Kicking the habit

[Ryu the Grappler]

And here's another one.

I love how Fred doesn't mind sharing his Winstons with Barney, but his Pebbles cereals are off-limit.

[Jave]

Jason's post is pretty much spot on.

I would like to add: An addiction is an addiction is an addiction

The biggest mistake I see a lot of people making is underestimating the challenge ahead of them. Everyone's different, and there are some people who can get through this without much trouble, and that's great, congratulations to them, but you should never go into breaking an addiction expecting anything less than one of the most difficult things you'll undertake.

Also - "Kicking the Habit" can be a relative term.

My dad hasn't smoked since 1985, and to this day, he still has to fight the occasional craving, especially when he's under a lot of stress.

Again, everyone's different, and maybe you'll hit a point where you're so over cigarettes that it's like you never started, but don't bank on that being the case. To reiterate Jason's point about willpower, you need to actively step in and say "no" to yourself when every part of your body is saying "oh god yes!" and you need to be ready to do this any time any where, whenever a craving may hit.

If you cave... immediately deal with it. The longer you wait before getting back on the wagon, the harder it'll be to do.

Lastly - please do avoid cold turkey. It's very possible that you might be the type of person who can quit like this, but even if that's the case, you've done no harm to yourself by getting some sort of extra help on top of that. Worst case scenario, you're out whatever you spent on unnecessary treatment, hardly the end of the world.

I'm not a big fan of the "cut back to quit" method either. Many people swear by it, but personally, I think it's just too easy to lie to yourself.

[Rash]

I'm going through the same process myself. I successfully quit all tobacco products for 6 months last year by "dipping to quit". I used dipping tobacco to ween myself off of smoking and to get my lungs adjusted to fresh air. It saved me money and set me up for the next step: quitting dip. Dip is just as addictive but the act of smoking is much more pleasant than the act of dipping, which makes dip easier to quit (for me). You've got to pick your battles. I don't recommend this route, just saying..it worked briefly for me. I'd go with gum and a toothpick. Anything to get your mind off of it.

[shelverton]

I've not had a cigarette for 9 days now and it works reasonably well. I've "quit" smoking many times in my life though, so I have no idea how this will end. My most successful time, I was tobacco free for 1 whole year. I stopped thinking about cigarettes almost completely, and even when the thought crossed my mind, I only thought about it for a few seconds and then forgot. Problem started when I allowed myself to have "just one cigarette" when I was drunk. I managed to keep it that way for some time, but slowly one cigarette become two.. three... four... and so on. Within weeks I was a full-time smoker again.

Conclusion? I can N E V E R have a cigarette again. It won't work. Once a smoker, always a smoker.

I'm determined to not smoke again, even if it means I can't go out with my smoking friends for a long time. Luckily I don't have that many friends who smokes anymore. And things got a little easier since Sweden forbid smoking in bars, cafes and restaurants a couple of years ago.

But it's never easy.

[Pitchfork]

I was fortunate enough to get slammed by the flu eight hours after starting this thread. It's hard to have any interest in smoking when you can barely breathe.

But now that I've recovered, it's getting a bit more challenging:



I guess I'm going contrary to some people's advice and going cold turkey, since the virus gave me a ten-day head start. I've been drinking a lot of tea and burning a lot of incense, but the craving ain't getting any weaker yet. (Honestly, I'm fairly certain I've going to cave in eventually, but I'd like to make this last for as long as possible before the inevitable happens.)

[shelverton]

For me it's been well over 2 weeks now and I still haven't had a cigarette. I am, however, taking the occasional NiQuitin mint... but nowhere near as many as I thought I would. We're talking maybe 2-3 each day when the abstinence kicks in. Such as when I wake up in the morning, after dinner and sometimes later in the evening and/or when I'm upset about something (and boy do I get upset easily right now... I am usually a calm person). I was smoking at least a pack of cigarettes each day so I think I'm doing rather well..

Pitchfork, if you already "know" that taking up smoking again is inevitable, maybe you should have some kind of help in store when that's about to happen? Nicotine chewing gum or whatever. (Personally I find it extremely tedious to chew all day long so I can't use them, but for emergencies it's better to chew a little than going out to buy a pack of cigarettes..)

[Pitchfork]

Relevant Disney cartoon!

[Deleted]

Feb 27, 2011 21:56:02 GMT -5 Pitchfork said:

I guess I'm going contrary to some people's advice and going cold turkey, since the virus gave me a ten-day head start. I've been drinking a lot of tea and burning a lot of incense, but the craving ain't getting any weaker yet. (Honestly, I'm fairly certain I've going to cave in eventually, but I'd like to make this last for as long as possible before the inevitable happens.)

Captain Planet said it best. The power is yours, man. I suppose there are two halves to ending any addiction, though. You have to want to quit, but you also have to be ready to quit. From your last statement, it sounds as if you aren't ready to quit just yet. Still, I really hope you'll be able to persevere.

[klausien]

Read this: joga.365.lt/Allen-Carr_Easy-Way-To-Stop-Smoking_Download-free-PDF-EBook

It isn't a cure all, and yes, it is absolutely a self-brainwashing book, but it will help you substantially regardless of which method you end up using. I would say that the mindset I was able to nurture as a result of this book was the edge needed to win the war, and it had been two years since I'd read it when I stopped. Read it. It certainly won't hurt your cause.

I was a semi-closeted, pack to pack and a half a day smoker for over a decade. I tried to quit many, many times, meeting failure each time for various reasons. Success really did come down to my wanting to stop for myself. An addiction is not something you can beat entirely for someone else; you will relapse.

I do want to say that anyone who says to stay away from "cold turkey" doesn't know what they're talking about. There are valid reasons for the method, and I think the 3-5 day physical withdrawal period from the nicotine itself is something that someone trying to quit should experience, if only as a deterrent. Even if it results in failure, each try at quitting is cumulative in my experience, and the line in the sand of cold turkey is quite a powerful weapon.

I ended up using a combination of therapies in my final strategy to win. I had gone tobacco-free for just under a year in my second to last attempt (using the patch to it's completion), but I got lazy and failed. There really is no "just one." You will relapse. So, here was my successful plan (I can 99% guarantee I'm not going back):

2 or so weeks of nicotine lozenge/gum to break the physical habit of smoking itself>Cold turkey weekend WHEN READY to banish the nicotine from the body and feel victory over the withdrawals>1 mo.>6 mos.>1 year>FREEDOM. Mind over matter. Hard work, but the payoff is sublime.

<Ascends soapbox> One final point. Smoking cannabis will absolutely help you quit tobacco physically as it does not contain nicotine. It can be addictive itself, yes, but only mentally and with sustained heavy use (like anything else really). Cannabis is also a safer, less addictive alternative to opioid-based painkillers, but that is another conversation entirely. If used properly, it is a great palliative tool. Anyway, I am not advocating that someone go out and get themselves arrested, or lose their job, over quitting smoking, but I am putting this out there as truth, and I stand behind it. Think for yourself. <Steps down from soapbox>

Regardless of what you do, good luck and see you, happier and healthier, on the other side!

[Ryu the Grappler]

I'm more partial to the King of the Hill anti-smoking episode.

[camanchi]

Not sure if this is helpful or has been mentioned, but I have an uncle who has smoked his whole life and has never been able to quit for more than a few days. He hasn't had a smoke in 2 weeks and he's taking Chantix to help him quit. I don't know anything about it, but it seems to be working very well for him so far.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varenicline

[Shellshock]

Mar 5, 2011 21:51:13 GMT -5 camanchi said:

Not sure if this is helpful or has been mentioned, but I have an uncle who has smoked his whole life and has never been able to quit for more than a few days. He hasn't had a smoke in 2 weeks and he's taking Chantix to help him quit. I don't know anything about it, but it seems to be working very well for him so far.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varenicline

Do you smoke yourself, Cami?

[camanchi]

Nope. I'd occasionally puff 'socially' if someone asked, usually if I was drinking, but I could never just sit back and smoke regularly. I don't even puff now. My mom and a good portion of other adult family members have smoke their whole lives. Most have died in the last 5 years from lung cancer.

[Brand]

I can't say much for quitting smoking myself as I haven't done it but if you have kids I can give you my story.

Basically, as a kid I had terrible, terrible asthma. I'm talking I had an attack almost everyday of some degree. I would talk "walking class" in gym and have to go to the nurse half way through because walking would cause me to have an attack. If I walked to the mall from my house (5 minutes) in the winter I'd have to spend 20 minutes once at the mall gasping for air. I was hospitalized multiple times for attacks. I had my own nebulizer, took a ton of meds, and got shots for it all, but it never really helped.

Then about 6 months after I had moved out from my parents and on my own I realized I had not had an attack that entire time. Thinking about it then, I realized that my asthma had gotten much better after my Dad died (who was a super heavy smoker). Now, it's been over two years since I've lived with my parents and I haven't had an attack since (even under some heavy exercise).

So, while I respect everyone's right to smoke. I do think it is awesome if more people quit. I honestly believe everyone could breath easier.

[azazel]

>> I do want to say that anyone who says to stay away from "cold turkey" doesn't know what they're talking about.

This.

I am a heavy smoker for about 20 years now, started with 16. I do not want to stop smoking, but I don't want lung cancer either; something I'm terribly afraid of and about which I think every day. But if smoking were not a causative of cancer, I would smoke one right after the other.

It's the same when people who have no job say "I need a job", when what they really mean is "I need money".

So what do you really mean? Do you really mean "I want to stop smoking?" Then just go cold turkey, it will work because you do not want to smoke actually. Or do you mean "I don't want the detrimental health effects of smoking?" In that case, it's going to be difficult to stop. Shit, take for example this one German guy, he used to be a TV-personality when I was a kid, a very heavy smoker. He even continued to smoke after they took one of his lungs out. This is the difference between the true and the casual smoker.

So I can't give you any advice about how to quit smoking, but I wanted to say something about alcohol. I quit drinking alcohol from one moment to the next. I once, several years ago, decided to never drink one drop of alcohol ever again. It was no problem whatsoever. I am off the booze for more than six years now and I know that I will never drink again.

I hope that one day I will make the same decision about smoking. I know that if I make the decision, I will stick to it, the same way as I did with alcohol.

And I wanted to write one more thing about this. I love to smoke, but I also know that it causes cancer. But what I really hate are the way smokers are treated nowadays. For example, every non-smoker at my workplace is feeling smug and thinks he/she has the right to patronise me and look down on me because I smoke. Yet they all drink. Even if these shitbags wouldn't drink that doesn't give them the right to judge other people.