The Nicorette 30 year plan

[Tandum (Robin)]

So I stopped smoking. This month is 2 years off the smokes.

However, I'm now addicted to nicorettes. I used the lozenges several years back to get off the smokes but it didn't last. This time we tried the spray. It worked really well. I started with one bottle lasting a week, now that bottle lasts 2 days. $20 each. I was doing $40/day in smokes.

This week end I'm making a stand and switching to the cool drops solution. 20 lozenges for $11. As of now, all gone in just over 24 hours. hmmm looks the same as the spray.

How do you get off nicotine?

[FlashDrive (Poppy)]

Robin ..... you may not like my advice .... but....go ' cold turkey '
Be determined not to have any more.... but you MUST want to.
I know it can be hard .... but not impossible.

Col....

[Paul Haese]

Been off the smokes for 6.5 years. It took 6 months to extract myself from the lozenges but in the end I just went cold turkey. I had broken the mental addiction of smoking and then just went through the withdrawals. Best move I ever made. I recommend doing likewise.

[strongmanmike (Michael)]

Good luck with getting off the nicotine

Smoking is a mugs pastime

A telling conclusion from some recent revealing Aussie data on smoking and life expectancy:

"We can now say with confidence that up to two-thirds of smokers will die from their smoking, on average ten years early.

Stopping smoking before age 45 appears to eliminate most of this risk."

There are a lot of other interesting and telling results too

Here is the article with link to the large NSW study.

I dunno about everyone else but 10 years is a lot of unnecessary time lost from loved ones....

Good luck

Mike

[GTB_an_Owl (Geoff)]

PATCHES gentlemen - patches
smoked 2 packets a day - been clean now about 30 years

geoff

[Larryp (Laurie)]

I gave it up 35 years ago. I was smoking 60/day and just went cold turkey-it was hard for a couple of weeks, but after that, I never missed it.

[xelasnave]

Robin there is an easy way.
Just stop.
Man up and take control.
Don't get grumpy and take it out on those around you.
Sure it may be hard but you can do it.
Put the money you save in a jar and see how it fills up.
If you fall off the wagon take the money and burn it.
Your stronger than you think.
Now how proud will you feel when you report back here to let us know of your triumph.
And how nice to enjoy the respect of others...you could even set an example for others.
You want it...don't you.

[rustigsmed (Russell)]

hypnotherapy can help.
it may take 2-3 sessions, sometimes just one depending.

[PCH (Paul)]

Originally Posted by Larryp

I gave it up 35 years ago. I was smoking 60/day and just went cold turkey-it was hard for a couple of weeks, but after that, I never missed it.

I'm with Laurie, I gave up 20+ years ago and to be honest it wasn't as hard as people like to make out - for me anyway.

I think you have to genuinely want to stop. For me, the plastic nicorette cigarettes really helped me break the habit, but after one pack of them lasting a week, I realised they were going to just as expensive as cigarettes and just did away with the lot of them.

In no time at all it was very easy to just keep going.

The health benefits alone are enormous. It's sad the number of oldies I see pushing tanks of oxygen around with them to keep them breathing after emphysema (presumably) has set in. It's seeing those poor souls that continually re-emphasises to me the vast benefits of staying off the evil weed

Just give it all up Robin and don't make it a huge deal in your head. It's just a small thing. More importantly you KNOW in your heart it's the right thing to do; unless you want to be one of those pushing the oxygen around

[Hagar (Doug)]

Good on you Robin. Do whatever rocks your boat and works for you. The alternative is not so good and bloody expensive. The addiction is often considered as tough as heroin so keep at it.

[deanm (Dean)]

I know someone who gave up the cancer sticks & ended up addicted to 'nicotine replacements' (gum, patches etc.). Hardly a 'replacement' - you're simply delivering a highly-addictive drug in a different manner.

I was on 80/day until I did a $400 money-back-guaranteed course:

http://allencarr.com.au/

I haven't touched nicotine for 10 years now.

I clearly remember the sensation of being able to smell things again - even those blue cubes in the urinal smelled interesting!

Dean

[bugeater (Marty)]

Originally Posted by deanm

I know someone who gave up the cancer sticks & ended up addicted to 'nicotine replacements' (gum, patches etc.). Hardly a 'replacement' - you're simply delivering a highly-addictive drug in a different manner.

Don't confuse nicotine and the negative effects of smoking. You are way better off being addicted to a pure nicotine source than being addicted to smoking. At least from a health standpoint.

[Tandum (Robin)]

Some may have misread the 1st post. I got off the smokes 2 years ago.

We did a bike rally to central NSW and I stopped at a road house, paid almost $40 for a packet of smokes which promptly flew out of my tank bag about 50kms later. That was the end of it.

Sugar free gum has been a good replacement for the nicorettes today.

[xelasnave]

I was not mistaken and should have given you a pat on the back for stopping.
I was focused on your current dilemma.
And I imagine it will be harder to kick as the replacement is somewhat more acceptable.
Anyways one day at a time and do try the jar.
I only gave up smoking 27 days ago.
Funny woke up one day and just did not feel like it.
But I started saving the cash and it somehow reinforced the idea.

[DJT (David)]

Originally Posted by Tandum

So I stopped smoking. .....
....How do you get off nicotine?

I quit after the umpteenth time during a 30 year habit by using patches over 3 months. Needed a serious driver to do it though and sure, health was an issue, but the main thing was how much cash I could stash away for astro stuff. Without the driver it was too easy to slip back into the habit for me personally.

As of last Saturday, I am up to $25400 which puts me just short of 4 years. Best of all its all mine...well actually, its all in the hands of astro goodie suppliers and the good people here who keep insisting on selling me stuff.

[Ausrock (Chris)]

This morning, just prior to seeing this thread I was at the doctors getting a 'script for Champix as a last resort after trying patches and cold turkey with limited success over the years.

Hypnotherapy genuinely works for very few.......just ask any truly honest hypnotherapist.

[leon]

Unfortunately all the stuff you can buy from the chemist to help, is expensive and dose not work.
I went cold turkey and haven't looked back. it is hard for a few weeks but it really works, and now i put nearly $7000.00 in my pocket at todays prices each year to spend on other good stuff.

Keep at it and if you fall over , just start again, no one will knock you for failing but give you a pat on the back for having a go.

Leon

[xelasnave]

A little off topic but there is a proposal in Tasmania not to sell tobacco to folks born after 2000 such that in time it will not be sold at all.
That could be a hundred years but an interesting approach.

[astro_nutt]

Good on you Robin for quitting the smokes. I did the same 15 years ago. Getting off the nicotine addiction is tough but sugar free gum does help also switching to drinking tea from coffee for a while. Caffeine and nicotine are good buddies addiction wise.

[Suzy]

Originally Posted by deanm

I know someone who gave up the cancer sticks & ended up addicted to 'nicotine replacements' (gum, patches etc.). Hardly a 'replacement' - you're simply delivering a highly-addictive drug in a different manner.

Hi Robin

I couldn't agree with Dean more.
And what Paul said-

I think you have to genuinely want to stop

Here we go, I'm about to get really honest here at my expense . I do this in the hope it may help others aside from you, Robin.

I shudder to admit this here, but...... I've been on Nicorettes for ......... wait for it ........ 17 years now .
I think I must be one of the longest users. If the Nicorette company sees this they'll probably want me for a study .

I'm now 50 and started smoking when I was 12 and never stopped until 1998 when I was made to stop because I ended up with lung problems which wound up with some emergency procedures then leading to two rounds of surgery three months apart. I loathed the fact that the control to stop was taken out of my hands instead of on my terms. I wasn't ready to give up. And I think that has a lot to do with why I'm still doing it anyway I can now. And why don't I give up now? I enjoy nicotine, and I'm massively addicted. And I also I have a nice easy fix of getting nicotine in a healthier way. I can also "smoke" anywhere I want to. Not that it's right! Do I want to come off it? Yes. But my enjoyment for it outweighs that argument. None of my family question it (except my mother when she was alive) and hubby is all for me chewing as many as I want because it's a far better beast than smoking and the ramifications on my health. I go through a box of 105 (2mg) a week. But the last couple of years I've doubled that. My big issue now is to cut that down. I'm just getting worse, not better.

An interesting point.....
When I came out of surgery I asked my lung surgeon what was the condition of my lungs as I'd been smoking a packet of 30 a day. He said my lungs were no different to anyone else living in the city . The only time he ever saw pink lungs were from people living in the country. Interesting .

Just four months ago my mother died of lung cancer. Two weeks notice is all we had from the time she she went to the hospital saying she couldn't breathe, to the time she died. She stopped smoking in the early 1970's. Now that's a bit close to home and has scarred the hell out of me and now I'm riddled with paranoia (well, it's all still a bit fresh) . Understandably.

IMO I think two years is way too long for you to be on them and Robin, I hope you don't go the way I did, take a lesson from me and if you really want to give up, stop the Nicorettes.