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Well this won't be the first time I've quit smoking, but it certainly will be the last. This past Friday night I smoked my last bit of mj, as well as my last cigarette. The next day I threw it all away, my bongs, pipes, papers, vaporizer - anything and everything that would remind me of my old habits or make it easier for me to get back into them. I am done, it is all in the dumpster as of Saturday.
Somehow I have lost all desire to go back to that lifestyle, to getting high, and even to hang out with those friends again - most I never wish to speak to again, some might be worthwhile after several months of isolation if I feel there is still any value to the friendship, but even that is a big if. Over the past few weeks as I have been contemplating this, I have come to several uncomfortable realizations about my life. One of those realizations is that with all of my friends, we are unable to spend time together without the assistance of some drug, with those drugs out of my life there just will not be much left in terms of friendship.
I know that quitting is difficult for many people, and I know that drugs are harmful for many as well, but I still feel like I am something of a unique case. I will be turning 30 in a few months, and I feel like this is something similar to what they call a "mid life crisis", so perhaps this is an appropriate time for me to go through this - better late than never at least. I in the past, I have always been one of those gung-ho "getting high is awesome" people and while I was very quick to admit that cigarettes were very bad for me, I was just as quick to defend the merits of getting high - never mind that I was unable to enjoy one without the other. While I still agree with it's merits (it helped me get over Christianity, for one) whatever merits there were for me have been used and abused to the point that there is nothing good left for me personally.
The problem for me is basically two fold, on one hand I have been dealing with rheumatoid arthritis for the past 3 years, and smoking has been very detrimental towards that making it worse than it should have been and causing permanent damage to my body. On the other hand, I also use getting high as a way of avoiding problems, or in other words to feel happy about my life even though circumstances have not changed in a way that would make me happy. This dynamic has created a sort of perfect storm of destruction in my life where I smoke and cause my hands and joints to hurt and become more damaged, wake up from the foggy blur of several days of getting blasted only to become extremely depressed by the condition my body is in and then go smoke again to feel better. Perhaps if I had somehow never developed this health condition I would never have even considered quitting, but I have to deal with my life as it is.
As much as it hurts to realize I could have ended this years ago, and would have been much better off for it, there is no way in hell I will be thinking the same thing a year or five years from now - so I am done. I really expect this is going to be the beginning of many changes in my life, as constantly getting high has a way of making you content with things you wouldn't otherwise put up with. I am skeptical about if my girlfriend or my job will make it through this transition, as I am already sure my friends will not, but I will save that stuff for another blog.
As a way to both track my progress and hold myself accountable to the world, I want to blog about this once week. As confident as I am, I know without a doubt there will be moments of despair where it will be really, really difficult to maintain my resolve. I know there are others who struggle with this, and hopefully some here that have already been successful. Making to a mere blog #4 will mark the longest I have gone without smoking in the past 7 years. Words of encouragement, helpful hints, and the general listening ear are always nice to have. 
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Did the pot help with the arthritis?
I think it's great what your doing, just curious.
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Best of luck, but I don't think you need it. "Just quitting" is hard, but you have very good reasons to drop it thus increasing your resolve. Do you have support outside the internet? Resources like that would be great in a pinch!
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On June 14 2011 06:03 tw!tch wrote:
Did the pot help with the arthritis?
I think it's great what your doing, just curious.
It helps in the moment but long term it makes it worse, my hands are already feeling a little better after a couple days of not smoking. Part of the problem with smoking is also the diet that it brings, munchies - lots of sugar and greasy food is terrible for it. So part of quitting is also going to be a much better diet - a huge salad once a day with lots of vegetables, something I simply cannot force myself to eat consistently if I am also getting high consistently.
My hands actually feel noticeably better after the past couple days of not smoking and eating good, I'm looking forward to find out how I will feel in a few weeks.
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On June 14 2011 06:05 Servius_Fulvius wrote:
Best of luck, but I don't think you need it. "Just quitting" is hard, but you have very good reasons to drop it thus increasing your resolve. Do you have support outside the internet? Resources like that would be great in a pinch!
Not much, my g/f kind of drives me towards it so I'm not sure how that will work out. I do have my brother who's life is basically clean as a whistle, so I am planning on calling/spending time with him whenever I feel like I cannot resist and need a distraction.
Thank you everyone for all the positive comments.
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If you don't mind, keep us posted in this thread.
You can do it sir.
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Successful dude speaking. I wouldn't recommend throwing cigarettes and bud in the same bowl. The poison contained in cigarettes is highly addictive so just focus on staying away from that while loosening the attitude towards bud. I actually made a pretty long blog post about how to quit smoking 5 or 6 days ago and it was a masterpiece.. If you had read it it meant you'd never touch a cigarette again, that's how genius it was. Unfortunately just when I was about to double-check and ctrl-c everything, log in again because the session expires if you write long stuff, and ctrl-v and post it the motherfucking power went out. I tried to rewrite it but it wasn't the same. Anyway here's a little idea out of that long blog post which could have been very beneficial for the world.
When you see people smoking cigarettes try to imagine they are actually crying.
Because crying kind of has the same psychological allure to it as smoking a cigarette .. it relieves of stress. If crying was as imprinted in our minds as cigarettes, with the same dumb image of coolness .. we would all gather in bars and have a good group-cry. Or imagine a fat guy after his lunch-brake at some Fast Food joint; and that flow of tears after, washing away all feelings of guilt and shame about his lack of determination to stick with the diet plan. He can just get to work with a clear head. In fact crying is nature's remedy against stress and social discomfort and such. It definitely didn't intend for people to resort to inhaling some poison when needing a brake from tough situations. So after praising the act of crying so highly I urge you to remember this: Crying is for pussies, and so is smoking cigarettes.
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You can do it, I can hear the motivation in your words. Thanks for sharing this blog.
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Hey man, all the power to you. I hope you inspire some other people with this
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On June 14 2011 06:17 Treemonkeys wrote:Show nested quote +On June 14 2011 06:03 tw!tch wrote:
Did the pot help with the arthritis?
I think it's great what your doing, just curious. It helps in the moment but long term it makes it worse, my hands are already feeling a little better after a couple days of not smoking. Part of the problem with smoking is also the diet that it brings, munchies - lots of sugar and greasy food is terrible for it. So part of quitting is also going to be a much better diet - a huge salad once a day with lots of vegetables, something I simply cannot force myself to eat consistently if I am also getting high consistently. My hands actually feel noticeably better after the past couple days of not smoking and eating good, I'm looking forward to find out how I will feel in a few weeks.
Thats awesome, keep us posted. More power to you man.
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I wish you all the luck in the world!
I quit with snus (wich is tobacco that you put under your lip) 2 days ago. I started working out as well last week. It feels good and I'm exited where this lifestyle will take me
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On June 14 2011 07:07 FourFace wrote:
Successful dude speaking. I wouldn't recommend throwing cigarettes and bud in the same bowl. The poison contained in cigarettes is highly addictive so just focus on staying away from that while loosening the attitude towards bud. I actually made a pretty long blog post about how to quit smoking 5 or 6 days ago and it was a masterpiece.. If you had read it it meant you'd never touch a cigarette again, that's how genius it was. Unfortunately just when I was about to double-check and ctrl-c everything, log in again because the session expires if you write long stuff, and ctrl-v and post it the motherfucking power went out. I tried to rewrite it but it wasn't the same. Anyway here's a little idea out of that long blog post which could have been very beneficial for the world.
When you see people smoking cigarettes try to imagine they are actually crying.
Because crying kind of has the same psychological allure to it as smoking a cigarette .. it relieves of stress. If crying was as imprinted in our minds as cigarettes, with the same dumb image of coolness .. we would all gather in bars and have a good group-cry. Or imagine a fat guy after his lunch-brake at some Fast Food joint; and that flow of tears after, washing away all feelings of guilt and shame about his lack of determination to stick with the diet plan. He can just get to work with a clear head. In fact crying is nature's remedy against stress and social discomfort and such. It definitely didn't intend for people to resort to inhaling some poison when needing a brake from tough situations. So after praising the act of crying so highly I urge you to remember this: Crying is for pussies, and so is smoking cigarettes.
crying isn't for pussies. and who the fuck goes to bars to smoke in groups? and definently crying and smoking does not have the same effects. theres nothing "cool" about smoking, and just some kid might smoke becouse of that. People smoke becouse it's addictive and enjoyable. it actually releases dopamine in your brains. I can't see your "beneficial masterpiece" working at all.
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Sounds like you've made up your mind and made a stand! Good man. You can do it.
I also very recently quit smoking cigarettes after 12 years. Going strong.
I admire your courage in quitting both MJ and cigarettes at the same time. I would imagine one would be tough enough.
I have changed my entire lifestyle to accommodate not smoking. I replaced smoking with eating (not bad because I am quite thin) and if I get upset or frantic I have nicotine gum on hand.
I never did exercise before - My partner and I bought nice mountain bikes and we go out often to ride in beautiful places.
I eat more healthy food.
My partner and I quit smoking together. I am stubborn and proud, so yet another facet is that I will refuse to be the "weaker" one who cracks. Haha, silly, but it's an aspect. It also helps to have someone to support you and understand what you're going through.
The point of all this is, that I've associated all these things that make me feel good about myself (eating healthily, exercise, putting on weight, building muscle) with not smoking. It makes me feel positive about quitting and keeps my will strong.
I've quit before and I'll it was not the cravings that got me - it was the break down of will in the following weeks: "It's not even that bad for me" or "I don't even smoke that much anyway". This way I'll always have something to keep focused on what I want and why I want it.
Anyway - I hope that you can take something from my experience and thoughts and convert it into something positive in your life that helps you.
Good luck and stay strong.
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The moment when you realise a lot of your friends turn out to be pretty uninteresting to you once you're sober around them is a pretty painful one... I stopped drinking and smoking three years ago and I got a bit shocked at how boring most of them actually were.
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I used to smoke cigarettes and herb. Now I just toke herb but I have reduced the amount significantly due to work, stable serious relationship with a girl I love etc which cut back that amount of time I can dedicate to getting high.
I used to smoke a pack of marlboro reds a day for like 8 years. I used Chantix to quit since my school health insurance paid for it, it helps a lot. Also, everyday before you go to bed congratulate yourself and think about all the benefits of not smoking, think that if you smoke just one cig, you are back at square 1. Do that everyday and after 2 months it will become bearable. After 6 months you will be back in the saddle.
Avoid alcohol for 6 months as well. Best of luck.
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I'm in a similar situation to you when it comes to friends. Our common interests currently involve getting high and playing wii.
Some of these people view life so drastically different to me that I often wonder if I will even be able to respect them in the years to come.
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you can do it. everyone around you want's you to succeed, including all of us on TL. don't forget
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My tip to you is to become greedy about your cash and quit through starvation, your bank will love you.
It's been 9-10 weeks for me without bud and I have saved hundreds of dollars and lost weight. As well as gotten better labor work because I can finally piss clean for Uncle Sam.
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EPT
