life put on a grave face and said it's extremely unhealthy. Yada yada yada. I've been well aware of the (medical) facts, but life has a way of not only allowing logic into the calculation...

 

I've googled quite a bit before venturing on Champix - I'm a person who loves facts and being informed from several sources. Forget all the websites that want to sell you the stuff, or another cures of sorts. Among others, there's a Pfizer product page here: https://www.chantix.com/about-chantix (note that in Thailand and some other countries, it's called Champix, while in other countries the name is Chantix - I suppose marketing had their day...). It's quite informative, answers quite a few questions, offers different options for how to stop (I chose the "flexible quit" approach, because it seemed to show the greatest success rates). The stuff blocks nicotine receptors in the brain, resulting in less dopamine being produced from the first puffs of a cig. No dopamine means there won't be a drop in dopamine levels (one of the killer mechanisms making you grab the next cig, 15 minutes after the previous one) and thus diminished urge. I think there's a whole lot more that's going on in the brain, or the list of potential side effects wouldn't be as long as it is... So: yes, I'm super-grumpy, on edge, irritable, impatient, plus slightly forgetful/confused at times. Well - as an old geezer, I have all the rights to that . But it's a tad more than before stopping, so... My digestive system is also a bit upside-down. It started off while taking the first pills but still smoking - the continuous farts I kept producing were straight out of a Monthy Python movie. Then there's the munchies, because you don't hit stomach nerves over the head with the stuff from cigs. Expect to gain weight, unless you're a person with exceptional will power (then why did you smoke in the first place?), because things taste and smell better...

 

People tend to go on and on about nicotine withdrawal, and they start spraying stuff and chewing nicotine gums. IMHO, none of that is needed, because with Champix, you start to take the pills (smaller dose at first, then stepping up) while you still smoke for a while, and by the time you quit smoking, the entire nicotine-triggered mechanism has already been greatly reduced. What's MUCH worse is the power of habit. A cup of coffee without a cigarette? Unthinkable. A nice meal, and finish off with a cigarette? Yes please... Let's not even go into the cigarette-after. The longer and the more you've smoked, the more such "cornerstones" have gradually been built up, and those are damn hard to brush away, let alone ignore. Smoking isn't much of a physical addiction (if at all!) - it's mostly in your head...

 

I could go on for hours, but I have a few other things to do as well... 

Great post, Asia Cheese!

 

Honestly, substitute my 'cold turkey' for your 'Champix' and it could well have been me writing the post (they say the true test of another person's intelligence is how much they agree with you... ).

 

I agree about the 'habit' side, I know that I am telling you something that you already know, but it does fade. I am at 8 months and I have stopped thinking of a smoke after meals much of the time, stopped thinking of a smoke after sex much of the time, etc; I guess what I am saying is that I can see the end of those... automatic thoughts even if I am not quite there yet. And if it is happening to me, it'll happen to you as well.

 

Stay strong! It is a bitch to go through, but it is worth it.

 

Cheers

[thaiguzzi]

Quit place, BKK Sawanapoom airport.

Quit date 10/4/18, about 5 weeks ago.

37 years heavy smoker. Roll ups only.

Cold turkey, read the Carr book which may have helped along with an English mate in Laos who was also a heavy smoker and gave up just like that (snap fingers).

 No big problems, inc friends/family smoking in front of me whilst in the UK. Been back home here in LOS for nearly a week, and the first 2-3 days are the only time I really fancied and missed a cigarette.

I think changing my routine (it was planned) by getting away from my house here and going on a family holiday in the UK for a month, and also smoking roll ups rather than Taylor Mades full of chemicals and other bad shIt, has made it easier than I thought.

No big deal so far.

 

[thaiguzzi]

I reckon half the problems I read and hear about stopping smoking are the type of cigarettes people smoke. It's not just tobacco in there, but a bunch of other stuff the manufacturers put in there to keep us hooked and high off the nicotene.

 Fortunately for me, I have never liked the taste of a Taylor Made (Marlboro, B&H, Camel, Winston etc etc etc) and only ever smoked roll ups, which IMO have far fewer if any additives.

The downside to stopping smoking roll ups is I actually miss the rolling part....

[MW72]

1 hour ago, thaiguzzi said:

I reckon half the problems I read and hear about stopping smoking are the type of cigarettes people smoke. It's not just tobacco in there, but a bunch of other stuff the manufacturers put in there to keep us hooked and high off the nicotene.

 Fortunately for me, I have never liked the taste of a Taylor Made (Marlboro, B&H, Camel, Winston etc etc etc) and only ever smoked roll ups, which IMO have far fewer if any additives.

The downside to stopping smoking roll ups is I actually miss the rolling part....

I smoked roll ups from 19 to 33 years old and one of the big things with roll ups is the whole process to make one. It is almost like a ritual which just increases the difficulty in quiting from the habit side of things. Addiction wise I guess that the tailor mades have so many additional chemicals that they might increase the addiction. I have tried to quit on both roll ups and tailor mades and failed but I am extremely weak willed.

[Golden Triangle]

Congrats to all of you that have managed to give up after a lifetime of the evil weed, I gave up on the 1st March last year ( one of many tries & fails ) I did give up a few years back for about 3 years and stupidly restarted when staying with a mate over here, anyhow, I have now been smoke / Nicotine free for about 14 months, I still fancy a smoke, but the urge soon passes, so don't give in to those urges guys / gals although strangely my chest still feels a bit funny some mornings when lying in bed. I suppose that's 50 + years still clearing out of my system.

 

Keep up the good work people, 

 

 

[gk10002000]

Steady on, steady on.  My Dad was a chain smoker for 50 years.  He was born in 1927.  In 2006 he got Bladder cancer.  he had been peeing some blood for about one week then finally went to the doctor.  On Friday he was diagnosed with bladder cancer.  Bladder cancer it turns out is one of the most aggressive.  it can be cut out and easily cured, but if not caught in time it spreads wildly.  Monday morning they cut it out, apparently going in through his pee pee.  He was fine immediately.  He stopped smoking cold turkey that Friday night.  It took that scare to do it.  The next week he commented on how much better and different food tasted.

 

  My Dad had always been athletic.  Greek ancestry.  Great physique, very muscular.  But as he got older he had trouble breathing.  The years of smoking and cumulative damage caught up to him.  In his last year or two, he could not walk up two steps, not one flight of steps, I mean not two steps.  His love of family and kids and grand kids kept him going.  But I know he was very uncomfortable spending so much time in the reclining chair, looking out the window at the Florida sunshine, the intra-coastal river out back, the boats going by that he could not even get on, unable to even walk down to the dock to go fishing.

 

 Stop smoking now and don't start up.  Pick up some other nervous habits if you must.  get some worry beads, chew plastic tooth picks, whatever.

 

Congrats on your stoppage.  God speed

 

Now at the end of each week, put $10 bucks or 20 Euros or whatever in a jar on the counter in place of the cigs you used to buy.  Seeing that money accumulate is a good progress meter and should give you positive feedback going forward.  Then once a week go get that Thai massage, heck down a six pack.  Do anything but buy smokes.

[nanglong218]

A second thought on this subject.     I was Jake the Peg with the extra leg, (Oz/NZ/UK understand), the extra leg being nicotine.  How, you wondered, did two legged people get about without falling over, three legs were necessary.  Life revolved around never being without this third appendage.  It's addiction,  I don't sneer at junkies,  I was a legal one.

20 years on I have no cravings or desire for a ciggie.  I enjoyed a good holiday or two on the money saved.

When you think you've cracked it and can have just one with a beer, you have failed, failed.

My best wishes and encouragement to all who are trying to beat this habit.

[Scott]

Baiting post reported and removed.  

[Samui Bodoh]

Thanks to all for continuing/contributing to the knowledge and sharing.

 

ThaiGuzzi; are you suggesting that the cigarette companies added some extra bad stuff to their smokes? What a ridiculous idea! (sarcasm alert). I honestly don't know if there is a difference between the tailor made and the rollies, but I fully agree with MW72 that the process of rolling becomes habit, and that habit is the thing to break. Further, I have my doubts that quitting the rollies is much different from quitting the manufactured ones, but I am willing to be convinced.

 

To all those who posted so far... I suspect that there are a few people who are reading this thread and thinking of quitting; I think that reading your stories will give them a shove in the right direction. Why do I think that? Because 8-9 months ago I was reading the Non-Smoking thread and telling myself that I needed to quit. Was this section of the Forum the reason that I stopped? No. Did it help? Yes.

 

Keep up the good work and good luck all!

 

Cheers

[cornishcarlos]

Not sure if anyone else is in a similar situation ?

I smoked for a long time, never full on 2 packs a day kinda smoking but on a regular basis.

Now, thanks to my wife nagging (concerned for my health), I don't smoke at all when I'm in Thailand.

However, I work away maybe 6 months of the year and on some trips I start smoking again !!

Come back to Thailand and just stop, no withdrawal issues and no grumpy pants. So why do I bother smoking when I go away ??? 

Is it the rebellious kid coming out, is it because I can or is it that the habit isn't ever truly broken ??

 

[thaiguzzi]

# After a week of not smoking I was shopping in Sainsbury's with my Dad, Thai missus and my son, and came up against an old man with his trolley down an aisle - he f***ing reeked/stunk of stale tobacco smoke, like he'd locked himself in a car and chain smoked bad cigarettes. As a smoker I doubt I would have noticed. I realized, Christ, I must have stunk like that all the time...

 

# Got back to BKK, one thing I always like to do at the airport is get a couple of cans of Chang and sit outside in the smoking area getting a hit off the heat, humidity, traffic noise and smells, a sort of "welcome back home" thing. Did it this time, sat amongst the smokers for 30 minutes, drank my 2 cans of Chang, walked back inside. No real pangs, no real urges....

 Cured?

[Samui Bodoh]

2 minutes ago, thaiguzzi said:

# After a week of not smoking I was shopping in Sainsbury's with my Dad, Thai missus and my son, and came up against an old man with his trolley down an aisle - he f***ing reeked/stunk of stale tobacco smoke, like he'd locked himself in a car and chain smoked bad cigarettes. As a smoker I doubt I would have noticed. I realized, Christ, I must have stunk like that all the time...

 

# Got back to BKK, one thing I always like to do at the airport is get a couple of cans of Chang and sit outside in the smoking area getting a hit off the heat, humidity, traffic noise and smells, a sort of "welcome back home" thing. Did it this time, sat amongst the smokers for 30 minutes, drank my 2 cans of Chang, walked back inside. No real pangs, no real urges....

 Cured?

Cured?

 

No.

 

I am pleased that things are going so well, but if you are thinking that you are cured, then I would bet huge sums that the proverbial piano is about to fall on your head.

 

But, that is just me...

 

[Anak Nakal]

Stop smoking very very hard.

Congratulations everybody!

[PerkinsCuthbert]

18 hours ago, Krataiboy said:

Forty-six years ago, after being a heavy smoker for nearly thirty years, I quit on the advice of my doctor who said my lungs were in a pretty poor state and I was not going to live to a ripe old age.

 

It was wretchedly hard going for the first month, when I had to totally change my lifestyle to shake off the awful withdrawal symptoms and ensure I wouldn't fall off the bandwagon.

 

No more parties, pub visits and dinners with after eight mints, brandy and. . .  you've guessed. . .the room full of cigar and cigarette smoke.

 

Luckily, my then missus gave up the habit at the same time, so we were able to provide each other with the moral support to get over the craving. 

 

Now, just the smell of a cigarette - even, believe it not, emanating from a passing car! - makes me want to heave.

 

Since the day I quit I have tried to eat healthily and do lots of exercise to clean out my polluted lungs. I still cycle or walk for an hour a day and lift smallish weights - something I would have found hard when I was getting through forty fags a day in my "youth".

 

I have a lot to thank that doctor for. Only wish I could invite him to my birthday party in July, when I shall be eighty.  Sadly he is no longer around.

 

So keep up the good work, you quitters. It's the best, healthiest and economically most sensible decision you will probably ever make.

 

 

So you were four when you started smoking?

[Scouse123]

2 hours ago, PerkinsCuthbert said:

So you were four when you started smoking?

 

We've already been here, see earlier threads.

[Samui Bodoh]

3 hours ago, thaiguzzi said:

# After a week of not smoking I was shopping in Sainsbury's with my Dad, Thai missus and my son, and came up against an old man with his trolley down an aisle - he f***ing reeked/stunk of stale tobacco smoke, like he'd locked himself in a car and chain smoked bad cigarettes. As a smoker I doubt I would have noticed. I realized, Christ, I must have stunk like that all the time...

 

# Got back to BKK, one thing I always like to do at the airport is get a couple of cans of Chang and sit outside in the smoking area getting a hit off the heat, humidity, traffic noise and smells, a sort of "welcome back home" thing. Did it this time, sat amongst the smokers for 30 minutes, drank my 2 cans of Chang, walked back inside. No real pangs, no real urges....

 Cured?

Hi ThaiGuzzi

 

I sort of feel bad about my answer to your post (above) this morning (too flippant) and thought that I would try again. However, before I do, let me make clear that I am in no way a therapist/expert/competent/or a qualified thingamajimmy or whatever; I am simply just like you in trying to quit. That said...

 

I was a bit horrified to see your question, "cured?" above, especially after you mention that it has been only five weeks or so for you after 37 years. Unless we are secret non-identical twins separated at birth, we will react differently to the process, but... In my case, I have just hit the eight month mark but I do NOT feel cured at all; in fact I live with a minor daily fear that if I have ONE smoke, just ONE, I will be back on 2 packs a day within 24 hours. Yes, it is that bad. Now, let me be clear; I am doing well, I don't think that I will break down, and I don't think that it'll happen, but the fear is there. I did a little research just now, and while the data is not uniform/conclusive it does estimate that about 50% of people who try to quit fail on their first attempt. Further, it is not until you reach the roughly 2 year mark that the rate of relapse drops significantly, and even then it does NOT disappear completely. In other words; overconfidence kills!

 

I don't want that to happen to me; I don't want that to happen to you!

 

Sooooo, NO! You are not cured. You are not even close to being cured. In fact, you are far, far away from being cured and should maintain a level of paranoia that would frighten small children. Okay, perhaps a bit of an exaggeration... or perhaps not!

 

To sum up, can I suggest that any thought that you have of being 'cured' be tracked down and terminated with extreme prejudice? It is the (mistaken) belief that 'I can handle it' or 'I can quit anytime' or 'quitting is easy' that leads to overconfidence and relapses.

 

Okay, I'll shut up now.

 

What say you, TVF members?

[thaiguzzi]

4 minutes ago, Samui Bodoh said:

Hi ThaiGuzzi

 

I sort of feel bad about my answer to your post (above) this morning (too flippant) and thought that I would try again. However, before I do, let me make clear that I am in no way a therapist/expert/competent/or a qualified thingamajimmy or whatever; I am simply just like you in trying to quit. That said...

 

I was a bit horrified to see your question, "cured?" above, especially after you mention that it has been only five weeks or so for you after 37 years. Unless we are secret non-identical twins separated at birth, we will react differently to the process, but... In my case, I have just hit the eight month mark but I do NOT feel cured at all; in fact I live with a minor daily fear that if I have ONE smoke, just ONE, I will be back on 2 packs a day within 24 hours. Yes, it is that bad. Now, let me be clear; I am doing well, I don't think that I will break down, and I don't think that it'll happen, but the fear is there. I did a little research just now, and while the data is not uniform/conclusive it does estimate that about 50% of people who try to quit fail on their first attempt. Further, it is not until you reach the roughly 2 year mark that the rate of relapse drops significantly, and even then it does NOT disappear completely. In other words; overconfidence kills!

 

I don't want that to happen to me; I don't want that to happen to you!

 

Sooooo, NO! You are not cured. You are not even close to being cured. In fact, you are far, far away from being cured and should maintain a level of paranoia that would frighten small children. Okay, perhaps a bit of an exaggeration... or perhaps not!

 

To sum up, can I suggest that any thought that you have of being 'cured' be tracked down and terminated with extreme prejudice? It is the (mistaken) belief that 'I can handle it' or 'I can quit anytime' or 'quitting is easy' that leads to overconfidence and relapses.

 

Okay, I'll shut up now.

 

What say you, TVF members?

Thank you for your concern and no offense received...

I think the Carr book helped in explaining it as a drug addiction.

Now i like my drugs, always have, always will, but i have never liked any drug which you can get easily addicted to, ie smack or crack cocaine. So i have never got involved in needles nor pipes nor silver foil, nor the people and circles where these drugs were taken. Hence my hatred of all things junkie.

Everything else - fair game! Where's the party!

 So having it shoved in my face as a tobacco junkie reading the book, made me realize that i was addicted to nicotine = hence the immediate cold turkey/strong willpower/ i am stronger than this shIt/relatively easy stop.

[Samui Bodoh]

5 minutes ago, thaiguzzi said:

Thank you for your concern and no offense received...

I think the Carr book helped in explaining it as a drug addiction.

Now i like my drugs, always have, always will, but i have never liked any drug which you can get easily addicted to, ie smack or crack cocaine. So i have never got involved in needles nor pipes nor silver foil, nor the people and circles where these drugs were taken. Hence my hatred of all things junkie.

Everything else - fair game! Where's the party!

 So having it shoved in my face as a tobacco junkie reading the book, made me realize that i was addicted to nicotine = hence the immediate cold turkey/strong willpower/ i am stronger than this shIt/relatively easy stop.

Hmm...

 

Perhaps I was mistaken and we are non-identical twins secretly separated at birth after all!

 

 

Hang in there...

[Krataiboy]

13 hours ago, PerkinsCuthbert said:

So you were four when you started smoking?

Fourteen, as it happens. The inability to do simple sums is a common side-effect of smoking.