here goes. i have quit 4-5 times. hard to remember them all. some were good quits some weren't. last one was January 2005 but only for 3 1/2 months. I have known i have to quit for years because of health problems. I have always said that if a dr. ever told me i had to quit i would. WRONG!!!!! i have had vocal cord polyps removed, have GERD, diabetes, asthma isn't that enough? Well i was just dx with an enlarged thyroid with a cold nodule. The ENT just called because i have been having trouble swallowing. He said a test they did in his office the other day showed the top of my esophagus to be swollen. Now more tests. everything seems to be in the same area. all around my throat and voice box. I am sooooooo scared there is something really wrong but I am equally as afraid to quit smoking. All smokers know that cigarettes are your best friend. everyone i live and work with smokes. I have to get a plan in motion. Not sure where to begin. Pick a date i guess. maybe the patch (didn't help me before) and maybe some hypnosis tapes or stress tapes. I know this isn't going to be easy but i have to make it this time. Please all the support and ideas i can get will really be appreciated.
Yes, it sure does sound like it's crucial that you quit smoking NOW. I too have had some health problems, (thyroid, GERD, and now I think a hiatal hernia, which I'm going to be tested for soon). I actually got the GERD after I quit smoking. It's awful, and in fact is really bad right now, so I feel for you.
I'm not trying to be a smart a$$...but I just want you to know, that there is no silver bullet, magic pill, or anything to MAKE you STOP smoking. The patches, gum, inhalers, Zyban...all of these aids are great to assist you in quitting, to help lessen the withdrawl symptoms, but they won't make you quit, like magic...that is up to you.
I quit with the patch, and later switched to the gum, almost 3 years ago, after smoking about 28 years....1 to 2 packs daily. I too quit many, many times before,..at least 10 x, and 2 of those quits I even made it to the one year mark. My willpower was strong, but in my mind, I was not in it 100%..cuz I think always in the back of my mind, I was always thinking..."don't worry..someday you will get to smoke again". I shouldn't have let my mind wander like that....but I just wasn't truly committed to quitting for good, forever, for once and for all.
If you want the GERD to improve, and your other health problems to improve,...well, I think you know, it's just not going to happen as long as you still smoke.
Okay...so you are thinking on the right track....set a date, and stick to it,...mentally prepare yourself for it before that date arrives. buy one of those cheap journal books, and write out all the reasons that you want to quit. There are so many, (numerous) benefits! Decide which way you want to do this.....sounds like you would like to use nicotine replacement...that's good..but please don't expect to just slap on a patch and think that's supposed to do it for you....you'll have to work at the mental part yourself.
Some gal here wrote an excellent post yesterday here...can't remember, but I think the subject title was about reaching her "One year annivesary"....her board name was "sixx788"....I believe. PLEASE go and read her post...it is the most excellent advice....everything I believe too, but too lazy to type it all out. Follow her plan....if your will to quit is 1OO%....then I know that you can do this.
I have managed to stay quit for almost 3 years because I was truly ready, and 1OO% committed to quitting, no matter what I had to do to get there. I am so happy today, and I swear to you I never even crave them, at all. I never thought that I could do it..(stay quit)...I used to think that I would never be able to, that I was too weak, beyond help...destined to die from smoking. I proved that I was wrong, and that I could quit. If you DIG DEEP INSIDE OF YOURSELF....you CAN find the strength...it's there. Then go for it,...like sixx788 said....do whatever it takes. It wasn't easy, but it's never easy to gain anything that's good...is it?
Read a lot of posts here too, to get ideas and support from others, (I did a lot of that)...check in here often if you need help. Go on now...go for it!
Best of luck, and I hope to see you here again...
God bless...
Deda
thanks deda-------- i will read the other posts. i'm considering the patch and some relaxation tapes as part of my smoking is do to the hyper personality. relaxing would be good for me all the way around but i don't know how to since i never have. been burning the candle at both ends and doing, doing, doing since i was 19. ALOT OLDER THAN THAT NOW.LOL thansk for the advise. i Will be back. i really need the support when i get there.
Good for you! The relaxation tapes are a real good idea. I have 2 of em, and they really do work to relax me...one puts me to sleep. Just remember, we knew how to relax at one time in our lives, ....before we started that stinkin' habit, and we lived fine w/o them then,...didn't we? Always remember that. I have a type A personality too....but not like before, as I'm learning to let go...not sweat the small stuff. (and it is all small stuff!) I am finally learning to relax without cigs, and it's great. I actually feel more calm now, than I did in my smoking days. Smoking was stressful....always worried about running out, worried I'd get a deadly disease, going out with non smoking friends, (most of all of my friends are non smokers), sneaking cig breaks at work, (when I was working), smoking outside in the freezing cold...didn't smoke in home...long road trips w/o a smoke, as I didn't ever smoke in my car or home, either. Most every friend out here is a non smoker. I did quit once, in 2001, when I was working with a bunch of smokers.....I just tried to be strong as could be.
I live in CA, so it might of made it a bit easier to quit, as they are really down on smokers out here, and I also got tired of people looking at me like I was the big weak, loser (that I really was, at that time). Also, got tired of Dr's lectures, and felt sometimes like they didn't really want to help me. Like why would they want to try to help someone who cares so little about their health??!!
thanks---------i actually looked up a couple of differenct smoke enders tapes so i wouldn't use the excuse when i got to the store that there were too many. so i have already picked one specifically for smoking and one just for relaxation. will pick them up with the next couple of days. Talk about dr.s i have my pcp, gyn. ENT, rheumatologist on me everytime i see them. something is going on in my throat area and my pcp and ENT both asked several times about my smoking. they are scaring me now. i did read the other posts and got some really good ideas. i like the one about doing whatever you have to do. kick,scream,eat etc just DON"T smoke. i guess i never thought about it like that. i always worried is a candy bar would've taken the edge of i didn't do it because i am diabetic. so the last quit i really walked around feeling bad for myself. can't eat anything, can't smoke, don't drink. i guess it's time to just lay down adn give up. LOL ridiculous HUH?
here goes. i have quit 4-5 times. hard to remember them all. some were good quits some weren't. last one was January 2005 but only for 3 1/2 months. I have known i have to quit for years because of health problems. I have always said that if a dr. ever told me i had to quit i would. WRONG!!!!! i have had vocal cord polyps removed, have GERD, diabetes, asthma isn't that enough? Well i was just dx with an enlarged thyroid with a cold nodule. The ENT just called because i have been having trouble swallowing. He said a test they did in his office the other day showed the top of my esophagus to be swollen. Now more tests. everything seems to be in the same area. all around my throat and voice box. I am sooooooo scared there is something really wrong but I am equally as afraid to quit smoking. All smokers know that cigarettes are your best friend. everyone i live and work with smokes. I have to get a plan in motion. Not sure where to begin. Pick a date i guess. maybe the patch (didn't help me before) and maybe some hypnosis tapes or stress tapes. I know this isn't going to be easy but i have to make it this time. Please all the support and ideas i can get will really be appreciated.
Go on now...go for it!
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