OT: QUIT SMOKING!!!

[CanuckKid_15]

Finally managed to quit smoking! I'm so happy! Haven't had a cig in just over a month, and i feel great! But my got, it was hard! Mind you, I only smoked for 3 years, but still.. Very difficult.

 

But, now, as long as I don't blow ALL my money on ridiculous crap, I'll have a new Mesa Mark V just after christmas! That was my motivation. Save ~300 bones a month and be healthy.. God, makes you realize how stupid it is!!

 

Sorry for being way off topic, just thought I'd share, I just feel awesome!!

[nanobug]

I've been smoking since I was 11, pack a day since 13, I'm 28 now. I'll have to do my Tom Waits impression for you, best time is early in the morning if i'm to impatient to wait for coffee before having a cigarette.

 

glad to hear you quit. i'm waiting until im done with school and have to go work in a cubicle farm. i refuse to be that guy who runs out to his car over lunch to wolf down a bag of chips and smoke 2 cigarettes before break is over so i can run back in all winded and coughing. but until then i'm not quitting because i'm just too stressed out at this point to even consider it. not in a big hurry to end up charged with vehicular homicide or anything like that.

[soundcreation]

Congratulations.....I've read studies that found nicotine is more addictive than cocaine...so I don't doubt it was difficult. Keep it up...

 

Worst drug on the planet in my opinion.

[CanuckKid_15]

I've been smoking since I was 11, pack a day since 13, I'm 28 now. I'll have to do my Tom Waits impression for you, best time is early in the morning if i'm to impatient to wait for coffee before having a cigarette. glad to hear you quit. i'm waiting until im done with school and have to go work in a cubicle farm. i refuse to be that guy who runs out to his car over lunch to wolf down a bag of chips and smoke 2 cigarettes before break is over so i can run back in all winded and coughing. but until then i'm not quitting because i'm just too stressed out at this point to even consider it. not in a big hurry to end up charged with vehicular homicide or anything like that.

Hope all works out for you. I started smoking when i was 14, I'm 17 now. I think what really helped me quit was working more. I dropped out of high school in grade 10, took a year off.. Now I'm taking online courses and working full time, and should graduate this year. I think once i left the whole "high school drama" scene I've been doing a lot better for myself. I stopped abusing hard drugs too, that really {censored}ed everything up for me. long story short, lots of unnecessary dealings with authority figures But yeah, since i've been working full time its actually helped me quit. less partying and ruccusin' with the buds=more work and guitar playing, which takes my mind off smoking.

Oh, and sorry about the long rant Just in a blabber mood i guess.

[CanuckKid_15]

Congratulations.....I've read studies that found nicotine is more addictive than cocaine...so I don't doubt it was difficult. Keep it up... Worst drug on the planet in my opinion.

I found the nicotine addiction wasn't as hard to get over as the habit. My mom and i both went on the nicorette patch, which actually lessened the addiction a great deal. For example, once i stopped wearing the patch, i wouldnt sweat and get the shakes if i didnt smoke, but i just felt like i should've been smoking all the time.

Oh, and heres a little trick for getting over the habit part, worked for me at least.. Try walking around with a cigarette in your mouth (yeah, you'll look like a douche ) but don't light it for as long as you can handle. Before doing this, whenever i put a cig in my mouth it was like a subconscious act to light it.. After this little method, or whatever you want to call it, I didn't feel like i needed to smoke every time i saw a cigarette.

[mrbrown49]

I found the nicotine addiction wasn't as hard to get over as the habit. My mom and i both went on the nicorette patch, which actually lessened the addiction a great deal. For example, once i stopped wearing the patch, i wouldnt sweat and get the shakes if i didnt smoke, but i just felt like i should've been smoking all the time. Oh, and heres a little trick for getting over the habit part, worked for me at least.. Try walking around with a cigarette in your mouth (yeah, you'll look like a douche ) but don't light it for as long as you can handle. Before doing this, whenever i put a cig in my mouth it was like a subconscious act to light it.. After this little method, or whatever you want to call it, I didn't feel like i needed to smoke every time i saw a cigarette.

Congrats! I've been fighting it for years now and havn't quit. It's viscous. Interesting method. Maybe I'll try that.

[CanuckKid_15]

Congrats! I've been fighting it for years now and havn't quit. It's viscous. Interesting method. Maybe I'll try that.

Thank ya! You really should try it! I tried a bunch of methods, and that worked best. Also, like everybody says, you REALLY have to want to. I tried before too, about a year ago.. didnt want to bad enough. Think about the money.. New cheapo guitar day after a months worth of what would've been cigarette money!

Good luck!

[diceman1000]

congrats bud.i've been smoking for 12 years.i've quit 3 or 4 different times,the most recent for almost 5 months,and always go back...most of the time alcohol is involved:facepalm:...stick with it though,what they say about every time you quit is harder is absolutely true...

[Surrealistic]

Congrats on giving up. A warning though: I once successfully gave up smoking for three years and yet for some reason I can't quite fathom, started again one night after a few beers. As I recall my thinking over a period of a week or two went along the lines of:

1. Just one cig - it's not like I'm going to start smoking 40 a day again.
2. Two or three cigs can't hurt. I'll be fine
3. Well, I can smoke the odd offered cigarette as long as I don't start buying.
4. Okay if I buy just a pack of 10 every few days, that'll be fine
5. Ok, I'm a smoker!

I'm going to quit again sometime!

[diceman1000]

Congrats on giving up. A warning though: I once successfully gave up smoking for three years and yet for some reason I can't quite fathom, started again one night after a few beers . As I recall my thinking over a period of a week or two went along the lines of: 1. Just one cig - it's not like I'm going to start smoking 40 a day again. 2. Two or three cigs can't hurt. I'll be fine 3. Well, I can smoke the odd offered cigarette as long as I don't start buying. 4. Okay if I buy just a pack of 10 every few days, that'll be fine 5. Ok, I'm a smoker! I'm going to quit again sometime!

 

 

exactly...and every time i quit and start again it gets more difficult...

[silverring233]

quitting smoking is the hardest thing any of us that smoke will ever have to do! i'm 44 and been smoking since i was 10. last month i got a blood clot in my leg that almost cost me my leg.........all due to smoking. i have so far went from 2 packs a day to around 3-5 smokes a day. my goal is to be smoke free by the end of the year.

 

 

i can't afford another $75,000-$80,000 hospital bill.

[Frets99]

Congratulations!

 

I understand the addiction. But I never understood the draw other than peer induced. I've never smoked and mostly because I was always doing something else and it felt like smoking would only have interfered.

[Les Paul Lover]

The key for me to quit was to realise I didn't enjoy all the cigarettes I smoked.

 

It was a mechanical habit + nicotine.

 

Then every time I lit up a cigarette and didn't enjoy it (which was a lot of the cigarettes I smoked), I'd put it out immediately. I very quickly cut it down from a pack to 3/4 cigarettes a day.

 

Then I slowly stopped.

 

To be honest, it's been a few years I've quit now - I still crave the odd one really bad. Nicotine is a real bitch.

[truckdub]

Congratulations on quitting. Here are a couple of things to keep in mind in case you get the urge to start..I smoked 2-3 packs per day. When I quit I saved enough money to buy a really nice car.(you can get a lot of cool amps with the money you'll be saving) I no longer smell like an ashtray. Let your nose recover then go hang around some heavy smokers. Then remember you used to smell like that.

[Cymro#1]

I started smoking when I was about 16/17 in around 1974 gave up for a year before I went to college started smoking again in my 2nd year there and smoked quite heavily until 1986. Haven't had one since. Being in the presence of other smokers is probably one of the most nauseating experiences apart from listening to highly talented guitarists who make me feel totally inadequate!!!!! Don'r EVER give up, giving up!!

[Burningleaves]

Congrats!

[twofoolsaminute]

My method for quitting was to allow myself to smoke, but make it really inconvenient. For example. No more smoking in my car. If I had to have a cigarette, fine, but I had to stop and get out of my car. No more smoking in view of my home. If I wanted to smoke fine, but I had to walk a little ways and in the dead of winter or heat of summer that did not appeal. It was very inconvenient, but I soon realized that I could live without them sometimes, and that led to me realizing I could live without them all the time.

 

I also found that it was easier to quit if the cigarettes were there for me if I could stand it no more. And sometimes I would have one. I think getting rid of the cigarettes completely sends you into a panic mode that is bound to result in buying a pack and smoking it all, then feeling like a failure and not following through. I don't mean the "I'm only smoking two a day" type quitting, I mean if I simply can't make it another minute without one, I know they're in there in the drawer.

 

Now that I've truly rationalized that I can live without them. I can even smoke a few if I'm around some smokers and it's appropriate without picking the habit up again at all. I can smoke a pack of cigarettes at a party, and not have another for a year. I think so much of it is in our minds.

 

Another thing I found that works well is having a glass/bottle of water. Very good cigarette simulator. You put it to your mouth, you draw it in. Keeps the hands and mouth busy.

[captainultimus]

im with frets on that iv never really understood the draw of it i guess iv made my friends give me a few when i was wasted and i guess half way through it i coughed so bad i vomited. but the getting drunk and doing it is like me and pot i never want to till im drunk and end up doing.

[Chunk]

I switched from Marlboro Lights to Reds but I couldn't even finish the pack. I don't know how John Wayne smoked those things. Never had one since and that was about 6-7 years ago.

[GAS Man]

Like most kids I tried it a few times from like 5th grade on, but it wasn't until I was about 21 that it became habitual. I used to smoke my fair share of the wacky stuff, and liked that, but thinking that might be socially unacceptable in some circles I took up cigarettes which was the more socially acceptable smoke at that time. So I smoked until I was 37. Wow, 16 years of destroying lung tissue, good job!

 

Now I will say that it was a useful tool for me when I was in college. Back in those days you could smoke in the lounge area of the university's library. So when I'd been studying for a long time and you get that feeling like you need to take a break, I mean, "run screaming across campus" - I could simply push myself back from the table relax with a smoke for about 5 minutes and then just go right back to it. Some folks would say it would have been just healthier to get up and take a little walk - absolutely true - but I knew me and me wouldn't have come back.

 

But anyway, by the time I hit the office world in '83 it was just becoming unacceptable in some places to smoke in the work place. So I started getting instructed to go out to the warehouse or whatever to have my smoke. So that "relax" part was gone.

 

Here's a little medical/chemical fact. A cigarette is of course a nicotine delivery vehicle and its size is dictated by "a proper dose". So the nicotine is active in you brain for about 30 minutes. So here's the work place scenario. You get a craving, you try to ignore it, but it's distracting your concentration. After about 30 minutes you finally dash outside and have your -puff puff puff puff puff- quickie half break - yeah -you're splitting your break time into two 7.5 minute halves. So now you come back in, a little chilled, and a little loopy because you just huffed down your cigarette in such a directed hurried fashion that you're slightly OD'd. So after about 15 minutes you feel just about right again. The nicotine OD has subsided. And then what? Well that 30 minute clock is ticking right? - so 15 minutes later the craving is going "tap tap tap" on your shoulder and the routine repeats. Very distracting and stupid. It's just that, in the good 'ol days of smoking, it actually made a bit more sense. Like, "yeah, it might kill you, but it was a good stress reliever to be able to have that soup bowl sized ash tray on your desk and take a puff or two while most of the cigarettes simply burned up into the air at 25 cents a pack. This hanging out the back door of the office routine and huffing down your nicotine is just sheer BS - like no benefit.

 

The other thing I'd say (as said above), ABSOLUTELY, thinking you can get away down the road with "just that one cigarette" (at the bar or wherever) is a killer mistake. I relapsed twice after being off for 10 months thinking I could get away with that. I've now been off for 15 years. I will admit, I have a rich neighbor and he talked me into trying some of his cigars recently (I figured - if he has them - they must be excellent - and they were these cute little things like Clint Eastwood used to smoke in his Westerns). Well luckily for me that didn't trip me back in. I guess since it was a cigar instead of cigarette and since it had been 15 years since I smoked, I was no more hooked again than I was after my first smoking experience in 5th grade. In fact it grossed me out. Sure I brushed my teeth that night, but the stench coming out of my face the next morning was really rude. I felt like I woke up in bed the next day with a middle aged cigar smoker breathing in my face and that person was me.

 

Here's one more little medical factoid before I go.

Scenario A) The good news- sure your lung cells turn from cuboidal cells to squamous cells which (looking like fried eggs) can no longer support cilia and they fall off (hampering your lung's ability to clean itself). But after about 3 years or so of abstinence they can actually return to cuboidal cells which can support the return of the cilia.

 

Scenario B) The bad news - but the alveoli (air sacs) are like bubbles in your bubble bath. You've seen how two little bubbles come together and pop together but form one bigger bubble? Well, your air sacs do the same thing from smoking which means you loose lung capacity for absorbing O2. Think about a full bathtub full of lots of tiny bubbles and the surface area inside all those little bubbles, think of just one big bubble in the bath tub - then it's easy to see why that is less surface area. THAT PART DOES NOT REVERSE - it's permanent damage.

 

So I don't want to offend my smoking friends, I was one, my dad was (he quit), my mother was up to the day she died at 60, but I look at kids smoking and I just think "moronic". I look at adults smoking and think of it as pathetic. It's like being a slave to the tobacco companies at the expense of your riches, your life, and being a slave to some sort of image statement or identity. But I applaud all of you who continue to smoke for continuing to pay a hugely disproportionate amount of government taxes - someone's got to pay those bills and the self righteous have decided it should be the poor sinners. For that I thank you very much. I do my fair share of tax contributions by drinking a couple cocktails or so most every night. My only remaining stupid vice and one I'm working on - maybe.

 

[Rubix^3]

I'm on day 17 and yesturday was tough. I think I was on guitar tricks for two hours keeping my hands and mind occupied. My method inolved tic-tacs (a {censored}load of em) and I got rid of all my lighters. Congrats hardest thing in the world to do IMHO.

[GAS Man]

 

I'm on day 17 and yesturday was tough. I think I was on guitar tricks for two hours keeping my hands and mind occupied. My method inolved tic-tacs (a {censored}load of em) and I got rid of all my lighters. Congrats hardest thing in the world to do IMHO.

 

 

I quit many times before quitting for good, but hang in there. I used to find that the first two weeks are the worst. After that most of it is the mental addiction. For some reason I don't begin to understand, the chemical part of the addiction seems to be a bit worse (in general) for "the ladies". One method I used was that I had an office at one stage that was next to a hirise building. When the cravings hit me I'd run up the stairs (about 11 stories or so). By the time I got to the top and was panting, a cigarette was the last thing I wanted.

[flummox]

Congratulations! I understand the addiction. But I never understood the draw other than peer induced. I've never smoked and mostly because I was always doing something else and it felt like smoking would only have interfered.

 

 

It's soothing and there's a pleasant little 5-minute buzz. Fresh cigarette smoke actually smells and tastes very nice - it's that stale ashtray smell that's disgusting. Nicotine is a stimulant that's incredibly good at enhancing concentration. It's also a great appetite suppressant - you'll notice that obesity rates have skyrocketed right in line with the decrease in smoking over the last few decades.

 

I started smoking in the 70s, and where I lived literally 75-80% of the adults smoked. They were 35 cents a pack and you could light up pretty much anywhere but the hospital and gas stations. It was a part of life back then. I quit 15 years ago and I couldn't imagine what it'd be like to be a smoker now - it was getting to be a major pain in the ass in 1994. I am, however, very much enjoying not being dead.

[Cymro#1]

Those of you trying to give up, please don't be put off by GASMAN'S Scenario B. There is no doubt that giving up cigarettes is big YES YES. I gave up after being a 15-20 a day smoker 23 years ago and have been able to take part in competitive sports soccer, athletics, rugby with no sign of the effects he speaks of. I hope that I'm clear of the effects of smoking and I'm sure you are quite correct in your statements.I can honestly say I feel far , far better after giving up....lets be positive though so that huge numbers of people see the advantage of giving up too.

[tomh777]

Congrats on giving up. A warning though: I once successfully gave up smoking for three years and yet for some reason I can't quite fathom, started again one night after a few beers. As I recall my thinking over a period of a week or two went along the lines of: 1. Just one cig - it's not like I'm going to start smoking 40 a day again. 2. Two or three cigs can't hurt. I'll be fine 3. Well, I can smoke the odd offered cigarette as long as I don't start buying. 4. Okay if I buy just a pack of 10 every few days, that'll be fine 5. Ok, I'm a smoker! I'm going to quit again sometime!

No {censored} it is tough. I had 2 years quit behind me and the "Just one cig - it's not like I'm going to start smoking 40 a day again" thought happened, been back on them like I never quit. DAMMIT!!!