Turkey's Triumphs: Page 5
Reflections from cold turkey quitters who've remained nicotine-free for at least 1 year
Victory@WhyQuit.com
Made it 14 months as of May 7th! Thank you for giving me the tools to do it. I had been smoking for 22 years. Thanks again,
Yes I'm a successful quitter of 1 year, 3 months, 4 days (483 days) -- while saving $2,234 dollars. I am a lurker at Freedom and have read extensively at WhyQuit.com. I am convinced I would never have been able to quit without these two resources. I was a heavy smoker, about 2 1/2 packs a day.
I am still amazed and thrilled that I was able to pull this off. Education is definitely the key. I wish WhyQuit.com was mandatory reading for all smokers. I think nearly all would like to quit, if they just knew how to get going. Again, thanks to John, Joel, and all the other managers both present and past. I would like to say THANK YOU!
After missing the last 24,135 once mandatory nicotine feedings, I am confident saying I will NTAP during the time-frame of the next several hundred thousand and hopefully beyond. My quit date was January 4, 2005.
Hello. My quit date was 12-29-01. Four and 1/2 years. Many thanks to WhyQuit and Freedom for your help. Couldn't have done it with out you.
On April 12th 2006 I celebrated my two year anniversary. I give a lot of thanks to "WhyQuit.com" and Joel's site for my success.
I have tried many other ways to quit, patches, hypnosis, gum but this was the best and most effective. My advice is just HOLD ON.
If you can make it past the three day point it's all down hill from there.
I occasionally have a mild craving, but for the most part I feel sorry for active smokers. I have so much freedom not being tied to having to feed my addiction. I thank God for giving me the strength to carry out what my heart wanted to do, but was scared to do!!
Just give it a try, you have nothing to lose and everything to gain.
Charles Suarez
Purchase, NY
I have made it to one year as of yesterday! I wanted to thank you for your information and the message board, which helped me through the last 6 months. I have been going through a lot of physical metamorphosis lately. My back has had some major problems, but I put this in God's hands and continued my quit. The most important things, for me quitting, were:
- Know that people are addicted to nicotine, therefore,
maybe always wanting it (like I did) and relapsing to smoking 20 years
later. Nicotine addiction could be a lifetime management. I always
wondered why I still wanted a cigarette and then I would always go back
because I thought I SHOULD be over it by now. I thought it is not worth
it to always want one, but since I have the knowledge this has brought
me a sword of peace in a mind of vexacious spirits.
- Also, knowing not to fantasize about a smoke or daydream about that cigarette. I have done this many times in the past, but know I catch myself and stop, which has replaced the bitter-sweet daydream with newly found mini journeys in my life.
Thank You very much for running this site with message board and cyber presenting this information to the public.
Thank You,
On April the 16th it will be six (6) full years of quitting cold turkey the nastiest addiction of human kind. I smoked for 15 years, an average of at least 2 packs of Camels per day. Quitting is probably the best thing I have done in my life. There are many excellent reasons to stop!
John Glykos
Athens, Greece
Nicotine? A drug that has caused more grief to mankind than any of its rivals. It has been classed "the most addictive drug" on earth due to its malicious affect on receptors found on our nerve endings. No other drug will cause your body to reject its very own neurotransmitters like nicotine will. Nicotine will turn your body against you!!!
As a pharmacist, I see many people come into the pharmacy for an answer to their smoking addiction. I can sympathize with them as I too was a smoker and repeatedly tried to kick the habit (instead of arrest a true chemical dependency). The reality is, people don't know how to go about quitting. Giving up smoking is like staring down the barrel of a gun. On one hand, you are waging war against your own cravings, smoking related habits, your own body!! On the other hand, you are overwhelmed by pharmaceutical giants preaching that their nicotine products are your one-stop answer.
I see people come back after completing their 8 week course of patches asking for another answer. Others have been buying nicotine gum, on a weekly basis, for the past 3 years - and some are still smoking! The only answer these products provide is less dollars in the piggy banks of tobacco companies, other than that, there are only broken promises.
Sadly there is no quick fix to quitting smoking and there is no real answer in their products. In actual fact, nicotine replacement products prolong the suffering as your body will STILL experience nicotine withdrawal when you stop using them.
I am constantly bombarded, by pharmaceutical reps, as to the benefits of nicotine replacement therapy? "It's your best chance at quitting" and "You will relapse if you don't use it." In my personal battle against smoking I have tried every brand of patches, gum, inhaler and microtabs. I have also tried the Zyban (bupropion hydrochloride) course on 4 separate occasions over 4 years and all I experienced was a state of psychosis (this is one of Zybans most frequent side effects due to its high dose anti-depressant nature).
After 5 years of active quitting and sampling everything on the market, I was still a smoker. I tested every stop smoking method I was taught at university, put all my medical knowledge into practice and still failed to quit. The only person I knew who had successfully quit for over 20 years was my father and he did it "cold turkey."
In my desperation, I started my research and came across WhyQuit.com. Now I have been a non smoker for over 1 year and it is all thanks to the team at WhyQuit. The most valuable tool to quitting smoking is understanding. By understanding what nicotine is, how it can affect your body and recognising when it takes hold of you, is the best weapon and greatest hope a smoker can have of quitting. You must realise how serious your addiction is and just how easy it is for your body to fall back into a nicotine dependent state. Already there is a serious, potentially fatal, physical addiction taking place inside your body and your mind and willpower WILL be swayed by this addiction.
Frankly, your ONLY chance is to never take another puff. It has been and will be for the rest of my life, my only chance. If you are serious about quitting smoking for your self or your families' sake, another cigarette (lit or unlit) can never touch your lips. If you can do this, you will beat nicotine and reclaim your mind. Until you accept this you will remain a smoker. I can make that statement with the utmost of confidence as I have seen thousands of smokers relapse. I now give out WhyQuit's URL to every Nicotine Replacement Therapy (NRT) patient that comes into my pharmacy. There simply is no other answer.
Regards
I stopped smoking on March 22 2005. It's a year now and still smoke free.
All thanks goes to this site. WhyQuit has provided very valuable resources to help people stop smoking and you helped me. Without the information you provided I don't think I would've done it. Because of the info WhyQuit provided I was able to ignore other people's smoking and not be bothered by them. No desire nor craving ever. This is freedom!
Thank you very much. You saved my life.
Hello. I grew up in a home full of smokers. It was and still is very customary in our culture to offer someone a cigarette. I always knew in the back of my mind that smoking is bad for my health but I still continued to smoke because I did not have the will power to stop. I started to smoke in my early teens on the sneak.
I tried to quit once or twice in the past but did not put much effort into it. One day I decided that I don't want to smoke anymore. So, I had a few packs of cigarettes left (I used to buy by the carton) I knew that by Sunday night I would have may last cigarette and Monday morning I would use the patch.
I wake up Monday morning slap on the patch and off to work I go. A few hours into the morning I started to get very jittery and dizzy so I immediately removed the patch and that was the end of the patch for me. I tried the patch a few years before - didn't help.
That very same day, I went home for lunch and I found a fresh pack of cigarettes in the kitchen junk draw and at approximately 1:30 PM, I decided that I will smoke one more cigarette and that would be the last one. I smoked that last cigarette very slowly and carefully and then I took the rest of the cigarettes and ran water over them. That day was October 10, 2004. I have not smoked a cigarette since that day. Yes, it was very difficult and I knew that it would be, but I prepared myself.
Quitting smoking is not an easy thing to do. You have to learn how to live all over again. I still have those moments where I would love to light up a cigarette but I know I won't. I don't crave anymore.
I've been smoke free for 1 year and 5 months and very proud of myself. I still can't believe that I quit smoking. Hurray for me!!!!! WhyQuit.com was and still is very helpful....Thank you.
Valentina P.
Bronx, NY
Today is March 6, 2006 and the one year anniversary of my quitting smoking cold turkey. I smoked 25 cigarettes a day for 28 years, beginning at age 14.
My father was a heavy smoker and unfortunately, my brother, sister and I all followed in his footsteps. One day on television, I watched a public service commercial that said one in three people die from smoking. I thought of my brother, sister and I all being smokers. I realized I didn't want to be that one person dying a painful death from lung cancer to which my children would have to bear witness. So I quit cold turkey.
I found www.WhyQuit.com on the Internet while researching withdrawal symptoms and spent all my spare time during the next two weeks avidly reading all the articles and forum posts that I could. I had tried to quit maybe 20 times before over the years using nicotine patches and nicotine gum, but had never made it past 5 days which is why I chose to try cold turkey this time. The first week was horrible, but then it gradually got better and better and now I can't believe how fast the time flew by. It has been a turbulent and highly stressful year for me, which marked the passing of my grandfather at 101 years of age from an unexpected stroke in his sleep and then my father two months later at age 77 from an unexpected heart attack in his sleep. Five months later I was laid off my job through company cutbacks and was forced to re-evaluate my entire career direction.
Despite the pressures and grief of the past year, I managed to Never Take Another Puff. I joined a gym and find that daily exercise helps me manage my stress levels. My children have been so proud and supportive of me throughout the year and tonight we are going out for dinner to celebrate! As an ex-smoker, I realize I may have done irreversible damage to my body, but I hope I have increased my odds of living a long and healthy life by quitting smoking when I did.
Thank you for all your help and I hope you don't mind that I tell everyone who mentions they want to stop smoking about your website!
Judy from Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada
My name is Joe. I have been smoke free now for 1 year 9 months. I smoked a pack and a half a day for 35 years. I had tried quitting by using the patch in the past, but like many others, went right back to smoking after finishing the last patch. My wife also smoked and we finally decided that the only way we could do it was to go cold turkey.
We picked a quit date and time and smoked right up to that time. We have not had another cigarette since. I'm not saying it was easy, but it was not nearly as hard as I had anticipated. I think the fear of quitting is worse than the actual process. I now teach smoking cessation at my workplace and I encourage people to try cold turkey. It's the most effective way to stay smoke free.
19 months smoke free, wow never thought I would every say that. This site has helped me through some real hard times, and cold turkey is the only way to go for me. Tried everything else, and cold turkey was the only successful method.
-Thanks again, you folks rock!-
I gave up smoking on Thanksgiving Day 2004. I did not use any form of nicotine replacement but used bupropion/wellbutrin.
I had smoked for thirty years and by the time I quit was smoking 2 packs a day (though if anyone asked I always said one pack). I was one of those people who never believed I would be able to quit. I used to joke with my friends that on my gravestone I would have engraved "SHE FINALLY MANAGED TO QUIT"
Looking back, over a year ago (it still makes me incredibly proud of myself to say I don't smoke) not using any other form of nicotine replacement was the best for me as I felt it would just prolong getting it out of my system. In the days leading up to my quit day I spent a lot of time on this and other websites but this one predominantly, I did it, I quit!!!!!
I have friends who tried to quit at the same time, one used patches and one used nicotine gum. They both did manage to give up smoking but unfortunately by the time they stopped using the gum or the patch it wasn't long before they started again, and still are smoking. In my mind it seems that by the time their patches or gum routine had tapered down I was way ahead of the curve, I had not had any nicotine in all that time. Believe me when I say, if I can give up smoking anyone can. Every day I remind myself how great it is to be a non smoker, it truly is a liberating experience. You can do it. You do not need any nicotine replacement, it just prolongs the time it takes you to get nicotine out of your system. Good luck, you can do it, I did!!
You might wonder why I chose Thanksgiving as my quit date. I am a foreigner living in the USA so I do not have that deep emotional connection to Thanksgiving that is peculiar to an American. You can of course imagine how wonderful every Thanksgiving Day will be for me from now on. My own very special Thanksgiving Day!
Having tried NRT in the past without success, I absolutely believe that quitting cold turkey is the only way to an enduring quit. Once I realized that the worst was over [at about day 4 for me] I really understood that the rest of my battle was going to be waged in my head. No more nicotine craves really allowed me more and more comfortable periods of time, even early into the quit. When I used NRT, I always felt antsy and on edge and I found those sensations very uncomfortable. Now, I am almost 15 months into my quit....according to my quit meter that's 20,000 plus cigarettes I haven't inhaled into my lungs....
Sincerely,
Hi may name is Janette. I had smoked since I was a teen. I only smoked around ten cigarettes a day, although I thought about smoking nearly all the time, planning when I would next be able to light-up.
I first attempted to quit smoking a couple of years ago and went along with the NRT treatment. It worked in the sense that it absolutely made me see that I was a nicotine addict. When I had been using the patches for several weeks I was finally down to the smallest dose and try as I might, every time I tried to stop putting the patches on I was overwhelmed with the desire to smoke!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I then decided that I should look on the internet to see if it was at all dangerous to wear small NRT patches forever (I could not break free). It was during the hours of trawling the internet for the information I desired that I happened upon Whyquit.com. The rest is history. I read pages and pages from the site every day and now a year later I am so glad I found it.
I have no desire to smoke, I did put on quite a lot of weight and I will deal with that very soon, I have never felt so content.
In December 2004, after two heart attacks and two stents at the age of 61, I was strongly encouraged to quit smoking. I started at the age of 15. I had fooled around with quitting over the years, trying hypnosis, acupuncture, smoking cessation classes, nicotine gum; all of which helped but none of which lasted longer than six weeks.
When my cardiologist told me that he could continue to patch me up for awhile if I continued smoking but that sooner rather than later there would be nothing he could do, I made a decision to try to live awhile longer. Let's just say that was an opportunity for learning.
In trying to find a way to quit, I turned to the internet and luckily found my way to WhyQuit, and even though at that time because of a slow dial-up I wasn't able to register, I took it to heart that in order to quit you had to forego nicotine and its substitutes in order to be successful and part of this website.
I set a quit date of Jan. 1, 2005 and proceeded to spend the next two weeks sitting on the couch with clenched jaws reading the testimonials of others who had already been down this road. Slowly, my quit started to feel better, not easy, but better. I found that whether I smoked or not, the urge to smoke went away; not forever but for awhile. Respite. Now, over a year later, and still not smoking, but still vigilant, I'm still grateful for the encouragement found in the stories of smokers who had quit by not using.
I urge anyone wanting to quit to simply and profoundly try it, one minute at a time. Eventually those minutes turn into larger blocks of time, hours, even a whole day where you hardly even think about smoking. Truly amazing after smoking a pack and a half for a whole lot of years. I still, on occasion, dream that I've smoked and wake up angry that I have to go through that quitting struggle again, only to realize with gratitude that it was only a dream (nightmare). Smoking still intervenes, unbidden, in my thoughts but no longer in my life. I will always be aware that I'm one puff away from a pack, and one pack away from a semi load. Be strong and do the best you can, I'm pullin' for ya.
I am now 30 years old and this February will be 2 years smoke free. I decided to quit when I watched my 47 year old brother die from his lifelong addictions. My, then boyfriend, now fiance, and this January 28th, husband, quit together.
Following us, 2 more of my sisters, my brother and sister-in-law, and one friend - quit as well.
I was a queen smoker. I smoked for 12 years, from 16, and almost 2 packs a day regularly. I probably got up to 4 packs a day while drinking. I had a horrible smokers cough - from about 1 year after I started (I grew up in a family of smokers, who never spared me the second hand smoke). I couldn't walk up stairs without huffing and puffing. (even when I was 20, 21, 25...). Now I can run up stairs and although I'll breathe heavily, I'll breathe!
I would wake up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom and I'd have a cigarette before going back to sleep.
When I was quitting and at my wits end - this web site SAVED ME. You not only convinced me that young people DO DIE from smoking and it's not going to wait until I'm 70... but you gave me the tools and the mind tricks to "Never Take Another Puff". This is a wonderful site and I've recommended it to many, many people. Most people realize that if I could quit - anyone can. I never dreamed I'd be free and I am!!
I've even used your tools to help another person struggling not to smoke. About a month after I quit I was at a bar with friends. One woman who had also just quit told me she was going to have a cigarette. I barely knew her, but I started talking about your site. She didn't have that cigarette and I spoke to a friend of hers 2 weeks ago and found out that she is still smoke free!
FYI, My fiance and I put the smoking money in a jar every week for 13 months and had over $5000. We made one of my lifelong dreams come true with that money and went GREAT WHITE SHARK DIVING this October! Thank you WhyQuit!!!!!
It's been about 15 years since I quit smoking cold turkey. Have to say It was the most difficult thing I've done in my life. Think it helps to have, or develop, a stubborn streak about the situation--when cravings struck, I reminded myself the tobacco companies were literally banking on the addiction's hold.
No "tricks", other than putting a few butts and some water into a baby food jar. (Cutting back hadn't worked--found myself rooting through my garbage for old cigarettes.) Wore clothing with pockets so I could carry it everywhere. Can't tell you how many times a day I needed to look at it!
One last thing--I would never have succeeded if I'd thought of quitting in terms of weeks or months. I could only handle the withdrawal hour by hour.
Good luck to everyone.
My name is Lana and as of January 7th 2006 it was ONE Year smoke free. I have no desire to ever go back to smoking. I smoked for 23 years. I did it cold turkey. I have gained 10 pounds over that year but it worth it. I workout 5 to 6 times a week. I also eat healthy. When I quit smoking I knew that I did not want to smoke anymore. I would waste my cigarettes and I would throw them out half done. I never smoked in the house as I was the only smoker. I didn't enjoy going outside in the cold to smoke either.
I feel great!!!! When you really truly want to quit smoking not even the nicotine will keep you wanting to smoke because when I chose to quit I knew in my mind that this was it. I wish the best to everyone out there to never give up. One more thing. I was exposed to cigarettes within 48 hours while in my car with someone smoking. I told them they could because I knew I didn't plan on returning to my dependency. To this day I still have no desire to touch one.
Good Luck to everyone. YOU CAN DO IT !!!!!!!!
Hello, my name is Dennis. I am writing to you about WhyQuit.com. I would imagine that you probably get a lot of letters regarding how WhyQuit helped people make the decision to give up smoking. I am writing one of these letters today because the website truly saved my life and I wanted to share my sincerest thanks.
I started smoking while a college student. At first I told myself that I was not addicted and I didn't even inhale the smoke. Well, I didn't listen to all the people that told me I would soon become addicted anyway. I'll never forget that first time I ran out of smokes and had a terrible craving to the point where I ran out in the middle of the night to buy a pack. That was it, I was officially addicted.
Today is a very special day for me. It was exactly three years ago to this date that I smoked my last cigarette. This date was not, however, the first time I made an attempt to quit smoking. I tried and failed numerous times. Then one day I stumbled across this website while surfing the net. I spent about an hour looking around on the site and I was in tears by the time I logged off.
I saw some of the most disturbing and horrifying images and stories of my entire life, some of the images were so frightening to me that I didn't want to keep looking...but I forced myself to. I saw these young vibrant people with great lives, and then I see pictures of them shortly before death, or the people that are permanently disfigured and handicapped because they made the decision to smoke.
Yes, the shock value of WhyQuit scared me so badly that it was the turning point in my life. This site is what finally motivated me to quit smoking for good. The scenario went like this:
After logging off of the site I went to the laundromat. After putting my clothes into the washer I went back out to my car and reclined the seat a bit as I put a cigarette to my lips. As I put the lighter up to the tip, many of the disturbing images I saw on this site flashed in front of my eyes again. I thought to myself, "What if this is the cigarette that sparks that first cancer cell?"
I just could not light the cigarette because I was so terrified of ending up like one of the people on the site. Over the next few weeks, I spent a lot of time on WhyQuit. Whenever I felt the urge to buy a pack of smokes, I would say to myself "Look at those pictures on WhyQuit.com first and then if you want to go get cigarettes afterward, fine." Only once did I buy the pack, but I stomped them up and threw them away right after opening them when I thought about those pictures.
I don't know if the method I've described is common to people that visit this site but it sure worked for me. I've been smoke free now for three full years. I can't thank you enough. There are so many great things that will happen in my life that I would have missed out on if I hadn't stopped smoking. I am now 31 years old and it scares me to think that I would quite possibly be past the middle point of my life if I chose not to give up smoking.
I spent some more time on this site today and it still brings me to tears to see some of these people that have died, or are now dying because they chose to smoke. I watched the video of Barb Tarbox today. It is so sad to know that none of this would be happening to her if she had not smoked, and she is such an admirable lady for using her last days to talk to children. THANK GOD somebody reached me before it was too late, that's all I can say.
I will continue to access this site every so often as I have been. I want to make sure that I never forget why I stopped smoking and what would have happened to me if I didn't quit. I can't thank you enough for all you've done for me. This has truly been a life save for me (not to mention a heck of a money saver!!). Thank you so much.
Sincerely,
Dennis
New York
More victory messages
Share Your Message
