quit smoking

[Don Kiddick]

A friend of mine got hypotised for �40 and that seems to have done the trick. I think you have to want to give up in the first place though.
D.

[Thomas Paul]

Smoking is an addiction like alcohol or heroin. If an addict doesn't want to quit then nothing you can do can make him quit.

[Sania Marsh]

I once read few recipes to make someone quit smoking.
They included powdering a dried crab legs and mixing them with tobacco which would make a person vomit and kill the addiction.

I cannot get my husband quit for so many years now. I get him patches, but he complains that they make him dizzy and he stops applying them. I tried to get him lighter ones, but he quits patches instead of sigarettes.

People say the person has to realize how bad it is, but it seems he won't realize until he will be in hospital, and I don't want to wait till it will happen.

Whenever I mention lung cancer he says "God forbid" and starts talking about something else.

Is there something that I can do to help him quit?

[Sania Marsh]

Something makes people want to quit.
Maybe there is still something one can do to make the smoker want to quit?

[Roger Graff]

Have his doctor prescribe him Wellebrutrin (aka "Zyban"). It's an anti-depressant that has been found to help people quit smoking. I used it to quit and haven't smoked in over a year. The drug makes cigarettes taste funny, and cuts the cravings in half. It won't make smoking unbearable for someone who doesn't want to quit, but it will make quitting bearable for someone who does want to quit.

[Sania Marsh]

Originally posted by Roger Graff:
Have his doctor prescribe him Wellebrutrin (aka "Zyban"). It's an anti-depressant that has been found to help people quit smoking. I used it to quit and haven't smoked in over a year. The drug makes cigarettes taste funny, and cuts the cravings in half. It won't make smoking unbearable for someone who doesn't want to quit, but it will make quitting bearable for someone who does want to quit.

Thank you so much, it is a big hope.
He wants to quit, but he has been smoking for 14 years, I think it's just too hard for him, so least he can do is try it.
Thank you

[Alan Wanwierd]

I quit smoking about 7 years ago now....

I'd been smoking for well over 10 years and would consume roughly a pack a day. After several attempts to quit (all succesfull for a limited time ) I concluded that the problem was not in a slightest bit a chemical one:

1) Attempt 1 - I'd graduated from uni and hit the dole queue as did everyone I knew. After a couple of weeks I realised that financially I was well and truly struggling and the banks started to get heavy (they were quite happy to throw money at me as a student but once I graduated they wanted the overdraft paid off, job or no job). I decided to make something positive out of the situation and cut spending by stoping smoking and get fit by running. Everytime I felt like I wanted a smoke I ran 2 miles up a hill.. Of course by the time I'd finnished running I was exhausted and couldnt possibly smoke!...

After 1 year I considered my smoking fixed and celebrated.. Then my girlfiend came back from a year overseas and all my hard work was undone.. I could not be around her and not smoke (she was a determined smoker)...

2) Some time later and established in the workforce in a lowly IT support role I quit smoking again. Girlfriend was out of the picture and I was now living back at home with parents who never knew I smoked (great way to quit smoking!). Unfortunatley the culture at work meant that as a smoker I could easily sneak off with the boys for a 5 minute break every hour or 2, whereas as a non-smoker I'd be stuck handlig the phones all the time - the inequity of the situation got to me and I became a smoker.. DOH!!... I was forming great bond with my co-workers and my lungs had to handle it!

3) New job - new culture - again quit smoking. This time it was easy... no smoko girlfriend, no working smoking culture. But then I moved out of home and in with a mate of mine.. Our rented house became a localised party zone and we frequently became the venue for social joint smoking [its true, cannabis does lead to harder drugs - it lead to a tobacco addiction for me!]. The party homelife together with me becoming part of a moderately succesful working rock band working in pubs and clubs 3 nights a week meant that I was continualy in a smoky environment - I could not stand it unless I killed off my own sense of smell!!... I got right into it and before long was smoking more than ever...

4) Last chance saloon for me - I left the country!! No more dodgy rock band, no more stoned sessions with mates... I checked in at Heathrow with 1 packet of cigarrettes in my pocket and by the time I got to Brisbane I had none - my last cigarette was in Osaka airport in a transfer lounge. With a renewed determination I started life from scratch, new friends (all non-smokers) - new job (with no smoking culture).

Not once in the last 7 years have a thought I would like a cigarette and with all the above experience I can say that patches, gum and all those various products are only of very limited use. The huge problem with smoking is habit and environment - Change those and you will quit without trouble. (Of course moving to the other side of the planet might be seen as an extreme solution to the problem!)

Anyway - good luck!...

[Sonny Gill]

I find that to quit smoking you have to want to do it i.e have some motivation for doing it in the first place - better health, saving money, kids at home..

Then you must have something to fill the void, taking up some kind of physical activity at the same time you try to quit smoking can be excellent. Every time you feel like smoking, you think about the extra mile you can run if you dont, or extra pushups you can do if you dont etc., and it can give you that extra bit of focus to not light up.

Best of luck.

[Ramaswamy Srinivasan]

Originally posted by Rita Moore:


Thank you so much, it is a big hope.
He wants to quit, but he has been smoking for 14 years, I think it's just too hard for him, so least he can do is try it.
Thank you

Hi Rita,

This should give good hope to you. The main problems with addicts is
they don't want to stop it. They keep on saying that it gives them pleasure.

But in this case, your husband wants to quit it.

This would make the job easier.

Just have him reduce it gradually, a safe stop. If he is smoking 10 times
a day, make it 6 for a week, 4 for the next week, 2 for the next, 1 for the next and finally, at the end of the month, stop it...try getting the help of
a good doctor.

In addition to this, any anti-depressant should do the job,
comfortably.

I have seen people quitting it this way...Try out.

Cheers,
Swamy

[Jeroen Wenting]

Of course moving to the other side of the planet might be seen as an extreme solution to the problem!

Really? I'd say the wish to quit smoking a good excuse to move to the other side of the planet

I know how hard it is to quit smoking (even if I never smoked myself).
My mother had to quit on doctor's orders (vein transplant which doesn't take well in smokers). She didn't quit, even while still in hospital she sneaked out of the ward to the canteen to get a smoke.
Within a year she was rushed to hospital to have the prosthesis replaced and still she didn't quit (though she was by now ashamed of it somewhat and would smoke only when there was no family around, thinking we wouldn't smell it when getting home).
Now she may finally have quit after the prosthesis again failed in part because of smoking, this time causing her to loose a foot and having to spend several months in revalidation to learn to walk again... At least no cigarettes have been found around the house for a year or so.