I want to quit smoking, but I don't think I can do it cold turkey, and I'm afraid of the nicotine patches and gums. Are there any herbs or natural remedies that help with the cravings?
i dont believe in patches & gum to aid quitting nicotine, i dont believe it works at all. there are only two things you need to quit smoking sucsessfully, willpower/determination & knowlege, knowlege of addiction & how quitting & smoking effects your body. i quit 15 months ago & i havent looked back since, its the best thing i have ever done. i searched the internet for websites to help & encourage me to stop smoking, the best one i found was http://www.whyquit.com the site is not just about helping you to quit smoking, it teaches you about smoking addiction, what smoking does to your body, what happens when you take nicotine away from your body & how you can stay quit. quitting cold turkey is the easyist ways of quitting. many people will tell you that its the hardest but really its just mind over matter. when you stop smoking the nicotine is out of your body within 3 days. the physical addiction reaches its peak on day 3 & after this point the craving you feel is a mental one. this is whats the hardest to break, there are no pills, patches, herbs or natural remedies that will help with this it is just a case of changing your way of thinking, the things you do & being mentaly strong. the first 3 days when your body still has nicotine in it, it maybe helpful to drink lots of fruit juice & water to help flush your system of all the toxins that have built up. maybe do a little exercise to take your mind off craving. you seriously need to change your attitude to quitting, you allready have a negative attitude by saying you dont think you can do it. ofcourse you can do it, you are a strong person who can quit smoking. remember, no one ever died from quitting smoking but many millions of people died from continuing smoking. i see you are quite young, how long have you been smoking for? one thing i got in to my head was that the longer i continued to smoke the harder it would be to quit. so if you quit now it will be easier than if you continued to smoke for another week, month or year. i could continue writting here & have a post far too long to read so i'm going to stop now. have a look at the website i posted, have a read of the articals, view a few of the videos & good luck with your quit. if you would like some encouragement or help in anyway feel free to PM me & i'll do everything i can to help you break the addiction.
I second that ,good post.-----You stop smoking by--stopping smoking.If you truly want to stop its not really that hard.I know I quit myself.A sidenote:don't even think about the newest garbage(Chantix) being pushed by US Big Pharma,I heard very bad things about it.But what else can you expect from US drug companies.
Thank you, and I will check out that site. I started really smoking when I was 19. I had smoked 2 cigarettes before that, but 19 was when I became a "smoker". Is it better to ween yourself or just quit all together? I smoke a bit less than a pack a day, do I just go straight to zero? I know if I really put my mind to it, I can quit. But it is my release, I work a lot in stressful places (most of my co-workers are on anti-depressants and sleeping meds to deal with the stress), and that's what I do to keep from tearing cumstomers faces off. Like my friends says, "it may be killing me, but it's saving everybody elses life." I know it's just an excuse, but it seems sooo impossible from where I've sitting. They should give sick leave for quiters lol. Is it natural to have relapses when you first try to quit? My mom quit smoking when I was very young and she says that she was on and off for a while before she was completely off. People describe me as being very stubborn and strong-willed, so I'm sure once I put my mind to it, I will get it done. But it also makes it very hard for me to change. Even when I want to. I would NEVER try chantix. I work in a pharmacy, I know the dangers of that crap. Psychosis, anyone?
so you started smoking only 4 years ago, how much do you smoke a day? if your only smoking relativly little it shouldnt be as hard as what it is for someone who has been smoking for 20 odd years. the habbit isnt as strong because you havent been doing it as long so should be easier to break. i smoked for nearly 8 years & after about 6 or 7 months it felt like i had never even smoked in my life. unlike my partners nana, she smoked from been a young teen (they encouraged it back in the day) up untill her early 70's & the habbit was very hard to break for her. even now at certain times she still says she is dying for a fag, the pscyological craving kicks in. i dont get any of that any more & i put that down to the habbit not been that formed with me. i wouldnt recoment cutting down by weening, it just dosent work. they best way is just to quit all together. dont even pick a date to quit as this dosent work either, you just have to get up one morning & decided that you wont smoke today. i have found with myself in the past & i see it with other smoking friends that picking a date to quit is just asking for a fail. say you pick a date in 2weeks time the anxiety just builds, you tend to smoke more & as the date gets closer & closer you panic more. when the day comes you are in this big state of anxiety & it just wont help with quitting. just get up one day & decide that morning that you are going to see how long you can go with out smoking. do 10 mins, then double it. do an hour & then do another hour & so on. take it an hour at a time & a day at a time. looking too far in to the future & the panic of living without cigs will creap in. live in the hear & now, get up in a morning & tell yourself that you will not smoke, & when you go to bed at night congratulate yourself on achiveing another smoke free day. smoking dosent achieve anything does it! list down the positive things about smoking against the negative ones. you say it helps with stress but it dosent really, it just stops the craving. how is you smoking saving other peoples lives? i dont understand this statement, it sounds to me like you just want to keep on smoking or that the friends who are saying this smoke & want to keep you from stopping smoking. seriously, you need to change how you are thinking about this. nothing is imposible, you can do it & you know you can. just keep thinking positive, keeping telling youself that you can do it & you will do it. your mom is right, for some people it can take a few times of quitting & relapsing before they quit for good. but it is posible to quit the first time, you just have to be strong. if you relapse you have to look at why you relapsed, what was it that made you go back to smoking again. there is a lesson to be learnt about yourself when you relapse & you need to take thst to the next quit.
i just want to post this, its off the whyquit site & it helped me stop smoking. i kept reading & re-reading this artical over & over.
I really am just coming up with excuses. I like that plan of no plan. Just going from minute to minute. For me to say that I'm never gonna smoke again, it just seems too definitive. I just wanna say, "oh yeah, well I'll show me" and light up. I think your way would be the way to work for me. When I was saying that my smoking was keeping everyone else alive, it was a joke. You know how smokers tend to be irratable when they quit. Just saying that if I quit I might go postal. Just something I thought was funny, wasn't meant to be taken seriously. Oh, and I smoke about 3/4 of a pack a day right now. Maybe a pack a day when there is nothing for me to do all day. I smoke more when I'm bored. And I do it mindlessly sometimes. I'll light up a cig and when I go to ash, I realize that I already have one smoldering in the ashtray. How bad is that, right?
Aww, I loved that little story. I've thought of quitting but I'm just not ready so I'm not going to b/s or guilt myself in to it just yet... even though I do know better! Why not try smoking pot!
