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Please help me kick my filthy habit

14:33 / 28.06.02

I need to chuck smoking, and I need to do it quickly because my lungs hurt. Ow. I'm totally fine everywhere except the pub, which is awkward because that's where my entire social life is based (although I am broke, and therefore don't have much of a social life, so problem only arises once or twice a wewk... coughcoughcough). And half my friends smoke. If I try and cadge a fag off you in future, tell me to piss off please.

Any advice very welcome. No smugness tolerated. Thanks...

14:39 / 28.06.02

Cut your lips off. Hard to smoke without lips.

14:44 / 28.06.02

I sympathise. I promised myself I'd pack in smoking when I came back from my holidays and the duty-free fags ran out. Then a colleague was selling duty-frees from his hols, so I said I'd pack in after those. And now I'm back to buying full price fags.

I'm in an odd situation because I only started smoking when I was 29. Really. I felt I didn't have enough vices.

I packed in once since then, for about six months. Here's how I did it:

One packet of Marboro Lights = about £4.50.

One packet a day, plus another couple at weekends = £36 a week.

This is about £145 a month.

Which, continuing the simple maths, is £1,728 a year, literally up in smoke.

For the first month of packing in I put the money I would have spent into a big bottle, then blew it on some fancy clothes, CDs, books etc. Made me feel better.

But then I started again. But I'm planning to stop again soon. Maybe we could start a Barbelith Support Group, KCC.

14:52 / 28.06.02

Yes, that kind of financial incentive is a good plan in theory, but from my point of view - well. I probably don't actually spend that much on the things, certainly no more than a fiver a week, because I'm too broke (and actually putting money in a bag and then spending it on nice things like books would be nice, but I need that money for things like bus passes and food). I just shame myself by constantly scavving cigs off my friends. I nnneeeed to stop doing it, only partly because it is so hideously embarrassing. The Shame. Also I have convinced myself that I have emphysema or some other nasty already.

So my dilemma is - how to stop myself going for that first fag in the pub? Gah.

Support group might be a good plan, Sax...

14:53 / 28.06.02

There was a rememdy I read involving a betel nut. I'll look it up and get back to you.

14:58 / 28.06.02

wish I had any good advice. my stepfather stopped, after smoking for 20 some odd years. he did it cold turkey, too. picked up a tad bit of weight, but eventually changed his eating habits and has lost most of that too (theres the lingering gut of a guy who never worked out in his life and still managed to be rail thin now getting a bit older, but other than that hes good)

I wish you luck and good health

15:56 / 28.06.02

one of my friends would take out the tobacco and replace part of it with chilli peppers. He quit in about a month.

18:08 / 28.06.02

I empathise Kit Kat, I am in the same position; they make my chest hurt and my throat sore and they cost so much money...

The only I ever stopped was when i was too ill to get out of bed, and that was no fun at all.

18:13 / 28.06.02

My girlfriend quit with the aid of a rubber stress ball filled with little skulls bought at Hallmark during Hallowe'en. um.. but any sort of stress thingy might work. Just having something in your hands or lollipops or something may work?

Tuna Ghost: Pratt knot hero

19:02 / 28.06.02

Actually, I just quit five days ago and haven't bought a pack since. And I loved smoking.

It wasn't my grandmother dying of a smoking related illness, it wasn't the fact that I knew it would kill me too if I didn't stop, and it wasn't the smell in my clothes or girlfriends complaining or those damn "truth" commercials...

...it was someone explaining it to me like this: if you can stop for just a month, at the end of the month you will

1. Feel twice as healthy
2. Have twice as much money
3. Be able to get twice as high.

That's right, by quitting you can not only have more money for drugs, but you will be able to get higher off lesser amounts of smoked narcotics. Something about more oxygen being present, so everything burns hotter or better or something; I'm not sure what exactly. And, y'know, you won't be killing yourself as rapidly as before.

As to how to stop smoking, I don't know what to tell you. It seemed so attractive after I learned the benefits that I threw out my half finished ciggarette and said "fuck you, buddy" to the rest of the pack and threw it out too. Haven't felt like buying a pack since. It should be noted, however, that I regularly take Wellbutrin, which is known for keeping down nicotine cravings. Talk to a doctor about this. It helps, I promise.

19:17 / 28.06.02

Use visualization. Personify your craving as a nasty, grimy, abusive boyfriend--fancies himself a tough guy, used to be an amateur boxer under the name Kid Nicotine--who steals your money and slaps you around, calls you "bitch" and leaves you feeling used.

Leaving, are you? You'll be back. You'll come crawling, you'll see. You won't last a week without me--you'll be knocking on my door all meek and mild and saying "Honey, I didn't mean it, please take me back"--

--and you know I'm gonna do?

I'm gonna take you back.

And then I'll fucking own you forever.

Prove the fucker wrong.

Kid Nicotine Must Die.

19:22 / 28.06.02

I wonder, does that work with butter.

Kid Butter.

And Kid Ice Cream Sandwiches.

Go away, both of you.

19:26 / 28.06.02

mm. kid sugar, and kid caffeine. doesnt work at all, damn you. I love them both so

19:30 / 28.06.02

And they love you back, BK.

Persephone: imagine Buttery Pat as a big, hulking, fat mouth-breather guy with bad skin and back hair. Like that one weird guy you saw in the bookstore that one time, who seemed to be following you from aisle to aisle. His T-shirt is too small, exposing an inch of belly above the waist of his baggy jeans, and it's got big stains under the arms. He never says anything--he just looms across the lunch counter from you, staring at your chest and making that wheesy mouth-breather noise.

And sweating.

A lot.

Less searchable M0rd4nt

19:44 / 28.06.02

Jack Fear: I may never eat again.

Kit-Cat, bk: I heard of one quitting technique that involved going around collecting the contents of ashtrays until you had enough to fill a pillowcase and then sleeping on said pillowcase. Apparently you gross yourself out of the habit.

I was thinking of abandoning my inhalers and setting up a phone hotline for recovering smokers: Dial-A-Wheeze. They'd phone up and I'd sit there and cough at them for £90p a minute, occasionally interjecting comments like "Eurrgh, yuck, it's coming up like underdone noodles now! *coff coff* Uhhh, it's like trying to breathe through wallpaper-paste. *Hhhhhhhrrrr* Christ, I think I'm gonna dieee...."

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

21:03 / 28.06.02

A friend of mine has recommended the Allen Carr (I think) book... seem to remember reading something by Burroughs in which he said it was a good technique for all kinds of addictions...

21:33 / 28.06.02

Yes, there's a bit in one of his essays where he said the Carr book was what got him off the fags, and that he felt it would work on anyone.

Me, I don't really smoke. Except in the pub- yes, it's another one of those grand self-deceptions. "Y'know, now I think about it, I probably don't need to get out of bed and go to work, I can just construct my own palace of achievement and prosperity right here" etc etc

03:38 / 29.06.02

I smoked for ten years. Last winter a friend of mine became part of some guinea-pig experiment where they were testing a new anti-smoking drug on him. He was getting paid for this, of course. He was quitting, so two of us tried to quit with him. One quit for 6 hours. I'm now smoke-free for 4 months. I guess it doesn't work for everyone, but you just keep repeating to yourself, "I DO NOT SMOKE ANYMORE." It was really hard when having a beer for the first few weeks, but I held out and after 2 or 3 weeks it didn't bother me. You just have to FUCKING TOTALLY DECIDE THAT YOU ARE DONE WITH IT, AND STICK TO IT. Easier said than done, but it can be done.

Another good incentive is to tell everyone you're quitting, especially the friends you have who will ride you out if you proclaim something and then go back on it. That way, you're directing social pressure against your own habit. It was some incentive for me.

06:25 / 29.06.02

Robin Williams in "Dead Again": "You're either a smoker, or a non-smoker. Decide what you are, and be that."

Here's my advice: before bed, pour yourself a glass of beer. Drink half of it, then smoke three cigs, using the half-empty glass as an ashtray. Leave the glass on your bedside table when you go to sleep.

In the morning, as soon as you wake up, before you do anything else, grab the glass and drink a great big swig of the contents. Then go brush your teeth.

And whenever you get the urge to smoke, just think about that taste...

06:40 / 29.06.02

I've been nicotine-free for two months, one week, one day, 40 minutes and 15 seconds. 1380 cigarettes not smoked, saving $345.14.

That Alan Carr book is pretty good; so's one called Hooked, But Not Helpless.

10:01 / 29.06.02

I empathise. Whilst I'm not addicted to nicotine, I have other addictions. A book that may help is How to Stop Smoking and Stay Stopped for Good, by Gillian Riley. It's basically a cognitive technique. It's worked for me. Sometimes.

You can do courses with her, but then you're just swapping giving the money to cigarette pedlars with giving it to her. Dunno.

10:06 / 29.06.02

A friend of mine at work has quit for about a month now. In his words "I've gone 4 weeks without a cigarette, but I smoke up every day." Switch smoked drugs? Temporarily of course.

Elijah, Freelance Rabbi

12:08 / 29.06.02

i found leaving a big ole burn mark on my hand that was stained yellow for weeks turned me off nicotene

if it dyes your skin semi perm, what the hell is it doing to your gottiwots?

No star here laces

14:12 / 29.06.02

Cognitive behaviour therapy.

My doctor friend talked me through this.

You sit down and list all the occasions that make you want a cigarette - coffee, stress, post-coital, pub etc.

Then you put them in order of the strength of the craving.

Start with the occasion that makes you crave them least, and eliminate smoking on that occasion so, say, make sure that every time you have a coffee in the next week, don't have a cigarette. Then, once you can do that move on to the next strongest craving and keep going until you've eliminated them all. Each time you eliminate an occasion, the idea is the next occasion becomes easier to kick, and eventually you're able to kick all of them.

Plus it has an official-sounding name.

14:39 / 29.06.02

Aha! Constructing a behavioural hierarchy, eh? Usually used for desensitisation of phobias and obsessions but Lyra's right: it'd probably work as well for nicotine cravings...

Goodness Gracious Meme

18:51 / 29.06.02

yeah. seems to me that tackling the habit without tackling the cirucumstances that, for now, induce it in you is unlikely to work. A friend who's been through a 12step for alcohol and hard drugs is really convincing on this, and don't see why you shouldn't apply the same to fags. Finding ways to avoid those situations, or identifying just why fags are just perfect at those moments, what needs they're fulfilling, and satisfying those needs in other ways.

01:57 / 01.07.02

I liked the combo of a cigarette and coffee more than any other cigarette combo, so I quit caffeine and nicotine at the same time.

The result was that I was absolutely No Fun for a week or two, and felt like I was barely conscious for several days straight. But, oddly enough, any time I was tempted to break one of my resolutions, I was reminded that I would likely break the other at the same time, and that was just too depressing. Also, I figured things were going to get extremely unpleasant, so I was mentally prepared to endure withdrawals of a Trainspotting level. Given that I was expecting the worst, and the worst didn't show up, I was able to get through it.

I have since picked up caffeine again, but apparently I waited long enough to break the association with smoking. Barring an occasional drag off someone's at a party (which generally confirms, "Yeah, still not interested"), it's been three months.

Best of luck.

13:54 / 01.07.02

Many thanks for all the responses, everyone. Cognitive behaviour therapy sounds all very well and good, except that I seem to have followed it (without realising that I was actually doing anything of the sort) and have eliminated all the nicotine from every occasion excpet the bloody pub - a hurdle I haven't been able to get over for a year or so. In fact I tripped up rather spectacularly this weekend - more fags per beer than I have had for a looooong time, but I figure it's going to be pointless trying to chuck it totally until after the 9th of July, for reasons what some of you wot of. Also, I don't *want* to avoid situations in which I am likely to smoke, as I quite like having a social life and that's when it rears its ugly heid.

So the thing is, it's the will which is weak, and I need something to help bolster it apart from financial incentives etc. Barry's idea of fiddling with something is a good one - in practice, usually my hair - but the idea of taking worry balls to the pub sounds like a recipe for failure to me as I will just never get round to getting them out of my bag...

14:00 / 01.07.02

Hypnosis. Hypnosis is good for stopping smoking. Often works in just one session. Might be worth a go.

15:21 / 01.07.02

all these ideas are ace, but i'll throw in my two pee nevertheless.
i quit smoking about a month or two ago for purely financial reasons.
i was having threapy at the time which helped, because it made me realise that the fear and anger i feel is swallowed up inside me when i smoke. so i had a lot of panic attacks and generally felt terrible when i quit. i started painting to express my feelings and things are better. not ok, but better.
today i was wildy stressed due to a lot of factors and had a cigarette. i have an emergancy pack at the back of my cupboard. i couldn't even finish half of it, it tasted like shit and made me feel sick.
thats when i knew i'd quit.
GOOD LUCK k-k-c!

17:37 / 01.07.02

Kit-Kat LIKES Kid Nicotine.
The rough stuff gets her OFF.

17:50 / 01.07.02

He's sexier than Kid Butter anyway.

(Husb and I are in a horrible phase of calling all our vices Kid This and Kid That...)

18:31 / 01.07.02

Hypnosis worked well for me, took three sessions, was off the weed for a whole month at least (which paid for the hypnosis at least).

Other couple of times I successfully stopped, both times for five or six months, was with the patches. A lot of stuff these other guys have mentioned aided that effort: distraction techniques (Ganesh protested at going out to the cinema every night), changing to a healthier diet, joining a gym, telling the world I didn't smoke any more. The even better news is that your GP can prescribe the patches for you and they'll be a hell of a lot cheaper than buying them in the chemists over the counter.

Good luck, KCC.

19:06 / 01.07.02

I must know a great deal about quitting smoking, having done it several times.

Yagg is right- you just. stop. smoking.

the hard part isn't stopping- it's not starting again. You know, you've been smoke-free for months and then the Kid sidles up to you and says hey! how about one for old time's sake, now you're no longer addicted, it's just one ferchrissakes. (Usually he waits til you're drunk or otherwise vulnerable.) and before you know it- you've started again.

If this happens, don't give yourself a hard time. Don't use that one cigarette to tell yourself that you failed to give up smoking. Even if it's twenty, not one, or a week's worth, just stop. again. and you'll win the round on points.

Jack The Bodiless

17:54 / 02.07.02

But I [i]caaaan't[/i] quit. I have so many ashtrays. What will I do with them all?

miss spooky is considering quitting. Well, no - she has to quit because it costs too much and she has serious asthma difficulties because of it. I am therefore quitting along with her, as it's going to be impossible for her to do so while living with me if I don't. So far she's come up with enough reasons to have another pack so that we've not gone beyond a day or two without. It's getting so I'm thinking that my passively aiding her resolution isn't enough. I might actually have to [i]help[i/] her quit...

Me old buddy Parliament of Fools quit, and he was the diehard smoker who got me on it in the first place. And he just stopped. I still have no idea how, but he just did. Occasionally someone will ask him if he wants a fag, and he'll say "God yes... but no thank you." And he's had a holiday abroad a year, a PS2, widescreen telly with surround sound and DVD player and Christ knows what else out of it so far...