EADD Giving Up Smoking Thread Mk. II

[Chatative]

Previous Thread

Well, seems the last one of these was deleted & was getting quite long anyway, so I figure we may as well have another!

I've worked my way up to smoking 15-16 cigarettes a day, which is far from ideal considering I have asthma. I'd rather not progress to the 20-25 I was smoking last year again before giving up a year ago. I've kind of concluded that my asthma that only appeared noticeably after quitting last time has a largely allergic element since it's stopped playing up at the end of the pollen season. Still, I don't want to run the risk of being reliant on cigarettes if it gets worse again.

I've just invested in some 14mg nicotine patches. Hoping to get some success again with those. My aim is to cut back rather than abstain completely for the next few weeks. Ideally 10 a day or less, something like 5 would be my target & then I'll take it from there in a few weeks.

Anyone else trying to give up or cut back on the smokes at the moment?

 

[Dark Side]

No but i need to, last cough i had lasted a month. Typical

 

[StoneHappyMonday]

FWIW, cutting back is fairly pointless. With nicotine, unlike any other drug (except alcohol of an alcoholic), abstinence is all. I'll spare you the lecture Chat but with asthma you really shouldn't be smoking at all. It's a shit drug with no high anyway, it's entirely a habitual thing.

I gave up after thirty years of 20 a day. Cold turkey. Piece of piss. It helped I was told I was likely to lose my leg if I didn't stop mind.

EDIT One year and one day today actually.

 

[Dark Side]

FWIW, cutting back is fairly pointless. With nicotine, unlike any other drug (except alcohol of an alcoholic), abstinence is all. I'll spare you the lecture Chat but with asthma you really shouldn't be smoking at all. It's a shit drug with no high anyway, it's entirely a habitual thing.

I gave up after thirty years of 20 a day. Cold turkey. Piece of piss. It helped I was told I was likely to lose my leg if I didn't stop mind.

EDIT One year and one day today actually.

Yeh thats what i did i went cold turkey, nicotine no matter how much you smoke it doesnt make a difference the void is the same. Im smoking again though because im a bellend. I only ended up quitting due to chest pains that i mistakenly thought were causes were smoking

 

[Ceres]

I gave up instantly too, just like that, haven't smoked a cigarette since and that was over a year and a half ago. The myth that giving up is difficult is part of what makes giving up difficult. You just have to really want to give up.

Cutting back does not work and switching to 'mild' cigarettes doesn't work either.

 

[Josh]

I read the Alan Carr book and that stopped me for quite a while. What he says makes sense!

I go through phases of smoking. I haven't had a cigarette for months but I have been smoking spliffs with baccy every evening for a while. I'd like to stop that, I even bought a nice new glass pipe to switch over, but I prefer the high from the spliffs still

 

[mydrugbuddy]

Going to try quitting again when i run out of juice or wicks, depending on which happens first, i'll try just not to buy anymore. I could just throw everything away tonight and give up tomorrow, but i cant bring myself to do that just yet. This gives me a few days to work up to it and prepare my mindset for it. As SHM and others have said if you go into it with the right mindset of really wanting to quit and being 100% committed and certain about it, it really is very easy. Its only difficult if you arent fully committed to doing it, feeling like your depriving yourself of something etc. This is the main theme of Allen Carr's book which also helped me stop, after i read it for the first time.

I also believe that stopping cold turkey is better than cutting down or NRT. NRT is just switching ROA to a less harmfull one, and doesnt really help you give up nicotine in any way, if you want to stop taking nicotine, you'll have to stop taking the NRTs too. The physical cravings usually only last a maximum of 2 days, and are very mild and fleeting. I just have a glass of water whenever i have cravings and that helps.

 

[Ceres]

Books telling you how to quit smoking are bullshit and just a commercial project to line some arseholes pockets. Quitting smoking is about not spending money in that way too, about not being the victim of money-making cunts.

Also nicotine is not the problem. Inhaling burnt shit is the problem, the smoke, the tar, the pyrolysis by-products. Anyone who still smokes fags when they could have switched to an ecig is a mug.

 

[Dark Side]

Books telling you how to quit smoking are bullshit and just a commercial project to line some arseholes pockets. Quitting smoking is about not spending money in that way too, about not being the victim of money-making cunts.

Also nicotine is not the problem. Inhaling burnt shit is the problem, the smoke, the tar, the pyrolysis by-products. Anyone who still smokes fags when they could have switched to an ecig is a mug.

No its not, you can read the book on first page of google results. Talk about judging book by its cover, the book is very good.

 

[Josh]

Indeed. And I hardly think you're lining the authors pockets at least (sure publishers etc) with the Alan Carr book, he died from lung cancer after he wrote it!

 

[mydrugbuddy]

It was the only fitting way for him to go really, even if it does seem a bit ironic. He was lucky to have made 75 really, he said in the book that he was a very heavy smoker for most of his adult life iirc, some 40 years or something, if that was the case he was lucky to have made 75.

 

[Josh]

Yeah I think it was about 20 years after he gave up too, I can't imagine he'd have gone on that long had he carried on smoking like that.

I've had some phases where I was smoking 20 straights a day (when I lived in Germany and 20 Malboro reds could be bought for €4, from vending machines on the street), and even that made me feel pretty rough, I can't imagine smoking 40 a day, I'm pretty sure it would incapacitate me!

 

[Dark Side]

Its great because it shows how your addiction is just you and the way you have conditioned your brain. The book reverse engineers your conditioning and makes you think about what you are doing.

 

[Raasyvibe]

FWIW, cutting back is fairly pointless. With nicotine, unlike any other drug (except alcohol of an alcoholic), abstinence is all. I'll spare you the lecture Chat but with asthma you really shouldn't be smoking at all. It's a shit drug with no high anyway, it's entirely a habitual thing.

I gave up after thirty years of 20 a day. Cold turkey. Piece of piss. It helped I was told I was likely to lose my leg if I didn't stop mind.
.

This is bang on the money. Cutting back doesn't work in my opinion (Though, a few e-cigs and reduction in daily intake is only going to be a positive thing.)

You've got to make a conscience decision that you're going to stop - then just man up and leave them the fuck alone. Also stay way from other people who smoke; that's the biggest problem imo

You just have to really want to give up.

So yeah, that. For me it was the thought of all that shit depositing in your arteries, and the fact I could also feel it doing that. I decided I was too good to let that happen to me. I hate cigarettes. Don't mind booze, but hate cigs.


( healthy lungs)

 

[DrGreenthumb]

I quit cold turkey before for about 8 weeks & went back to smoking. It seemed easy at first, but I felt slower & I was still getting cravings 2 months later. Easyway does work, kind of, it helps at least, but I think the chance of relapse is pretty high, it's still a concious effort not to smoke weeks later, or was for me. E-cigs seem much better, cheaper & hopefully less cancer.

Been on e-cig for a while & just got a herb vaporizer a couple of weeks ago. Stopped smoking anything now, vaporizing is better.

E-cigs are maybe easier to cut down on, can get lower strength fluids, dilute them (with pg or glycerin) & I don't feel obliged to finish a cigarette, sometimes 2 or 3 puffs is ok. It's not the nicotine that does most of the damage from smoking anyway, it's all the tars & toxins released from burning plant material.

A less harmful roa is good for any drug, an e-cig habit isn't likely to cause anything like the harm that a cigarette habit does, it's much cheaper than smoking & long term probably not much worse than a caffeine habit. It's so easy to switch to an e-cig too & there's no cravings for cigarettes at all, the e-cig can provide a better nicotine hit.

If you've got a clean & cheap supply of e-juice, then where's the real harm in maintaining an addiction?

Vaporizing works much better for weed too. I get better pain relief from less weed.

Noticed a real improvement in my respiratory tract health, sense of taste & smell are much better, it's saving me money & I can get a better hit.

 

[Chatative]

FWIW, cutting back is fairly pointless. With nicotine, unlike any other drug (except alcohol of an alcoholic), abstinence is all. I'll spare you the lecture Chat but with asthma you really shouldn't be smoking at all. It's a shit drug with no high anyway, it's entirely a habitual thing.

I gave up after thirty years of 20 a day. Cold turkey. Piece of piss. It helped I was told I was likely to lose my leg if I didn't stop mind.

EDIT One year and one day today actually.

Yeah no lecture needed. :D

I think my current problem is I have been using cigarettes to alleviate various things. I'm now in a position though that I know I can stop smoking them & be ok plus I really don't want to continue smoking anyway. It's all about willpower but I know I can't just quit cold-turkey. It would be detrimental to my mental health never mind everything else.

I did the NHS 12-week smoking cessation program last year, stopped smoking cigarettes 2 days in & by 10 weeks in, I was nicotine free. NRT really worked well for me.

I've decided not to do the program as it isn't convenient right now even if I would get free NRT stuff. I've got a mouth spray left over & am just going to buy the patches. I managed to smoke 12 cigarettes yesterday instead of 16, so that's a start. I just want to lessen the cravings a bit & get some confidence in NRT stuff before going without smokes altogether.

 

[Jackal]

I quit cold turkey in February. First time I wanted to stop, really. Had gone up to 25/30 every day and had turned thirty having smoked since I was 12 or so.

Wasn't hard. but I was a bit tetchy for a week - at the time I owned a pub where smoking was allowed and all the smokers made me irrationally jealous and angry

Barred about five people in two days! That passed.

I still smoke weed, just no tobacco in spliffs anymore.

 

[lurching]

I have chronic (what?) asthma and have smoked a lot of cannabis from age 13/14 onwards. But I switched to eating and vaporizing when the asthma attacks and COPD-like stuff got worse in my late teens. Nowadays I do have a smoke once in a while, currently four spliffs per day to be precise, but can easily do eating/vaporizing only.

Vapor doesn't give a proper hit until you get your apparatus dialed 100%, the more so with cannabis. I've used volcano, verdamper, and Arizer EQ, and they all have downsides. But once you have it dialed it's glorious.

 

[mydrugbuddy]

At my peak i would get through 30 marlboro golds on a day off work, it got 'inconvenient' when one pack of twenty was no longer enough for a big night out, meaning i would need to start the night out carrying 2 whole packs of 20 . Now that it is possible to smoke in pubs and bars again usiing an ecig i dont smoke anywhere near as much as i would have compared to tobbacco cigs.

Also good news for vapers, the cravings when you stop vapeing are far milder, barely noticeble even on day 1.

I keep getting annoyed when i think and write all this stuff, the question nagging away at me is obviously "why dont you just fucking do it then!?" I think i will "do it" on this occassion, although it costs about 1/10th of the price to vape compared to tobacco its still money saved, and i always feel much better physically when im not smoking. Probably cos im no longer giving myself low level nicotine poisoining and making my heart and lungs work much harder to supply their oxygen.

 

[ColtDan]

Gave up pretty much instantly, didn't find it too hard. sometimes crave when im off my tits, have a few cigs but then can go weeks or months without wanting one again. Couldnt be assed with patches etc. although did buy an e-cig but then it broke and havent bothered to replace it