So I have been smoking for 5 years and now I think is the time to stop. Or try to. Its already been my 3rd day but I still get craving after eating or when drinking my morning coffee. But the worst of the craving is when I lose a close game of starcraft. You see, when I was a smoker I used to smoke a lot when playing starcraft. After a humilliating loss I'd smoke. After a crushing victory I'd smoke. Now, I cant bring myself to play because after the games I get this massive craving. Im also a huge rager wich doesnt help. I have punched a hole in my wall once. Anyway, I guess I should work on my state of mind when playing starcraft cause this I think is my greatest weakness. I am to emotionally involved with the game.And that brings out craving for me. I have tried to stop smoking before, I have made it a week. But after playing starcraft is when I relapsed last time. Sometime im so raged that I gotta go for a run outside. That didnt happen when I smoked. I just find it hard to quit smoking if you are a competitive starcraft player.
Anyone else had simillar experience ? What did you do to get through this situation ?
If you could get a chance to ask ret I think you might gain some insight. I know that he smoked and played starcraft and managed to quit smoking without quitting starcraft.
Only way to quit things like this is to really want it and decide you'll never smoke again. Lots of people quit for a few days thinking 'I really should quit, but I like smoking...' or 'I know it's bad for me.' That ends in failure. It has to be you not wanting to smoke anymore, not trying to do what you should do.
So after a hard day at work, or after a crappy game of StarCraft 2, that's when "I want to quit" is necessary, because "I really should quit" won't cut it in those situations
gl gl. Stop punching holes in your wall too, that's dumb.
Experiences... keep yourself busy, for example eat a carrot instead of smoking a cig. Other than that I can only say that the habitual part is at least as strong as the actual physiological addiction.
This guy just quit smoking a few days ago and made some videos along the way. Might help you through.
I actually used starcraft to help me quit smoking. I used to smoke after every big loss too, although I usually kept playing after major victories. What I did was, every time I had a craving after losing I just went to a replay and tried to note all of the things I did right and how I could improve. You know that craving and non-stop obsession about having a cigarette, you just need to try to distract yourself, like enzym said. I personally don't like carrots, but watching replays was my distraction. It was harder to quit during social situations but once you start distracting yourself and not indulging in your addiction, those skills could help you in later situations.
Try hard, bro! I wish you luck in getting healthier!
3 days is very good, try something like drinking 1 full glass of water everytime you get in ragemode, thats decent because it s healthy and will disturb you because of the toiletrunning ^^, and start eating bubblegum or apples, after some days cigarettes dont taste good anymore and then its easier
oh and forget this youtube-video lol, smoking has no pros =) you cant concentrate better after smoking, the point is that this is only the case if you re used to consume nicotine alot, i felt so much better after 9 years of smoking, in all ways, take the stress your body has while waiting for nicotine, if you are in a situation where you cant smoke for example, without this you re much more relaxed in all situations, and your body becomes more dioxgen
i found gaming helped me quit smoking. my hands are just too occupied with the mouse and keyboard to be able to smoke at the same time. just try to limit breaks and focus on it, it gets easy after a month or so when the nicotine gets out of your system.
8 year heavy smoker here. Have been quit 9 months. Try Chantix, works really well. It gets a lot easier after 2 months. Just gotta hang tight, its really worth it.
Just take a break from Starcraft. I think personally that your life is more important than Starcraft however addicting the game is. After you finally quit, then try up Starcraft again. If you get that craving sensation again, I think that it's either best to put Starcraft away, or keep trying to get that out of your mind.
I hope you the best of luck in the future with your smoking and Starcraft. GL HF GG.
One ex-smoker I knew said that his secret was to eat a lot of bananas. Every time he wanted to smoke, he ate a banana. He said it still sucked and his wife left him because he was "the grouchiest sunuvabitch in town" for about 6 months. But the bananas helped.
As others have said, often replacing habits with other, healthier habits is an idea that has worked for many. I suppose you can try drinking tea in it's stead - tea is a pretty good way to give a little boost while calming your senses at the same time (at least for me), which might help a little.
i agree with the op that playing sc and trying to quit is a recipe for disaster for the very reasons he's already stated.
however ... you have to consider the fact that you HAVE the smokes in the first place. your first goal should be first and foremost to stop buying the packs. so when you lose a game, you dont have any smokes to run to.
Holy shit it feels like I could've written your post. I could take a picture of my wall to prove it.
I've forced myself to not smoke if my last smoke was less than an hour ago. I would literally smoke after almost every game and in SC2 that is basically every 10 minutes. Your true test will probably be when you can lose a game of SC and not have the craving for a smoke.
If you are serious about it I would also consider using either patches or that chewing gum that helps you stop smoking. Good lucky anyway.
On January 10 2011 04:27 b0oyah wrote: So I have been smoking for 5 years and now I think is the time to stop. Or try to. Its already been my 3rd day but I still get craving after eating or when drinking my morning coffee. But the worst of the craving is when I lose a close game of starcraft. You see, when I was a smoker I used to smoke a lot when playing starcraft. After a humilliating loss I'd smoke. After a crushing victory I'd smoke. Now, I cant bring myself to play because after the games I get this massive craving. Im also a huge rager wich doesnt help. I have punched a hole in my wall once. Anyway, I guess I should work on my state of mind when playing starcraft cause this I think is my greatest weakness. I am to emotionally involved with the game.And that brings out craving for me. I have tried to stop smoking before, I have made it a week. But after playing starcraft is when I relapsed last time. Sometime im so raged that I gotta go for a run outside. That didnt happen when I smoked. I just find it hard to quit smoking if you are a competitive starcraft player.
Anyone else had simillar experience ? What did you do to get through this situation ?
same here, dont smoke though but for me its caffeine, whenever im doing something with my friends or working i can do without it. But when i play StarCraft, god i really need my caffeine or i get withdrawal symptoms (pounding headaches, jointpain and fatigue)
I'm currently doing something similar, though I'm in general less of a rager. Instead of smoking cigs all day (was smoking a pack/day for the last 4 months), I end the day with a shisha bowl. Sure, it's not technically "quitting" tobacco, but it's less bad than cigarettes, and IMO a good halfway step to finally be done with the addiction. Less expensive too
Dude, I've been doing this for so long, and wondering if anyone else has the same issue, I am not really smoking cig's though i'm smoking weed before and after each game ( if i have it ) , and then whenever I don't have it, I find it really hard to get myself to be motivated to play.
I've been feeling like I need to quit smoking weed for awhile now but it's very sad because I feel almost all the time that without the weed, I won't have motivation to play.
well I don't have any motivation to play right now so I don't... Not a big deal?
I quit smoking after 5 years actually ._.
I just asked myself if I am a guy that can make up my mind or not and I told myself that I fucking can. So I said this is it to myself and threw my cigs in the trash and never looked back.
Another reason it's difficult to quit for some people, I don't know if you'd fall into this category or not is ADD/ADHD. They've been finding recently that people with ADD/ADHD tend to self medicate with nicotine. If you do happen to fall into this category like I do, the tea helps, lots and lots and lots of green/white tea. That's two-fold, they've also found that there's an enzyme in green tea that can assist in repairing the lungs after quitting smoking, so it helps get rid of that hacking fit for the first couple weeks/month while your lungs re-adjust to having to stimulate themselves rather than having the external stimulus. I can't find the source articles at the moment, but I picked up the self medication bit from one of my audiologists that I work with, her kids psychologist recommended nicotine patches for the 8 year old to help calm his ADHD.
GGzerG, I do the exact same thing less because of a lack of motivation and more just to maintain a calm state of mind for the game. The motivation for me is always there because I want to constantly improve but my overwhelming fear of losing ladder games is what causes me to smoke before/after each game and that makes me feel like I do need to smoke to play ladder or even practice for ladder. I feel the loss of motivation to play other games that don't matter when I have nothing to smoke but getting better at sc2 always drives me to at least want to play more. Maybe you should enter some open tournaments or set a goal for yourself on ladder, I dunno something to get that spark going again (if you ever had it). Just a suggestion. Good luck to the OP on quitting
Destroy all your cigarettes and make sure the only way you can get access to them is if you go to the store and buy new ones. Then play starcraft and when you lose and want a cigar, you don't have one. This way, it'll be easier for you to quit
Just stop buying cigarettes. When there is nothing to smoke, you can't smoke. And fuck the excuses.
As for Starcraft, it's just a game, try to remember that. Remain calm through the entire game, when you lose review the replay for mistakes instead of raging. No need to get upset about a loss, it doesn't worth it.
doing pushups or going out for a run, like you mentioned, sounds like a good idea. also maybe try to actively change your attitude toward the game. try to take a calm/analytic approach.
I smoked for 6 years now and also recently tried to stop, but I failed
I found that the main reason keeping me from quitting is the fear of pleasant experiences in my life not being as pleasant in the future. This may sound ridiculous to non-smokers, but its the same with drug users as they dont know what to do with their everyday life because they dont get those kicks anymore.
Often times it relates to the combination of doing something you like while smoking and it becomes a habit. I always smoked while driving and after I ate anything, so at those times i craved the most for another cigarette.
Its important to know that and break those habits, making clear to yourself thats its not a real pleasure but rather an addiction causing this need of yours.
Do you want to be addicted to something that costs a lot, does nothing good for you but systematically destroys not only your body but also reigns over your everyday life?
In the end tts all about a strong will to quit smoking. Bubblegum, apples and this little helpers all are useless if you dont really want to stop this.
At first, look into effects smoking produces with you and people around you, if you know alot about it, it comes to willstrength. GL
i quit smoking abruptly 6 days ago. it almost killed me. i went completely delirious, with terrible fever, feeling horribly ill, and a headache so bad i couldnt move. it was like having the flu, except i still went to work.
when i wake up in the morning now i have to take several neurofen+ (codeine/ibuprofen) to become functional. i have become very depressed and need to get antidepressants.
honestly ive barely thought about smoking at all because i've felt so fucking bad.
i have no rationalisation for quitting. i figure that if i rely on rationalisation then i can rationalise smoking as easily as i can rationalise not smoking.
instead i took mightyatom's and dd's advice: "just man up and fucking do it. dont think about it, just do it".
so my tips for someone quitting would be...
1. ease yourself slowly otherwise the shock of it will kill you 2. make sure you have at least 6 days off work 3. get a shitload of codeine
On January 11 2011 04:30 luckyseven wrote: so my tips for someone quitting would be...
1. ease yourself slowly otherwise the shock of it will kill you 2. make sure you have at least 6 days off work 3. get a shitload of codeine
Lol that scares the shit out of anybody who would try to quit.
Reminds me of Trainspotting:
Mark "Rent-boy" Renton: "Relinquishing junk. Stage one, preparation. For this you will need one room which you will not leave. Soothing music. Tomato soup, ten tins of. Mushroom soup, eight tins of, for consumption cold. Ice cream, vanilla, one large tub of. Magnesia, milk of, one bottle. Paracetamol, mouthwash, vitamins. Mineral water, Lucozade, pornography. One mattress. One bucket for urine, one for feces and one for vomitus. One television and one bottle of Valium, which I've already procured from my mother, who is, in her own domestic and socially acceptable way also a drug addict. And now I'm ready. All I need is one final hit to soothe the pain while the Valium takes effect."
EPT
