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I've been smoking for 5 years now at about a pack and a half a day. In my last post Fallen Angels said it does mess with your blood and the way your hair grows. So im throwing down my matches for good. Plus im a singer and hope to somday sing in a band, so this will benifit me imencely. Ive only had eight today so far. Is there anyone out there with first hand experience that could give me some pointers?
Thrash,
Congratulations on your 8 days and what you are choosing to do for yourself.
My experience is as the child of a smoker. My father started smokinng at age 12. I watched him all my life try to quit smoking. It was the 12th or 15th time that he finally succeeded. At this point in his elder years, he is health and smoke free.
To this day, one whiff if cigarette smokes causes me an alergic reaction. I attribute it to a childhood of second hand smoke. I imagine from what my father and others have told me that you have some more trying days ahead. I honor you for what you are doing for yourself, and for your daily courage.
Robert
Congratulations! Whatever incentive you can use, do so. I don't have any knowledge of quitting but I can encourage anyway.
Congratulations on your quit! Its a decision you will appreciate later in life. Quitting is not easy and i know that as an ex-smoker. There are some very good forums out there that can help you.
http://quitsmoking.about.com/mpboards.htm
http://www.whyquit.com/
I found forum support and the education process to be very valuable in staying quit forever.
Good Luck!
Thanks a lot for the support guys. Im gonna need it.
I'll keep my progress posted.
Congratulations and good luck!
Congratulations !
You have it licked already ! You are quitting because YOU want to do it for YOURSELF and not for the wife, boss, neighbor, etc.
The actual "urge" really only lasts a couple of seconds, so when it hits, just hold on !!
I've been smoke free for 17 years and am disgustingly pleased with myself ! HA!
P.S. Cheesecake is a wonderful substitute ! HA!
Good Luck
Well i don't see how smoking can be harmful to your hair. Smoking does reduce vitamin C in the body and other stuff. I've smoked a few packs in my life but i don't enjoy smoking at all, merely an experimental phase. It definately is not addictive, it is just a lack of mind control and will power, well that is how i perceive it anyway. You tell yourself you want a smoke so you have one. More than anything you will have alot more money in your pocket each week and you will feel healthier and be able to breathe better. When you are old and you don't have lung cancer you will be happy you quit. Too many smokers fail to look into the long term and the harm they are inflicting on their health. Smoking will cause a slow and rather insidious death. My grandmother died from emppthaseyma(Spelling?).I want my dad to stop but i doubt the chances of it.
1.5 packs a day you smoke, wow, that is extreme!
Please fight the battle.
Good luck.
...that the chemicals in the ciggerettes are legitimately addicting, not just due to weak willpower. i dont know firsthand- i dont smoke. however, ive always heard that the niccotine definitely causes you to be addicted.
Cigarettes are indeed chemically addictive. The likes of cannabis is not chemically addictive.
So with cigarettes you can be chemically and psychologically addicted, making things fairly difficult.
Nicotine is certainly addictive, but not to everyone the same. For some nicotine is more addictive than heroine. For others, they can kick the habit and go cold turkey in one day.
I would guess that because smoking reduces the oxygen in your blood, you are reducing the oxygen flow to hair folicles which are producing your hair strands. So smoking should reduce the rate of hair growth and give you a shorter terminal length.
Finally, here is a quote from the Free Dictionary: "[Nicotine is] a colorless, poisonous alkaloid derived from the tobacco plant and used as an insecticide." I don't think breathing insecticides would be very good for you.
These are what helped me:
1.For me it was important to not be one of those semi-former smokers, occasionally lighting up for special occasions or being drunk or whatever. That didn't work. Nonsmokers don't smoke, period. So I didn't. So I'd say don't "reward" yourself with a smoke, or sneak a puff here and there. It's like waving chocolate cake in front of a dieter- in the end you're just tormenting yourself.
(Although I do know people who have been successful with a tapering-off approach though, so your mileage may vary.)
2. If you DO backslide a little, don't take that as license to backslide a lot. Regroup, remind yourself it was only one (hopefully! ;) ) and keep at it.
3. After a few years, the urge did fade. It does get easier.
best of luck to you!
-sectari
It's a good thing that you are doing. I need to join you. It is very hard. I have gone for several weeks not smoking, then starting back, although at one pack per WEEK, I seem to be a little less committed to it than you.
The thing with me is especially at work, if I could come up with some other legitimate excuse to go outside for a few minutes and space out when I get tired of being inside working, I'd be set.
It's a habit neither good for hair or anything else concerning your health. And then some people will stop smoking only to start dipping or chewing which is just as bad in other ways.
One of my grandfathers died from stomach cancer from chewing tobacco, the other indirectly from smoking. You'd think I'd have learned something from that!
Hi Thrash,
I definitely want to encourage you (and everyone else) to stay smoke-free, there are so many advantages like saving money, health, etc.
The book "Allen Carr's Easy Way to stop smoking" (Barnes & Noble in the U.S.) has helped several friends of mine to kick the habit for good - and this effect is NOT lost even in the German translation ("Endlich Nichtraucher" ;-)
I wish you a lot of strength and happy growth
Hans-Uwe
