Quitting smoking

good luck scott. really wanting to quit is more than half the battle. i know that sounds trite but it's true

hamster diaper (portion snus)

ha ha never heard this term before, though my girlfriend called them "shitbags"
ive been cigarette free for 4 years it seems now, and snus free for 2.5. congrats to all who've successfully kicked it and good luck to all trying.

thinking back now, my initial difficulty with kicking smoking was that going for a cigarette was a specific activity that i did that was no longer part of my routine. i would get the cravings and feel the compulsion to do the smoking activity. on the other hand, snus was something that i just always had in my mouth while doing other things. so when i stopped using snus, there was no empty space in my daily routine that i would feel compelled to fill with tobacco

Smokes while drinking (and after sex) is one thing but the hardest for me is that when I'm doing my monthly orders (the shittiest part of my job), I'd have a cigarette after I finished each company - one after Marvel, one after DC, etc. and they were a nice reward/break from staring at spreadsheets.

I'm lucky that only comes once a month, if I had developed that particular habit around an office job where it was day in/day out, I'd be fucked.

wellbutrin works p well for me

I smoke five cigarettes a day on average, seven max. I quit maybe once a week, and last two days max. I don't patch or vape or anything.

Something magical happened in February 2015. I quit for an entire month and I've never felt better, happier. It's clear that cigarette addiction is a major fucker with my brain patterns. I quit again in July 2015 and got six days in. I remember on Day Four onward feeling like my world had suddenly got so much brighter, I was (actually) skipping everywhere. Skipping down the hallway, down the street.

But my personal life in 2016 continued to be filled with assholism and I kept smoking again. I am getting spider veins on my ribcage, can't be good. Today is my Day One of actually never again.

Did I mention that what I took for cravings for many years actually was a sore throat due to reflux? After almost 9 years of not having smoked a single fag I did not really progress. For the last couple of years I always told myself that I will go on with the non-smoking up till my tenth anniversary. On that day I want to reward myself with a joint! That idea has kept me going. I am a little afraid of what will happen. But it has been planned for so long, it can't go wrong, can it? I mean I want to smoke one joint and then nothing for a couple of years...

I have gone through the 14 stages of grief since January 1st.

1) hmmm, heroin instead?

2) kill you

3) kill me

4) kill everybody

5) can only watch old westerns 10 hours a day

6) wake up in morning and fantasize about fistfights i'd like to have on the street with strangers

7) ritalin? meth? crack? armed robbery?

8) just don't talk to anyone just don't talk to anyone just don't talk to anyone

9) couples therapy!

10) so much ice cream.........

11) okay fine i gotta find a shrink

12) the dreams in which i'm dying are the best i've ever had (also all of a sudden i'm giving blowjobs in my dreams? #freudsucks)

13) fuck the internet gonna go kick a soccer ball with my kids...

14) 15th greatest player of Resogun:Demolition for PS4 in the world

Well, I'm pleased to say that it's been well over a year now and I've thankfully managed to stay quit - it's amazing how much of a long drawn out process quitting smoking actually is. It really does take a very long time, but it does get better and it's totally worth going through. Now I go through entire weeks without thinking about smoking at all, and if I do it's in my mind for a split second and out again.

Weirdly, as an ex-smoker I find people who vape more annoying than people that smoke ... at least people who smoke know that they smoke, whereas people who vape think they don't!

Uhm, no. I'm pretty sure people who vape know they still smoke. It isn't "weird(ly)", you sympathize more with the people who were addicted the same way you were. Not rocket science.

vaping is so much grosser to me. which makes no sense. but it also annoys me more.

See, I don't get that. Vaping - from my Western European view - is def a USA thing. But why does it annoy you? Does it "annoy" in a "I watched a porn but sadly teh guys were wearing rubbers" kind of way? (which I also wouldn't get, tbc)

It's "healthier" than smoking cigs. So where's the annoyance?

i stopped smoking on january 1st. and i have smoked a total of twice since. both times at music shows this summer where friends were playing. i made the decision and i stand by those decisions.

i still use the nicotine lozenges every day. i don't know when i'll stop with that. i still think i would need a couple of days of isolation on the couch with no human contact and i think i could be through with them too.

i took microdoses of psychedelic mushrooms this summer to help me. i was having a really rough summer. and i think it did help! wouldn't recommend it to anyone else though. i've been taking over the counter L-Theanine and Lithium Orotate every day for months. that seems to help too. i've been putting off seeing a pill doctor though. i don't know why. i just hate going to doctors. it HAS gotten easier in just the last month or so. i want to smoke less and less.

i've been smoking pot a little bit recently. which is new. i'm not a big pothead. the good thing is that the pot smoking doesn't make me wish that i had a cigarette. which is a good sign.

"It's "healthier" than smoking cigs. So where's the annoyance?"

i think when i see it i just see the huge plumes of smoke and it looks really gross to me. it seems grubbier in a way. i don't claim to understand why. it just does. i mean i realize that smoking cigarettes can be a grubby thing too.

I think there was a point in 2013 where local house-fires caused by dodgy vape chargers, were becoming much more frequent than fires caused by drunken smokers/sleepy chip pan maestros. I think if I was to start smoking again it would deffo be the ol' killer ciggies. But addictions and their increasing variety of delivery systems in this age is maybe a good thing, the more the merrier perhaps? Maybe alcohol patches/vapers might be next. Getting pissed without putting on the weight wouldn't be much fun, but maybe an improvement on sniffing surgical spirits or glue!

Of course it's "weird(ly)", those are the words I intended to type, did type and meant. You would think that I would find being around people that smoke more annoying than being around people that vape, but it's the opposite.

I know several people over the last year who've told me straight faced that they've stopped smoking, but have merely just replaced cigarettes with a vape. So you haven't quit, then. Also, in my experience, those that vape seem to give even less of a fuck than smokers do, including myself when I was smoking.

(xxxxxxpost obviously)

Having said that, even when I was smoking I could never really see the point of vaping - obviously, there's been decades of medical research gone into the long term health risks of smoking vs. the long term health risks of vaping, so just how healthier it actually is remains to be seen.

i think when i see it i just see the huge plumes of smoke and it looks really gross to me. it seems grubbier in a way. i don't claim to understand why. it just does. i mean i realize that smoking cigarettes can be a grubby thing too.

― scott seward, Tuesday, September 12, 2017 8:47 PM (twenty-six minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Yeah I can see that. Also grubby is not good.

Still a smoker myself tbh, and don't desire quitting for another year at least.

tbf you don't have to set your vape to churn out masses of vapour, that's just twats.

smoked a few hand rolls in Barcelona with my cousin. They were glorious!! first time i smoked in something like 7 years. no desire to start again or anything but they were nice in the moment .

don't tell me these kind of things, i have more than nine years without smoking and was thinking of allowing myself a joint on the tenth birthday. but somehow i doubt that i will risk it...

I did a year and a half without smoking and loved it, but then at a crazy wedding party I started again and have been smoking (at parties) on/off since :'(

Have recently moved and used the opportunity to quit again, hoping I can stay clean this time

Having said that, even when I was smoking I could never really see the point of vaping - obviously, there's been decades of medical research gone into the long term health risks of smoking vs. the long term health risks of vaping, so just how healthier it actually is remains to be seen.

― more Allegro-like (Turrican), Tuesday, September 12, 2017 5:12 PM (two weeks ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

we don't have this research on vaping yet! the consensus feeling is that it is safer than combustible tobacco, but it will be a long time before we really know much about the health risks of vaping

i worked with a pulmonologist, probably in his sixties, who recommended e-cigarettes to a guy in his seventies who had been smoking for over 50 years. i thought that was pretty progressive

Nearly three years without so much as a puff and do not miss it one bit, aside from very occasional cravings which come at weird and unpredictible times - in the pub or at parties I usually couldn't give a shit. I don't feel markedly better physically for having given up, but I relish being free of the addiction.

now that it is £10 + for a 20 pack, the temptation to start smoking again is very much reduced for me. To smoke and drink you have to be pretty rich these days!

sheeit, I can remember paying 67p for 10 Berkley king size.

Yeah, I always forget how much they cost... before stopping, I was smoking rolling tobacco for years, but I was in the shop yesterday behind someone who was buying some cigarettes and I was stunned at the price.

Although, I've been told they've changed the way rolling tobacco is sold too?

i picked it up again in march-april after some stressful life stuff. been smoke-free for three weeks except last night i bought a pack, ugh. probably smoked 1/3 of it and it made me feel so gross. poured water on the rest and threw them away. i can't afford it, it makes me feel like shit, i'm trying to run and it ruins it. still quitting is hard every time.

any users have experience with the patch or gum here

i used the patch years ago and again recently and the nightmares are terrible, i suppose that is the nicotine in your blood

the gum 2 MG or 4 MG is better, despite the occasional burning sensation in the mouth but I cannot say it actually reduces my urge to smoke

the inhaler device made it so i could not sleep all night, absolutely worse than the patch

i have found in the past when i quit for 3 years that i just had to get beyond the first 3 days of the psychological shit and then 21 days later i was essentially fine...have these anti-smoking tools helped anyone

I find the Allen Carr method v efficient and it's all about realizing nicotine doesn't really add any value to your life, patches/gum/vaping may help change your addiction to something much less harmful but imo better to altogether rid yourself of the nicotine urge

sounds reasonable, thanks niels

sure thing, his book's readily available online, recommend it if you haven't read it, it's a bit brainwashy but gets the job done

I know this is thread is primarily about cigarette smoking, but I started juuling a couple of years ago during a particularly stressful time for me personally and always felt shitty about it, though it is fun and a good way to pass the time. it does almost nothing for me now beyond the satisfaction of seeing the cloud, but it's been hard to find the will to kick it and it doesn't help that all the women I've dated over the past year have been smokers or vapers. anyway I realized my ex had left her chantix pack at my apartment and I've been using it for two weeks and am definitely noticing a reduction in the cravings -- I know I'm doing it wrong but I'm cutting back which I like. I've been getting stomach upset with the 1mg doses though -- the dreams actually are a lot of fun

if you ever want those endless lucid dreams without the chantix pack I'd recommend some Rhodiola Rosea aka arctic root!

I invented a new method of quitting. I've been smoke-free for a week on it.

Basically, I've decided to make some changes in my life in ways that both "play to my strengths" as well as "take advantage of my weaknesses". One of my biggest weaknesses? laziness. So: I'm quitting smoking with The Lazy Method.

It works like this. I ran out of cigarettes a week ago, and the store is a fifteen minute walk away, and every time I had a nicotine craving, I just told myself "ennnh but the store is so far away" and "ennnh but then I'd have to get dressed and leave the house" and "ennnh but I'm so comfy on this couch/in this bed" and so on.

Gonna see if I can't publish The Lazy Method, make a mil off this plan

I managed to stop twice for long periods. But the last time I didn't have the vigour to go through nicotine withdrawal again so got into vaping, which isn't really stopping. But currently I'm stressed out and sad so I'm retreating back into ciggie and alcohol abuse. I've not actually bought any cigarettes yet, still guiltily working through my partner's cigarette stash. She's lost all her mobility after a fall down the stairs and the hip replacement op didn't make anything better, and she's got dementia so has had to go into residential care because she couldn't be safely based upstairs or downstairs in our house.

Depressing shit aside, I'm determined to stop drinking and vaping this year. Vaping might not be as bad as smoking but it still makes my lungs feel like shit and chemical addictions are just a very irritating pain in the arse to maintain.

i quit smoking a few years back and am so happy vaping wasn't as developed and easy as it is now (it was hard work to vape then). i'd definitely be a hardcore vaper if i'd quit even a year later.

it's my understanding that vaping can actually help with quitting, but only if you stop smoking actual cigarettes... if you carry on doing both, it's no good

yeah, but you are just changing the nicotine delivery system, so when you switch it isn't really much of an accomplishment. Overcoming your nicotine addiction - that takes work.

During my second stopping period I used patches. One day I felt really bad, had a complete inability to concentrate. My vision was going crazy and was hyper anxious, ready to murder anybody who even said good morning to me. Then I realised I'd forgotten to put the patch on that morning.

xp agreed.. I guess it's more of a harm reduction thing. And I've known people who actually quit smoking, but then went on to vape for many many years, which is still a harmful addiction

Allen Carr didn't work for me. It worked at first, but then I got stressed and bought a pack. Then my brain wrote a subroutine to deal with Allen Carr: it started imagining that every cigarette was my last. "oooh yeah, this is the last one of these disgusting things," I'd think, stubbing it out. Then I'd run a half-pack under water. Then I'd buy a new pack an hour later. It was nuts.

The best thing about reading Allen Carr tho was learning about how the actual nicotine cravings pass after three days. This is absolutely true. Day four no cigs feels magical. From then on it's just mental discipline, ime

Don't vape it's so stupid and bad. I'm glad my bf vapes instead of smokes but I'm gonna press him into trying The Lazy Method himself, he's pretty lazy too so it might work

oooh yeah, this is the last one of these disgusting things

When I was still working in San Francisco, I used to periodically find packs sitting on park benches, with one cigarette missing. I'd bring 'em to the band practice studio, they were usually American Spirit or something fancy like that

I think Carr was actively bad for me, I think he kept me waiting for some kind of joyous smoke free nirvana state that never came

actual nicotine cravings pass after three days. This is absolutely true. Day four no cigs feels magical. From then on it's just mental discipline, ime

Deep agreement here. As I said more than ten years ago... getting the nicotine out of my system was a huge hurdle. After that it was mostly dealing with the thousands of mental triggers that told me it was time to have a cigarette. After at least a year of that struggle, it came down to fighting against a certain nostalgia, a golden-hued sense that, once, long ago, I had a beautiful relationship with cigarettes, and they were waiting for me to come back and hug them. That faded out after about a decade.

Being a nurse didn't stop her. Volunteering for the Cancer Society didn't stop her. My dad dying of esophageal cancer didn't stop her. Her own lymphoma didn't stop her.
What finally stopped my mom from smoking after nearly 70 years was the ever-increasing price of a pack.