Well, I'm on my second day and last night was tough. I tried to concentrate on the articles I was reading but my mind kept wandering. I had trouble falling asleep and I had some extremely vivid dreams. I don't think that I've ever dreamt in that much detail before. On the box of the patch it said I might experience some sleep disturbance and some strange dreams as side-effects, but I kinda liked it (NO, they were not that kind of dream.) Anyway, I've put my second patch on and I'm looking forward to my second day of not smoking...
Also, my morning breath hasn't been this normal in a long time. Some advantages already.
You can also get a sort of fake cigarette from the same guys who make the patches. They are just a sort of plastic tube, in which you put a cartridge. You then get a smokeless nicotine dose.
keep up with the patch- I used it to quit about 5 years ago. It definitely felt very weird for the first few days, and I did want to smoke, but by about the third day the urge to smoke became more of the habit than of the addiction. After a while it was very easy and I have only tried one cigarette in the past 5 years (and it was awful)
And the benefits are fantastic- I had no idea how much I was a slave to that habit, and how much it impacted my physical health. I now can run farther without getting winded, don't get sick as often, and don't stink of smoke (after a month of not smoking, you will really notice how foul it smells on other people's breath). Plus, I don't know how it is where you are, but cigarettes here have become really expensive.
Downside? For me, only two. I have no use fot the nice silver cig case and Dunhill lighter I had (got rid of them), and I can't takes as frequent breaks as I could. It seems that it is acceptable to tell your co-workers every hour that you have to have a cigarette. But when you quit, you can't just say "I have to have a break form your lameness" and get the time off
<strong>I'm in the process of trying to quit for 1000th time in my life. I'm only 26. This time I'm trying the patch. I never really smoke all that much (at most 8-9 cigs/day), but it's getting to the point where I can't go out to a bar without coming home feeling really crappy from smoking too much. I can't play basketball without getting winded way too soon. I guess over the course of years of smoking, even 8-9 cigs can take their toll.
Has anyone here ever quit? It's gotta be the hardest thing I've ever had to do. One time I was able to stop for 3 weeks, while on vacation travelling down the west coast (in Cali I thought it was funny that I couldn't smoke cigarettes in the bar, but people were smoking pot all over ). But once I got back here and my coffeeshops were calling, it was all over. My problem is that smoking is a way for me to relax on breaks in the middle of doing work. Now, what am I supposed to do? Reading the paper gets old. I should get some mindless games on my computer to take breaks with.
Anyway, anyone want to share their success (or failure) experiences? I guess this is my support group. I love AI </strong><hr></blockquote>
two of my friends who were pretty damn heavy smokers, went on a trip with me and a few others to climb MT whitney....although because of some setbacks we didn't get over whitney...the trip still lasted a week and since it was with our school, of course there was no smoking. so we hiked maybe 10-20 miles a day and on the 2nd last day my friend looks over to my other friend and says "hey....wanna quit smoking?"(they are both really winded from having just gone over a really high pass) the response "sure buddy"
neither of them have smoked a cigarette since...that was like 5 months ago.
perhaps a similar thing could work for you....since being out in nature at high altitudes hiking daily got rid of all the phsyical addictions....so all they needed to do was tell themselves not to smoke and they could.
get a half a dozen or so of your friends together and go backpacking...bring NO cigarettes and see if you can do it.
I personally don't smoke...I think its vile. but thats just me.
<strong>I went through something similar to Eugene, actually, just last week. Having smoked occasionally (puff. not inhale) while drunk or partying or whatnot, I went out and bought a pack to see what the fuss was about. My roommate is a pack-every-2-day smoker. Bought some, tried, ended up smoking 4 and giving my roomie the pack. While i love the smell of cigar smoke, i just can't get cigarettes and me rectified. Who knows....</strong><hr></blockquote>
yea its funny how cigars smell so much better than cigarettes....even my brothers hand-made cigarettes smell horrible.
when I smell a cigar I usually think "thats a nice smell" and when I realize what it is I usually think "wow....cigars are wierd"
I had my first cig when I was 5 yrs old. My father smoked and being curious I lit one and choked my lungs out. I could not understand what the attraction to smoking was and therefore was my last cig ever...
I had a friend who smoked a pack a day and one day just stopped because the packs were getting too expensive.
As for the patches, my friends who used them to quit all experienced wild and manic dreams. They would tell me it was almost like hallucination (sp?).
One last thing...I just came acrossed Marlborough Country cig ad. I have not seen those ads for a while. What caught my eye was the S. General's warning in 18pt font size that just says "Smoking Kills." No BSing anymore!
Whitney's not a real big challenege. I've done it before as a side trip from my favourite route over Shepherd's Pass. Thought about doing it in a day from W. Portal, though since I moved out of Cali I haven't had the chance.
I'm curious as to why you didn't make it all the way up. Care to share the story?</strong><hr></blockquote>
our group wasn't very together....one guy was mister macho "I can do everything myself" not a team player type of guy. me and my two aforementioned friends were just backpacking...we weren't trying to be super backpackers, we weren't trying to be whiny...we just were. then there were a few who just consistantly bitched and moaned the whole way. It was a school trip(no not punishment)and our two trip leaders, though they were fit and able and experienced, were not doing a very good job. the trip was about 90 miles total I think....at about 11000 ft dropping to like 9800 or something like that at its lowest and just under 14000 at its highest.
it was designed to be such
2 days to get to the whitney base camp
1 day up and down whitney
2 days getting to the rendeavous with the rest of the school(everyone was on seperate trips around kings canyon area)
1 day at the all-school base camp(at like 5000 ft. or something thats actually not below freezing at night)
then going back to school.
we got misguided the second day and ended up having to reorganize and plot our course...this caused us to make a ghetto camp site with no bear boxes in the middle of no where about 8 miles either way from the nearest camp site. that set us back a day. taht when we got to the whitney base camp, we had not much choice but to not climb it. so we instead had a lay over day and then we hiked double the pre determined length the last day...but that wasn't so bad once we got over forrester pass(around 13800 ft.) cause then it was all downhill and lower elevations.
all in all thing just went bad...and one night we had this totally bunk pesto shite that was like 90% garlic and like 10% some other nausiateing material. that one of the trip leaders and I puked it all up.
Nicotine can be absorbed by any part of the skin (it is one of the few contact poisons) as well as mucous membranes. That's why chewing tobacco, cigars and cigarettes are pretty much equal in their addictive quality. And kudo's to all of you that tried it and didn't get hooked. I hope that you will keep it up, and continue to tell people that smoking/chewing (ew!) is lame. The only reason I started was that at 19 I looked about 13, and I thought that it made me look sophisticated.
And Torifile, once you have quit, (and I am sure you will stay quit), there will be tons of people who will denigrate your success by saying that since you only smoked half a pack a day or so that you were "not really a smoker". Remember, this is an accomplishment; pretty soon it will be as alien to you as eating slugs.
I understand the chemical, physical and psychological addictions to smoking once you've started. I even can understand people who started in high school or when smoking was socially acceptable. But what I totally don't understand is how anyone could even consider picking up a cigarette today if they've never done so before.
We all know how bad they are, how addictive they can be and how so many people die every day because they smoke. Yet someone in college can light up a smoke just to see what the fuss is about? That boggles my mind. You might as well jump out of a plane without a parachute to see what thats like too. <img src="confused.gif" border="0">
I'd rather eat a slug a day than smoke half a pack a day.
I've never understood exactly why people start smoking. I doubt I ever will. I mean, I've read this thread and heard many other people talk about it, but I just can't see someone enjoying their first few puffs that much. Of course, I was never really part of the "in" crowd...
Oh well, good luck with the quitting thing! I really do hope it works for you, at least for the sake of the people who have to breath around you.
torifile, we share a common path: I quit March 1 (after many false starts in the past year--and smoking for 14 years). I'm chewing nicorette (the ability to do something when the urge occurs works for me).
Relax, drink lots of water, exercise everyday, and relax (again): the world won't end if we don't smoke (at least I hope not).
At least we're not addicted to alcohol, cocaine, or heroin.
Day 3... It's getting a little harder now because I've got some time to either kill or do work. Usually I kill time by smoking and I'll be damned if I'm going to have to start working more just because I'm quitting So far, so good.
Again, thanks for all the support. I'm quite sure that I can do it this time because I've decided that I'm not going to be a slave to the Man anymore. I'm tired of wasting my money and having to freeze my a$$ off when I need a cigarette in the winter (I had always been a considerate smoker, never lighting up even in my own apartment). I'm tired of having to think about how much time I have before meeting a professor and wondering if I could get the smell off in time. I'm tired of feeling congested in the morning. It's over, folks. I know it now.
To all of you who haven't smoked DON'T START. You may think that you won't get addicted, but you will. Even me, smoking relatively little for a smoker of 7 years, got addicted and quitting is hard.
<strong>torifile, we share a common path: I quit March 1 (after many false starts in the past year--and smoking for 14 years). I'm chewing nicorette (the ability to do something when the urge occurs works for me).
Relax, drink lots of water, exercise everyday, and relax (again): the world won't end if we don't smoke (at least I hope not).
At least we're not addicted to alcohol, cocaine, or heroin.</strong><hr></blockquote>
I tried the gum and it didn't work for me. I could tell it helped the urges, but something about it didn't work. Maybe I was being cheap and not using it enough, thinking that each piece cost me x dollars. (I never thought that about cigarettes, strangely enough.) The patch is good because I don't need to think about the cravings all day and fighting them. But both have pretty good efficacy ratings. As for effectiveness, that's another story. Unfortunately, many quitters don't stay quit for too long. Something like 60% go back w/i a year. But the more attempts you make, the better your chances of quitting. Good luck to you.
I've never smoked, and I have no intention whatsoever to start. I work in a cancer registry, after all (although that doesn't stop several of the employees from smoking like stacks).
I still get exposed to smoke a lot, as a musician. My drums smell like cigarettes.
A lot of the young women here smoke because it's an appetite suppressant. If any of you happen to be geeky enough to be reading this, I'll take a few extra curves over smoker's breath any day of the week.
From what I have read, I can offer a couple of suggestions to those valiant souls trying to quit: First, change your habits. If you're used to taking breaks, bring a book to work, or post here. I've heard that plain old chewing gum works pretty well for the oral-fixation habit that cigarettes can engender. Also, one woman claimed to notice that her real craving for a cigarette lasted about three seconds, so she concentrated on breathing for that amount of time every time the craving appeared, and waited until it passed. Eventually, it became second nature to do so, and more eventually the craving itself diminished.
Both my parents quit cold turkey: My mother when she found out she was pregnant, and my father just ... did, after moving to California. He smoked pipes, not cigarettes, but he was worried about mouth and throat cancers and general health issues.
I know that people say you should change your habits. That's what all the books tell you and all the instructions to the patch and gum say. But the thing is that I don't want to. I don't want giving up cigarettes to mean making a complete lifestyle change. I happen to think that I lead a pretty healthy lifestyle with the exception of my (former) smoking habit. I get a cup of coffee at a coffeeshop to do work so that I can get out the psychology building everyday. Other grad students are stuck here all day and they hate it. I have an occasional night out with friends and I don't want to give that up. Nor do I think I could. Sure, I might be able to stop for a while, but once I go back, the associations are still the same: coffeeshop/cigarette, a drink/cigarette. It's a learning thing and the psychological addiction can't be broken without relearning those associations.
So, from a completely psychological standpoint it makes most sense to use a nicotine replacement treatment (the patch or gum) and continue your normal life, relearning your habits without that one (sometimes REALLY big) piece. It's harder to do and that's why people recommend changing your habits, but that's why so many people fail at quitting. (IMNHO, at least).
I'm dregging up this old thread because I'm trying to quit again. Using the patch again. It didn't work last time because I didn't let it. This time at day 16 and going strong.
The one thing that I've found that has helped me this time that I didn't have last time: Citrus Sour Altoids. I know it sounds weird, but I needed to have SOMETHING to divert my urges towards when I'm craving a cig. It's worked remarkably well. If I have a craving, I'll pop a citrus sour. And I'll only have them when I've got a craving. When I need a break from work and would normally stop for a cigarette, I'll go outside and have an Altoid. It has really helped.
From a psychological standpoint it makes sense. Behavior replacement is the way to go for changing functional but problematic behaviors. If you're going to try to quit, you need something to take the cigarette's psychological function.
Wish me luck in my continued attempts. I think I've got it nailed now, though.
Comments
Also, my morning breath hasn't been this normal in a long time. Some advantages already.
And the benefits are fantastic- I had no idea how much I was a slave to that habit, and how much it impacted my physical health. I now can run farther without getting winded, don't get sick as often, and don't stink of smoke (after a month of not smoking, you will really notice how foul it smells on other people's breath). Plus, I don't know how it is where you are, but cigarettes here have become really expensive.
Downside? For me, only two. I have no use fot the nice silver cig case and Dunhill lighter I had (got rid of them), and I can't takes as frequent breaks as I could. It seems that it is acceptable to tell your co-workers every hour that you have to have a cigarette. But when you quit, you can't just say "I have to have a break form your lameness" and get the time off
[ 03-05-2002: Message edited by: tmp ]</p>
<strong>I'm in the process of trying to quit for 1000th time in my life. I'm only 26. This time I'm trying the patch. I never really smoke all that much (at most 8-9 cigs/day), but it's getting to the point where I can't go out to a bar without coming home feeling really crappy from smoking too much. I can't play basketball without getting winded way too soon. I guess over the course of years of smoking, even 8-9 cigs can take their toll.
Has anyone here ever quit? It's gotta be the hardest thing I've ever had to do. One time I was able to stop for 3 weeks, while on vacation travelling down the west coast (in Cali I thought it was funny that I couldn't smoke cigarettes in the bar, but people were smoking pot all over
Anyway, anyone want to share their success (or failure) experiences? I guess this is my support group. I love AI
two of my friends who were pretty damn heavy smokers, went on a trip with me and a few others to climb MT whitney....although because of some setbacks we didn't get over whitney...the trip still lasted a week and since it was with our school, of course there was no smoking. so we hiked maybe 10-20 miles a day and on the 2nd last day my friend looks over to my other friend and says "hey....wanna quit smoking?"(they are both really winded from having just gone over a really high pass) the response "sure buddy"
neither of them have smoked a cigarette since...that was like 5 months ago.
perhaps a similar thing could work for you....since being out in nature at high altitudes hiking daily got rid of all the phsyical addictions....so all they needed to do was tell themselves not to smoke and they could.
get a half a dozen or so of your friends together and go backpacking...bring NO cigarettes and see if you can do it.
I personally don't smoke...I think its vile. but thats just me.
<strong>I went through something similar to Eugene, actually, just last week. Having smoked occasionally (puff. not inhale) while drunk or partying or whatnot, I went out and bought a pack to see what the fuss was about. My roommate is a pack-every-2-day smoker. Bought some, tried, ended up smoking 4 and giving my roomie the pack. While i love the smell of cigar smoke, i just can't get cigarettes and me rectified. Who knows....</strong><hr></blockquote>
yea its funny how cigars smell so much better than cigarettes....even my brothers hand-made cigarettes smell horrible.
when I smell a cigar I usually think "thats a nice smell" and when I realize what it is I usually think "wow....cigars are wierd"
I had a friend who smoked a pack a day and one day just stopped because the packs were getting too expensive.
As for the patches, my friends who used them to quit all experienced wild and manic dreams. They would tell me it was almost like hallucination (sp?).
One last thing...I just came acrossed Marlborough Country cig ad. I have not seen those ads for a while. What caught my eye was the S. General's warning in 18pt font size that just says "Smoking Kills." No BSing anymore!
Good luck with mouth, tongue, nose, lung, throat cancer...
<strong>
Whitney's not a real big challenege. I've done it before as a side trip from my favourite route over Shepherd's Pass. Thought about doing it in a day from W. Portal, though since I moved out of Cali I haven't had the chance.
I'm curious as to why you didn't make it all the way up. Care to share the story?</strong><hr></blockquote>
our group wasn't very together....one guy was mister macho "I can do everything myself" not a team player type of guy. me and my two aforementioned friends were just backpacking...we weren't trying to be super backpackers, we weren't trying to be whiny...we just were. then there were a few who just consistantly bitched and moaned the whole way. It was a school trip(no not punishment)and our two trip leaders, though they were fit and able and experienced, were not doing a very good job. the trip was about 90 miles total I think....at about 11000 ft dropping to like 9800 or something like that at its lowest and just under 14000 at its highest.
it was designed to be such
2 days to get to the whitney base camp
1 day up and down whitney
2 days getting to the rendeavous with the rest of the school(everyone was on seperate trips around kings canyon area)
1 day at the all-school base camp(at like 5000 ft. or something thats actually not below freezing at night)
then going back to school.
we got misguided the second day and ended up having to reorganize and plot our course...this caused us to make a ghetto camp site with no bear boxes in the middle of no where about 8 miles either way from the nearest camp site. that set us back a day. taht when we got to the whitney base camp, we had not much choice but to not climb it. so we instead had a lay over day and then we hiked double the pre determined length the last day...but that wasn't so bad once we got over forrester pass(around 13800 ft.) cause then it was all downhill and lower elevations.
all in all thing just went bad...and one night we had this totally bunk pesto shite that was like 90% garlic and like 10% some other nausiateing material. that one of the trip leaders and I puked it all up.
****ing sick....bleck.
A week after I had one I wanted another quite bad!! No wonder you see Fidel always chomping on one.
And Torifile, once you have quit, (and I am sure you will stay quit), there will be tons of people who will denigrate your success by saying that since you only smoked half a pack a day or so that you were "not really a smoker". Remember, this is an accomplishment; pretty soon it will be as alien to you as eating slugs.
[ 03-05-2002: Message edited by: tmp ]</p>
We all know how bad they are, how addictive they can be and how so many people die every day because they smoke. Yet someone in college can light up a smoke just to see what the fuss is about? That boggles my mind. You might as well jump out of a plane without a parachute to see what thats like too. <img src="confused.gif" border="0">
I've never understood exactly why people start smoking. I doubt I ever will. I mean, I've read this thread and heard many other people talk about it, but I just can't see someone enjoying their first few puffs that much. Of course, I was never really part of the "in" crowd...
Oh well, good luck with the quitting thing! I really do hope it works for you, at least for the sake of the people who have to breath around you.
Relax, drink lots of water, exercise everyday, and relax (again): the world won't end if we don't smoke (at least I hope not).
At least we're not addicted to alcohol, cocaine, or heroin.
Again, thanks for all the support. I'm quite sure that I can do it this time because I've decided that I'm not going to be a slave to the Man anymore. I'm tired of wasting my money and having to freeze my a$$ off when I need a cigarette in the winter (I had always been a considerate smoker, never lighting up even in my own apartment). I'm tired of having to think about how much time I have before meeting a professor and wondering if I could get the smell off in time. I'm tired of feeling congested in the morning. It's over, folks. I know it now.
To all of you who haven't smoked DON'T START. You may think that you won't get addicted, but you will. Even me, smoking relatively little for a smoker of 7 years, got addicted and quitting is hard.
I need some gum now...
<strong>torifile, we share a common path: I quit March 1 (after many false starts in the past year--and smoking for 14 years). I'm chewing nicorette (the ability to do something when the urge occurs works for me).
Relax, drink lots of water, exercise everyday, and relax (again): the world won't end if we don't smoke (at least I hope not).
At least we're not addicted to alcohol, cocaine, or heroin.</strong><hr></blockquote>
I tried the gum and it didn't work for me. I could tell it helped the urges, but something about it didn't work. Maybe I was being cheap and not using it enough, thinking that each piece cost me x dollars. (I never thought that about cigarettes, strangely enough.) The patch is good because I don't need to think about the cravings all day and fighting them. But both have pretty good efficacy ratings. As for effectiveness, that's another story. Unfortunately, many quitters don't stay quit for too long. Something like 60% go back w/i a year. But the more attempts you make, the better your chances of quitting. Good luck to you.
I still get exposed to smoke a lot, as a musician. My drums smell like cigarettes.
A lot of the young women here smoke because it's an appetite suppressant.
From what I have read, I can offer a couple of suggestions to those valiant souls trying to quit: First, change your habits. If you're used to taking breaks, bring a book to work, or post here.
Both my parents quit cold turkey: My mother when she found out she was pregnant, and my father just ... did, after moving to California. He smoked pipes, not cigarettes, but he was worried about mouth and throat cancers and general health issues.
[ 03-05-2002: Message edited by: Amorph ]
[ 03-05-2002: Message edited by: Amorph ]</p>
So, from a completely psychological standpoint it makes most sense to use a nicotine replacement treatment (the patch or gum) and continue your normal life, relearning your habits without that one (sometimes REALLY big) piece. It's harder to do and that's why people recommend changing your habits, but that's why so many people fail at quitting. (IMNHO, at least).
The one thing that I've found that has helped me this time that I didn't have last time: Citrus Sour Altoids. I know it sounds weird, but I needed to have SOMETHING to divert my urges towards when I'm craving a cig. It's worked remarkably well. If I have a craving, I'll pop a citrus sour. And I'll only have them when I've got a craving. When I need a break from work and would normally stop for a cigarette, I'll go outside and have an Altoid. It has really helped.
From a psychological standpoint it makes sense. Behavior replacement is the way to go for changing functional but problematic behaviors. If you're going to try to quit, you need something to take the cigarette's psychological function.
Wish me luck in my continued attempts. I think I've got it nailed now, though.
Originally posted by Matsu
I don't understand addiction.