Here is the another part of the beautiful stories of ex-smokers, Who quit the habit of smoking. Read how they got this together.
Nobody was more addicted than me
Elly's ex-husband died a few years ago on lung cancer, and then she immediately decided to quit smoking. Read more about this.
The Story of Elly
The first time I seriously tried to quit was in March 1983! I still remember that our teacher gave us a test to determine how addicted we were. Everyone raised his hand, and if it did not apply to you, you should lower your hand. The questions were: Have you ever ignored a sign with non-smoking? Or have you ever risen in the middle of the night to smoke? Or is smoking the first thing you do in the morning?
By the end of the test, there were three people in the room who were still up with their hands. Two boys behind me, and you already advise me! The teacher did not seem too worried about this fact, but it confirmed my deepest and darkest beliefs: no one was more addicted than I was.
My stop time ended about four months later when I cut off the filters of my friends Marlboro cigarettes while I was hanging in the bathroom and I was smoking from the window. I had everybody had a good time!
Throughout the years I have tried several ways to stop. I told myself that as soon as they had new therapies without a prescription, I would stop. Well, that time came and I was still smoking. My daughter left drawings in the house with: "Do not smoke please, otherwise I'll cuddle" with sad drawings. In addition, I kept those drawings.
My children got bigger. My son got good at football and my daughter became champion water polo. Both sports require well-trained lungs and perfect endurance. Here's what I've done to help them: I always took them away and always picked them up in a car of the cigarette smoke, and I made sure I had smoked in almost every room of the house. I missed some highlights of their games because I became so nervous that I ran out for smoking.
Finally, I tried a packet of nicotine chewing gum. This worked until I was so excited about how it was that I wanted to give myself a small reward. So I went to the tobacco shop, bought a packet, picked up one and threw the rest of the package out of the window. About three hours later I was back in the same place looking for that cigarette packet.
The man of one of my good friends is a doctor. He gave me free patches that I ran away after which I had to throw them away. By that time, I could not sleep at night because I was coughing all the time. I coughed so hard that I did not understand that somebody else could sleep in the house.
Then the unthinkable ...
My ex-husband, the father of my two children, and his wife were both diagnosed with lung cancer. The world of my children collapsed. School and daily life were put on hold while taking care of them. My daughter called me caressing how her father moaned in his sleep like a wounded animal. He suffered so much pain. It went quickly downhill with him. 5 months after diagnosis, my daughter had to change his diapers and weighed 40 kilos and 6 months after diagnosis he was dead. His wife died 7 months later.
After that I decided that this would definitely be definitely my last three slips of cigarettes. When the last cigarette came into view, I went to the store and bought nicotine patches. I went to the internet and encountered many new sites. These sites gave me a completely different picture of why we smoke. They helped me very much when stopping.
I smoked my last cigarette on 9 March last year around noon. I jumped the car and stayed with my step daughter and her new baby for a few days. Those first few days helped me because I was in an environment without temptations and I could not smoke completely. I did not think I'd save it and that I probably should give up on my way home. But, somehow, because I saved it for two days, I decided to see how long I could handle it. It's mean eleven months after I've stopped and still I can not believe I've been waiting all those years! It was not easy, but certainly not as impossible as I thought. Anyone who reads this, who thinks to stop, in heaven - do it now! There is never a "good" time to quit smoking.
Elly,
How I finally quit smoking
Jan smoked for about 35 years, and eventually he managed to stop. In his story he explains exactly how he did this.
The Story of Jan
Jump! - No smoked since: 1 year, 9 minutes, 45 seconds.
I just copied this from my smoking app, hard to believe, but as I've heard many others say ... "If I can, you can do it too." Honestly, I never thought I would reach this milestone. I have failed so often with the quit smoking. I was about to give up. So what was this time decisive?
I have smoked for over 35 years. That started when I was around 15, probably like most of us. So I did not know what it was like to be a mature non-smoker. I have been trying for 15 years to stop, but with little success. I can not remember how often I tried to stop on my birthday ... sometimes for a week or two weeks, or a few days ... sometimes just a few hours. I was so tired of my failure that I gave it up for a few years to stop. So what makes this attempt different than otherwise? A number of things: attitude, research, knowledge, planning, diary, help from others, support, rewards and troubleshooting.
Attitude: No doubt the most important factor for success is your attitude, or how to stop smoking. You can plan everything in detail, have all the tools, all support, and so on, but if you have no dedication, you will not succeed. You must stop smoking to make the priority of your life.
Research: I did a lot of research before I quit smoking this time. I've learned what smoking really is: it's an addiction and a habit. I also investigated what it does, how you get hold of it, how to kill you slowly, and how others successfully succeeded in defeating their addiction.
There are a lot of informative sites available on the internet such as the website where I write this story, Nustoppenmetroken.nl. This website has all the information that can be found about smoking. Do not stop researching. Discover all you can.
Knowledge: Of course, research led to a lot of personal knowledge, and knowledge is power. Knowing what smoking is, how your body reacts and why. All this helps you understand what your body is about when you stop. Knowing what to expect during the withdrawal phase is very pleasant. Just knowing that what you experience is normal, helping you to cope with the inconveniences and not to lose control.
Planning: Decide when, how and why you will stop. Choose a date far enough in the future so you have the time to really get excited about stopping. Do not be rushed here, make sure you're ready. Make sure you're ready for the day. Think about it and put your reasons for stopping on paper.
Diary: Record everything that has to do with your attempt to quit, even at the stage of research and planning. Make your stop day a big event. Record your reasons for stopping. Record important things that you have learned. Copy and paste things in your diary. Record your plans ... how are you doing ... what problems do you expect ... how to deal with problematic issues. Read this diary regularly. Remind yourself why you want to stop, and how you like to be non-smoking.
Tools for stopping: I have not used any tools this time, but some have been tried in the past. I've tried hypnosis a couple of times. One time I kept it full for two weeks, and another time I smoked again on my way home. I tried Zyban once but did not like the fear it caused. I have never looked seriously at nicotine patches or chewing gum. All these things may work for other people. Again, research all the tools. Talk to others who have experience with it.
Support: I found support a very important aspect to make my stop attempt successful. I found the support of this website and the quit forum very useful. I do not know if it would have been successful without the support I found on this site.
I also had a stopwatch (someone who had stopped at the same time). This can be useful at an early stage. Unfortunately, she stopped her stop after about two and a half months. I was sorry to see her fail, but still went on. Of course, other forms of support are also useful. I found the encouragement and support of my wife very nice. I also received support from family and colleagues.
I also noticed that there were a group of people from whom I received little support: smokers. They do not seem to give much to your stop attempt ... why is that? When I was smoking, I did not encourage people who also smoked to stop. Either way, do not expect too much support from smokers. Undoubtedly, you get the most empathy of people just as you try to stop them.
Reward: Do not forget to reward yourself. It must be something valuable. And do not worry about the cost of your reward. Once you've stopped, save your bins with money. Make sure it's something special, something you've wanted for a long time, or something you would not normally buy for yourself.
Give yourself different types of rewards at different times. Buy something that you will wear with you for a long time. Maybe a jewel ... so if you see it, you'll be reminded of what you've done to get it, and how proud of yourself that you've become addicted to addiction.
Jan,
I feel cleaner and I finally make money at the end of each month
Joeri, who has stopped using his mother and nicotine patches. With support you come a long way, that can be read in his story.
The story of Joeri
5 months ago I had enough of it. Each and every doubles must be reversed to buy cigarettes. I was sad that my life turned around smoking. I still know that I was smoking in my kitchen on a morning in December and was wondering if I would take an extra job to continue the vacation.
Then the quarter fell suddenly. I confused cigarettes every month with 180 euros, so why did not I just stop? Of course, it sounds a little sad that I have not stopped because of my health or appearance. That day I bought some nicotine patches. I started with 21 mg and lasted for a couple of weeks, but just a little longer than actually. The first few weeks were quite strange because I did not know what to do with myself. But my friends, especially my mother, always encouraged me, I could not let them down!
I went back to the plaster of 14 mg, then the 7 mg. I stayed longer at the 7mg than I possibly, as a kind of support and tossing. I was terrified to get rid of the patch completely, because I thought it was wrong to me that the patch helped me through it. I finally decided to continue with it and did not wear a patch one day. It was heavy but not heavier than the transition from 21 mg to 14 mg.
Soon afterwards I came up with a few pounds. This undoubtedly had to do with my overwhelming REPLACEMENT to bread with thick sour cream, chocolate and ice cream. I say REQUIRED because I could not sleep without eating anything. Now I am healthy, in shape and at a normal weight. I do not eat so much and sports regularly.
It is now five months and three weeks ago. My mother celebrates this every Tuesday and every week is a milestone. It is the reason that I did not have a previous relapse. I mean, how can you disappoint someone who organizes a party for you every week with presents?
I look back proudly in the first months, but also with the idea that I will never ever start again. I see people who smoke and look no longer crazy for their cigarettes. It's just not worth it. I go out to dinner or go to a cafe and get irritated by the fact that my clothes smell like smoke when I go home. If I smell a smoker's breath, I'm sorry about that. I'm ashamed to smoke myself.
Some positive changes I did not expect relate to my social relationships. My relationship with smoking always stood at number one. Cigarettes were more important than my mother, my girlfriends and my colleagues. I only listened half to my friends, just add half if we were together. My other half was planning a smoke break or was distracted because I was smoking. Now I live completely in the moment and I can pay my full attention to my friends, my mother and my colleagues. Incredibly what difference that can make.
I feel cleaner now too. When I was smoking, I felt a paria and I was ashamed of smoking my house and car, let alone the smell of my breath and hair. I was jealous of non-smokers and the innocence they had. They were free, I did not. They looked pity when I was smoking (sometimes also with disgust). They did not understand why I had to smoke. I was ashamed of being addicted. I'm trying to get it cool, that it was not something I wanted to go to. I had convinced myself that I was different, a rebel. Now I know how non-smokers saw me, because I look at smokers myself.
I will be a converted smoker for the rest of my life, I know that. And it's so bad yet if I had thought it would be. Maybe because I was ready and I did it for myself and nobody else. And of course, thanks to all the support I had around me.
Joeri,
Source: Info
