Quit-Smoking Action Plan

i am in my early fifties and wish to quit smmoking. Iam addicted,can't do without it for six hours!!!

My experience: After several failed tries over the years, this what worked for me. First and what I found to be most important was that I was doing this for myself and not others. I also made a commitment to reevaluate that commitment often based on my progress or lack of it. My choice was to stop "cold turkey" as easing off never was successful for me. I started with a one week commitment. I acknowledged before hand that withdrawal would possibly make me irritable and uncomfortable. That was a key to my eventual success and served me well throughout. I also kept my family and fellow workers informed. That first week and following, I used cut down swizzle sticks and sucking candy to substitute for the actions of smoking. I found that as soon as I acknowledged that I was having an urge to smoke, the urge quickly diminished. At the end of that first week the smell of cigarette smoke was revolting and I continued to make that commitment every week for a long time. It's been almost 40 years since I started and I still sense an urge every now and then. The addiction to nicotine has been characterized as one of the most difficult to get rid of but no matter what method you use, do it for yourself and
make that commitment for yourself as often as you need.

Swizzle sticks and sugar free hard candy helped me become smoke free. Pat K.

I finally quit smoking when I was 67 after my cousin died with throat cancer. I started with nicotine patches as directed for two months, then the next box of patches, I cut each patch in half until it was gone, then the next box I cut into fourths, the next box eighths and etc. It took me seven months by doing this but I am proud to say it was successful. My sister and brother had already had lung cancer and I had cut back to 6 cigarettes a day for several years before I tried the patches. That was 17 years ago.
I agree nothing is harder and you have to want it for yourself.

I started smoking after I graduated in 1959 and took up a job in Pune, India..Cigarettes used to be cheap in those days. I kept smoking till I retired. My income got reduced. By the time prices of cigarettes kept gradually rising. When I started smoking, the price of a pack containing 10 cigarettes used to be 60 paise. When I retired, it used to be about 1 rupee per cigarette (around 170 times). I used to smoke about 10 cigarettes per day. I wondered if I stopped smoking
how much I would be saving in a year on smoking and medical expenses apart from a shortening of life span.I needed money for the education of my children. I think the dire need for money made me get rid of the habit of smoking within a month. Since then more than 25 years have passed and I am fully free of the habit of smoking.
However, there exists one after-effect. Whereas before I started smoking, I could laugh loudly, I can't do that now.
Recently, I was going out with a friend for an evening walk. The friend purchased a pack of cigarettes at rupees 70. containin 10 cigarettes. That means the price of cigarettes has gone up by seven times during the last 25 years.
I kept calculating how much money I must have saved by getting reed of the habit and with hardly any visit to the doctor.
.

I am very proud of you !! That takes a lot of will power and self control !
Congratulations !!!

I was a very addicted smoker for over 30 years, never without a cigarette and always planning my next opportunity to smoke. I quit in 1986, by using a book on self-hypnosis written by a doctor, and by using all the behavior-modification tips I could round up. I never smoked again.
On thing that smokers need to remember: You will quit eventually. Will it be like my sister, who quit when she was hospitalized with emphysema? Maybe it will be when you have a heart attack and then a quadruple bypass, like my other sister. Perhaps it will be like my friend's mother, who quit after her diagnosis of stage-four lung cancer.
My impetus to quit was seeing a friend hooked up to chemotherapy for his lung cancer. I knew it was time for me to face quitting. I'd never tried before, just thought about it but justified continuing to smoke.
So.... if I'm allowed to, I would recommend the book I used. It's out of print now, but used copies are sometimes available second-hand on-line.
I also would like to post the behavior modification tips here, when I've got some more time to type. One of the most important tips I got as I began the process of quitting was in a magazine article, saying that quitting smoking is like the death of a loved one. Your cigarettes are your friends and are always with you. When you do quit, you must think of them as you would a loved one who has died. You miss them horribly, you think of them every day, as time goes by you miss them less, but they cannot come back, no matter how much you wish they could. This helped me with quitting smoking; the cigarettes have died and gone forever.

Good analogy with losing friends. Yes, please do post your behavior modification tips when you can.

Post #2: Here are the behavior modification tips I used to quit smoking after 30 years of total addiction. I used a book called "A Doctor's Book on Smoking and How to Quit," by Dr. Anthony Colby. It's available second-hand sometimes, as it's out of print. It's a 14-day plan to quit. Each day has a "practice quitting" session and some relaxation ideas.
Once I made the decision to quit, I put an X on my calendar for the day I'd start the book. (I used my birthday, which was about a month away.) From that day on, I never bought my cigarette of choice again. I bought one pack at a time of anything else, including menthol, Camels, weird brands, etc. By the time I began the book and the process, everything I was smoking tasted terrible and I realized I was just smoking to smoke.
I got a large glass jar and filled it with water, then emptied a few ashtrays into it. I kept that jar on my dresser and looked at it and smelled it often.
I rewarded myself, putting the cost of cigarettes for one day into a little plate in my room. Each day I counted the money, and every five days or so I spent the money on myself for a reward. I kept this up for a while afterwards, always reminding myself how much I'd spend on smoking.
I told everyone I knew that I was quitting. I got support from ex-smokers and present smokers, and it would have been much harder on me to start smoking again and face them. People will be very proud of you.
I carried a large baggie in my purse for months, with hard candies, mints, gum, lollipops, to have something to suck on instead of a cigarette. There were calories, but the effects were certainly better than smoking. It was worth the few extra calories.
I convinced myself that if I should ever pick up one cigarette and have one puff, I'd go buy a carton and start the addiction all over again.
Walking by people who smoke after I quit, I realized that this was how I had smelled. It was on my hair, my clothes and my breath, in my car and in my home.
After the first few days without smoking, my hands and feet began to feel like I was putting them in an oven, just a reminder of how bad my circulation had become. I only wanted to quit once, and it was difficult of course. I cried and went through the grieving process, as something I loved had died and gone forever. I knew that I'd miss them less every day, and that I'd learn to live without them. They couldn't come back no matter how much I wanted them to, just like a loved one.
Anyone thinking of quitting, please try everything you can to make yourself successful. You'll be making the decision voluntarily, rather than having it made for you by the medical profession.

I hope some of my tips help. The very best to everyone who decides to quit.

excellent plan! I quit cold turkey 20 years ago, I would never recommend it, I ended up having to take valium and an anti-depressant for a while. It was the hardest thing I ever did, my weight stabilized after 1year. I do wish at times I could grab a cigarette when stressed but I didn’t want to end up having to be on oxygen when older. The cost now is also prohibitive. Best thing I ever did.