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Nor me, nor my husband, and I read the bloody book about 4 times, and read a chapter a day during the 3 weeks that I stopped smoking. I do dispute some of what he says as bullshit actually - it may be an addition but it absolutely 100 per cent certainly is a HABIT as well!!! Otherwise why would people who quit 30 or 40 years ago still fancy a cigarette at the end of a meal? But in any event it did not work even coupled with the drugs that are supposed to work, which didn't work for either of us!

And yes Annpan what I said in my earlier posting is exactly how I felt when I gave up giving up as I never ever want to feel like that again, ever in my life. I felt that life was not worth living like that.

Millymollymandy wrote:read a chapter a day during the 3 weeks that I stopped smoking.

There is the problem - you should have continued smoking whilst reading the book to the end. That is the key to stopping. You need to continue to smoke whilst reading in order for your brain to realise just how disgusting it is. You then have no desire whatsoever to light a fag.

Millymollymandy wrote:but it absolutely 100 per cent certainly is a HABIT as well!!!

I would dispute that - it is pure and simple drug addiction and psychological dependency.

TheGoodEarth wrote:

Millymollymandy wrote:but it absolutely 100 per cent certainly is a HABIT as well!!!

I would dispute that - it is pure and simple drug addiction and psychological dependency.

I'm not so sure. When I used to smoke, I always kept my fags / tobacco on the shelf above the kettle. When I tried to give up using the patches (which I discovered I was allergic to), I used to automatically reach for the fags every time I made a cup of tea, even though they weren't there. And I missed that horribly. Also, the one fag of the day I really missed was the one I would light up as I was leaving work. So I would certainly agree with you that it's a drug addition, but there's a lot of habit involved in it too.

But as I said, I had none of this at all when I finally did give up. And that was 7 years ago this week.

Lynne

TheGoodEarth wrote:

Millymollymandy wrote:but it absolutely 100 per cent certainly is a HABIT as well!!!

I would dispute that - it is pure and simple drug addiction and psychological dependency.

I take it you have never smoked ?
I can attest to the FACT that the worst part of giving up smoking is not the nicotine addiction but the habit.
When you have the first cup of coffee in the morning you have a smoke, at various times throughout the day ... it's smoke time, after a meal you have a smoke.
The nicotine dependency gets flushed out of your body in a matter of a few days, but not so the habit.
I have not smoked now for 5 years and I still think that I should be having a smoke at certain times.

TheGoodEarth wrote: I would dispute that - it is pure and simple drug addiction and psychological dependency.

I should have also said that I smoked continuously for 40 years, having a smoke at pretty much the same times every day for 14,600 days ... how can that NOT be a habit ?

TheGoodEarth wrote:

Millymollymandy wrote:read a chapter a day during the 3 weeks that I stopped smoking.

There is the problem - you should have continued smoking whilst reading the book to the end. That is the key to stopping. You need to continue to smoke whilst reading in order for your brain to realise just how disgusting it is. You then have no desire whatsoever to light a fag.

Millymollymandy wrote:but it absolutely 100 per cent certainly is a HABIT as well!!!

I would dispute that - it is pure and simple drug addiction and psychological dependency.

Please read my posting properly. I said that I read the book about 4 times. I followed what the man said to the letter. I then kept reading bits of the book AFTER I had stopped smoking to reinforce what he said but it still didn't work.

And yes it jolly well is a habit, pure and simple, as well as an addiction, as ANY smoker or ex smoker will attest to!

TheGoodEarth wrote:Was it Allen Carr - The Easyway to Stop Smoking? This is the book I used and I can't recommend it enough. It was enjoyable stopping using this method. It has a 95% success rate.

Actually no it doesn't. He CLAIMS that his clinics had a 95% success rate, but there are no statistics that I am aware of that can say what success rate the book has or hasn't. Nobody from Amazon has got in touch with me to ask whether I managed to quit or not!

It looks like the magic bullet for some people and not for others, which is even more irritating when it seems to be so easy.

Different strokes for different folks

i gave up 3 years ago

mainly due to falling in love with a non-smoker i began to no longer enjoy smoking, once i had enough nicotine to stop the need i would look at the rest of the cig and think i really don't want to smoke you. so my first hurdle was to remind myself that by smoking the whole thing i wasn't going to get my money back, and that allowed me to throw the rest of it away unsmoked.

so for the next couple of months the number a smoked dropped and i only smoked a third to half of the cig. i think that this reduction proberbly made it a bit easier to give up when i did

one day i woke up with fag mouth after a night out and i was so disgusted with myself that i no longer wanted to smoke. without any planning, i got a peice of paper and wrote 'i don't want you', 'i don't need you', 'i don't want to be an old hag' etc. and tapped the box of ciggerettes and my lighter to it and pinned it to the inside of my bedroom door. this way if i wanted one they were there, but i knew that i didn't want one and the poster reminded me of that

i felt extremley ill for the next two weeks but after that ok. i didn't go to a pub or a party for three months, knowing that this could tempt me. but havn't smoked since

I'm a bit similar to you ajs - i met a non-smoker who alwasy swore he would never go out with a fag hag - until he met me anyway When we moved in together I said I wouldn't smoke in the house, being a top floor flat it wasn't that easy to get outside for one. Next I gave up the morning walk to work fag, then the coffee fag then the lunch fag... Gradually over quite a long period I found I only really wanted one when I was out drinking, but again that decreased so I would maybe go out and only want 1 instead of the 10 I might previously have had. It took a long time, probably over a period of about 2 yeasr, but eventually I just didn't want one anymore, although I've never told myself I can't have if i did ever want one again. Although I just don't see the point o buying a whole packet when I know I won't smoke them before they go stale, so i guess that makes me a no-smoker

I gave up nearly 3 years ago.

Previous to that I gave up every year for lent and was smoking again by Christmas. Now I don't even have a drunken smoke! Still occasionally have the urge!

MOST IMPORTANT ASPECT

She will only be able to give up if she really wants to - for herself

Not she wants to for her health or she wants to for you or children, or feels guilty about money or any other reason, but a total desire to give up for herself.

For years I didn't really want to give up but once I did I just gave up - no books, hypno etc... I did change my routine and I did have a clothes peg in my pocket! She needs to analys what her habbits are and maybe make that change. I did it when I moved house from Hampshire to Wales. It meant that I didn't have any friends that smoked that way!

She just needs to ask herself, once she has decided that she wants to give up for herself, what is going to be most difficult? and then make those changes.

My uncle gave up over night having smoked 60 a day for years. We believe he went to the Drs. My aunty on noticing changed the ash trays to bowls of sweets!

[quote="Odsox]I take it you have never smoked ? I can attest to the FACT that the worst part of giving up smoking is not the nicotine addiction but the habit.[/quote]

I smoked for 25 years and realised I didn't have a habit when I found it so easy to stop. That is my point, when I decided I no longer wanted to smoke then I didn't find myself saying "Oh, I have just had dinner therefore I must light a fag" Or "I am having a coffee therefore I must smoke" If you find yourself thinking like that then you are still mentally addicted - that is not a habit. When I realised that I was killing myself with something I didn't enjoy then not surprisingly it was very easy to get out of that 'habit'!

It agree that it is very difficult to stop and I failed myself many times before stopping but I really would urge people wanting to stop to try the Allen Carr book. Even if the pass rate is only say 50% then surely that would still be phenomenal.

Ha... now... this is a subject that can easily escalate, as it's quite an emotive topic!

Yep, to some folk, smoking is a habit which is incredibly hard to break.
I'm a smoker, Andy smokes, Andy also drinks - now, he can stop smoking just like that - and has done twice since we've been together..... but he can't manage to give up drink - he climbs the walls if he doesn't get his regulation 3 cans of Guinness a day.
I was a drinker - but I gave up - just like that, but I tried giving up the cigs - succeeded once with hypnotherapy, but started again 2 years later....

My eldest daughter however, doen't have an addictive bone in her body - yes, she CAN drink & given half a chance she will... for as long & as hard as she can... but then she can stop. Just like that.
She smoked for 5 years - and stopped. Just like that.

Sometimes, the habit is just that - a habit. Yes, an addictive habit, but a habit all the same.

Sometimes, it's nice to stop while I'm up in the hayshed, light a ciggy & view the world around me.... then once I've had a break & a ponder, it's back to the saw & chopping wood!

Each to their own - as long as it doesn't inconvenience others around you.... and if you want to stop, you'll find a reason & you'll do it - whichever way you decide is best for you, you'll succeed IF you want to.

A bit like the Ish life, really!

JulieSherris wrote:Sometimes, it's nice to stop while I'm up in the hayshed, light a ciggy & view the world around me.... then once I've had a break & a ponder, it's back to the saw & chopping wood!

Actually when I stopped that was the 'one' I missed the most - the pause whilst out working in the garden. Not, surprisingly, the first one in the morning with my coffee!

JulieSherris wrote:Sometimes, it's nice to stop while I'm up in the hayshed, light a ciggy & view the world around me.... then once I've had a break & a ponder, it's back to the saw & chopping wood!

That's a risky fag surely!