Quitting Smoking - Page 2
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HackBenjamin
Canada1094 Posts
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WombaT
Northern Ireland23115 Posts
Best of luck to you man, one benefit you may have is that 6 months of ingrained routine is less difficult to break than 10+ years. I've failed miserably in my attempts to quit, however in that period I have become something of an expert on failed attempts, the one thing I really notice is that it's the ingrained routines and conditioning that is toughest to break. Things like (in my case), 'Oh that was an intense ladder game, going to have a smoke' morph into 'oh finished a ladder game, going to have a smoke as I always do'. Even if you fail in this attempt, if you can remove the association of smoking to various activities it will serve to aid you in future efforts. Good hunting! | ||
ClanRH.TV
United States462 Posts
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chalice
United States1945 Posts
i think e-cigs are definitely the way to go to aid in an attempt to quit if you don't have a heavy nicotine addiction and have tried to quit cold turkey but ended up succumbing to cravings. they give you a direct alternative to buying a pack when you get to the point that your body really, really wants a cigarette, but aren't nearly as satisfying as the real thing so you aren't enforcing the habit as much. one thing i did that i think helped was smoking a real cigarette after getting more than my fill of nicotine from an e-cig and not enjoying it at all. i felt like it helped my mind/body really learn that vaporizing was a legit alternative to smoking, because the two experiences are different enough that the association between them wasn't naturally created on its own. | ||
LOcDowN
United States1014 Posts
On August 02 2014 04:05 Shenghi wrote: I said this in another blog about quitting smoking, and I'll say it here. Everyone I know, including myself, that tried to quit by any other method than going cold turkey, has failed. Addiction to smoking is twofold. One part is the obvious addiction to nicotine. The other part is the habits you develop: the cigarette when you have your morning coffee, the one after lunch, or dinner, etc. When you try to quit gradually the problem is that you will generally have access to cigarettes. Since you are still a smoker, you'll likely have them on you, or near, or friends or coworkers will not be unwilling to give you one. That makes it that much harder to give into temptation. If you want to quit, quit. That starts with actually wanting to quit. You say you want to quit for your health. Health sounds like a pretty damn good reason and motivator to quit, to me. If you really want to quit, toss everything out. Tell your friends, family, coworkers and loved ones that they should never, ever give you a cigarette. Not even if you offered $100 for just one. When things get tough — which they will — remind yourself why you wanted to quit in the first place. When it's hard to drop the habit, break out of it by adopting new habits. It helps if you happen to be quite busy during the first two to three weeks. Those are the hardest. Note that being busy is not quite the same as being stressed. Being busy helps you keep your mind off the craving. Being stressed fuels the craving. So be busy, but not pressured or stressed. Whatever you choose to do, good luck! Disclosure Three and a half years ago I quit by going cold turkey, after having been quite a heavy smoker for about 11 years. My motivation was health. More specifically, I've spent many years in my youth watching my mother coughing herself a little bit closer to death for about an hour non-stop every morning. (Thankfully she's still alive.) Whenever I visit for the weekend, I quickly find out that that has not changed. One day I woke up and realized that I was doing that exact same thing. And I thought to myself that I'll be damned if I spend the next 40+ years of my life coughing myself a little closer to death every day. So I quit, right there and then. Old habits die hard, and even though I quit almost three and a half years ago, I still need something in my hands or between my lips at certain times of the day or when I'm stressed. Plain old chewing gum, stress balls, a Rubik's cube or even tooth picks are a big help at those times. But whenever things get rough, all I need is to remember why I quit. Fighting addiction is though, but it still beats the hell out of the alternative. Very good advice. | ||
ZERG_RUSSIAN
10417 Posts
Don't get me wrong, it might have been just a reaction specific to me, but I don't necessarily buy the idea that e-cigs are safer for you quite yet. They probably cause less cancer, but if you have a pre-existing lung condition you absolutely should not be messing with new devices that we have no longitudinal data on. | ||
theMagus
578 Posts
i would offer instead some encouragement. like many smokers, i feared quitting. the thought that a stick will be the last one you'll ever smoke in your life was frightening. but i was determined to kick the addiction so i stuck with it. while it was hard for several weeks, it wasn't nearly as bad as i thought it would be when i was just thinking of quitting. there would be days after a month or so where i didn't even think about having a cigarette. the thing is, a smoker has associated smoking with a lot of events in his/her daily life, and once these triggers have been eliminated, you won't even think about smoking. it's hard at first but it becomes much easier the longer you go on. just be sure that you are very consistent once you decide to let go, not even a single time giving in to a craving, and definitely no rewarding yourself with a smoke for a job well done. quitting is a piece of cake! btw, i've also tried the e-cig route before. in my opinion, it's much much better to just quit straight up, if you can pull it off. and i really believe anybody can. hope this helps | ||
HornyHerring
Papua New Guinea1054 Posts
On August 01 2014 12:13 MindBreaker wrote: So ive been smoking for about 6 months now. I started because of some stress at work home and with women(lol). But I have histoplasmosis and tumors near my lungs so i figure I should probably quit. So this is my quest to quit smoking. As of right now i smoke from 5-10 a day. Ill try to update this regularly. If anyone has any advice on quitting I would love to hear it! i just got up one day and said to myself "fuck smoking" never to smoke again there's no strategy, no special technique you just quit | ||
MindBreaker
United States574 Posts
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chalice
United States1945 Posts
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