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Peer pressure can be a good thing

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by tony hopkinson

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Day 19 of stopping smoking was a bit of a struggle, got through it without succumbing to my evil urges though. Also I didn't have a cigarette.

I've told a few people I'm stopping, well actually every body who's come near me and appearently looking like a spineless eejit in front of them was nearly not enough, so I thought I'd add you guys.

It will stand me in good stead for getting off this nicotine gum next.

If I start again, and you find out, you can lobby to have my TR sign on changed to NorthernWimp.

If that doesn't do it nothing will.

81 replies

by the scummy one

if you are just too broke for it! :^0

Good going, I think I shall support your effort at least a little. But personally, if I were to try, people would die!!!

by michael jay

you should be just about there, but trust me, the urge never ever never dies.

Best to you and I know you can do it if you really want to.

note: stay away from Jaqui, I see him smoking in the upper right hand corner.

by the scummy one

is 5 days.

However, from what I have read, the hardest part is pshycological after the first 10 days. (unless an alternate nicotine is used). 10 days without Nicotine, and the body is free of the 'need' for it.

by tony hopkinson

On my 2nd box of 4mg hits, next time I'm going to buy the two milligrams.

Just breaking the lighting up habit is difficult.
Being a smoker and spending a lot of time in front of a monitor, I used to have a cigarette while I was resting my eyes, also to have a ponder over something I was stuck on.
I ended up outside the building in the smoking shelter chewing (I'm on the fourth floor as well!) with all those nasty smoking types peering at me wondering WTF, the other day.

Not lighting up after sex has been easy since I got married, but after a meal, as I get up just before bed, waiting for the train, while having a beer or three....

I still reach into my pocket to get a cigaratte out, if there were any in there they'd be in my gob and lit before I'd remembered I'd stopped.

Cold Turkey, yep dead people, lots ,there would be a government health warning stamped on me.
Not giving this bloke a cigarette WILL be bad for your health.

by jaqui

won't change.

I walked away from smoking once, lasted 4 years, cold turkey quitting.
[ from a pack a day habit ]

destroyed my knees doing long distance running, next day lit up.

been smoking since... close to 30 years at a pack a day.

by michael kassner

I went through the quiting process about 30 years ago after getting out of the service. So if I can do it I am sure you will have no problem.

by tony hopkinson

that was before they started cutting your fags (OK cigs then damn PC muppets) with heroin wasn't it? :D

I stopped (a couple a day) when I went in, started again when I started working shifts as a VDU operator, and soon got up to a manly twenty +, in 1982....

Had my first one (fing 'orrible by the way), when I was 11.

That was bad peer pressure, or may I was spineless back then.

Edited to add key for ****

by hal 9000

I stopped smoking last year for about 9 months maybe a bit longer. I just stopped immediately but I was sick at the time so maybe that has something to do with things.

But when it came time to move recently I started smoking again and am back to where I was previously. Now maybe if I actually waned to stop things may have been different but living through a move after 17 years of being in one place is more than enough reason to keep smoking.

Col

by tony hopkinson

I just woke up and basically decided I didn't want to smoke anymore.

It's not a gift horse I chhose to examine too closesly.

I can say previous attempts to stop were doomed to failure by the fact that I didn't really want to.
Fighting the mental habit of the hands, the physical addiction to the drug with no real desire to win means you end up losing.

I'm about the last person in the world to encourage you not to smoke, I view all evangelist 'reformed' smokers as assholes who should STFU and have a cig to calm down.

by jamesrl

Never been. My parents were, both successfully quit. My dad stopped after an illness, started up again cause my mom still smoked - they both had to quit to make it work.

As to why, all I can say is from a logical perspective, smoking doesn't make sense. You wouldn't willingly live beside a chemical factory spewing all kinds of pollution, but you willingly inhale a chemical soup? How logical is that?

Having said that, I am very sympathetic to the difficulties of stopping a habit that is more addictive than many hard drugs. It isn't easy as I have seen first hand.

Good luck.

James

by delbertpgh

I started smoking cigarettes when I was 15. By the time I was 17, I couldn't taste them any more, and I wished I could stop. I then started trying to quit. Sometimes, I would quit 20 times a day. I deplored my weakness deeply and often. A lot of self-hatred was engendered, but didn't make much difference.

By the time I was 30 I was married, and my wife started some asthmatic bronchitis problem that had her sitting up coughing in bed all night, every night, from December to May. I thought maybe my smoking was irritating her lungs, so (for her this time) I quit. It was not easy; the pain of separation did not dissipate in a period of weeks. Every five minutes of every day for three months I thought, "Well, that's done; where's a smoke?" Or, "I should think about that; now's the time for a smoke." Or, "A smoke would go along well with this relaxing moment; where... oh, crap." After ten months I was way better, only thinking of smoking maybe four times an hour. After a year and a half, I was better than that, but not over it, and I started cigars. My wife's bronchitis didn't seem to lessen for my not smoking.

Five years later, my second daughter was diagnosed with a mild asthma, and I figured I should quit the cigars. For her. So, I relived the earlier experience, and three or four years after quitting, I only thought about smoking a couple of times a week. Did I mention that during the five years of cigars, I thought about quitting hundreds of times? Naturally.

The moral of the story is that if you can't quit, keep trying. It may be some dumb extra motivation that gives you the extra push that makes it successful. Maybe sheer luck will bless you, and you will find your weak motivations become inexplicably sufficient to the task. Maybe an aid, like patches or gum or hypnotism will get you over the hill. Whatever it takes. It's a seriously addictive product.

I quit the cigars 20 years ago, and I don't think of them any more. However, if I were diagnosed with a terminal illness, I'd be back with the cigars. Unlike the cigarettes, I never stopped liking them.

by tony hopkinson

I've no idea when I'd be able to trust myself to have one, without starting the habit again.

What would be a really nice, sort your head out moment, is if I can stop for long enough that any next cigarette, tastes like the first one I ever had and makes me cough my lungs out.

by delbertpgh

Once I did my successful quit on the cigarettes, I never had another.

Same for the cigars. On the day my abstinence began, it became complete.

But, if some day the doctor says, "Delbert, you have six months to live," you'll find me the same afternoon on my porch with a cigar and cognac.

by shellbot

Don't be one of these ones that decide to have that "next cigarette" on the basis that you will cough your lungs out..

I quit for 2 years..and a year and half back when my life went to heck for a while i started back up...the first one I had tasted cr@p and made me cough a bit..but it was soooooooooooooooo good..i had another one immediatly after.

stay strong..its worth it Tony

by jessie

But ya know, nobody likes a quitter. ;)

Seriously though, good for you. Stick with it. You can make it! The urge will never go away, but you certainly can quit when you put your mind to it.

by ontheropes

I took Zyban for a few days but other than that it's been cold turkey. I can't say that the Zyban did anything for me but I did quit while taking it. I've quit taking that now.

Both my wife and daughter quit smoking. My wife quit two weeks ago and my daughter quit over a year ago.

I'm not even going to have one. I really want to quit. I quit once for six months, smoked one and was right back at it again. This time I'm not going to fool myself into thinking that I could stop at one smoke. It's just a lie I'd be telling myself.

It's good to see someone else quitting. What a PITA this has been. Getting to be a little easier every day. My wifes support has helped . She knows what I'm going through.

by beth blakely

You can do this! Believe it or not, there will come a day when the words "cigarette" or "smoke" won't even enter your mind. When confronted with a craving, tell yourself firmly: "There is no appropriate time or circumstance to smoke." Believe it, and move on to a new task!

Also, be sure to stay hydrated. Water, water, water. And take frequent stretch breaks.

2-4-6-8 who do we appreciate? OTR, OTR!!!!

by tony hopkinson

Doesn't bother me, except it's a bit cold over here when you wind the car window down.

She is supportive
Can't wait to tell me told you so, if I start again. :D

Keep going mate day five is a mere day away.

Anyone can do a day, even us.

by ontheropes

I don't know if second-hand smoke would bother me. I'm glad I don't have to find out.

There are times when my mind is not my friend. I wake up thinking about smoking, about getting my "fix". How sad is that? :D

Getting this monkey off of my back has been a trip. No slips and no excuses for me, not going to allow it.

It might sound stoopid but it's important to me that I'll be able to say that I quit the first time I tried to quit. I'm not going to blow it now that I've gotten thru the worst of it. I expect to continue to struggle with my addiction but it gets easier every day. Not a lot easier, just easier. I can make it. Ain't nothing but a thing. :^0

by tig2

Tony, my Dad stopped after nearly 40 years as a smoker when he was in hospital after his first heart attack. He was told in no uncertain terms that he would never be able to smoke again.

Many months later, he was able to go back to work. This was at a time when you could smoke at your desk. He was in the hallway at a cigarette vending machine with the coins in his hand and ready to purchase when he realised what he was doing.

You're right- if you had a cigarette on you, you'd smoke it before you knew what was up.

Keep the quit- it's well worth it.

by dadspad

Quitting can be the hardest thing you do. In the back of your mind, where that little kid that wants to do anything he wants, will still be the urge to start smoking again. Just remember you are an adult. :)

My son is a smoker, despite all promises he would not start. Recently my wife recorded an Opra show on how to quit smoking she will send him. On the show Dr. Oz demonstrated that if you get emphysema (from smoking), quitting smoking will not improve the severity of emphysema. However it should not get worse. One of the most common effects of smoking (according to the show) is emphysema.

Nothing funny about that. :(

by the scummy one

that quitting will do these things (not sure about timeframes, but it was something like this)
after 10 days, the physical need for nicotine is gone.
after 30 days, coughing (smoking related) is reduced greatly, or completely.
after 90 days, your body's immune system should be recovered, depending on eating habits.
after 90 days, risk of heart attack drops.
after 1 year, risk of heart attacks/disease is the same as your age group with non-smokers.

This is coming off of memory from some time ago, but I thought it appropriate to mention, for helping to aid those that are in the trenches.

by dadspad

I am not sure of the numbers, but they sound right. Emphysema is a disease that can be brought on by smoking. On the show, it was given a rating of 1 to 5. If you were diagnosed with a 2 (40% loss of lungs) it will never get better. If you quit smoking at that point, chances are very good it willnot get worse. If you continue smoking, it will worsen.

It was shown how smoking destroyed the lungs and how emphysema started.

If you quit smoking, you should get lung examinations and xrays. If you do not have diseased lungs, it is all good news.

by tony hopkinson

he'll just get irritated and have a f a g.

Definitely the worst thing you can do, you'd have more luck forcing him to smoke twenty in one go while in your presence.

by the scummy one

cause I know 2 other people trying to quit as well (over the last few weeks). My mom stopped about 6 months ago, and my little bro stopped right before Christmas.

Wow, add 2 more to the crowd and my world is shrinking....

Oh well, at least Jaqui isnt trying yet..

by tony hopkinson

Now a good single malt in my hotel in Thailand, offering tips to young ladies who make me last six months....
Hve a cigar during R & R breaks.

by tony hopkinson

they can't fix'em, might as well say f*** it and have a fag, if that happens.

or is that fag it and have a fuck.

Sheesh.

by dadspad

if you have had an examination, including lung exam/xray then you would already know. This is usually a normal part of a physical exam. If you did have physical, then the doctor would have sent you for more tests if he/she was concerned.

If you have not been examined, do so. A physical exams should be a yearly habit for anyone. I strongly believe knowing whether a condition exists or not helps. Also talk to your doctor about you quitting smoking, he/she may have ideas for help.

I can sympathize with you as I was a smoker, but quit a long time ago. Haven't had one since and my lungs are clear. I, also, found that switching to a cigar or pipe did not work. I always went back to smoking. I believe the reason I could quit cold was that it was my decision and promise to myself to do this.

Why are bad habits so hard to give up? :)

by tony hopkinson

Full of sick people you know. I could catch something.

I don't like 'em they spend as much time learning how to reassure you they know what they are doing as they do with their xpert charts.

Is red sticky fluid coming out.
Yes
Is the patient stood up
Yes
Is it the very top bit
Yes

It's a scalp wound.

Actual next victim little Pete with a pot of red paint jammed on his head.

by hal 9000

Quacks are the pits and need to be avoided as much as possible. Only Dentists should be avoided more often.

So you can see that they are right at the bottom of the [b]Do Not See List[/b] as I've yet to run across one that will actually tell you the truth. The last few times that I've seen them I've been hearing things like You should be Dead You Know or That level of Potassium in your Blood is Incompatible with Life, means you should be dead as well. Then the best one was If you sign yourself out you could have a Heart Attack & Die, I'll Save your life if you stay. I could only say that there is no way that this silly Quack could actually save my life ever at best she could just prolong the suffering, but of course it was much more fun saying that [b]Death Was Preferable to her Treatment.[/b] :D

Col

by dadspad

I figured that was why you wanted the number 666. :D

I don't blame you for staying away from the medical people. Most of them cannot steer away when the see something they cannot understand, and goes against what a book says.

by tony hopkinson

I do now.

Pity the the quack on the other end of the phone who said it wasn't serious and to wrap the missus in blanket, missed a branch on her decision chart....

Best of it was she got it because they f'ed up her operation a week before.

Abdominal pains, followed by extreme shivering, then it all stops. If they haven't just eaten 2 litres of icecream, get them to hospital, before everything else stops.

by cuteelf

Cut up lots and lots of carrots and celery sticks and have cheese sticks available.

I know you want to stick something in your mouth - but - putting candy can make you gain weight. And chewing on pencils....bah. Is that a splinter between your teeth, dear?

Carrots and celery, crunchy, hold shape, nibble, fiddle with.

And wear a shirt "Tony will explode in 15 minutes..Counting down now!" (j/k)

Good luck, and I'm glad.

How much does a pack of Marb Reds cost in the UK now?

CuteElf

by tony hopkinson

Smokers in the UK fund their holidays by buying in extra supplies.

Smuggling cigarettes is a cottage industry over here though. If you meet a guy in the pub, you could get some for ?3.

Personally I don't think it will be too long before the big boys start wanting a piece of the action and people start dying from selling cigarettes a lot quicker than they would if they just smoked them.

Still you create a market, people want a share of it.

Market's can't be illegal, that would nake you some sort of commie.

by tony hopkinson

of normal gum (sugar free) of course.

Chewing is quite comforting.

I have noticed that my wisdom teeth have cut through a lot more as well. Evidence that stopping was wise. :p

by ontheropes

This is day 6. Possibly of no interest to anyone but me but I'll be damned if I haven't made it this long without smoking. Thought about it but haven't done it.

The withdrawals can make you HUNGRY. Yesterday I ate 7 bowls of cereal, one right after the other. Not so good since I'm trying to lose weight but I didn't smoke and that's the most important thing.

Yesterday was borderline crazy. I was wired. Probably quit taking my Zyban too soon. Today not smoking has been easier, without being on any medication. It's still hard to concentrate and just plain feels weird not to smoke. I've read where it might take six months to finally get past the withdrawals and some people say they occasionally crave a cigarette even after 16 years!

Don't be that NorthernWimp. Quit smoking for good. I'm half out of my mind doing whatever it takes to stop and stay stopped. So far, so good. If I can do it so can you.

by tony hopkinson

I've got to stop coming back to this thread. I hadn't thought about smoking for ten minutes.

Work is a bit hectic at the moment. English understatement, f'ing mental might be more accurate.

The people delivering my new PC seem to think I should sit at my front door until they can be arsed to pop round.

The people I paid for my new PC seem to think they've done their bit.

I had the bathroom refitted recently and then totally re did the kitchen. The missus said I had to get a proper plumber, because it's a big job and needs doing professionally.

So I did, yesterday she noticed a strange stain on the kitchen celing and the squelchy carpet round the toilet. Fortunately clean water :( :) :p . A'hole numpty used a broken O-ring and then wrapped some PTFE tape round it, so it would last long enough to cash the cheque.

And I still haven't had a cigarette.

If I can do it under these circumstances, it should be a piece of p1ss in your cushy existence. :D :D

by ontheropes

plus I've got my wife who is making quitting smoking look really easy. She hasn't gone nuts on the food either. Kind of ticks me off.

by tig2

If your weather is anything like mine, when you find
yourself craving food, go outside and breathe deeply until
you are too cold to do that any more. Your food craving
will automatically go away.

Dad said that the O2 he was getting right after the heart
attack kept the craving at bay. Of course he forgets the
five days of morphine, but he has a point.

Swing your arms back and forth while breathing deeply. It
will help you.

by ontheropes

I took a class that taught how to quit. They said to take 3 deep breaths when you really wanted a cigarette because the first thing that happens when you light up is an O2 rush to the brain. It takes 30 seconds for the nicotine rush to hit. The breathing trick has worked for me as far as smoking goes. I'll try doing it the next time I get a craving for food. It can't hurt. :D

Quitting smoking has been odd. For some reason I've experienced a lot of deja vu over the past few days. There must be a glitch in the Matrix.

by dadspad

after you quit smoking. That is why most people eat more at that time. I am not sure that is true, but it is the most common thing smokers do when quitting.

I found a good way to relieve stress is to do deep breathing. Especially if you wet you lips first. This is supposed to help cool the brain. Although I don't think I would try that outside in Minnesota in Feb. Might get icicles on your teeth. :0

:D

by av .

Thats really great! I'm on the bandwagon too since the beginning of the year. Haven't totally quit yet, so I still smoke, but I'm using psychology this time and having better luck than I've ever had with nicotine gum. My sister quit with nicotine gum about 5 years ago and now she is hooked on that.

I've gone from 5 packs a week to 3 for the month of January. In February, my goal is 2 packs a week. So far, so good and I have a good attitude. I do alot of talking to myself. In March, my goal is 1 pack a week. Its a stepping down method that entails understanding and changing ones habits. I've learned to ride out most of the urges. The most important thing is that I'm committed to quitting and willing to go the distance this time. Looks like you are too.

19 days is the point of no return. Don't give up. Even if you fall off the wagon one day, tomorrow is another day. Its a marathon, but you can do it. I will too. Theres no turning back.

AV

by tony hopkinson

I swapped my smokes for crisp butties. I put a few pounds on myself. Completely crapped on my modelling career I can tell you.

A bit of exercise might be wise, and when you do eat, go for sensible stuff.

This crisp butty is wonderful by the way.

by gadgetgirl

over there would be called a potato chip sandwich or bap.....

filling AND fattening!

Now you know why Tony is twice the man he used to be! .... :p :p :D :D

(sorry, Tony!)

GG
]:)

by absolutely

[i]Ok... what is a crisp butty? [/i]

I would not have asked, although the answer was not nearly as bad as I feared. Huh, those dweebs eat something called "Spotted Dick?" No wonder the sun set on their Empire!

by dadspad

I have heard of peritonitis, but do not know anyone that had it. Not something I would wish on anyone.

by absolutely

I like to remind myself of the payoff of non-smoking by testing my ability to match various wines to foods.

HTH

by tony hopkinson

I'm a whopping 160 lbs now.
I spent decades trying to put weight on to no avail, then one day a clock ticked and I turned into a fat b'stard.

Grey body hairs as well, worse still senile ones. I thought I'd missed a bit with the clippers, and it was one hair growing out of my earlobe horizontally!

WFT is that about ? Almost serious enough for me to go see a doctor.

Bloody funny this getting old stuff.

by absolutely

These "deja v?" moments, have they been recollections of events from before, or after you began smoking? Of all neurological phenomena, memory fascinates me most, and last time I checked it is not at all well understood by the foremost professionals. A journal, with descriptions of your flashes or recollection, each marked "before" and "after" you began smoking, could really be useful, IMO.

by Member 25348569

has epilepsy. He's been on medication and fit-free for about fifteen years now and would like to come off his medication if he could. He's been asking around both Doctors and patients and it would seem that one of the warning symptoms that is experienced by epileptics when they reduce or stop their drugs is an increase in feelings of deja vu. If they get that it usually means that they will resume fitting if they don't restart the drugs or put the dose back up.

Neil :)

by ontheropes

I think that everybody experiences deja vu occasionally. I could be wrong. Have you ever had that feeling?

by ontheropes

Ok. Not funny.

There's no way I could provide a journal recounting my experiences with deja vu after quitting smoking. For some reason, lately, I've been having a hard time remembering what I did or said just ten minutes ago and yes it does worry me. I'm not going to go and see a doctor about it unless it gets to be much worse. I'm hoping it's just a phase I'm going thru and nothing permanent like Alzheimers.

What were we talking about? (Ok. Still not funny.)

by absolutely

I read, years ago, some fairly believable theory about memory formation being strongly correlated to emotion. If you're on constant emotional overload due to the extreme effort of not smoking, I'd expect some interference with that. Hopefully, it isn't so bad that you'll be unable to remember that this is nothing to worry about.

by hal 9000

Which would you like first?

OH I see the Bad News is that you have Alzheimer's Disease.

Why are you insisting that there couldn't be any possible [b]Good News[/b] after an announcement like that, that would make you feel better. It's really so simple Honest.

The Good News is that as you now have Alzheimer's you can now go home and have forgotten about everything that I've told you and not need to worry about [b]What You Have Forgotten. [/b] :^

[i]EDITED TO ADD[/i] Feel Better Now?

Col ]:)

by tig2

Start taking Ginko Biloba to support memory and Vitamin B
Complex for the additional stress. They will both help.

by faradhi

He said, "If you occasionally forget where your car keys are that is just old age. However, if you forget what your car keys are for, thats Alzheimer's."

by delbertpgh

When I was 22 and in the Air Force and a smoker for seven years, I was sitting in the barracks one day and had a chest pain. It was nothing, but it scared me, and I decided to give up the stupid smokes right there, that afternoon. I got through the first day okay, thinking about smoking every 90 seconds or so, but staying strong.

The next morning I felt strange when I woke up. I felt even weirder when I got to work. It seemed like there was a buzzing in my ears, my skin was partly numb, I had mild aches in my joints, and my balance and perception were off. Once I missed a door and walked into a wall. My mind was partially disconnected from my body, I was slightly stupid, and couldn't concentrate. But no smokes, all day.

The next morning I woke up, and I felt all weird again. I got through breakfast, and said to myself, "You can't handle this. You're a junkie. Face up to it, hate yourself, and start smoking." I went to the PX and paid 27 cents and got my next pack.

Eight years later, I quit cold turkey again. No massive physiological effects. I don't know why not; I was just lucky, I guess. I couldn't have quit if I weren't lucky. There was, however, a little elf at my sleeve who would tug at me from time to time, and remind me how circumstances were exactly right to lean back and burn one, either to think, or congratulate myself, or digest, or to signal the conclusion of one episode within my day and the start of another. He was a very persistent little guy, reminding me about 40 times an hour, 16 hours a day, for at least a month, after which he cut down to maybe 20 times an hour. I didn't stop thinking of smokes for multiple times every hour for a year.

Like I say, luck played a part.

by jdclyde

It isn't like we can google spotted dick without getting FIRED! :0

That or end up at a site about STD's.....

by Member 25348569

To shed some light into the darkness of a land of 300 million people that doesn't understand the significance of the steamed pudding.

Neil :)

Or, in the case of Ropes, a microwaveable pudding. Those Heinz once aren't half bad but are nothing when compared to the steamed suet puddings my Gran use to make.

by jdclyde

Besides cruising the bars without a condom, that is..

Recipe? Is it difficult to make?

Does it work well with large batches?

by Member 25348569

especially if you bake it rather than steam it. The more difficult item would be the custard. We get custard in cans, packets, ready made, powdered - all sorts - as it's part of the foundations of our culture but I reckon that you would have to make it properly. You could, I suppose, serve your dick with thick cream.

Here's an easy recipe
http://thefoody.com/pudding/spotteddick.html
and a vid (which I haven't watched past the ingredients)
http://www.videojug.com/film/how-to-make-spotted-dick

Neil :D

by Member 25348569

It is such a weird feeling when you KNOW you have never been somewhere before and it all seems so familiar. I've also experienced the opposite, jamais vu, where a familiar place suddenly becomes unfamiliar. That is even weirder to me. It might just be age, though...

:D

by jdclyde

changed my mind. could have been seen as excessively mean by people that just don't understand.....

expect a peer. too funny not to share.... :D

by maecuff

Since when did you get nice??

That's distressing. Do you need medication? A vacation? Barbra Streisand's greatest hits?

by ontheropes

Can't hurt.

I can remember stuff but it's scattered, no rhyme or reason to it. I unintentionally annoy my family by repeating the same thing more than once because I've forgotten that I've already said it. It's almost like I'm not paying attention to my own life.

I hate that feeling.

I could use a clock like this one. :) I often forget what day it is.

by ontheropes

I'm trying not to worry about anything.

I've been having a hard time writing coherent posts. Have you noticed? I know some of them are overly long but do they generally make sense or am I "out there?"

by ontheropes

Don't really feel all that much better. :|

Even though I've made fun of it too, after giving it some thought over the years, I think that having Alzheimer's disease or dementia would really suck.

I often remember (?) how my best friend was after he had a stroke. He'd forget simple things. I mean really simple things, like how many t-shirts or socks he had on or how to eat with a fork. He'd get confused easily. It wasn't funny. I don't want to be like that. I'm not there yet but I do have a struggle with short-term memory and it's not due to any "medication". I don't like it. Can't recommend it.

by ontheropes

I'll walk into another room and forget why I went in there. I'll head into town in my truck and forget why I'm going. I can remember stuff that happened years ago but I'll forget what I just typed five minutes ago. I know that to be true because my wife will point it out to me in email that we'll send back and forth all day long during the week. I might tell her the same thing 3 or 4 times on the same day.

It's embarrassing when I'll say something out loud for the second time inside of five minutes and everyone here knows it's the second time except for me. I have to ask them why they look so puzzled.

Maybe that's just old age creeping up on me but it makes me feel like an idiot. I've got enough self-esteem issues, I don't need another one.

Edit: I just re-read my posts and realize that I've repeated myself in this discussion in just a short time. I can't remember shlt! What's up with that? Seriously!?! That's not funny.

by delbertpgh

Maybe some people recover their sense of smell after quitting. I hoped I would, but I didn't.

To answer another comment of yours that I thought was unfounded, people don't eat more after quitting because it tastes so much better... they do it out of the nervous impulse to do something with their bodies. When they smoked, they were putting something into themselves, and when quitted, their agitated minds and bodies call for something to take its place.

I've read that tobacco increases metabolism and decreases appetite, so these physiological factors are against you, too. But I think that the weight gain (I gained 12 pounds when I quit cigarettes at age 30) is more due to the behaviorial syndrome of the classic addict.

by ontheropes

If anyone is going to blame me for anything that happened over the past eleven days I'm going to plead temporary insanity.

I may have had an easier time of quitting if I hadn't been smoking non-filtered, home-rolled smokes. To top it all off I'd re-roll tobacco meaning I'd smoke it, tear down the butts and re-roll the nicotine soaked tobacco into a new cigarette. That's what you do when you're a redneck on a budget and don't give a rip what anyone thinks about your smoking habit.

I'm saying that if I can quit smoking my *nicotine bombs* anyone ought to be able to quit smoking.

Peer pressure? Sure! One of the things that helped me quit was in another discussion when Beth said that she thought that anyone who really wanted to quit could quit. That kind of ticked me off for some reason. I made up my mind right there that she wasn't/isn't going to be able to point at OTR and say that I'm some kind of a wuss because I couldn't quit smoking.

Eleven days! I might feel like eating everything in the house and occasionally look like I'm a little crazy but by god I haven't had a stinking cigarette and right now that's what it's all about to me.

Can I identify with being a Zombie? Heck yeah and then some. I'm taking it a day at a time and sometimes even going from minute to minute.

Something else...I've got almost two weeks before I have my "official" weigh-in on my diet thing and these past eleven days may affect that. You know what? I don't care. Right now I'm thinking that the important thing is that I stay stopped, whatever it takes. I've had a few cookies, had a little candy and walked a few miles on the treadmill. I can always lose more weight but I only have one chance to quit smoking the first time I tried. (That makes sense right?) If I gain a couple of pounds I'll live with it and then lose it. Right now I keep telling myself that as long as I don't smoke I'll be fine.

One more thing: :^0

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