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anyone else kicking the weed?
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Actually managing visualisations right now . The logic behind the book makes sense. The idea that smoking is a subconcious thing is true too. If it was concious, once you knew what was going on you would stop.
not had many and trusting that doing the visualisation will allow my subconcious to let it go. Book says up to five days.
I have tried lots of ways before -just have to wait and see. With this though ity does not feel like a big deal and i feel more relaxed than i did before.
Never give up on giving up!
I am still in there!
One month, one day, 21 hours, 3 minutes and 12 seconds. 657 cigarettes not smoked, saving £141.55!
well done GSG.
I will catch you up.
feeling good now and hearing of successes like yours really helps
doing fine with the visualization. Aint felt like smoking much and as book says had one when I felt like(although have to do the visualization). Book says after a few days subcoscious will let go of need to smoke.
Interesting idea that people struggle to stop smoking because the effect nicotine has is to mimic the feeling of fear (edginess, nervy etc) and fools brain into thinking you are under threat. As fags take a bit of the feeling away before creating it again ( what we define as"withdrawal"), your subconscious is fooled into thinking smoking relieves it rather than creates it. Visualization is to teach subconscious the truth that nicotine causes the feeling and the feeling is not really fear at all.
It may sound odd to some but it appears to be working proper. Dont feel like it is a struggle also. Yes been here before and I guess just got to wait and see. Sooner do that than stop em and pull my hair out for weeks.
have learned that stopping aint an intellectualizing thing so dont argue over theory-it is pointless
Hope it works for you!
One month, three days, 2 hours, 36 minutes and 52 seconds. 1023 cigarettes not smoked, saving £230.51!
Been treating myself to a sports massage once a week, would rather have a nice hot stone massage at the local beauty salon but needs must!
Thank you for your kind comments
mmm - i spent about £60 a week on the things -too much really. Last time I stopped for 3 months I actually had spare money which was nice.
I used to be quite evangelical (sp) over stopping method but failing again after 3 months has shut me up a bit (swallow). All I can say is that some ways are a lot easier than others in my experience. However, such is my hatred of the things, i dont care what method a person uses. All I want is to see as many people as possible free from the slavery of the weed whether they use electronic fags, patches, books, videos or Uncle Joes Miracle Mint Balls.
please GSG -never touch the weed again.
I do recommend anybody who is struggling to read this whatever way you are stooping. it at least strips some of the struggle away from stopping although it is not a panacea as I found.
http://www.sos03.lt/files/knygos/AllenCarrEN-Easy_way_to_stop_smoking.pdf
Bottom line is are you smoking or not ? If you aren't, then however you stopped was just perfect.
I've been hung up on addictions for literally years (in fact decades for some) like this thinking unless I did it the real "man's" way it didn't count - in my case cold turkey. If I didn't face the monster man to man and defeat it in unarmed combat then I'd somehow cheated.
I'm very sorry to say it took me many many years to realise this is boll0cks !!! Getting to the destination is what's important, not the mode of transport.
I don't know what these visualisations are Hoose, but you seem to rely on them. I'm not sure they can be much good though as they don't work - you're still smoking.
I've been involved in recovery for many years now and one of the most important thing I've learned is that it's very difficult to do it on your own. Addiction is a lonely place and sadly when trying to get out of it we are often our own worst enemies - as I said above, we don't think rationally and lie to ourselves.
Why not go to the NHS, get some patches and some counselling/support. It really isn't cheating to make it as easy as it can be !!!
HI RR
I agree with what you are saying. It does not matter how you get there.
Not depending on the visualization at all. I am using it as a tool only. You are meant to use it before lighting up to get message into subconcious. After a few days you will not need to di it coz desire will go. I think you would have to read the book to understand why tbh. I have not felt the need to smoke much neither (whether visualization is working or not-that is what is happening). I am trusting the process as us counsellors tend to say. It is as good as patches, carr et al. If it works it works, if it doesnt I will try something else.
Patches never worked for me on occasions I used them. I feel the government/ NHS has very good intentions but also has an interest in keeping the tobacco industry going (you only get nicotine from that dont you?)
However, what matters is that me , Hoose, stops the things.
I prefer a slightly more rational approach to recovery. Anyone who smokes regularly has two problems to address - the physical addiction to nicotine and the learne habits/routines that go with smoking.
To break the addiction is relatively easy. You need to allow your brain to 'rewire' itself to not need nicotine any more. You can do this all in one go (cold turkey) or gradually (using NRT etc.). Interesting comment you make about NRT, that it's some kind of conspiracy by the tobacco industry. I think resistance to NRT is more likely to be the conspiracy - i.e. many object to it but they don't give up smoking, they keep on buying tobacco products. I would have thought NRT is an aid not your enemy.
Habits are harder to break and uncover all sorts of emotional and other connections to smoking. Again, you have to learn day by day to live without smoking and engrain new habits. I think this is easier done with support, but that's just my theory.
Bottom line is you're still smoking so your way isn't working. Maybe you should look at some alternatives ?
Other bottom line is that there is no easy way. Which ever way you try there will be hard times you have to tough out.
RR
it is so true though that when i did Allen Carr thing I honestly found it easy for the period I stopped.Unfortunately i found it easy to have one and start it again. On the sub-conscious thing, there is nothing hocus pocus about it at all. he see smoking as a fake "fear" or phobia. As you are possibly well aware phobia lives in the sub-concious and a lot of treatment of phobia is aimed at the sub-conscious. If you had a phobia of dogs due to incident as a child, you can still have panics as an adult who rationally knows that dogs on TV wont harm you , for example, whilst panicking at watching them. It is the subconscious that will take you out of the room after seeing the dog if you are afraid of dogs.
nice to know other theories.
am not doiung badly as dont feel like one at the mo.
Well
not doing bad this end. Woke up with no real rush to have a cig as I normally do.
RR- here is an article that maybe explains the approah better than I can on a Sunday afternoon with wine in me-lol (unfortunately the web site cited has been taken over)
not had many at all since 7 am this morning(not felt like any). Had 5 which is 20% of what I would have and less than this time yesterday
to not feel like them often is a revealation to me and I feel good.
Though I am pleased about anyone that stops I am envious of those who do it the harder way using willpower. I aint that super-human I dont think. Wont be long now before totally off them. I dont want to stop only to start again as I have been doing for years and looking an idiot on this thread.
good luck all stoppers no matter how you are doing it. Like RR says, it is the destination not the journey that counts (really stuck with me that one)
xx
Carr is the best I tried to date Kimbo . Got me off for 3 months . I found it too easy to have just one and broke Carrs rule. I have tried the lot too.
Book I am on now is similar to Carr in a lot of ways but focuses on sub-conscious more and sees withdrawal as a fear. I am not getting into panics so far when I dont have one which is a bbig thing for me now.
well done on your quit
really good for me today. I am not really cutting down simply dont feel the need for one much (which is different). Cutting down means fighting the need for one on occasions. None of that for me coz need is not there often.
Gonna make this attempt the attempt as I cannot face another failure. Not beating myself up or fighting with my own nicotine shadow as doing so has ground me down. Do get fed up of those who state the obvious and say well I have tried for around 50 times so I know what you mean. When it comes to 1000 times and after finding real freedom on occasions then throwing it away, you can say I know what you are going through. That is my reality. Would really welcome thinking about ordinary things rather than smoking.
The book I am reading offers something new and fills in gaps.
not bbad at all this morning. No panic or desperate urge to smoke. Yes I have the physical edginess that you get due to smoking and yes a fag will reduce it BUT I know that the tension will build up again.
All fags do is create an edginess that starts low, builds up and fades all in a few days. If I smoke another it will start again a low edginess, build up and fading. I am so so aware of that now. Every one I have feels just like that. I do not feel frightened coz the "edginess" feels like real fear but it is not. It is something that feels like it.Subconsciously if something is experienced as fear anything that reduces it will e sought after. Thing is fags do not really reduce it , they just reset the process to a lower level of edginess which will bbuild back up again.
My big mistake is maikng such a fuss over this process and listening to the scare tactics and how really hard it is going to be and thinking "I have to be superman" to stop. Enough to make you scared shitless before you start. And what does my mind (or any smokers mind) do when they are scared or anxious?
maybe hoosey has flipped his lid now and is totally wrong and is going to go through this massive fight inside to resist the next cigarette or is in denial (well-you know how stupid and vulnerable poor hoose is) and all the anti smoking ads could never be wrong and of course you need tons of willpower. I dont give a shit coz i am not always responding to the feeling with fags and feel better. Aint that what counts?
If I am wrong I am wrong, if I am right I am right. If I am off my head I am off my head. As long as I am not smoking at end of it, it doesnt really matter.
LOL -I can imagine the analysis from those who read this
Hoose - not sure if you're off your head or not, but you certainly do seem to have lost yourself in thinking about quitting !
As a slight analogy, my wife suffered very bad post-natal depression. I believe one of the contributory factors was that she read so many books and listened to so much advice in her desire to do things "properly". Many conflicted with each other, and she ended up completely confused, very anxious and decided she was useless as a mother, despite our son being perfectly healthy and happy.
The point is you can think too much and too much information can be confusing. Pretty much it's as simple as you smoke, you don't want to, so you try and stop, find it's painful so start again, feel bad and decide you want to stop again. Repeat the cycle endlessly.
To stop you have to decide you want to, decide on a plan to quit and stick to it. Choose whatever method you feel is right for you and go for it. Expect it to be difficult and for there to be rocky moments but make sure you don't smoke and they will pass. Repeat this cycle endlessly and you've quit.
Not much more to it than that.
spose I do have too much info RR(16 years worth). Yes, a lot is contadictory and the only thing I have to trust is my own experience ultimately, to avoid going off my head. It has been too much of an obsession really, only because I have not quit to date. When I did for three months it was not only the freedom of stopping I enjoyed but the freedom from obsessing about it all. What I liked about Carr's method was that it was and felt easier than I was lead to believe by the ads and the experience i had using "willpower methods". Rightly or wrongly I got frustrated at those who used willpower and seamed to suffer whilst stopping. I "knew" there was an easier way. My mistake was very casually having 1 fag when I could easily have left it. All of a sudden I was smoking fully and could not find that feeling of easiness again in spite of re-attending carr's clinic and reverting back to NRT and stuff.. I am also very nervous for those who stop using willpower as I hate seeing them so delighted whilst off them only to find later they slipped up and went back. I find it frustrating when I see them still pining for the damn things whilst they stop and brace themselves into nervous tension due to thinking it is gonna be a big battle. A sense of doom envelops me and I want to scream. It is only because I have done it myself and suffered bad depression over the fact after. Too much info has made me hate them too much i guess also.
Like your wife I guess, i am trying to do it right and have got confused.It leaves you with only your own judgement left. Now I have to battles let the info dust settle and stop the things.
I am settling a bit with the Casey book and trusting the process. I feel good and less panicky than i have since I stopped for that 3 months. As it said the desire will fade and go as I continue to do the visualization (pretty scientific as is used in treatment in phobias by psychologists and not hocus pocus at all). I have smoked few and it is getting fewer coz I simply have less desire to. It is early days and soon I wont be smoking at all. Casey suggests around 5 days before fully letting it go. That is my plan and am sticking to it. In many ways book is similar to carr but realy hits the button as far as what nicotine does and what happens to your brain (apart from my obsessing).
Interesting thread. Just read the last couple of pages. I'm not a smoker, but eating is my issue and I can relate in some ways to what you're experiencing Hoose. Eating crap (i've got a terrible sweet tooth) is my addiction, and I cracked ti to a certain extent for a while (lost couple of stone) but i've gone back to old habits lately, and i'm not losing anything. I keep thinking I need to just get a grip, get some willpower and stop giving in to my cravings, but it is not easy! I wonder if stop smoking books would help with food craving.......find and replace 'cigarette' with 'food'! Don't know how much of the 'addiction' side of things is the same for fags as it is for food?
Edit: btw not meaning to hijack your thread! Good on you for quitting.....giving up fags is not easy. I watched my Mum smoke 60 a day growing up. She gave up overnight when she was diagnosed with cancer and was rushed into hospital. Couldn't smoke in there so she gave up. Was hellishly hard though....mood swings were horrific! Everyone is different though, so whichever way works for you is the right way, and if you have to try a few things to find 'the right way' then so be it. You'll get there
could be similar things at work Lee. I guess you can get lots of conflicting advice on food addiction too. I think reading carr may help. I did a link above somewhere. A ver good book I read was Jason Vale"Slim 4 Life" deals with eating in a Carrish way(not surprinng as he was a Carr stop smoking advisor). It actually helped me over food stuff and got me off Jelly Babies and substituting food for fags.
this is a pretty scarey thread for smokers or those stuck in willpower mode as it deals with my struggle that I have chose to make public. many have read it but not posted but I hope that some of what is here stops one or two or allows them to make a serious attempt to stop smoking. I save the usual encouragement and flags for other stopping threads coz that is all some need.