Hi , I had to laugh at your comment to bat the cigarette out of someone's hand. My cravings slowly subsided, but before they did, I would be fine until I went somewhere and saw someone standing outside smoking.
One whiff of that smoke made me want to bat it out of their hands and into mine !!! I would laugh to myself at the scene of a little old lady , using a walker to come up to someone and grab the cig, and start smoking it !!!
Thank God , my craving slowly got smaller and smaller, and thu the years, may pop up once or twice, and just as fast, go away. You have only been off of them a few days Ziq, so do not start the sermon yet !!!
I do understand tho, I almost bit my sisters head off once when I was really trying to quit, and had been on and off them, and she suggested a few things, but I was in full jonesing (cravings ) at that moment, and she had NEVER smoked in her life, so I let her have it !!!
I apologized later, but an ex-smoker is not as bad or irritating to me as someone who never had the habit. I have been clean and smoke free now for 3 years this November, and just like an alcoholic that quit drinking, he is still an alcoholic, just a reformed one, and he knows one drink will put him back to square one, just like one smoke will do for me, or you.
Most folks quit up to 8-10 times before they stay quit. I am proud of you, and your decision, so take it one day at a time.....

PS, some Australians also say Eh, a lot..or yes, and always seem to make a statement sound like a question.....lol
Your friend,
BJ

PS, with my long winded answer, I forgot to mention the e-cigs. A lot of folks on here say they could not have quit qith out them. And some say, nicotine is nicotine, why trade one for the other? E-cigs have some pretty ugly chemicals in them, but how it would affect a person I have no clue. Others on here that have been that route can give you more comments on it. I bought some for Mark , to smoke out side instead of his real ones, and he tried different ones then quit, saying it is like sucking on plastic, and you really do not get the feeling of smoking.
But if I were you, wait for comments from some of our members, or check the no smoking forum here, and maybe even google :e-gis and danger" and see what pops up.
BJ

i'll try to keep this in the COPD realm as that is what board we are on.
when i was dx with COPD i asked my dr if the e-cigs would hurt me.
she said at that time there were no studies shown that e-cigs would hurt me & my dr told me that if i could quit with them then anything was better than for me to keep smoking.
i had tried cold turkey & all the other quit smoking aids & the e-cigs worked for me. (& as brenda says, i know if i ever pick up one; i'm history)
hell, every 3 year old knows the danger of smoking so during my "addiction" anyone lecturing me on the harms of smoking just annoyed me and "radical" ex smokers just made me want to knock them out & smoke one standing over their body.
it's an addiction and like many addictions it can take me all the way to being diagnosed with a terminal disease or death to find a way to quit.
i pray for those that fight any addiction to this day---it's all i can do.

(this is my opinion only & my story only)

Kicking the smokes was tough. E-smokes are just as addictive as what we used. Think back to all the "good" things that turned bad 10 years down the road. Try the Dalkon Shield. Remember how good asbestos was for insulating?
Sure, it's advertised that there isn't any bad chemicals in it. But nor is it under any regulation or control, so you really don't know what is in the e-smoke.
Then there is the addiction side. Coming off e-cigs is just as bad as a regular smoke. Being well familiar with addiction (Brenda is 100% right about alcoholics), I'd venture that most reformed smokers would be right back to the races with just one. But not me. One smoke would probably just make me lie down and die...

Hugs,
Dennis

http://www.lifescript.com/health/centers/smoking_cessation/living_with.aspx

http://www.dailystrength.org/c/COPD_Emphysema/forum/18432615-semi-ot-elect-ciggies-copd#addcomment_anchor

I found a bit in e-cigs and how to keep off c
igs when you quit.

Don't worry about long winded for sure Bj. I'm all kinds of long winded. Sometimes I'm even bad winded, and worse yet I occaisionally have long bad wind.
I'm quite certain I have the perfect motivation to allow me to remain ciggie quit and that motivation is a healthy fear of the consequences. Something I did not have before because of course those things only happened to other people and in the movie of the week. No, it's struck too close to home. I think I'll manage this quite nicely. Even at the end of my taper there when I had one cig to last me the course of the day because of the purely physical withdrawal I had pangs of anxiety as I took one of my allotted two or three puffs at break.

There is also the fact that something was going wrong which caused me to find the copd in the first place. The NCCP (non cardiac chest pain) and the fact that something was building up either due directly to or exacerbated by my smoking, maybe the start of an infection or somewhat but the inhaling of the smoke made my lung hurt. My smoking had increased for about a 2 week period before this as I had lost a friend that I'd know all the way back to high school, and I've always been a poor self comforter so my smoking had increased for a period both in number and in more and deeper drags. So whatever the case was they (my lungs) just got pee'd off with me and kicked my arse. My lungs feel much better and the cold air doesn't feel bad going into my lungs now and the NCCP is now passing but y'know something was building up and I'm not interested in going back there. My doc isn't much worried about it fortunately. Says the nccp may even be anxiety related and who knows it may be a contributor. I've certainly suffered enough anxiety and depression over the last several years losing both ma and pa in a few short years. Regardless doc says if it's not gone completely in a few weeks then we'll look a little further but between that and the copd scare it was enough to put the fear into me. I'm going to be a while yet jumping at shadows. Every gurgle and twinge in my torso gets my attention at the moment and I have to resist the urge to run it through google. Lol... This will no doubt pass but I don't expect the memory of the lesson I learned here will. For my part I will have to learn some new methods of self comfort and relaxation. It used to be the cigs of course and for a man who never started his own family, and who's own family has all already gone to the clearing at the end of the path I'll have to get creative but I will manage it. Who knows maybe join a book club, find a nice girlfriend or something.

See, I told you I was long winded. I wanted to get that out though. It's cathartic like....eh? Lol

Yes, and I've noticed americans from certain parts of the US will us huh? like we us eh? Using eh, is kind of like encouraging a response, sort of saying "what do you think of that?" or "you follow what I"m saying?" as in... How do you like my new car? pretty sharp eh? I guess we're just impatient people and want to let them know to get on with their reply toot suite.

Zig, I stopped smoking 25 years ago and I used the patch, I knew after 4 days I would never smoke again, but for health insurance reasons I stayed the entire 6 month course, haven't regretted it at all. I am one that feels when a person is truly ready, they will find a method that works for them, Until they are ready nothing will really work. I have never used an e-cig, but I've watched my neighbor reduce his consumption of cigarettes by over a pack a day by using the e-cig, yes he is probably trading one bad habit for another, but it maybe worth it to him to do it that way and at least he is avoiding a pack or so a day. No matter whatever course you take smoking is damn hard to stop. Take care, Bill

Nicotine is the terribly addictive component of the cigs, whether real or the e-cig variety!

You have to, no, MUST, get rid of your addiction to the nicotine. Otherwise, eventually you will start smoking the real thing again! The e-cig is produced with all of the blessings of big tobacco. They are making money, hand over fist that they make on the nicotine they supply to the e-cig makers! They (big tobacco) control your body, they control your mind with the highly addictive nicotine! One way or the other, your life, or loss of, is under their control!

If you want to be addicted to something, that's a lot easier to break the habit of, switch over to cocaine or heroin! Jim

I am grateful for everyones concern, but no, I actually am not considering the e-cig habit. It's just that I am seeing it around so much.

Speaking of "batting" them out of their hands. I have a coworker who is somewhat of an athlete but smokes. I couldn't catch myself before I said, "what the hell are you doing?!" And went on to tell her about my father on oxygen. It didn't work. Oh well. LOL.

i don't know how the e-cigs work now days, but i used them like bill used the patches.
there were 4 stages of nicotine in them, i did each for 1 month then tapering down until the 4th month was 0 mg.
when i thought i had it licked i made myself finish the "program" as planned.
interesting i found that like another addiction i had it was "two-fold" the A) physical addiction & B) the mental obsession
getting rid of the "physical addiction" was successful by quitting.
the"mental obsession" was interesting for me to observe in myself...i needed a higher power to get me thru that & continue to get me thru every day of my life now.
in my state e-cigs have the same laws as cigarettes, but i hear kids are thinking they are "cool" and "safe", that worries me even if they chose 0 nicotine; as i feel, like dennis, there will come a day they will find the harms.
i support them as a quitting aid, but not a living aid (i know one guy that quit smoking with the gum and then had to quit the gum with the patches LOL---but hey, whatever works :)
my daughter was worried about me getting "addicted" to my supplemental 02.
and maybe i am because my pulmonologist just "upped" my dose when i am active---i must be developing a "tolerance" to it (that last part is a joke people ;) )

Ya know Red. People who smoke have a certain mindset. I truly believe it has something to do with the mind control of the nicotine addiction. I know I had it. The difference with me is that I respected the rights of the nonsmoker and would smoke elsewhere. That said, no one liked or enjoyed smoking as much as I. Of course, I figured I was invincible. Nothing was going to happen to me. Knowing that my mother and two of her aunts died as a result of lung cancer, and a younger brother died as a result of lung issues caused by smoking.

As for me, I finally quit, very easily in late 2008. Two years after my quit, I was diagnosed with end stage emphysema. Two years after I thought I had beaten the monster. Even though for about five years prior to that I began having breathing problems including SOB. As of two months ago it was updated to severe end stage. Is it gonna stop me from trying to get others to quit while there's still time. No freakin' way! like I said before, when I was obstinate and sometimes rude to those who tried to get me to quit. Little did I realize back then that, like I do today, they really cared about my future! Jim

I can't imagine, I actually was never a smoker. I did smoke a pack one stressful day but my asthma made me pay for it tenfold the next day (pain, and coughing for a week). I did however have to smell secondhand smoke for awhile, and I remember hiding out in my room to avoid the smell and coughing it would cause.

That said, I know my saying to someone addicted "you need to quit" is probably one of 1000x they have heard it and one more won't make much of a difference. I just hate to think of the suffering I have seen in my family, then I see another "potential" future sufferer and I feel I should say something at the very least.

That said, people keep trying to get me to quit coffee (for years now) and I know its not even the same thing, but I tell people to back off. Only recently I noticed increasing stomach and GERD problems and realized I needed to cut down (from 4-5 cups a day to 1-2 cups a day). I then realized that everyone had been right all along. In fact, I had esophagus damage because of the GERD, and if you let it go and ignore it, it can turn into cancer. Eeks!

Side note - I might still get COPD even without having been a smoker and that freaks me out! It's genetic in my family and I may have the marker and get it anyway. (my dad has it, his dad had it and his dad's dad had it.)

So, even though I don't really "get it" on the addition, and I can't really provide much of a point of view on that, except for watching someone else go through it.

I'm sorry you got the bad news of end stage. My dad has stage 4 also (I think that's end stage). He's doing pretty good right now actually.

And about the e-cig's I notice with certain "flavors" and scents it really triggers my asthma when people use them around me. So perhaps to those who want to quit with them, if you also have allergies and sensitivities to scent pick the unflavored ones...

Red ( hope you don't mind me calling you that - Don't know your first name.) In any event, we'll leave it at that: Red"

hopefully you read my post from last night about the dizziness and fainting spells I've been experiencing lately. Since my GP MD was booked up, I had to settle for a nurse-practitioner instead. Since I hadn't seen her in about a year, she rapidly scanned my charts since then and noticed the feeling faint episodes. She also noticed the huge bruise from wrist to elbow on my left arm that is a result of fainting I was checked out over and over again by all of my MD's with not one of them able to reach a final conclusion on a cause. Last night, the NPA began asking all of the correct questions that my "legion" of MD's failed to ask, and it was just two questions, with answers from my wife, Question 1: How much water do I consume on a daily basis? Wife answered: just enough sips to get his meds down! Question 2: How much COFFEE do you consume during a normal day (I almost asked her what she meant by "normal day", wise ass that I am LOL!) But my wife chimed in before I could open my mouth dammit! Her answer to the NPA was "10 to12 huge mugs of very strong coffee" minimum per day! The NPA looked at me, with a glare, and then to my wife. "There's the problem then" she declared triumphantly! Not enough water throughout the day and far too much coffee! Coffee is a strong diuretic and because of not drinking water, I was terribly dehydrated and that was what my body was trying to tell me with the excessive dizziness and fainting!

Today I've had only two cups, not mugs, cups of weak coffee, and at least ten 8 ounce cups of water. I believe the NPA has me on the correct line to give me better quality of life than my MD's. Not that they didn't try, but I think I'll see this NPA from now on! Jim