Kickas.org Forums Ankylosing Spondylitis General Discussion #1 AS Web Support Group dreaded cigarettes

Lori, Kristin and all you other smokers out there......The moment I saw the title I had to read all and reply.

I quit January 1st this year...... Smoked on and off for many years.

How did I do it - Well patches took the edge off the physical craving.

As for the mental thing - you probably don't remember a post a while back with me asking about chest expansion and fusing - I know several replied, Lisa, Loz , the numbers caused me to freak!

Anyway at the time my chest expansion was about 1 cm. This was very worrying. Since I stopped smoking (3 months) I have gone back to 3 cms and improving still.

I think it was the compelling health thought that pushed me over the edge....

Do I still want a cigarette, definitely so!

Will I let myself, no, I finally got control of it.

This is of course many false starts later...... I found I was never going to do it until my mind was definitely made up. Any uncertainty was guaranteed to fail.....

Keep trying if you want to, but don't beat yourself up if you don't... often the time isn't right. My wife (Funkstergirl!) used a book to help her - Allen Carr's Easy Way to stop smoking..... It worked for her

Anyway, good luck all, when I first joined Kickas I thought I was one of the only smokers on here, it's great to see I wasn't alone!

Cheers
Jo

OOPS:) That'll teach me to use a calculator in the dark.

Hi Lori -
Does your husband smoke? If so, does he want to quit? If not is there something else he wants to give up or cut down on? Read on.....

I was a smoker, then, like Pete (Dakotadan) I just decided that enough was enough. No plans were afoot, I just thought "Ah heck - enough of me smelling like an ash tray, enough of my girlfriend finding the smell of me and my clothes a turn-off, enough of me being unable to cope with strenuous exercise, I want to be fit, and I want to be attractive."

One thing that helped was that I did it when I was going on vacation for a couple of weeks - so everything was different at that time .... I was living under canvas in the South of France for two weeks, I'd quit my job and was about to start the most stressful job of my life the day after I got back home.
That hideous and stressful job helped in a perverse way - I kept telling myself, if I can quit while I'm going through this #### I will never need to smoke again. You see - all of a sudden life had changed in many ways all at once so the cigarettes, relatively speaking, were no big deal.

Another thing that helped was that my girlfriend (later to become my wife and mother of my children) chose that same day to give up meat. We drew what little strength that was required from each other.

You'd better do it really - in fact you have to - for your kids. They need a mommy, right?

Cheers without beers,

      Loz  

Wow! And I thought I was the only one!!!

I would dearly love to give up if it didn't involve any extra thought. I find that I have enough to deal with at the moment - with pains, not sleeping well & generally just feeling %$#@ most of the time. Pretty good excuse I know - but I am using it until I feel better.

Sorry I couldn't be of any help. Good-Luck quitting!!!!!!

Take Care
Ann

angel kisses to you all xxx

I want to wish all of you the best in quitting. I quit when I was four years old. No, I never, ever started, but my parents smoked. I hated it something awful, it made me so sick to be around it. I made up my mind then that I would never smoke. That was 27 years ago, and I don't feel like I've missed out on anything. My parents did eventually quit when they finally figured out that they were killing their daughter.

Good luck to you all, you're doing the right thing by quitting, and just think how good it will be for the environment.

Hugs,

Cindy

That would be great , I want to try the prescription too , maybe that will help . I need all the support I can get !

Thanks ,
Lori B

Nope Kristin, can't smoke and type, I don't smoke in the house , it could be a blizzard, 30 below zero, and I am out on the porch puffin away !!!

LoriB

The reason is ....... at least this is what my neuro surgeon tells me . Is that smoking reduced the bloodflow to the spine, taking it longer to heal from surgery or trauma

Well now that is indeed true dedication. We don't allow people to smoke in our house or in the car. People know by now that if they come to visit us and want to have a smoke, they go outside on the porch. There has never been a cigarette smoked in our house and we bought it new over 6 years ago.


Glenn


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What makes the hottentots so hot? What puts the ape in apricot? Whadda they got that I ain't got?....

You can count me in also. I cannot believe how this thing has such control over ones life. I have quit 5 times and the longest was 6months. I have been able to go cold turkey but guess where I was.........(hospital)........lol I come home and I do ok but the hubby smokes and my friends smoke so I see this I smell this and I cave in. Need to get rid of the friends and the hubby......................Annie


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