Quitting smoking

Awesome. I hit 2 back in June!

6 years a couple of days ago. still fighting. and knowing that i'll restart one day. and looking forward to it. ;-)

Seven years ago this month.

quit about 14 months ago and i think about it maybe like twice a month? like a ghost limb or something. good fucking riddance.

Three days in. No one told me how trippy it would make me feel. Everything's gone kind of weird and a bit pulsating.

I quit for 5 days without really trying while I was ill between Christmas and NY. Sadly I felt no better for it because the hacking and coughing had pretty much messed up my lungs anyway, and inevitably come NYE I was smoking away again... At least I know I can do it though.

no you don't. you won't know until you feel great, and want one, and you deny yoursef, and then feel a great warm surge of pulsating energy swirl psychedelically out of your chest

I am getting fed up with people who claim to have stopped when all they have done is swap the drug delivery system to them ridiculous fucking vapour billowing dildos. Giving up an addictive substance is an achievement but until you done that stfu.

What about patches, lozenges, and gum? Because people do that all of the time! Having tried all of the above, those gums and lozenges carry quite a kick, whereas the e-cig I barely noticed the nic rush. The lozenges made me miserable.

Three days in. No one told me how trippy it would make me feel. Everything's gone kind of weird and a bit pulsating.

― the joke should be over once the kid is eaten. (chap), Saturday, January 3, 2015 9:44 PM (2 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Yeah, quitting's a little like a drug itself, albeit an edgy and unsettling one. My favorite effect was the tingling in my fingers from my capillaries opening up again. Hope you're doing well with this, chap!

I always found the patches made me jittery in an over caffeinated manner and used to induce long, vivid dreams. Like when I awoke I'd feel like all that intensive dreaming was not quite a night's rest.

giving up tends to make me a bid depressed more than angry/jittery. i find it irrationally hard to look forward to things.

The physical symptoms seem to have largely abated, though I've got an annoyingly itchy throat from what I guess is my cilia growing back. The cravings are still intense, though less frequent. Now left with the deceptively large challenge of finding other activities to find those many little dead moments; I didn't really realise how much I planned my activities around smoking. Like "I'll just sweep the floor, then have a fag". Now it's "I'll just sweep the floor then... Move straight on to another boring chore I suppose".

Oh, most postive side effect so far: Food tastes amazing!

i remember being amazed at the smell of regular, non-rotten milk when i quit

Cold turkey/Easyway is the only way to go. Any replacement delivery system just prolongs the agony.
I smoked for 20+ years - attempted quitting with patches, gum, cessation, etc. Allen Carr's book was the only way that worked. Getting your head straight about the cycle of addiction makes it all much easier.

I started to feel much more powerful than the craving each time I got past a nic fit. Sounds stupid, but it's almost like a video game... picture yourself getting stronger each time you smash a craving. Soon they'll be these little tiny nuisances you swat off without even registering it, then they're more or less gone for good. I still get the odd nic fit 5 months after quitting - but now it's almost like a weird nostalgic thing, like "oh yeah, remember when these were a big deal?"

Another stupid thing that helped: https://www.quitnow.ca/tools-and-resources/calculate-your-savings

Shows you how much you've saved, and how many cigarettes you would have smoked in the time since you quit. A really good motivator if you're a week or two or three into quitting and you feel like backsliding.

Thing is as I smoked rollies and wasn't THAT heavy a smoker (10-15 pd on average probably) I only really spent a tenner or so a week on it... Dwarved by my spending on booze, which I'm not giving up any time soon.

Every once in awhile I will smell someone's cigarette, usually outside, and it will smell so good I will want to cry. But then I smell a person who smokes (or end up in an elevator or bus with them bleh) and they smell so bad that I am really happy I quit.

Truth.

Saving a tenner a week will add up - but it's not about the money anyway.
You can do it! It's a really great experience quitting smoking. You feel really strong and unfuckwithable once you get over the initial hurdles.

I am getting fed up with people who claim to have stopped when all they have done is swap the drug delivery system to them ridiculous fucking vapour billowing dildos. Giving up an addictive substance is an achievement but until you done that stfu.

― xelab, Monday, January 5, 2015 8:19 AM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

haha otm. i mean a vaporizer is 100% preferable to inhaling toxic smoke but when my brother-in-law claimed he's been months without smoking and he's puffing all the time on a vape i was like, really?

Thing is if you can honestly say that you will stick to the vape and never go back to real cigs then that's not a problem at all, but there's no way I could promise that to myself - first night out I'd be nicking cigs off everyone.

Having said that, I haven't had a night out without smoking yet, so that may be the case anyway - my friend's bday on Friday will be a huge challenge I suspect.

Wow, it really does get so much easier after the first week. Still getting cravings of course, but they are squashed pretty much no problem. I even went out properly on the piss on Saturday and managed not to smoke and to have a nice time.

Don't want to get complacent though - the otehr night I was the last one up in the house, and I picked up my housemate's tobacco pouch and had started to roll one before I consiously realised what I was doing. That's some pretty insidious stuff.

well done, chap. i find that once i've gone that far, it's generally too late. the most depressing is when you haven't smoked in a few days, light up, take two drags, realise the experience isn't all that great and consider throwing it away but end up smoking it anyway...

It's SO insidious!

It helps that my new girlfriend is doing it as well, so I don't feel like I'd only be letting myself down.

nice going chap

just keep in mind that smoking sucks and makes you feel terrible

I haven't noticed much in the way of feeling better TBH! Guess it's a gradual process.

it will happen, trust

i would estimate round about three weeks, which perhaps not coincidentally is also the time that the vice-grip of want releases itself

i mean, to a degree, it ain't magic

http://i211.photobucket.com/albums/bb150/TOTO-LERO/gifs/2yuf311.gif

it's been two years that I've quit and tbh I've never consciously felt better or tasted more, or any of that magical stuff. Still glad I quit though

Just over a month in, yesterday I kind of all of a sudden started breathing more deeply and satisfyingly. Could be psychological I'm sure, but still a nice perc.

Keep it up - my wife and I giving it another go and we're 34 days in - this is it - we're done. Feeling a lot better.

only one post about Chantix itt-- anyone else have success taking it?

Crabbits- are you still smoke-free?

My bf uses Chantix and loves it--says he doesn't even THINK about having a cigarette on the pill, it's not like he's having to fight cravings or anything. Although having said that he does go on and off it because I smoke recreationally and he joins in when I do.

But he swears by it and also loves the wacky lucid dreams it gives him, just fyi.

congrats, chap!

virtually no waking hours cravings anymore, though I'm still having dreams about smoking at least twice a week.

pretty much down to "only when i drink" status now

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/05/fashion/mens-style/farewell-my-lovely-cigarettes.html?referrer=

omg the nyt mentioned a party and i knew whose it was

i just quit yesterday because i am home sick with a terrible flu. that article is great.

on monday i promised both my parents i would quit smoking right now, because my 60yr old dad, a smoker for 45 years, has just been diagnosed with COPD.

he could live years and years, but it's not even the death issue i'm worried about - my parents' whole lives are so fucked by this right now, since he can no longer work and they're both lower working class people.

so the allen carr book i got 90% of the way thru about 7 years ago and then stopped is now on my kindle (ironically enough, i gave my dad this book about a week before his diagnosis, and now it's useless to him).

:( good luck, j. A&I got little ecigs to ease our way into quitting but the cigarette I just put out belies how little I've *tried* just yet. I'm sorry about your Dad, gah

Gf and I kicked it on 1 June, both after over 20 years of smoking. I guess I cheat a bit by inserting the occasional hamster diaper (portion snus) under my lip (sorry xelab of 8 months ago), but yeah, v v happy so far. Got a bit fat tho; selected friends and webpages claim it is due to the sudden absence of 20-30x increased heartrate periods a day, but it may very well be due to things I put my hands and mouth to instead of smoking.

Snus is a fairly minor evil, all things considered. I still do 4-5 portions daily, 5 years after "quitting".

be free of the little voice telling you to have your dose BE FREE I SAY! still, way to go obv

Lol I bought more snus today, still feel pretty good I smoked from 15 to 36