Quitting smoking

48 days, four hours and 55 minutes. Still not lapsed, unexpectedly.

im going to try AGAIN, this sunday. I bought one of those electric cigs.

slocki when you write you book, you should not come up with or use a bunch of different synonyms for cigarettes. I mean, you can if you want, but it gets kind of maddening to read a book where they have some cutesy new name for the things every paragraph.

"backer-wackers"
"mouth buddies"
"lung-treats"
"inhaler wailers"

mouth buddies makes me think of

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_OqhPZgP-VR4/TFi-DakX3hI/AAAAAAAAJrA/y-JSNDqAZvQ/s640/AIR+BUDDIES+2006+DVD.jpg

they fucking TALK

Good literature featuring quitting as a central theme:

The narrator / protagonist of Italo Svevo's Zeno's Conscience quits frequently.

X20: A Novel of Not Smoking by Richard Beard. Again, about quitting, but on the Oulipo tip, with numerous writing constraints based on the number 20.

my husband started smoking again. must resist temptation to have one myself. ARGH

mouth buddies makes me think of

gis'd what "mouth buddies" makes me think of but will not post results

there just comes this time in the evening when i want to head outside and lean against a wall and stare up at the sky and smoke a cigarette.

I lasted 3 whole days before I caved lol :( But, I'm getting better at going 24-36 hours without smokes, so I'll just try and get more disciplined. I have ZERO willpower bcz basically I dont GAF.

Just the phrase "mouth buddies" makes me glad I'm not a smoker. It makes me glad I'm not a lot of things.

im going to try AGAIN, this sunday. I bought one of those electric cigs.

― thebingo2010 (chrisv2010), Tuesday, October 19, 2010 7:56 PM (Yesterday)

huge pro tip here - the first 1-3 days you will be convinced that the thing isnt going to work out and that it isnt giving you enough nicotine and whatever, but stay the course, from what i can tell thats just withdrawal from all the pointless bullshit in cigarettes, once you get past that the e cigarette is the shit.

(note: if u smoke camels that is the worst for this effect.)

also load up on cartridges, its way too easy to run out and then go "oh hey ill just buy a pack while im waiting for the shipment to arrive"

plus dropping $100 on a shit ton of cartridges worked my "must use everything i buy as much as possible" weird old miser nerve really well

ecigs did nothign for me, like smoking vapes, I hated em.

Also, any money savings from ecigs is theoretical at best. You'll end up spending way more till you find a PV and liquid you're happy with.

First try a disposable Q-ecigarette for $10 to see if vaping is remotely plausible. Then I recommend the Joye eGo (650 mAh batteries mean you're not constantly swapping batteries). E-liquids are a usually a mix of propelene glycol (PG, not antifreeze, for throat hit), vegetable glycerin (VG, for visible vapor), flavorings and nicotene. My experience is that nearly any amount of PG gives the smoke a saccharine sweetness I hate. I liked the VG only liquids in mild flavors. A retailer I liked was www.cignot.com.

In the end, I discovered after a couple months that I really had a better (and far cheaper) experience importing snus. I gave all the e-cig kit I'd accumulated to a nephew who has used them for a couple years.

that sounds way more complicated than quitting

The 2 ppl I know who invested in ecigs smoked them for a week or 2 then went back to smokes. They *are*handy for smoking in non-smoking venues, mind you (if the venue'll allow that).

one week today. from about 15 a day. still kinda want to just murder everything, but it is getting a bit better, i think. pretty confident i'm gonna make it, at least.

How do you get past the whole not even WANTING to quit thing? Thats basically where I am. I only even tried last week because I am sick of being a compulsive smoker and it putting off potential dates (as well as aging my skin/being stinky). But beyond that I genuinely dont *care* about giving up. Not in the least.

(Sorry JD - you were so supportive of my declaration on FB, I feel bad now!)

for me it just happens once a year or so, usually after being sick with something and remembering how much i really would hate being unhealthy for an extended period. while i always kind of know i should quit, sometimes emotionally things just seem to align, and i always wait for that before even trying. that's where i'm at now, and obviously it makes it soooo much easier. while i want to smoke, the desire not to be a smoker is much stronger right now. hoping the feeling lasts.

So I've been leaving my cigs at home when I go to work in an attempt to cut down and finally quit. Seems I can go the day without em, but yesterday I ended up getting OTT stressed out, nearly shouted at my own boss and went to have a cry in the toilet. My emotions were utterly out of wack for the rest of the evening.

How do you get past the whole not even WANTING to quit thing?

I have this problem. Like, I know I should quit for health reasons. I think the problem with me is that I don't smoke very much so I don't really notice any adverse effects like a smoker's cough or running out of breath, or spending loads of money, so I don't have much in the way of motivating factors. I end up thinking, well I only smoke when I'm out drinking, is it really doing me that much harm that's it worth going through cravings every time I go for a pint? Which unfortunately is what happens, I've given up for months before and it doesn't seem to go away.

three-and-a-half weeks. over the bit where I want them a lot (in fact I dislike the idea of them now), but rage & impatience running high. My casual conversation is full of swearing, & I feel ready to kill/excoriate people standing too close to me, brushing against me, walking too slowly, speaking near me, misoccupying bus seats etc etc etc, (just a cranked-up version of usual London rage, obvs). it's sort of fun, rage is fun.

can completely see that motivation problem - if I wasn't so gung-ho about it & could just smoke while drinking with friends, then I'd be far less driven to stop. But if I start, it fills my idle hours, and the mountain of reasons to quit - health, hygiene, money, ethics (bad companies!), shabbiness of dependency – falls on me.

Kind of a fundamental rehab/quitting thing that you're not going to unless you're ready, right? If you know that you should, but still have no desire to quit, maybe it's not the time to try - you're just going to make yourself extra miserable and fail.

I was in the "I don't want to quit" camp until I developed a bit of a smoker cough, which was why I ended up quitting. Smokers ask me how I quit and I just tell them I finally really wanted to. One thing that worked for me is was that I sort of let myself fail once. I quit with the patch for two weeks and one Friday night I just indulged myself. Ripped off the patch and bought a pack (and a bottle) and went to town. I felt so shitty, smelly, and guilty afterward, I think it really helped me avoid temptation when I quit again a few weeks later.

P.S. I don't really understand people who get all aggro when they quit, especially weeks after the nicotine is out of their system, but I guess "it's sort of fun, rage is fun" kind of explains it. It's not the nic withdrawal; it's you.

u still have to live with u

god, i need to stop. i really need to stop.

my mouth hurts.

yeah i have the vapopro joy e 110, thing is a beast. Plus refillable cartridges.

P.S. I don't really understand people who get all aggro when they quit, especially weeks after the nicotine is out of their system, but I guess "it's sort of fun, rage is fun" kind of explains it. It's not the nic withdrawal; it's you.

OH YEAH? MAYBE IT'S YOU. BRING IT. JUST BRING IT. IT IS ON.

(but srsly, this is prob right - it feels like smoke-routines, even putting chemicals aside, structure or modulate anxiety and rage - always an action to take, always something to reach for, always a back-of-the-mind plan about the next one. Without them, it all gets a bit more unpredictable.)

I hear you on that. Maybe for me the equivalent was just missing the smoke pit at work. Getting stressed about something and immediately wanting to "take a break", and not really having anywhere to go

I have forever been all about not wanting to quit and I just really like smoking. It came to a head a few weeks ago when I just had no money and wouldn’t have any money for a least a week. These fucking things go for more then $9 a pack around here. I smoked about a pack a day it’s just ridiculous having to account for that in my budget every month.

does girlfriend steal smokes?

lol
I’d have to hip her to some fancy designer ones or somethin

i do miss the feeling like when things are fucked up and you're down or stressed. you could sit back and have a smoke while thinking "at least i have this here cig"

yeah when I feel uber lonely I likentonhave a smoke and listen to safman indie tunes

likentonhave safman?

Anybody else get upper back pain after a day or two of withdrawal? It's centered on my spine, just below my shoulder blades.

is it definitely your back and not your lungs?

Yeah, it's muscle pain. It dissipates for a bit if I do a bit of serious stretching.

huh. i've had odd achey spots in the back that someone said was probably my lungs, but it wasn't recognisably muscle pain.

I smoked for 7 years, quit 3 years ago, but then socially smoked pretty hardcore for 2 - I found I wanted to go out and drink solely so I could smoke. A year ago I had some weird chest pain and quit cold turkey and I haven't had one since. I don't even want one when I am drinking now. It's pretty rad! I can safely say that I'll never smoke again.

Also feels like when I was 22 EVERYONE smoked, then everyone quit for a long time, and now it feels like more and more people I know are taking it up again which is kind of weird

I can safely say that I'll never smoke again.
after two years and three months i am not there yet and i am happy about it. because i know what will happen when i realize that i don't miss them anymore. i will have one immediately. the one thing i have learnt about quitting smoking is that i should never be too self-confident. as that is the most dangerous state for a quitter.

made it through a full blown party without smoking at all! it was difficult but i was able to get away for a few minutes at a time to regroup and then go back to hangin out. it will be one month tomorrow.

congrats dude! #stickwithit

http://www.usatoday.com/money/companies/regulation/2010-11-10-tobacco-labels_N.htm

US cigarette packs may soon get the warning labels w/ imagery that is used in other countries.

I quit earlier this year, but then started again after about a month. Hoping I can knock it off for good before I have to start looking at cancerous lung photos on my pack.

like violence in film, you get desensitised very fast.