[emileth]

Coolpeach,

I work for the American Cancer Society Quitline and just wanted to let you know that if you dial 1800QUITNOW, you will be routed to your Texas Quitline, which offers telephone counseling (they walk you through the quitting process, give you skills for dealing with cravings,etc) that is scheduled around your schedule and the telephone counselor calls you for each session. They also have booklets they can send you that walk you through the quitting process.

Most states offer something similar, and some even offer Free Nicotine replacement therapy. So, if anyone needs help with quitting, definitely consider calling 1800QUITNOW to be routed to your State's quitline to see what they have to offer!
All the programs are free as they are funded by the State's tobacco settlement money.

Good luck to everyone!!!!

[ChristineN]

Originally Posted by Csantos

I want to quit smoking also, and my plans are to quit as soon as i get to my clinicals, reason being,

in June, july and august, i will be taking my AP1,AP2, and micro.

will be going to school from 8 am to 1 pm, and will be working 330 to midnight, so cant take the edge of not smoking then, but right after that i will do so!!!

even though i have like 5 cigarettes per day "tops" that is still too much!

I completely understand how stressful your courseload plus working will be, but do you seriously think clinicals will be less stressful?!

Current smoker here, smoked all through clinicals, and believe me, it won't be easy trying to quit during clinicals. The main reason I haven't tried really to give it up lately is that smoking is honestally how I cope with all of the stress associated with the hospital (ie dying pts, acutely ill pts, upset families, long shifts, etc). While I applaude you for saying you want to quit, and do not mean to discourage you, I just want you to realize that it's not going to be any easier in a couple months to quit. You will always have stressors in your life, so there will never be a "right time" to stop smoking.

[coolpeach]

Csanto's,

If you change your mind you can always jump in with us anytime and quit. After reading the course I posted above I am actually somewhat excited. It explained it in a new way I had never thought of. It said that quitting is not painful at all. It has no physical pain associated with it, but the psychological conditioning of how hard we are told it is to quit. The actual withdrawal from the nicotine is so mild that most people would hardly notice it. What happens is we feel that tinge, and instead of letting it pass we get all tense, and freaked out, and try to make it go away. This causes us tension, fear, dread, and pain. Instead it says when you feel it be like a scientist, and sit with it, observe it, and let it pass right through in a matter of seconds. It says if you do this you will see its really not bad, and the dread, fear, tension etc will pass away, and you will find quitting is no big deal.

I am all about being a scientist lol...we will see if it works

[Csantos]

Thanks for the info!

I am so wanting to quit though, and the first chance i have i will grab it!

i use to be fit, trimmed, and had great health, now, i have about 20 pounds to loose (i am not FAAAAT but,... still!) and have to quit smoking, and start working out again!!!

I will try to work out twice a week prior to coming to work we have a free gym here at the office building, so maybe 45 minutes twice a week!!!

because i will get outta school at 1 and don't start to work until 330pm!

[coolpeach]

emilith,

Thank you for the information. I will do that...I am using all the resources available, and appreciate you giving me more. I had no idea this was available. Thank you.

[emileth]

Carlos,
The Florida quitline offers free nicotine replacement therapy to eligible callers! It is usually an 8 week supply of the patch, the gum, or the lozenge. To be eligible for the NRT, you do have to enroll in the telephone counseling, which is 4-5 sessions over the course of about a month (about one call a week)
They send you the first 4 week supply after your first telephone counseling session, and then the other 4 week supply after your third session.

You should definately consider calling the Florida quitline!!!

[BigL97]

I quit smoking 9 months ago after leaving the military and have not looked back. I KNOW you can do it, and I am here for moral support.

Good Luck to you, and I KNOW you will succeed

God Bless,
Roderick

[atiya000]

Well, It is not easy.
I have not smoked since 04/11/08. With the help of Chantax. I was just accepted to LPN school and with the price of smokes going up $2 in my state I have decided to quit. Wish you all well.
Tia-Boston, Ma

[degraypoole]

I have a couple of suggestions for all the "stop smoking" wannabees. This is what I am going to do:

1. Make a necklace comprised of small notes threaded on a string, neck chain, whatever. Use thick paper or thin card stock. On each note write a reason to stop smoking, e.g. "Smelly breath", "Corrupted lungs", "Holes in clothes", "expensive", "Socially unacceptable", "Stained teeth", "Loss of taste", "Loss of smell", "Dragon breath", "Polluted air", "Home/car smells like ashtray", "Hair smells", "Clothes smell", "Makes me feel guilty", "I'm poisoning myself", "Bad, nasty habit", etc.

Every time you have an urge to smoke, randomly pull one off and put it in your old ashtray (or any other significant place). The next time the urge strikes repeat the same and read the one/ones already in the ash tray.

2. Make a second one, in the form of a bracelet. On these tags/notes, make a penalty. If you succumb to a *** (cigarette), pull one of these off and do the penalty before you do another thing. Penalties like "email one of us" to confess. Call the help line given in other threads. Suck a piece of lemon (supposed to be good to curve craving), fore-go a pleasure that day, e.g. no coke for the day, etc. You have to stick to it and make stiff tailor made penalties but not ones that will cause you to stress and want to smoke even more!

Put a lot of thought into the notes you will put on tags, and only use the ones that will most impress upon you. I really think this will work coupled with all the other wonderful suggestions contained n these threads. There is a wealth of information there.

I am inviting a "Smokefree Wannabee Buddy" to email me so that we can be a support system, accountable to each other and report on our progress. My start date is 01 May, tomorrow.

For me I know it can not be that hard to do, as last year I had a 24/7 live-in position. The home was of course smoke free. The day I started I cut down to one cig a day, max two in the days that followed. (I had to sneak this after everyone was asleep.) So I know if I can go from a pack a day to one/two a day, what was I smoking for? I'm sure I just did it because I could get away with it by being a sneak. (I'll make a tag for that one, "Being a sneak"!) No good, no good.

I hope this helps.