Aarrgh

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It has been 16 hours since my last cigarette. I hope never to smoke another one.

My eyes have been stimming so much that my eyeballs are agony, and my jaw muscles ache from grindng. Life was better yesterday.

Anyone any advice or should I just go and buy a packet?

Well done for getting this far! I don't have any advice I'm afraid as I've never been a cigarette smoker. Can you distract yourself by doing other things? All the best to you!

Umm, chewing gum might be able to help with the teeth grinding?

I agree with Scrulie, try to distract yourself every time you want a cigarette, e.g. have a glass of water, do something else for a little while.

If worse comes to worst you could try nicotine patches, and step down from there?

Good luck with it, and well done I've never given up cigarettes because I've never smoked, so I can only imagine how hard it must be! Keep at it

I've never smoked either, but I know how hard it is to quit. Friends who have tell me that the patches and nicotine gum help a lot, as well as chewing on carrots, celery and other such things to mimic the feel of a cigarette in your mouth.

Good luck!

Also there are those 'Inhalator' thingies.

SwampBlossom (my wife) put a thick rubber band around her wrist and snapped it every time she got the urge. She still get's them every now and again, but she doesn't use a rubber band anymore.

P-we.

Congratulations on your decision to quit smoking. Keep in mind 48 hours after quitting is actually the worst time because all of the nicotine will be out of your system.

I work with people with emphysema and part of my job is smoking cessation.

I am happy to help you in your journey to quit.

First of all, Nicotine is extremely addictive and quitting cold turkey has a success rate of < 10%.

The most successful way is to use Nicotine Replacement Therapy.

Go buy yourself a packet of 24 hour nicotine patches. Put a patch on just before you go to sleep. This allows the nicotine to build up in your system so when you wake in the morning your cravings will be less.

You can use nicotine gum or lozenges as well as the patches. There are no documented cases of nicotine overdose. There are many documented cases of people dying from cigarettes.

You need to use Nicotine Replacement Therapy for at least 8 weeks after you stop smoking.

Also, you can smoke whilst using Nicotine Replacement Therapy. The Nicotine Replacement Therapy reduces the amount you need to inhale the cigarette to get your nicotine hit thus reducing the amount of Carbon Monoxide in your system.

Buy some lollies and eat them immediately after meals. People usually crave cigarettes after meals because their blood glucose level drops and nicotine brings it up. People quitting cigarettes who eat lollies after meals put on less weight.

Halve your caffiene and alcohol levels. Nicotine doubles your metabolism of caffiene and alcohol. If you keep drinking the same amount of caffiene you will get symptoms of caffiene overload (which are similar to withdrawls). You will find you metabolise alcohol at 1/2 the pace so will feel drunk quicker.

Ban anyone you live with from smoking in the house. Make them go outside.

Note the withdrawl symptoms of nicotine do reduce over time. It can be hard, but remember that. Withdrawl symptoms include:
- Cravings
- Anxiety, aggression
- Distress
- Reduced concentration
- Insomnia
- Headaches
- Constipation
- Increase in appetite
- Depression
- Mouth ulcers
- Tiredness

Remember, you are not aggro - this is withdrawl and will fade with time.

I have so much more I can tell you if you want to know.

Regards
Smelena

Umm yeah what she said, lol. In the VA they had us go through a slow down prior to the patches, it went something like this, smoke you regular brand for 3 days then switch to another type with less nicotine, 3 days, then another switch till you hit the lowest brand with the nicotine, they taste terrible and feels like you sucking on dirty air and you are. You'll be wanting to get to the patches before you ever hit that last pack. Which is the next step, do the patches.

Thank you all very much for taking the time. This isn't the first time - was off them for nearly 3 years last time after cold turkeying. I actually packed them in the day me and my ex missus broke up. My logic was somewhere along the lines of "well this is as bad as it gets so packing in smoking today won't make much difference". Was able to channel all the anger from the breakup into stopping smoking and sort of vice versa too. Worked for me!

Apart from the sore eyes and jaws, quite on top of this at the minute. Time for bed anyway. Looking good for day two. Ta again everyone

Um sorry postpaleo but that is really bad advice. I'll direct you to some scientific journals tomorrow (can't be bothered now, going to bed soon).

It has been found that the number of cigarettes you smoke per day is insignificant.

The 'topography' of smoking or how you smoke is more important. The only way to determine how addicted you are is by using a Carbon Monoxide monitor.

Cutting down does bugger all because you might be smoking less, but inhaling more deeply so getting the same amount of Carbon Monoxide. Cutting down also makes the next cigarette more 'rewarding' because your withdrawls are greater because there's been longer between cigarettes.

Also the low nicotine cigarettes are worse for you. This is because you have to inhale more deeply to get your hit of nicotine. So you end up with higher carbon monoxide levels.

New cancers are emerging with people who have smoked light cigarettes. There cancers appear in the smaller airways of the lungs. Harder to fight.

There was a brand of light cigarettes that only stopped being manufactured 10 years ago that used asbestos as a filter!

Well done P-We!! Hope you have a good night's sleep!

I quit smoking six years ago(2 packs of camel a day). Did it "Cold Turkey". The first 24-48 hours
are the hardest but once you get through them you will find that it was worth it.
some of the immediate benefits are better appetite & and more restful sleep.
You might get the occasional urge if you smell cigarette smoke when you have coffee
in your mouth. I used hard candy to get through first 48 hours.

Yeah I left something out. We did use the monitor, what negleted to say is this. The patches picked up where the last low dose pack left off. You'll only smoking 3 packs of the lower and you might not even get through those in the 3 days allowed for them. you make the jumps , hard to explain with out the book, but you make the jumps accord to the nic level in what you normaly smokes and then drop it by about 3 per level. I dunno, it isn't my advice, it's what they said and they have it backed up pretty well. Good luck going up against the VA in the states, if you decide to set them striaght. I don't know how you guys treat your returning vets. But I sure as hell know how they treat ours. they would only give the one correct drug for the best science that should go along with the above, if you were of a certian type. And it wasn't a patch.

I would remind you how many total of the low grade you're smoking, abut 6 packs total. Compare it to smoking many years at what he's smoking now and it's a spit in the ocean. And yeah I know about asbestos, got some of that too and it didn't come from cigarettes. Like some red lead powder and glass dust mixed it? You don't need to tell me what people will do to make a buck. lifes a b*t*h ain't it.

Gum.
Lots and lots of it.

DON'T DO IT!! !

I'm on day #8 myself! Stay strong!

I owe my current non-smoker status to

http://www.quitnet.com

Please have a look!

I have had Not One Puff Ever (NOPE) since April 24, 2004, and I owe it all to Quitnet.