Help for Husband to Quit Smoking

Take him to the heart wing of any hospital......I stopped cold turkey when I saw my moms scare from open heart surgery. Then it didn't help that she died 3 weeks later.....that was in 1988......I was young, and it made an impresion me. Let him talk to some of the people in there that just had surgery or has cancer.....that might to it.

I think for everyone it's different. I JUST quit smoking cold turkey almost 2 months ago and I found a website that was HUGELY helpful to me! I think the key is, for someone who is mentally ready to let it go, this info is just enough to set the wheels in motion, but like someone else said, the will has to come from within. I was forced with a decision of a doctor telling me if I don't quit smoking, I WILL go blind from a disease I have. You would think that would be a no brainer decision, but smoking is a powerful addiction and it still took me a while to just plant my feet and do it.
I have to say that I am SO glad to have that behind me and it's so nice not to smell like an ashtray anymore and to be able to smell and taste food again. I could go on and on but...I'll just give you the website address. There is also a lot of info for YOU on there too if you're interested. www.whyquit.org.
Feel free to email me if you need any moral support!
Good Luck!!!! K.
PS there is one message strand on there that really got to me and it was called desperate addicts parade. Its funny but sad and speaks volumes about addiction to nicotine! It's all about the ridiculous things people have done to feed their addiction.

Like the other post said, first and foremost he has to REALLY want to quit. All the therapy, hypnosis, patch stuff, gum, whatever isn't going to help unless he really wants to quit. Counseling can be hard unless he really trusts the counselor. So it sounds like he's got the talking part done.

My grandmother smoked for YEARS, and went to get hypnotised, and it workd. Another girl here at work is getting accupuncture, and said she's down from a pack/day to about 5-6/day. I've heard people who carry around paper clips in their pockets just to give their hand something to do - carry the paperclips. Same thing with rubber bands - something to keep the hand busy. He might laugh - but maybe he could take up something like knitting to keep his mind and hands occupied!

Find a doctor you can talk to about it and see if there are any new and/or alternative treatments.

Good luck!

Tell you what finally got me to stop, the cost. With the new taxes our current President just tacked on it should have a real effect on him. Chantix is good but you have to have something to do with your hands or something else to stick in your mouth. He has to not just use the pills but the support group as well.

P.,

Of course, physical addiction linked with behavioral habit is very strong. However, the problem with your husband is that *he* has to WANT to quit--and, until he is ready to do so, he will continue to smoke.

My grandfather smoked for 52 years (yes, he honestly started when he was 10 years old). He had a massive heart attack when he was 62, but survived. While in the hospital, his cardiologist had a private conversation with granddad. He never smoked another cigarette for the rest of his life! During the next 15 years, he was the most adamant ANTI-smoking person you ever met. He did not use any therapy, patch, hypnosis, or anything else. What he did was DECIDE not to smoke again.

Best wishes,
K.

I quit by weening myself off. I wanted children, my husband said "Not if you are a smoker" so I was motivated. I did the one less each day thing. I counted out how many I smoked in a day and each day took one less. The hardest to give up for me was the first one in the morning with my cup of coffee. All in all it took about 3 months and I have cheated only twice in 12 years.

The power to quit has to come from within. He has to find the strength within himself. He has to believe in his mind that smoking is bad for him and he does not want it to shorten his life. Once he has conquered it in his mind, he will be able to overcome it for real.
Maybe just reading material about the effects of smoking, looking at pictures of lungs from smokers, etc might help motivate him better.
He will still need help from a patch or gum, etc but once he has gotten past the physical need for it, the rest has to come from himself.

I have a pesrsonal reason for being anti-smoking and perhaps my reality will give your husband incentive. My father was a smoker, smoked since he was twelve. He died of cancer which literally took over his body. He decided to halt the therapies because there was no way to halt the ravage His was a sad and painful death and was directly associated to his smoking. If your husband doesn't think it can happen to him, tell him to think again. He has an addiction to nicotene and should be treating it as an addiction not as a habit. My brother has a device that he carries with him that he sucks on to give him the oral fix that he needs and has not smoked in two years but still battles the desire. Your husband has to try all prescriptive and nonprescriptive solutions until he finds one that works for him. The issue of secondary smoke -- active or passive -- is also a real health matter. I am now highly allergic to tobacco smoke and have asthma that has been triggered by cigarette smoke. So the effect on your children's respiratory systems is a strong danger and an incentive to stop. With cigarettes up and over $50 a carton, this has to have an effect on your budget economically. My brother said that he could see the change in his finances, which for him is a big thing. Hope this helps.

My husband quit cold turkey after he almost died from them. When he couldn't stop coughing or sleep lying down - then one day he threw them out the window and never smoked again. Some people can and some can't!

You have to want to quit!! My husband and I quit smoking a year and a half ago. We had 50 years of smoking between us but we both WANTED to quit. Nothing will work if you don't want it bad enough.

When it comes down do it, he just has to make that decision. It is SO HARD to quit! I am just now at my 4th day cigarette-free! (yay!) Stopped buying my brand of cigarrettes, and when I would feel like I was going absolutely out of my mind... I would take a couple of puffs off of my husband's cigarrette. (I smoked menthol ultra light 100's and my hubby smokes camel filters -- so I HATE his cigs) I did that for about a week, and then finally I was like "Okay, this sucks but I'm done!" I know I'm only 4 days into being without any nicotene, but I honestly have no doubt that I'm done forever. I'm tired of something so nasty having so much control over my life.

To be honest P., Smoking is a mind over matter thing. I and my fiance used to be massive smokers, I never had a problem doing the cold turkey thing...and for the first few weeks, I craved the cigerette...and my fiance struggled on doing it my way. So how I did it was give him a pack one week...let him control that pack...and that's all he got for that week. SO he HAD to stretch his smoking habits out. Than the next week, I'd give him half a pack...to where he had to stretch that one out...than the week after I gave him only 6 cigerettes...so he had to stretch it out...the week after that he only got 3...than I told him I know its hard and if he's around people that smokes he's gonna have the cravings and he's gonna want to smoke, so he had to change his routine..and his habit. That only worked for 3months....than I just gave him an ultimatum...because I found out that I was allergic to cigarette smoke....I couldn't be around it especially when I got pregnant with my last child. It made me seriously sick...and on top if he came home smelling like a cigarette, it would make me even sicker, because it was that old musty smell....so than he got tired of having to shower everytime he got home and tired of not getting kisses or hugs or able to sit, lay or be around me...he just quit. He does still crave them...but finds it much easier to just remember who he loves more. Good Luck

Hello P.,
Well being an X-smoker for 4 years now, I suspect your hubby just really don't want to quit as I went through the same process for many years but the bottom line was I didn't want to quit smoking. Bottom line is he has to want to do it for himself not for you or any one else.
Congrats on the new baby!

Ok. I don't know if this will help you but I helped my exhusband quit smoking while we were married. He had smoked for more than 20 years at the time and had developed asthma. The doctor suggested that he quit smoking before he developed something even worse. Here's how we did it. I think we'll all agree that nicotine is a drug. With any drug addiction usually you wean them off it, right? So I weaned him off the cigarettes. He was up to a pack and a half a day. That's 30 cigarettes. What I did was confiscate them. I bought one of those plastic cigarette cases you can buy at any tobacco store. Started out with every morning putting 15 cigarettes in there and hiding the rest. I held on to that and he had to come to me to get one when he wanted one. He knew he was only allowed however many I put in that case every day. So when he would get about half way thru them I would remind him that no matter how crabby he got there would be no more cigarettes that day. He learned to slow down in order to not have to go without. Once he got down to where he was doing great with only 15 I put only 12 in there. And then I lowered it to 10. And then to 7. Then 5. You get the idea. Eventually he didn't miss them, though he was crabby for awhile during the process. It was for his own good but it was hard for him. He needed someone with the willpower to make him quit because he didn't have the willpower to quit on his own. I am very stubborn when I need to be and he knew that I would not bend because it was for his health. There were many days where we argued because he wanted more than the ones I said he could have for the day. One day he had a really rough day and searched the house for where I stashed them. LOL Lucky for him I hid them well. He thanked me for it in the long run. No that was not the reason for our divorce. If that doesn't work there is a behavior modification trick that he can try. Have him put a wide rubber band on his wrist. When the cravings get so bad that he's reaching for a cigarette have him snap that rubber band. Eventually his brain will associate cigarette with pain and it will stop asking for one. It hurts but it's effective! Good luck to your hubby. It's a hard habit to break. But if you are both willing to fight it out, do it together and you'll be amazed at what you can accomplish!

my husband used a laser treatment. He went in smoking a cigarrette and walked out a non smoker. You have to want to quit and unless he wants to quit there is nothing we can do as loved ones. except be supportive

hi P. i know this is going to sound totally ridiculious but my mom quit by eating grapes. I know you are thinking that is silly. But honestly everytime my mom wanted a cigarette she would eat grapes and sure enoug she quit smoking. I just thought i would suggest it... Good luck!!

I agree that he has to have the will to do it and really want to do it for himself and no other reason. Just becasue you want him to really badly, doesn't mean that he wants it just as bad, know what I mean?

My husband and I quit 3 years ago using hypnosis. He smoked for 16 years before that and he was truely addicted to the nicotine (most people are only addicted to the motion of smoking and not the chemicals). WE both went into it knowing that the cigarette we smoked on the way there was the last one for us. We both really wanted to quit for our own reasons, each separate from the other. Neither of us has touched one since. The craving is still there, even to this day, but its the will power we have to back it up that keeps us going strong.

On another note, my grandmother smoked for 50+ years and decided about a year and a half ago to quit. She got a prescription for Chantix from the Dr. It was very hard for her and she had serious mood swings while she was on it, but in the end, it worked for her. Once again though, she really wanted to do it.