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Recovery Quitting Cigarettes (and maybe ALL nicotine?)

jasperkent

jasperkent

Bluelighter
Joined
May 19, 2015
Messages
6,344
Location
Chattanooga, TN
As many of you know, I've been smoking cigarettes daily for 50 years. For the past 45 years I've smoked at least a pack and a half a day. Although I've overcome addictions to various drugs and drug combos, I have never been able to kick my first habit: cigarette smoking. In fact, I tend to smoke even more when I'm clean & sober. This is despite the fact that every male relative on both sides of my family has died of some form of lung disease-- in my father's case, lung cancer.

When 2024 rolled around, I decided that I  had to do something about it. At 64, I am not afraid of death. As Mark Twain put it, I had been dead for billions and billions of years before I was born, and had not suffered the slightest inconvenience from it. But I care a lot about how I die-- and, more importantly, how I live between now and then. I don't want to struggle to breathe and/or be incapacitated in my final years.

Since the first of the year I've been trying to cut back on my smoking -- with limited success. Generally, if I have cigarettes I am going to smoke them So I have to just quit. To be clear, I am not quitting nicotine. I am armed with nic gum, Grizzly pouches, and a vape pen. Oddly, I don't particularly like vaping so I doubt that it will become a problem.

Suggestions and encouragement welcome!

It's been 36 hours since my last cigarette.
(but who's counting?)
 
jasperkent said:
I am not afraid of death. As Mark Twain put it, I had been dead for billions and billions of years before I was born, and had not suffered the slightest inconvenience from it. But I care a lot about how I die-- and, more importantly, how I live between now and then. I don't want to struggle to breathe and/or be incapacitated in my final years.
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I feel like I wrote this myself.

I've only got 20 or so years of nicotine addiction (~15 years cigs), but I've quit a few time successfully, and it always starts with "mixing up" my source of nicotine. For me, the real addiction of cigs is the habit of smoking them, going outside, reserving that "time" to go smoke them, plus the taste and the smell (which I still miss/love... but hardly smell anymore in public)

jasperkent said:
I am armed with nic gum, Grizzly pouches, and a vape pen. Oddly, I don't particularly like vaping so I doubt that it will become a problem.
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For me the first step is to forget the smell and physical action of hitting that cig

Every time I quit smoking I always switch to grizzly for a week or two. Then I'll switch to nicotine gum or vaping. Neither of those give as good as a buzz as any tobacco product, but it suffices. Then you get used to having nicotine without the taste or burn of tobacco.

I've also put myself through cold turkey a few times. In comparison to something like opioids, it's a cake walk.
 
Maybe have a look here :

Tobacco Addiction | +60 articles

Ibogaine helped me quit smoking cigarettes So a few weeks ago I went to Holland to take part in an Ibogaine ceremony. Ibogaine is a psychedelic plant from West Africa that has recently generated interest due to it's remarkable ability to interrupt addictions, most notably opiate addiction. I...
bluelight.org bluelight.org
 
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I've been thinking about it even tho I love cigarettes and smoking cigarettes is cool, but if I quit and nothing is in my blood test then my health insurance I'm looking into buying will cost less, so it's a win/win financially and health wise
 
I can't quit 35 years of smoking do a line have a blast and a fag but those chapax are good you don't feel line smoking
 
iv been addicted to cigs for over a decade, and recently quit, i think starting an antidepressant and now seeing a psychologist i have a good connection with, is able to fill that void which led me to addictive and self destructive behaviours like cig and weed addiction.

is there a depression or anxiety problem near the root which is showing up symptomatically as feeling a need for this habit?

i'm not sure how successful i would be quitting those bad habits, just by white knuckling it, and not trying to alter my brain chemistry, and seeking the support from the community.
 
Aerobic exercise , vitamin c and good diet ...keep smoking while doing these, you will loose interest in smoking naturally ..
 
painfulstate said:
Aerobic exercise , vitamin c and good diet ...keep smoking while doing these, you will loose interest in smoking naturally ..
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I do eat well and take vitamins, but I've never been able to follow an "exercise routine" per se. I do walk a lot.

I used to be pretty active: I enjoyed hiking, bicycling, canoeing, rock climbing, swimming, and horseback riding. But I had cigarettes with me 100% of the time. I smoked before and after I did ANYthing-- and, if possible, during.

For most of my life, smoking was part of my identity-- I was a cook. I was a leftist. I was a dog lover. I was an alcoholic and a drug addict. I was a smoker.
 
jasperkent said:
For most of my life, smoking was part of my identity-- I was a cook. I was a leftist. I was a dog lover. I was an alcoholic and a drug addict. I was a smoker.
Click to expand...
I get it, then fck it get yourself some quality tobacco and drop cigarettes ..sometimes if you try too hard you exaggerate the problem and then you smoke even more . But intense aerobic exercise will help either ways..
 
I have kicked cold turkey from fentanyl and honestly i would rather go through that rather then cig wd. I smoke 2 packs a day so i get major fucking wd's if i quit. It kinda reminds me of the cravings i get for iv coke now that i think of it.

I wonder would something like ibogaine work for cig wd? I would honestly give that a shot if it would work as ive tried alot of other methods and they dont work.

If you can quit good luck to you your a stronger person then i
 
I'm pretty certain that I'm done with cigarettes. It took me 50 years to get to this point, but I finally want to quit. It's like every other addiction-- I had to want to quit more than I wanted to use.

It helps a lot that I'm still using nicotine, but it's not easy to break a habit that was reinforced hundreds of times a day for half a century. Nevertheless, my last cig was smoked at 5AM Sunday. I normally would have smoked about 120 cigs between then and now.

So I'm doing rather well.
 
Five full days, no smokes.

I've been pleasantly surprised at how much easier this has been than I thought it would be. Yes, I'm using nicotine-- so it's like being in a methadone program rather than shooting heroin. I don't consider it cheating; I call it harm reduction. At some point down the road I'll taper off the nicotine, but I'm in no hurry.

In the days leading up to my last cigarette I felt trepidation bordering on terror. After all, I'd been a smoker for 80% of my life. It was difficult to imagine not smoking. It was the first thing I did when I woke up and the last thing I did before I went to sleep. Often, I'd wake up and smoke a cig in the middle of the night.

I do get intense cravings when I wake up and after meals, but I take a couple vape hits and then chomp on some nic gum and I'm OK. For most of the day I don't think about cigs.

Thank you all for your support.
 
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