* I HAD TO SHUT OFF THE COMMENTS FOR INSIGHTING A RIOT*
Thanks for all the comments, emails, ass rippings, support and inspiration from the members over on the Qnet.
But I will argue forever that 4 cigarettes a day are better than 40 cigarettes a day.
Yes I made it 5 days, (with no smokes) and I slipped. I am over the guilt. But, OH HELL NO! I wont go through that again, not! right! now! I will follow my “new plan†as that suits me. It’s not that I’ve given up. I haven’t. 4 cigarettes a day, is better than 40 cigarettes a day. (wow that’s starting to sound like a Mantra, 4 is better than 40, 4 is better than 40, 4 is better than 40…wait… now I sound like I AM 4 (years old). I will shut up now. um…. No I wont!) With the help of the patch and hopefully the continued support of Qnet, maybe it wont take six months to get me down to none.
So, since my New Years resolution has been revoked, I need a new one. Okay, here it is. I will FINISH writing MY BOOK by January 2008. (and I will draw again, and more) So there it is. Take it? leave it? love it? hate it?
PS… this comment (well mostly it was the spelling of the words that KILLED me last night) will now and forever be HIJACKED as my own “YA DUM FUX†… Thank you for the best laugh!
Oh… my bad! I almost forgot, I can’t believe I almost ended this post without even a mention of something I have waited for um-like-a-YEAR….
Hello!! to the RETURN of the THE APPRENTICE I love to love and hate the Donald!
And if you click HERE! REALLY CLICK HERE! ON THE WORDS THAT SAY CLICK HERE for a video of my son Justin and his “Apprentice Commercial ? â€
—————
REVISED: VIA THE COMMENTS OVER ON QNET and a DARE / BET I HAVE GOING, I WILL POST EVER SINGLE CIGARETTE AS I SMOKE THEM ON EACH OF MY BLOG POSTS:
Okay? “Applehead” …I am going to smoke ALOTTED Cigarette NUMBER ONE right now at 12pm on my LUNCH BREAK at WORK!! I will post EVERY ONE, as to SEE if INFACT I can only SMOKE 4 a DAY!!!
—————–
Your New Years resolution should not be revoked.
You said you wanted to quit, and you are.
You are quitting.
Just the fact that your limiting your self. your setting up boundries for the nicotine, means your geting rid of it.
You personally, can’t wake up one day and not be a smoker.
You have to wake up one day and say you dont want to be a smoker first.
M’kay….
oh and glad your NOT anonymous anymore….
“Hello from Detroilet! Cold and raining, snow coming, happy happy joy joy.
Keep on NOT SMOKING!”
or at least cutting down
MARC P
Become addicted to something else. Gum, lollypops, etc. The only problem with that is that if you start smoking again, you are still addicted to gum. Write a list of all the things you don’t like about smoking. Put the money you would otherwise spend on cigarettes in a jar and save up for something special. Denial, denial, denial. You can do it! Your health will improve, your skin will clear up, and your home will be cleaner. 🙂 You can do it, you can do it!
Love, Catherine
Hi sweetheart. Don’t give up completely. Just tell your son the truth. It is very hard and will take some time. Start smoking less. Get yourself down to half a pack a day. Thats like one every two hours. That shouldn’t be that hard. Then five a day for a long time. Then give quiting a chance. Going cold turkey at two packs a day is crazy but thats us. I love you.
Lee V
Meleah
At least we keep people on their toes and get their minds going as they try to figure out what is wrong with us, or what we are up to.
T
T
true.. I can never be accused of being BORING!!
THANK YOU LEE my cascadian MAN who I love forever and ever…
Thats WHAT I AM doing!
Fuck that cold turkey / crazy pills making me all jacked way…
cut back then quit!
love you dood!
to all my QNET memebers:
While, yes.. I have changed my “quit plan / date / NRT” too many times and I’m sure that many of you will say… NO SMOKING is the best, and you are right.
I want to GET TO THAT POINT when I can be 100% smoke-free and thanks to all of you I am still here.
Since I am a FIRST timer to the whole concept of quitting at all, (I never even considered quitting before rushing right out and trying to take on the world in a day and be the first to ever quit in a single try) isnt 4 cigarettes a DAY better than 40? Isn’t that at least a START?
yes it is a start, only you know when you are truely ready to quit, you need to commit 100% and make it your priority. 4 is better than 40, but it still isn’t quit. You can do it! Maz d59
Yes. It is better, but you never know which one will kill you. It only takes one a day to keep an elevated blood pressure and level of monoxide in the brain. It only takes one a day to keep the addiction alive.
It’s kind of like a serial killer saying they only killed four people instead of forty. You are still hurting yourself.
The question itself screams junkie thinking. To perpetuate addiction goes against the concept of quitting an addiction.
Congrats on considering quitting.
You can quit completely. Do it. Do it for you. Don’t keep putting yourself through withdrawl all day every day. Get it over with once and forever. Pull that bandaid off in one swift smooth motion.
Quitting by Gradual Withdrawal
Quitting by the gradual withdrawal method.
I discuss this method quite extensively in my seminars.
I always tell how if there is anyone attending who knows a smoker who they really despise they should actively encourage them to follow the gradual withdrawal “cut down” approach.
They should call them up ever day and tell them to just get rid of one cigarette. Meaning, if they usually smoke 40 a day, just smoke 39 on the first day of the attempt to quit. The next day they should be encouraged to smoke only 38 then 37 the next day and so on.
Then the seminar participant should call these people every day to congratulate them and encourage them to continue. I must reemphasize, this should only be done to a smoker you really despise.
You see, most smokers will agree to this approach. It sounds so easy to just smoke one less each day. Thirty-nine cigarettes to a two pack a day smoker seems like nothing.
The trick is to convince the person that you are only trying to help them. For the first week or two the one downside is you have to pretend to like the person and you have to talk to them every day.
They won’t whine to bad either. When they are down to 30 from 40, they may start to complain a little.
You really won’t be having fun yet.
When the payoff comes is about three weeks into scam.
Now you’ve got them to less than half their normal amount. They are in moderate withdrawal all the time.
A month into the approach you’ve got them into pretty major withdrawal. But be persistent. Call them and tell them how great they are doing and how proud you are of them. When they are in their 35th to 39th day, you have pulled off a major coup. This poor person is in peak withdrawal, suffering miserably and having absolutely nothing to show for it. They are no closer to ending withdrawal than the day you started the process. They are in chronic withdrawal, not treating him or herself to one or two a day, but actually depriving him or herself of 35 to 40 per day.
If you want to go in for the kill, when you got them down to zero, tell them don’t worry if things get tough, just take a puff every once in a while. If you can get them to fall for this, taking one puff every third day, they will remain in withdrawal forever. Did I mention you really should despise this person to do this to them? It is probably the cruelest practical joke that you could ever pull on anyone. You will undercut their chance to quit, make them suffer immeasurably and likely they will at some point throw in the towel, return to smoking, have such fear of quitting because of what they went through cutting down, that they will continue to smoke until it kills them. Like I said, you better really despise this person.
Hopefully there is no one you despise that much to do this to them. I hope nobody despises themselves enough to do this to themselves.
Quitting cold turkey may be hard but quitting by this withdrawal technique is virtually impossible.
If you have a choice between hard and impossible, go for hard. You will have something to show at the end of a hard process, but nothing but misery at the end of an impossible approach.
Quit cold and in 72 hours it eases up. Cut down and it will basically get
progressively worse for weeks, months, years if you let it.
I should mention, this is not a new technique. It has been around for decades.
Talk to every long-term ex-smoker you know. Try to find one person who successfully used the cut down approach, gradually reducing to eventual zero over weeks or months.
You will be hard pressed to find even one person who fits this bill. One other perspective that should help you see the flaw in the approach.
Look at people here who had once quit for months or years and then relapsed. One day, after such a long time period, they take a drag and are smoking again.
If one puff can do this after years or decades, guess what it will do after days or hours of being smoke free. It puts the smoker back to square one. All that any ex-smoker has to do to avoid relapse or chronic withdrawal is to – NEVER TAKE ANOTHER PUFF!
Joel Spitzer (whyquit.com)
The most important thing is that you are trying to control your bad habit. Whether or not you succeed on your first try is irrelevant because success will come from continually trying.
Keep your eyes on the goal, and you’ll get there.
Cheers,
markwars
Trying to take control of your habit is what is the most important. Whether or not you succeed is not the issue. Trying is where you will find success. So try in anyway you can!
A little unsolicited advice:
Stop worrying what anyone else thinks about your quit. You do what you can do, how you can do it, and try to move forward with each step.
If anyone tells you that you don’t “measure up” they can just kiss your ass, because no one knows what is happening inside you right now but you.
Feel good about yourself first. Then others opinions will mean nothing!
Take care
yeah, why AM I SO CONCERNED?
Thanks! for the support and UNDERSTANDING!!
and yeah… I like having my ass kissed from time to time!!
Better for whom?
Cuz I doubt it’s any better for *you*. It’ll be torture for you to stay at four a day for long. You’re just throwing yourself into one constant craving. Seriously, as far as the discomfort involved with that goes, you may as well just quit.
And I bet you can’t stay at 4 a day. Yeah! I said it!
But hey, good luck to ya!
Is someone giving you a problem since you had to change everything about your quit. If they are tell them it is your quit and you will handle it anyway that is best for you.
T
thaks T… you are my ROCK
Yes, its a huge start!!!!!!
Do what’s best for you.
People are just speaking from their own experience….certainly I am only speaking from my own experience. So, take what you like and leave the rest…..just never quit quitting!!!!
Keep it up!
Thank you
BABY STEPS BABY STEPS
Let’s face it…Who doesn’t!!!;>)
SMOOCH!
That kiss landed right on my ass THANK YOU!
I’m still gonna bug you, though!!! YOU CAN DO IT.
Have a great day!
Actually, this will be a real good test for you. IF you can stay at 4 a day then you don’t really need to quit, huh?
That’s actually a bit of a test that’s used to convince someone whether or not their drinking is alcoholic-type drinking. They tell the drinker to choose a “reasonable” number of drinks – say three or four a day. Then to try to go one month without going over that number of drinks in a day. If they can do that, then they have a bit of control over their drinking. If not, well, they should consider they may have a problem.
See, if we could smoke just here and there, or now and then, it wouldn’t be so bad. But the very fact that we can’t do that, means nicotine has control over us. We smoke when we don’t really want to. Like out in the rain or snow, or instead of being with our children, or while people wait for us, or when we’re sick or when we don’t really have the money to burn. Or when someone who loves us (like our children) begs us not to….
So I’d be curious to know, if you were willing to be totally honest, how each day goes for the next month (never mind the SIX MONTHS you plan) staying at or below 4 cigarettes per day. Seriously. I doubt you can do it.
It’s not you. It’s the nature of the beast.
I LOVE A GOOD BET.. even more I love a DARE. I tend to do things out of SPITE that may just be the perfect way to keep me smoking EXACTLY four… and YES I am willing ot be 100% honest. I will totally DIVULGE if I fail!!!
Smoking fewer cigs is not beneficial. “Smokers who cut back on the number of cigarettes may compensate by inhaling longer and deeper on the ones they do smoke. See :http://www.cancer.org/docroot/NWS/content/NWS_2_1x_Smoking_Fewer_Cigarettes_Less_Helpful_than_Youd_Think.asp“;
Please quit all the way. We’ll help!
I would say 4 is definately better than 40 but 0 is even better. Its fabulous that you are thinking about a complete quit and keep thinking like this and you will get there, especially with the support of this brilliant forum. Although I am only on day 7 I truly believe I couldnt have gotten this far without the wonderful, caring and understanding people on here.
Good luck and hopefully soon you will be posting that you smoked 0 cancersticks/nails in coffins, call them what you will.
I’m rooting for you as I know everyone else will be.
GO FOR IT
I know I would have caved during Day 3 if it hadn’t been for the Q. Coming here often saved my quit.
4 is better than 40 only if 4 does not become 40
Thats the goal
You’re on! I DARE YOU! 🙂
Hey, I emailed my son a link to your melevision blog. Love your choice of clips….
sweet!! (how fun is the blog!) and game / dare on!!
You KNOW by the BLOG alone that i dont lie!!!
I do not understand these people from time to time. They say right from the start it is your quit and to handle it your way and also many ( most of us) have attempted many quits. You are not a loser. You are only a loser when you give up on trying. You only lose because it could cost you your life. You will do this and maybe they should see that you are planning on a full quit when the time is right for you.
T
Thats why YOU Miss “T” are my go-to-check-with-rock-mentor!
Hi!! I agree that 4 is better than 40, but will you be able to stay at 4?? You will still be getting the poisons , I would try the patch with the gum or another combination that will help you. I would also make your quit date in the nearer future, 6 months is along time.
We are all going through the same things here, you just have to want to be smokefree, and than quit. There is wonderful support here, and alot of things you can do. I never thought I could quit, but I got sick of being a slave to the ciggs.
This isn’t a contest, alot of people have just put them down and never looked back, and some need alot more help. i have been a serial quitter, i just never give up quitting, and I believe I have my sticky quit now.
Take Care, all the best to you!!
I guess time will tell, if I can stick to four, (now that i have a BET CHALENGE on the LINE) and I am hoping my “sticking with the Q” I will be able /willing / ready to quit within 2 months
Is being a little bit pregnant better than being a lot pregnant?
Let’s quit playing mind games and be honest here. All you’re doing is trying to justify continuing to smoke under the guise that a little is better than a lot. That all sounds good, except for the manifest reality that nobody is ever able to stay at the “a little” level — everybody goes back to the “a lot” level.
Pegrob is right; read that post and think about it.
If you want to quit — honestly WANT to quit — then accept a few realities:
1. You have to be committed to quitting. Truly committed.
2. You have to hold yourself accountable to that commitment. Nobody else can do it for you; you have to force yourself to honor the commitment.
3. There is no “magic bullet”. There’s no method or pill or patch or gum or mental gymnastic routine or anything else that makes it easy and painless. If the magic bullet existed, then the cold-turkey/willpower method wouldnt’ STILL be the most Quitting means you’re going to have to deal with cravings and desire and borderline misery. It’s the price you pay to learn how to live smoke-free.
4. Attitude is a precursor to outcome. A positive attitude sets you up for success; a negative one sets you up for failure.
You have to accept those realities and quit deluding yourself with nonsensical notions that you can do this without actually having to DO it.
There’s no halfway, there’s no easy way out. Either you smoke or you don’t smoke.
I dare you to actually quit smoking.
well that one I wont take cuz i know I will loose… only take bets I know I can WIN!!
4 is better than 40, no question about that. But the problem with 4 is that you will always want more because your body will be in constant withdrawl/craving. If you can live that way and not let it sucker you in to 5 a day then that will be awesome. Most addicts can’t. And if you weren’t an addict you would have been quit by now.
I support you 100% in your attempt to quit though, do it however it works for you and come here for support.
Oh, BTW, I contemplated the cut down method also. Do you know what my Dr. said? If you want to quit, then quit. If you want to die of a smoking related disease still addicted to the very things that did that to you, then try cutting down. We can talk again when you realize there is no other way to quit than to stop smoking completely. That conversation will stay with me forever.
SG
To be frank- if you smoked 2 packs a day before- it will be torturous to stay at 4 a day. I only smoked 15 a day and couldn’t maintain a cut back to 5 without realizing it just wasn’t worth it and that I needed to go all the way and commit to a quit.
Considering how much you smoked before- 4 a day for a month or two may be a good way to ease yourself down on the nicotine dependence for an eventual total quit- but that should be the goal. If not, then you are just putting yourself through a bunch of anxiety for nothing- because it is almost inevitable that you will be up to at least a pack a day at some point.
You know your dependence more than I do- but if you think you can cut down to 4 a day than why not just quit all together and rid your body of all the nasty toxins that have been piling up. Put your will power to something more productive than merely managing your addiction.
There was a recent commercial on TV.
Had a guy who looked to be in his 40s crying and talking about how he had just been diagnosed with Lung cancer
He claimed that he was a very light smoker. Said he smoked around 5 a day(over the course of many years)
At the time, I didn’t believe it. Who can smoke only 5 per day over the course of years? (I only know that I couldn’t so I’m judging based on my experience)
So, while 4 per day may be better than 40… I don’t think that’s the point.
4 per day can still give you cancer.
To obtain the benefits of quitting, you need to be at 0 per day (and 4 per day is not quitting)
Also, you are putting yourself in a constat stage of withdrawl which may only reinforce your habit
-“I feel soooooooo much better after I smoke”
-“I need to smoke to deal with the stress”
So, I’m rooting for you. But instead of betting that you can maintain 4 per day… why not bet that you can quit 100%?
There are all of a sudden 75 zillion why / how to quit smoking commercails on these days.. I feel like they are all directed at me peraonally.
I tried OTHER cold turkey and PATCH methods and it didnt work, Now, I want to TRY something NEW… IF THIS doenst WORK , It’s back to the planning board!!!
I say Yes! I am here for you! I have tried many times, and I have gone thru what you are going thru….
Once somebody told me, that When I was done with Cigarettes I would know, and I would be done!
So I am sure the same will be true for you!
Kar
THANKS KAR!!
How did that ROSE BUSH turn out??
I am waiting for the girls to get home from School, we are killing it together and then celebrating…I will have pictures later today!
Kar
YOU MUST EMAIL ME THE PICS!!
heres my HOME email address!!!
xxxxxxxxx
>I tried OTHER cold turkey and PATCH methods and
>it didnt work, Now, I want to TRY something NEW
>.. IF THIS doenst WORK , It’s back to the planni-
>g board!!!
What I don’t understand is if you haven’t been able to quit, why do you think you can go from 40 to 4???? Cutting down is harder than quitting.
Sounds like an excuse to smoke to me.