Misc Tapering off cigarettes?

[ChemicallyEnhanced]

I want to greatly reduce - but not stop - how many cigarettes I smoke per day. My motivation is primarily the money, but also for the sake of my teeth, which are already moderately acid damaged from years of bulimia (finally 6 months eating-disorder free after 11 years).
I don't want to actually STOP completely; I'm aiming at about 4 or 5 a day.
I've smoked for just under two years and have never had a break or attempted to stop before so I know very little about quitting smoking. I already have a large poly-pharmacy going on so doubt my GP will prescribe me Bupropion (which I'd prefer and will request from my GP when I see him Monday morning.
Assuming I don't get the medication, this is my plan:
I usually smoke 15-20 cigarettes a day so I chose to start my taper at 12 yesterday. The plan would be:
Week 1: 12/day
Week 2: 10/day
Week 3: 8/day
Weeks 4 and onward: 4-6/day

Does this sound like a reasonable tapering process? Will it work?

 

[Painful One]

I think it will work. Good plan!
In fact, I am willing to try it with you.
I have the exact same situation.

Let’s give it a try!

I’m glad to hear you have six months free of eating disorder C.E!
Nice job!!
Hugs to you.
Let me know how I can encourage you in the best way.
I want to help.

So today we have 12 cig’s. We can do that easy and we will feel better.
Let’s get this thing down.
I hate smelling like it so bad. When I only smoked 4 a day, it wasn’t bad. I could wash up and change my shirt and I never smelled like it. Now, I noticed my bedroom smells like it.
Plus the cost is way too high.
We can do this!

 

[Jabberwocky]

I would like to give up the cigs forever, but I don't know where to start, I might consider this taper but the thing is I don't want to just reduce it but to leave them behind totally. any tips for this? I am spending way too much money for something as useless as cigs

 

[Painful One]

Yeah, me too MorpheusP. Me too. But I don’t think I can totally give them up. I am too stressed with health problems.
I was thinking about trying some of those nicotine patches. I have heard you can get them for free by calling some quit line or something? Anyone have more information on that?

When I was in the hospital, they gave me the nicotine patches and I was okay like that. Not great but it helped a lot.

Come and do the taper down plan with us.
It is a start.
I have been able to keep to four cigarettes a day for a lot of years. It wasn’t too bad that way.

 

[ChemicallyEnhanced]

I think it will work. Good plan!
In fact, I am willing to try it with you.
I have the exact same situation.

Let’s give it a try!

I’m glad to hear you have six months free of eating disorder C.E!
Nice job!!
Hugs to you. ❤
Let me know how I can encourage you in the best way.
I want to help.

So today we have 12 cig’s. We can do that easy and we will feel better.
Let’s get this thing down.
I hate smelling like it so bad. When I only smoked 4 a day, it wasn’t bad. I could wash up and change my shirt and I never smelled like it. Now, I noticed my bedroom smells like it.
Plus the cost is way too high.
We can do this!

Thanks so much!
Yeah! I feel extra motivated now, let's do this ?

 

[Painful One]

C.E,

I have had some problems with my teeth after grinding/ gritting them from pain.
I found a good fix for the worn enamel problem. I had my dentist paint on some porcelain to the fronts and a few places where the gums had receded or needed a little reinforcement. It looks great and only cost about $80.
It just took him a few minutes.
The porcelain has made those teeth thicker and protects them also.

 

[ChemicallyEnhanced]

I would like to give up the cigs forever, but I don't know where to start, I might consider this taper but the thing is I don't want to just reduce it but to leave them behind totally. any tips for this? I am spending way too much money for something as useless as cigs

I would suggest additionally for you
Week 5: 5/day
Week 6: 4/day etc. It's the lower doses when you really feel it, that's why I'd slow it down a bit at the end. You can continue cutting out 2/day per week but you will feel much more comfortable the way I suggested.

I successfully used the same method to quit drinking (I was on 50 units/day so I started at 40 and then cut back by one unit of alcohol per day; again, I felt no bad withdrawals).

We can use this thread for when we're we're either need advice, or just doing good and want to share the joy.
Good luck you guys!

 

[Painful One]

? alright! Let’s do this!!

 

[ChemicallyEnhanced]

Thanks, that's a great tip. I'll make a dental appointment next week.

 

[wizardknight17]

I did something similar years ago. I started out a bit higher at 2-3 packs a day but my specific schedule looked something like this:

first week: at every hour on the hour I could have a cigarette. No more. This automatically got me down to under a pack a day on day number 1.

Week two: have one only every 2 hours.

Week three: every 3-4 hours. Try to hold out till hour 4 but CAN have one every 3 hours.

Week four: 1 when I wake up, 1 at lunch, 1 around dinner, 1 before bed if I wanted but tried not to. Maintained at this level for about 6-8 months before life fucked me back into a couple packs a day. ?

Also for those looking to completely stop: the drug "chantix"(sp?) Worked extremely well for both myself and 3 other people I personally know. All of us only took it for 2-3 weeks even though the script was for 3 months.

 

[Jabberwocky]

I was thinking about doing the 2 hours thing too a couple of days ago, I think I am gonna go with the taper and see how it works out

 

[Jekyl Anhydride]

Congrats to all of you for deciding to quit. I quit after several years through a very atypical situation of morphine WD that led me to just not wanting them anymore, but back to you guys.

Has anyone thought about switching to nicotine vapes and tapering off of those? I only ask because tobacco not only has things added to it like ammonium impact enhancers and GMO tobacco strains designed to make them more addictive, but it also contains a mild MAOI, or Monoamine Oxidase Inhibitor that adds to the nicotine 'high' if you can call it that. I was just curious as I know someone who did fairly well going that route and when he did slip up a couple times, it was at least a vape and not carcinogenic.

For those of you who are deciding to go with the Medication route, you might want to speak with your physician about Varenicline over Bupropion, as the former has better results than the latter and less dangerous side effects than bupropion like lowering of seizure threshold and messing with CYP2D6 which metabolizes quite a few drugs. It renders Tramadol, codeine and several other meds ineffective.

Whichever route you all choose I wish you the best of luck and hope by remaining a cohesive group can have even better odds.

 

[Jabberwocky]

can't use either medication because of my taper due to the cyp2d6 consequence , but I wouldn't want to take some kind of treatment either, I'd rather smoke and wait it out till I quit than getting on an additional medication for quitting cigs.

yesterday I smoked less, but it was mainly to the weed, always after I smoke some my "appetite" for cigs decreases considerably.

Maybe I can intersect the two tappers and give up both of the cigs and trams at once.

 

[Painful One]

I managed to stick to the 12 smokes yesterday! ?

I didn’t think I was smoking that much a day but I am. Sometimes. Most the time now.
When I get stressed I smoke a lot more and I have been stressed.
I’m going to try and overcome this even with the stress.

I hope you guys were able to manage the taper yesterday.
Just try again today if you didn’t quite make it. We will get there.

I had a few clients who tried the Chantix to stop smoking and both of them had problems with that medication.
They both told me they ended up hallucinating from that stuff and not in a good way.
They also reported that it was really strange medication and they hated it and went through a withdrawal when they stopped it.
They reported bad nightmares and vivid dreams all night long. I already have that problem without medication.
So, it looks like it may aggravate sleep disorders.
I have never tried it myself. I feel the same way as MorpheusP. I don’t want to get on another medication.
I would just rather stick it out until I quit the smoking rather than get on an additional medication for that.

The medication may help some people though. I would definitely research that one closely before using it.

We can do this! ❤

 

[Chris42393]

Congrats to all of you for deciding to quit. I quit after several years through a very atypical situation of morphine WD that led me to just not wanting them anymore, but back to you guys.

Has anyone thought about switching to nicotine vapes and tapering off of those? I only ask because tobacco not only has things added to it like ammonium impact enhancers and GMO tobacco strains designed to make them more addictive, but it also contains a mild MAOI, or Monoamine Oxidase Inhibitor that adds to the nicotine 'high' if you can call it that. I was just curious as I know someone who did fairly well going that route and when he did slip up a couple times, it was at least a vape and not carcinogenic.

For those of you who are deciding to go with the Medication route, you might want to speak with your physician about Varenicline over Bupropion, as the former has better results than the latter and less dangerous side effects than bupropion like lowering of seizure threshold and messing with CYP2D6 which metabolizes quite a few drugs. It renders Tramadol, codeine and several other meds ineffective.

Whichever route you all choose I wish you the best of luck and hope by remaining a cohesive group can have even better odds.

Though I never smoked (cigarettes) I think switching to the vapes would be a great idea! Definitely less harmful than actual cigarettes.

 

[Jabberwocky]

They reported bad nightmares and vivid dreams all night long. I already have that problem without medication.

Is this due to the opioids? I got the same thing for years already, I am really tired of these dreams. I got so used to them that nothing strange in real life shocks me, like I block the shock factors out.
Usually I got several crazy dreams per night on different subjects, but most of the time when it gets intense every time I wake up and go back to sleep I find myself in the same dream world I was before and I continue what I dead, so my actions in the dream are not repeated but the environment is the same.

I woke up in the past crying, feeling euphoric, realising that I learned something during the dream, disgusted etc.. but there are some times also where I can't remember all the episodes that I had the night before but the whole theme of the dream yes.

 

[Painful One]

Sorry to hear you are also having problems with constant dreams.
It is not from opiates. No. Not for me at least.
(Though during opiate withdrawal it does aggravate this condition severely)

I have had vivid dreams that I act out in my sleep my entire life. Sometimes hurting myself in the night by acting out my dreams.
It scares the shit out of other people too.
I did not realize that it was a symptom. But, it is a symptom. For me, it turned out to be what is called “REM Sleep Behavior Disorder”.
It is considered a “precursor” to Parkinson’s Disease. I have now been diagnosed with. My dad had the same thing also.
It is hereditary.

This REM sleep behavior disorder is a real bad thing. The specialist who treated my dad for Multiple System Atrophy aka “Double Parkinson’s Disease” told us that they had to control this sleep disorder thing because it brain damages you every time it happens.
The specialist told us there were only two medications that control this REM sleep behavior disorder and those options were melatonin or clonazepam. My dad and I went and bought a huge bottle of melatonin, thinking we would just use that but he came running in to me in the morning and said “How are you feeling” and I said “I feel like I am insane” and he said “I’m so glad you said that, me too!”.
It was scary how the melatonin made us feel. I thought we were both going to end up at the psych ward that day. We were tripping.

So, neither of us were able to use the melatonin and had to take the clonazepam. It helps a lot.
(I certainly don’t recommend using benzodiazepines unless absolutely necessary. The withdrawal is way, way worse than morphine withdrawal and you will be stuck on them if you use them everyday. Very dangerous class of medication.)

This dream thing sucks bad. It is almost just as bad as pain. Fucking dreams, dreams, dreams all night long.
I wake up exhausted and it is like living in the horror movie The Nightmare on Elm Street.
Afraid to go to sleep.

 

[Jabberwocky]

your condition seems more agravated, could you please tell me how old are you?

As I am pretty young it could be just the beginning, the exhaustion upon waking up is present at me too, I do have bad shaking but I don't think it could be parkison, I had it since I was a kid but my shaking isn't very bad just unusual.

If I think about it, clonazepam had a impact on it but didnt always make the dreams vanish, maybe turning them into shorter dreams.

can this be checked with a brain scan? I never though of this as a brain problem as I am used to them happening, but some checking out ain't gonna hurt I justa have to know to what kind of specialist to head to.

I talk in my sleep, actually I try to talk, not all the words can be understood as my family told me usually, a lot of times it sounds like I argue with someone although not everytime I argue in the dream when this happens.

Lots of times such surreal things happen, I even have the thing that let's say 2 months after I had a dream in an environment I will still have the same environment with a variation ( this isn't in the same ninght as I said in the first post about this)

 

[Painful One]

I understand what you are talking about.
I’m afraid it sounds familiar my friend.
I am so sorry you are having this problem.

It took me a LONG time to figure out it was a brain problem.
Do you get migraine or cluster headaches?

Parkinson’s disease doesn’t always cause the shaking. It can cause the opposite of that where you have a very hard time moving.
I think it is called Akinesia . The shaking thing is dyskinesia. I have a very difficult time with movement.
It paralyzes your muscles. I look very, very young for my age because my facial muscles are paralyzed some I think.
I can still smile and stuff but I look a lot younger than others my age.

The sleep thing and migraines progressed and I also have some head injuries from falls and car accident.
Car accident really knocked this thing out of control and I feel like, progressed it forward more rapidly.
Like, I may have made it to 70 before it became this bad.
I am 49 years old,

The kind of doctor to see is called a Neurologist. You should go have an MRI of your brain.
Keep an eye on it and do preventative measures.
Keeping a good diet and learning meditation has been a huge help.
Learn meditation. I highly recommend it.

I know what you mean about the surreal things happening. The vivid lucid dreaming seems to have a sort of creative power.

Lots of love to you. ❤

 

[ChemicallyEnhanced]

I managed to stick to the 12 smokes yesterday! ?

I didn’t think I was smoking that much a day but I am. Sometimes. Most the time now.
When I get stressed I smoke a lot more and I have been stressed.
I’m going to try and overcome this even with the stress.

I hope you guys were able to manage the taper yesterday.
Just try again today if you didn’t quite make it. We will get there.

I had a few clients who tried the Chantix to stop smoking and both of them had problems with that medication.
They both told me they ended up hallucinating from that stuff and not in a good way.
They also reported that it was really strange medication and they hated it and went through a withdrawal when they stopped it.
They reported bad nightmares and vivid dreams all night long. I already have that problem without medication.
So, it looks like it may aggravate sleep disorders.
I have never tried it myself. I feel the same way as MorpheusP. I don’t want to get on another medication.
I would just rather stick it out until I quit the smoking rather than get on an additional medication for that.

The medication may help some people though. I would definitely research that one closely before using it.

We can do this! ❤

Well done! We can do this
Day one I had 7 cigs
Day two I started having mild cravings but managed to have just 11

It's the middle of the afternoon of day three now. Only had three cigarettes so far today, but did wake up several hours later than usual as I was enjoying my high too much to waste it sleeping so was up until 5am.

I heard some pretty bad things about Chantix, too. And Bupropion sounds like I'd just end up addicted to it.

Keep on doing great