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Czech Republic18921 Posts
This is going to be an extremely boring blog with very little updates. I'm pretty much just writing it for myself as a reminder and so that I have something to look back to. I'm not even going to put that much effort into it, so don't really bother reading it.
Introduction
I'm a smoker. Right now, I smoke more or less one pack ever 2 days of additive free heavy Lucky Strikes, so I'm not the heaviest smoker, but still nothing to be proud about. During a more shit time of my life one year ago I used to smoke a little over one pack a day. On top of that I smoke around a half to a whole pack when I'm out drinking somewhere. And I love smoking. I can't really explain why but I really enjoy it. I like the slight high the nicotine gives me, the ritual of lighting the cigarate, the smoke itself and everything.
Why I am quitting
I hate myself for everything in the previous column. I hate the fact that I'm ruining my health with cigarettes, I hate how much money I'm spending on them. It annoys my family and my friends. As much as I enjoy smoking, the negatives outweigh the positives, that much is super clear.
Previous attempt at quitting
I tried quitting this Christmas. We spend Christmas as a family at a cottage in the middle of nowhere, and we usually stay there for around 2 weeks. So I didn't bring any cigarettes with me and I thought this was going to be a perfect way of quitting it. Turns out it wasn't, I lasted 5 days until it seriously started getting on my nerves. I could feel I wasn't as calm as I usually am (relatively speaking, I'm never really calm), I got into arguments over stupid shit with my family, which I would be able to stomach pretty easily had I been smoking. So I just had to drive to the the nearest town and buy 3 packs there....
The system
So this time, I'm not going to try and quit instantly. What I'm going to do is have 2 packs of cigarettes. I'm going to leave one in my room and carry the other one around with a given amount of cigarettes I allow myself for he day. I'm going to start with 8 cigarettes a day, which is already a slight reduction of what I normally smoke, and cut down one cigarette every week. I'm also going to add half a day worth of cigarettes when I go out to drink in the evening. I came up with this system, because I figured I'm going to want to stick to my own plan rather than someone else's, even if the other one would be likely better. I'm also telling my irl friends and family about this, so that I have a bigger motivation to actually quit.
So yeah, this is it. I'm probably going to update each week, or whenever I feel like it.
 
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Lorning
Belgica34432 Posts
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Best of luck, as a fellow smoker I can sympathize.
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United Kingdom36160 Posts
Have you considered e-cigarettes? Like you, for me a lot of it was about the ritual, so actually physically 'smoking' something is really helpful. Worked for me anyways.
gl regardless
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I went cold turkey after my birthday a couple years ago. Well, i guess not really. I started cutting down from 20 a day, 10 the week after, 5, 3, 1 had a huge blowout on my birthday and stopped the day after.
One thing that holds true with all the bullshit people say: You have to want to quit for yourself and not because people are telling you to.
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Good luck! Keep in mind that reducing the amount of cigarettes you smoke a day is always a good improvement for your health and your wallet. For some people cold turkey works better than reducing gradually and for some people it's the opposite, so see what works best for you!
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good luck! It will be well worth it when you do quit!
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You and I can quit together. Go team!
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Yeah, have you considered eCigs? Using a Vapor Zeus and a couple mods myself and nothing will help you quit faster ^^.
Alternatively you can get a cheap eGo battery tank, but shelling a bit more money to get a stronger battery and atomizer works wonders.
From what I'm reading if you do decide to try eCigs, go with a 24mg mix and work downward to 0. And please, for the love of god, do not try those shitty eCigs they sell in gas stations - at least in the States (Blu, I'm looking at you). And if you do try a disposable (ahem) go with the strongest strength they have (24 usually) for max throat-hit, or else you likely won't get any satisfaction from it.
eCigs might seem like a fad (for some reason a lot of my smoker buddies seem to think that until I let them have a drag on 36mg Zeus) but they remove a lot of the "sin" from smoking while allowing you to retain a satisfaction.
There are probably a lot of international distributors that you can purchase from online; or at least those that will ship internationally. It's picking up and I'm glad for that - eCigs are the best thing that's ever happened for smokers/smoking IMO. Within a month my cravings all but went away. Now I vape for pleasure rather than an addictive need.
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I tried the slowing down approach several times and it has always backfired on me. The same is true for everyone I know that tried it. Now this doesn't mean it can't work, I've heard about people succeeding this way, but the success stories, for me, are far outweighed by the failures.
Slightly less than three years ago I went cold turkey and it worked just like that. For me, the key was that I picked a period in which I was extremely busy. I'm not sure I would have succeeded without a whole lot of things taking my mind off of withdrawal.
I would guess this is why you failed in that cottage. Generally such events are awesome at not distracting you.
Of course, I do hope it works out for you. Good luck!
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If you seriously want to quit smoking, why don't you just choose not to smoke? I mean nothing's forcing it into your mouth and lighting it. You can always make the right choice. Even if you feel compelled to smoke and you don't think you can stand it anymore, just remember that you still have the power to do the right thing. Next time you feel like giving up and buying more cigarettes just remember that.
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Props to choosing to quit, but bad method to quit smoking imo.
I've been smoke free for 4 months now, after being a light smoker. I smoked for a year and a half... I probably averaged 4-6 cigarettes a day, so it is quite few to most. It's not THAT much less than 12.
I really really recommend just stopping. You really need to convince yourself that it's bad, convincing yourself that the positives don't outweigh the negatives is a recipe to fail. There is no benefit smoking, none. I smoked, people try to come up with bullshit. Have a reason to go out with people for a smoke when at a bar to be social, ritual, the taste, etc... It's all bullshit, that's what being addicted is... Trying to justify it for yourself; don't.
If it's something you want to do, simply stop. First day wont be too bad, 2nd-5th day will be hard. 6-7th day is when you've handled the tough part, and it only gets easier from there. You'll be in a shitty mood here and there in the first week, but just fight through it. Go to work, relax on the computer, just take it easy. I didn't need e-cigarettes, but maybe some alternatives to alleviate the stress will help.
Anyway, cutting back smoking in a 8 week period is wasting your time. It may sound mean, but the words don't be a bitch are the best. If you can't just stop right now, it's very unlikely you will be able to stop smoking by cutting back for 8 weeks. And keep off of it.
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Everybody is different, and I'm sure there are people out there who can quit using the method you described, but based on your Christmas story (no offense) I don't think you're one of them.
I've only been able to quit long term once, and the only reason I was able to was using lozenges. Cutting down on the amount of cigarettes, e-cigs, gum, patch... nothing else has worked. If you're serious about quitting I would definitely recommend giving them a try.
Coincidentally, today is the first day of my latest attempt to quit smoking (this time my father and brother have already quit so I have real incentive). I haven't smoked a cigarette in 24 hours, and I don't really feel any cravings. But if I wake up tomorrow morning with cravings I am 100% going to my local pharmacy and buying lozenges.
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oh man i just remembered something. I was flipping channels when I stopped on this 'murican show called The Doctors. One of the episodes (like with most talk shows) was about weight loss. This lady dropped a lot of fat man and she shared this trick. The trick was that she told herself that she would eat junk food later when ever she had the cravings, but then she ended up forgetting about it. So in a sense, procrastinate on smoking :D idk if it works, i think its an interesting idea though, actually im gonna try to see if I can apply to anything.
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Czech Republic18921 Posts
Thanks for the replies guys.  Day one done. I didn't even end up smoking all 8 cigs yesterday. I'm sure that's just the honeymooon period of quiting so I try not to read to much into that, but I'm still fairly happy about it. What I think is helping me is that I now know exactly how much I smoke. I never really put an effort into counting how many cigarettes I smoke a day, so I didn't feel that guilty about it. I smoked, when I was out of a pack, I just bought another one. Now I have exactly 8 cigarettes in the pack, I can see how many I've smoke and it makes more conscious about the whole deal.
@ e-cigs. I thought about it. I was either going to go for the e-cigs or this. I chose just quitting for no particular reason, really. I would say "if this fails, I'm going to do e-cigs", but that's loser talk and this is not going to fail. So no cigs, no e-cigs, fuck all of that. :D
Another thing is trying to quit when I'm really busy. I'm not sure about that one. I find that when I'm busy, I get stressed, so I smoke more. When I smoked the most last year, I was super busy at that time. (I'll probably talk about that time next week) On the other hand, when I'm not doing anything during some weekends I also tend to smoke a lot out of boredom, so it probably goes both ways.
At people saying that I should just quit right away instead of cutting down gradually. I appreciate your input, but this is what I've decided to do and I'm sticking to it. The cigarettes I smoke are pretty strong and half a pack a day is quite a lot of daily nicotine, so I don't know if just quitting right away is my best way to go. I think if I quit right away, I'm likely to just say "fuck it" and buy a pack when I have a shit day, which would make all the effort useless, because I would go straight to smoking. With the current system, I think it will be easier to stick to the plan and work my way down.
Thanks again for your replies and encouragement, I'll probably update next monday or something.
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On March 18 2014 18:19 cecek wrote:
Another thing is trying to quit when I'm really busy. I'm not sure about that one. I find that when I'm busy, I get stressed, so I smoke more. When I smoked the most last year, I was super busy at that time. (I'll probably talk about that time next week) On the other hand, when I'm not doing anything during some weekends I also tend to smoke a lot out of boredom, so it probably goes both ways.
At people saying that I should just quit right away instead of cutting down gradually. I appreciate your input, but this is what I've decided to do and I'm sticking to it. The cigarettes I smoke are pretty strong and half a pack a day is quite a lot of daily nicotine, so I don't know if just quitting right away is my best way to go. I think if I quit right away, I'm likely to just say "fuck it" and buy a pack when I have a shit day, which would make all the effort useless, because I would go straight to smoking. With the current system, I think it will be easier to stick to the plan and work my way down.
Emphasis mine.
Being stressed and being busy aren't quite the same. When you're stressed then it might not be the right time to quit. However, as you already pointed out, it works both ways. Stressful situations make you want to smoke (partially because of that N-minute break -- I still miss that after three years!) while boredom causes you to smoke because it gives you something to do.
My main concern with gradually smoking less is mostly related to your second paragraph. You're going to have a shit day. Period. And you'll want to smoke (a lot) the first time that happens. Now, inherent to gradually smoking less is the fact that you have cigarettes. Which makes it a lot easier to go "fuck it". If you quit outright, then you won't have any cigarettes which, hopefully, raises the barrier. Of course, you'd have to tell your friends to never, ever give you a smoke ever again when you ask.
However, when you quit gradually you'll always have a pack, and even though it's not on you, you will usually be home for quite a large portion of the day. Which means you'll have to fight giving into smoking all the time.
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OP, I'm going to reiterate what I said in my previous post... cutting back on smoking isn't going to solve anything. I've never known anyone who quit by cutting back, all the way down to 0 cigarettes a day.
If you can't quit cold turkey (that's probably just an American expression, but what I mean is just throw your cigarettes and lighters away and never touch them again without using any nicotine replacement products), which isn't anything to be ashamed of -- I can count on one hand the number of people I have met who have been able to -- I would highly recommend quitting altogether and using nicotine lozenges, gum, or patches. Lozenges are the only thing that has worked for me. E-cigs are not a good way to quit in my opinion, because once you run out of juice or battery the craving is still there and you will end up buying a new pack.
I'm not telling you how to live your life, but I am trying to give you my opinion based on my personal experience. Maybe you are a much stronger person than me, but I could never quit by cutting back on the amount of cigarettes I consume per day. The temptation was always too great.
Good luck to you OP, if your method doesn't work keep at it and try some of the other methods mentioned in this thread.
PS - I bought lozenges today, and I only smoked one cigarette. This is a big win for me, and because of additional motivation in the form of both my brother and father quitting recently I think this attempt will be for the long haul.
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EPT
