Karaoke Forums

hi everyone, well i guess i joined the NO SMOKERS club about 9 r 10 days ago...
i had to go in the hosp. and they kept me in there over a week, no cig.. truth is as i was in there knowing i couldn't have a cig. even if i wanted one helped alot, i had to deal with it, no other choice.....and i was a heavy smoker.....i'll say while i was in there on a scale of 10, i had a .05....but i was also worried about when they did set me free, i mean release me....what would i do then?

well i got out and everywhere i looked i found cig. so i threw them away...i would say even now it's a 2 on the scale....

anyway now i can start bitching at all those horrible smokers that r trying to shorten my life....the nerve....i have a lotta people looking to me to quit smoking, so again i have no choice, which again does make it easier....i want to go to karaoke when i'm feeling better but with all that smoke i'm scared i might screw up and smoke 1, and if i smoke 1 i may as well start smoking again...

now i'm waiting to see if it makes a difference in my singing, breathing i'm sure it will, but will my voice feel the difference?


well better go, tc all, Billy

Congrats ! I hope you can stick to it.

I heard it takes a while before you'll notice it helping your singing. The cilia (small hairs in throat & lungs) need time to come back or not be stunned. You'll cough a bit more while they are healing.

This is a good article http://www.helptoquitsmoking.net/Benefits_to_Stop_Smoking.html

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[shadow=pink][glow=deepskyblue]. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
[updown]~*~ MONKEY BUSINESS KARAOKE~*~ [/shadow][/updown][/glow]

 Billy !! I'll be right there with ya, tomorrow is my quit date ! Im already dreading it but its GOTTA be done. Health issues are forcing me to. I enjoy my cigs but I enjoy living too. I HOPE I have enough willpower to do this ! I am the only one who smokes in my family & I smoke outside so my house wont smell like cig so hopefully that will make it easier. I should say while my kids & hubby have hounded me for years to quit theyre dreading the mood changes I'll be going thru too ! Good luck & just think positive & you'll succeed

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Kelley
Star Sounds Karaoke & Mobile Recording Studio


[shadow=black][scroll]You have to respect your audience. Without them, you're essentially standing alone, singing to yourself....KD Lang[/scroll][/shadow]

I hated everyone for the first month. Then I gained 30 pounds and hated myself....

But I am now stopped over two years and I hope I never start again. Of course I started singing as my incentive to stay stopped, and I love singing so much I can't contemplate starting smoking again.

ty so much babs, i really liked that article....


hi kelley,i have kinda tried before a few times and i found out for me anyway it's 90% habit if not more and i smoked alottttttt....i'm sure u can do it...i'll be ur non smoking partner if u like...it's been 10 days for me so far....it really hasn't bothered me that much, very surprised at that...i think u just have to really want to and  keep busy i guess, not an expert yet....l...but i no i won't be smoking again, that i'm sure of.... i pray u can do it kelley, Billy

Ah, that's got to be tough. Never been a smoker, but I know lots of people who have tried to quit. And yeah, they turned into overnight azzholes at first.  LMAO

They should make t-shirts for quitters (especially those who quit cold turkey) Something that says "Stay out of my reach, I just gave up cigarettes" or something of the sort....

Good luck to you, it's hard now, but you'll be SO thankful in the long run Billy. I'd hate to see a voice like yours get wasted by a smoking habit.

Be strong my friend.  :D  :wave:


.

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♥ Laugh your heart out, dance in the rain. Cherish the memories, ignore the pain. Love and learn, forget and forgive. Because you only have one life to live. ♥

Congrats on your will to stop.. You are doing a great job....  You can find many free support groups online.. And they do really help...

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Will sing or fish for food!!I'm not quite right!!

Don't project into the future yet.  Stay in the present. Deal with this NOW,  day by day, hour by hour. Don't overwhelm yourself with "What if scenerios", or "I wonder if when it's time what it'll be like".  The toughest part is NOW. It tough for you right now, and to project from your current mindset and discomfort only creates overwhelming stress, Its just a means of adding more anxiety to the discomfort of NOW..  Everything you view in the future when feeling uncomfortable looks tougher... Stay in the present, and deal with the *here and now* one hour or even one minute at a time.. Don't look ahead, it'll look overwhelming, and the future isn't going to be as it seems NOW.



If you make a mistake, it won't be the end of the world.  It's like the way I am with competition,  if I come in second, I feel I might as well have not ranked at all..  Fact is, you're trying really hard to not smoke at all,  you do all you can, and that's all you can do !  It's really stressful to feel "What if I don't place first".  You recognize that you need to stop,  and that momentum should sustain you even if you slip at some point.  You're going to also likely have dreams that you've smoked, and wake up wondering if you did.  I had those A LOT !  Same with alcohol.



Sent a PM Billy.

Yeah,  it's normal to feel associated stress from withdrawal, a void, not knowing what to do with yourself, restlessness, craving type of discomfort.  It's all real.
But quite honestly,  I couldn't have done it any way but cold turkey. When I needed to quit,  that was it.  No slow torture "tapering"..For me it was Camel, Lucky's and around 4 packs/day towards the end when I was getting bronchitis three times a year badly. Perhaps pneumonia, not sure.  I don't like doctors.  You've got your faith, and hopefully that can help you somewhat.  Like any tough habit, for now.. Just one minute at a time, intensity of the craving will come, but it will also pass. Nothing wrong with asking your higher power for the strength to get you thru this acute period one day at a time, and another thing of course,  our mind isn't always our best friend when giving up an addictive substance, it also plays games at times as if it's siding with the ciggies..  I hope you aren't doing this totally alone without help. Best way to enter the process is with awareness of what happens during the process.  While not dangerous, it's REALLY uncomfortable..  Most of us that smoked were getting something out've the cigarettes,  they did something for us, yeah they are dangerous but most smoke for a reason.  So prepare for a void where heavy smoking once was.  As I stated in the PM,  I intended on calling you as I'd mentioned, but was feeling sort've tired so I napped.  I'll call tomorrow, but please feel free to call me at anytime if you're feeling as though you're gonna go thru the roof..  You'll be grumpy and grouchy, and generally pi$$ed off for awhile, you might wish you could put your fist thru sheetrock from feelings so negatively antsy.. You smoked heavily for a reason, We all did, there was some gain or need at the time so we kept it up, self-medicating... expect it to be tough, and ask for help to get you thru.

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Northeast United States runner up for the "Singing Hall of Shame".

That was awesome Steven, very encouraging, informative, uplifting advice. Youre a good friend !  :hug:

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Kelley
Star Sounds Karaoke & Mobile Recording Studio


[shadow=black][scroll]You have to respect your audience. Without them, you're essentially standing alone, singing to yourself....KD Lang[/scroll][/shadow]

That's great news Billy! Congratulations! I know quite a few people who have just quit smoking within the last month. Including Mikey. Must be something in the air.  :swg:

Sorry to hear that you were in the hospital. I hope you are ok!  :hug:

Billy my hat is OFF to you! And what Kappy said is 100% on the mark- might I also make another suggestion?

Try to find Karaoke shows that are in restaurants- they tend to be less smokey especially if they are earlier shows while people are still eating. Or...you could always move to CA or NY( wink) They are Non smoking everywhere and it's wonderful! But seriously...call around- you might be able to find a show that's on a patio so at least you don't have to be enclosed with all the 2nd hand smoke.

Just some things I used to do as a non smoker who loved Karaoke in Georgia( where they still smoke like fiends!)

best of luck!
Paula

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You'll likely get some of your upper range back too, in time Billy.  I was reading about how smoking affects breath control, and what it does to the throat, and this site came up, a few are singers too.  It's good to know that there are support sites right here on the internet;  This might be worth looking into, or at least giving it a read.

http://quit-smoking-support.woofmang.co ... .php?p=456

Those of you that are quitting,  read thru the following link.  It's really informative.
http://www.woofmang.com/tales/index.shtml

Many experience similar sensations and thoughts and this breaks it down
First day of quitting
second day
first week
etc.

and it explains when emotions such as fear of slipping start to set in.

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Northeast United States runner up for the "Singing Hall of Shame".

hi, ty everyone for ur great comments, the scary thing is steven that i'm NOT going thru all that....other than that very quick feeling oh i need a cig, that lasts about 5 sec.  it's like i never smoked before, i keep waiting for the really, really hard part to hit....i have tried before, ok i wasn't really trying but i wanted to think i was...i would wake up almost sweating just of the thought of quitting, that lasted a whole 3 min before i grabbed a cig....i'm sure it's going to get much worse but until it does i'm not gonna worry about it, just thanking god it's as easy as it is so far...

steven u can call, i won't jump on ya....l...much....
but i do ty all of u for ur wishes and ur support.....

sheree i have some of those pills that mikie's taking, but i found they only help when u smoke a cig.... how longs it been for him now?

i will say everything reminds me of a cig. now...i see a small pencil on the floor in the dark knowing what it was i was still thinking of a cig...l..and yes it was hard to get lit...

ty everyone....Billy

Are you an alcoholic or reformed smoker? If you are, I am surprised you feel this way. If you can tell me you were a heavy smoker and "slipped" every so often and still went swimmingly toward your smokefree goal, I am going to tell you that you are the first I have seen do that. Everybody I know who had just one went back to drinking or smoking big time and had to quit again later, starting from scratch.


This is certainly true, so perhaps you have some experience with this.

To the OP, if you were a heavy smoker and smoke one, I humbly submit you may as  well buy a whole carton, because that is where you are going. It is just a question of when. This is my experience, and the experience of many others. You can of course quit again later, but it won't be any easier. "Momentum" I have never seen, except where people talk about it. In fact, it gets harder and harder to quit.

The good news is that all you have to do is keep from smoking the first one. And that the urge to smoke that first one goes away in less than the time it would have taken you to smoke the cigarette. So I recommend not going near them unaccompanied for a month, and not going near them unaccompanied after that if you feel shaky. If you are five minutes or more away from a smoke when you crave one, likely by the time you get to where you can get one the urge will have left you.

I started going anywhere and doing anything most of the time after about a month, and didn't feel shaky at all after 6 months or so. Now I go into bars by myself, and don't even think about smoking. It has been 26 months, and I hope I never smoke again. It is sure convenient being a non-smoker in this day and age, and I sing a lot better!

I've quit before in the past for yrs at a time. I can't have just one. I'm like an acoholic. Just one can start me up again and don't be fooled if that 1st one tastes like crap and is hard to smoke. You'll still want another one.

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[shadow=pink][glow=deepskyblue]. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
[updown]~*~ MONKEY BUSINESS KARAOKE~*~ [/shadow][/updown][/glow]

I wish you the best of luck with quitting being a smoker of 35 years, its not easy to stop, but I know you can do it!!!! Good Luck!!!  :yes:

I'm an anomaly to the psychiatric profession locally.  I'm not sure that I feel comfortable about this however it's not understood how I've been able to do certain things given certain situations.  Bottomline is,  I'm a wall full of bulletholes but I refuse to topple.  As soon as I dried out for good, I still functioned with alcohol all around me, NEVER stopped gigging in bars after the last detox, and never even stopped owning it for guests that drank. I admitted *I* had the problem, and that's what needed to be delt with.  When I quit smoking, that same day I was playing in a smoke-filled bar, Yeah, I'd recommend NOBODY do something this reckless, but I made up my mind "NO MORE", despite how I LOVED the odor, and that was the last of it, Sort've like self-hypnosis,  when I thought of inhaling ciggies, I felt sick once I realized what was happening to me just at the thought of inhaling another poison stick.   I'm going to live inspite of and despite what most others do or do not do, or say can't be done.   I'm the one that decides what is suicide for me if continued. Whether it's called "Legal" or not.  It's pretty much what it takes, awareness and a readiness to fight, and as stated being REALLY sick of this crap making you sick. Those that don't quit, aren't ready to quit. Seems the simple to me. I could continue to drink, and maybe have one shot and die of alcohol toxicity due to chemistry change and degeneration.  I don't want that to happen.  I can smoke again, and make myself noticeably sick, I don't want that either.

Just because I'm compulsive doesn't mean I can't, or never had the option to "start to quit again immediately" at ANYTIME after I slipped (assuming I do in the future) but I haven't yet. It's all part of "getting back onto the horse after getting thrown". You DON'T allow yourself to get defeated when you have a strong objective. I realized quitting every habit is tough, and this became part of the challenge. Knowing it's tough as nails, and preparing to beat odds.  I've decided these substances are all poison to me and I believe that now, as I did the last day I ingested them. Those that slip-up *HAVE* quit, no need to throw in the towel IF they fall once, it's a forgiveable mistake if allowed to be viewed as such, you just continue to quit. The goal is to stop and that must be a mindset more than anything else,  it's MUCH more than physical restraint.  It's mental conviction. If you quit today and slip in one week, quit in one week AGAIN for good ! Don't allow a slip to be the end of efforts assuming you do slip, because If this happens, you were just looking to start, and NOT ready to stop.  All of life is a fight for some of us. A fact with ANY addiction is setback can happen, and even sober,  we have dry drunks ! The fight doesn't end as long as the mindset remains consistent and that requires help along the way, You can have a setback and STILL have quit.   The question at this point becomes philosophical only.  "Is it really worth living this way?", if I'm going to be less comfortable in life without being numb, or sped up by a dangerous substance that had antidepressent affects ? I've made my choice.  I'll fight, will feel uncomfortable and I suppose this can be much of life but I don't wish to die.
If you quit and slipped, why beat yourself up ?  Continue to quit. Quiting is just a mindset that's needed to start the process and see it thru. Self medicating with ciggies might've once worked,  but the medication became the illness in time. You assume slipping  (having one) means "going out an celebrating by buying a pack is the compulsive reaction. Why allow it to be ? If that were really the case most would never be able to quit and that's not rational because quite a few people require many attempts before they finally succeed assuming quiting isn't of medical necessity that's blatantly obvious.



I'm an "addictive personality" that's both. I'm a retired street junky from the 70's (that got real sick of seizures, panic, etc).  I'm a cross addict that hasn't had alcohol (after drinking for six years straight 1 1/2 qt scotch or rum a day religiously) and taking street substance quitting august 1980 and that was the last time I "quit", having made up my mind! It wasn't my first attempt at trying to quit.  (with one exception during 1983 I'd made the DECISION to quit drugs and alcohol), I was a 4 pack/day smoker who quit cold turkey in 1987 (at least the last time I tried). If I slip, I slip..  There are NO guarantees (as life gets very difficult) that any behaviour pattern is indefinate, but we use the past to pattern us for future hope. I've been in detox numerous times for numerous addictions prior to 1980, and had a choice, drink, shootup, inhale glue/ether/choroform, pop benzo's, barbs, quaaludes or die (what'd likely be an excruciating death process before 27) due to extensive damage already incurred. It wasn't just alcohol, it was narcotics too, Smack, etc.  When I quit smoking that was still somewhat elective given other addictions I kicked prior (although having difficult breathing made it somewhat easy), and I finally quit after multiple times.  All it takes is making the decision to endure temptation and discomfort assuming you REALLY want to quit !  Even as an addict, the toughest part is getting to the point that you can say "I'm done and I know I'm done because I'm prepared come hell or high water for temptation and I won't cave".  It's a type of stubborness that's actually a good thing.

So while sober, I'm an Ex-addict who's (thus-far) fortuneate life hasn't thrown a curveball that I can't dodge sober.  It's always "For now".  Tomorrow isn't promised, and mindset changes. All I have is certain awarenesses.  We have limited strength, but I'm pretty strong *now*



Or, one has the choice of KNOWING you've made the decision to quit, but IF you slip you aren't going to allow yourself to say "Well good, now I can start up again". You instead accept you've had a setback, you DON'T want to startup, and you DO NOT allow yourself to resume the habit because you slipped up.  This is often what DOES HAPPEN, it's an all or none game we play with ourselves... It's beneficial to instead humbly submit to the fact that we are human, we fall off the wagon at times, but as  dependant/addictive personalities (and due to past hell), we can also learn that we fell, must get up and *NOW* is the best time to not allow snowballing back into smoking because in reality even we addicts/ heavy smokers have SOME control of saying "NO" to external substance assuming we KNOW and choose to learn something from our past.  Fact is there's an element of compulsive (meaning all/none behaviour) that's a CHOICE we make to fight or submit to !  To believe or resign ourselves that we are reduced to a life of ALL or NONE (compulsive) behaviour is to fall in a different way Micky, You fight a substance, but you ALSO must fight addictive mindset, and realize setback CAN and DOES happen for some, to not prepare for this is to get quite foolishly confident.  When and if a person DOES slip, they must realize OK.. I fell, and NOW I MUST get up and go forward !  There're tremendous behaviour changes that must also be made.  Quitting addiction is a HUGE life change and it involves behaviour mod, not just the physical act of NOT doing. Yet naturally the "goal" is NOT to slip.

Do you believe dieting is much different ?   I'm also a compulsive overeater.  I still must eat !  Food is used by many of us as a drug, for many a means of satiating a void..  I have a choice,  eat eat eat and get really sick and obese,  or learn to MODERATE and still suffer craving for awhile !  You going to tell me that the only way to curtail compulsive overeating is to stop eating ?  It's NOT much different !!!

When the decision is made to stop drinking and smoking, you also recognise that just because YOU can no longer do it,  others have a right TO do it, and for me, from day one,  I functioned in smoke-filled environments, heavy drinking environments because I had to decide that while some can enjoy stuff, others of us can easily end up with anaphylactic shock and day from the same "desert".

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Northeast United States runner up for the "Singing Hall of Shame".

In my lifetime, the worst complaining, and woop a$$ can opening on smokers, always came from the reformed smoker......just my observations over the years....I've never smoked, but I actually support freedom of choice

My illness, is my problem.  If my friends want to drink,  I have a bar too.  Is this crazy ? YEAH SURE,  but who cares !  I DO NOT drink, I just figure "I'm allergic to the substance and get VERY VERY sick", and they know it, and life goes on.  They do stuff I can't do, and similarly they might have diabetes and I still eat chocolate and sugars that they can't.  Such is life !  Live and let live.  As they say,  the alcohol isn't "the illness",  it's the person who has probs handling it.  Same with cigarettes.  Not saying these are healthy or good,  just saying the substances are the adults choice to use and abuse, or stay clear of.

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Northeast United States runner up for the "Singing Hall of Shame".

great insight into all this....as for me i played music for 15 yrs 6 nights a week, drank pretty much every night except when i was suffering a hangover, swearing i would never drink again only to wait at the most 2 nights and back at it again....for me it was part of the job, came with it, sure it helped me relax and i felt like i fit in more, but i didn't haveeee to have it, when i quit music i quit drinking, quit clubs i had no reason to go in them anymore, so drinking was easy for me to quit.

i'll have to say that for the most part if i start something i give it my all, i played golf went into it 100% same with bowling, pool, few other things, when i started smoking i started at 2 packs a day, i hadn't drank coffee till about 2 yrs ago, but when i did start i drank like 3 pots a day....ll....i really do believe that 90% r more is mental for me anyway....get the head in the right place and i'm ok....

as of late i have noticed my head rotating 180% not sure what that's a sign of....it's mental i'm sure....

ty u guys for ur best wishes and support, i will make it bacause i HAVE TO MAKE IT....sometimes it's as simple as that....we deal with it, such is life.....Billy