Breaking the Habit (Smoking)

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You just have to have a certain amount of respect for yourself....and your lungs.
 
so i've smoked for 18 years now.


i have tried to quit, but never works out. tried everything from cold turkey to champix  (vareklin?). champix gave me nausea etc but man it was effective.

now I have a e-cig and it's kind of my last hope... it's still pretty hard. I guess my liquid has too little nicotine to keep the withdrawls away.


man I hope I can quit.  :(

 
I started quitting around 2001 and it took up to 2 yrs before I was totally free. I smoked 20-a-day prior to that. I did it two ways:

i) Nicotine 'inhalater'. People don't use these properly. Don't 'inhale', but use the muscles in your cheeks to get the nicotine to spray into your mouth - like a chipmunk. I gradually (very gradually) cut down the dose until I was on one inhaler a day. By this time my nicotine addiction was so minor it was easy to make the final jump. I can't comprehend people who advocate 'cold turkey' - it strikes me as ridiculous. I did it by 90% one month, 80% the next and so on. It took a long time (about 6 months finally - prior to that I was messing with gum and relapsing), but I quit for good.

ii) Running. Go and run up a hill as fast as you can. You will know exactly why you need to quit! Not only that, but exercise is a better buzz than nicotine - albeit just as addictive. I swapped one addiction for another. My running club is full of 'junkies' - it's a socially acceptable addiction.

Justin

edit - in summary, for me, the keys were getting a 'kick' from somewhere else (exercise) and the ability to accurately taper off nicotine. Think of it this way: if you need 100 'hits' of nicotine a day, choose a system that allows you to taper off really accurately, so 99 hits today, 98 tomorrow. Slow progress minimises withdrawal symptoms. Have a hundred day plan. Really gently. Worked for me.

Also - having a fitness target gives extra impetus to quit. Go run a 5K race / climb a wall / cycle a time trial. Aim to be x minutes faster next year.
 
buildafriend said:
I know so many studio guys stopping smoking by using E-cigs. I know DIY audio guys who make DIY e-cig juice. Its still an nicotine addiction..
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AFAIK nicotine is not the killer, but the carcinogens associated with burning tobacco... The holy grail for big tobacco companies is to get permission to market the nicotine in a less dangerous delivery system. So far the nanny state does not approve, since it just sounds wrong to enable addictive drug use, but I can image a desire for chronic use of these smokeless quitting aids.

Nicotine is a very interesting drug, and I have no desire to indulge myself, but in broad strokes it is like a good "worker bee" drug as it reduces the tendency to be distracted by the environment around you so you can focus on boring repetitive tasks,,, perhaps a good thing for air traffic controllers who need to focus narrowly, not so much for truck drivers who need to be alert to subtle changes in the extremes of their environment.

This is not the attraction for most smokers.. It is a mood leveler, so it helps bring mood back from extreme highs or lows, and many women are attracted as a substitute for snacking that could lead them to gain weight.

I don't know if understanding it helps or hurts quitting. Like I said I don't care for any more filters on my perception of things around me, and boring repetitive work, motivates me to engineer solutions to finesse it, rather than live with it. 

JR
 
I think nicotine can be a killer in larger amounts....but you're right about the burning of tobacco being the main culprit...

I did read somewhere that if you place 20 cigarettes into a saucepan of water and keep boiling it down, the left over residue, if touched, can give you a heart attack....

Don't know if there is any truth in that, but I do know that nicotine has been used for years as an insecticide....

Anyway, still going strong....

....Day Five.

P:)x
 
AFAIK nicotine is not the killer
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actually nicotine is a poision used in some insecticedes. so in fact u r actually burning the poison and sucking the smoke into the lungs..nice.

i smoked for about 18 years and one day i just stopped, no patches, vapourisers, e -cigs nothing. the way i look at it if u wanna stop just stop you know??
 
nicotine in its pure form can actually kill in small doses.  it's technically a neurotoxin, which is then entering your blood stream and screwing with your neurons by looking similar to acetylcholine.  the stimulative effects of 'traditional' uptake may cause circulation issues and hypertensive stress in the long-term, but you're still better off removing all the other carcinogens &etc.  john thomas may be less impressive and you may still be more immunocompromised than the better-behaved public, but at least lung cancer and emphysema are pretty much out.  the tar in cigarettes also increases nicotine uptake, so your body will naturally wean you as it undergoes repair.
 
Grew up with smokers. My Mom was crushed when I decided to go first hand smoke, but I had been inhaling it my whole life.
Quit a few times, but always heard the call of the Drum.
Wasn't until I got guinea pigs and developed full-on asthma that I saw myself sucking on an inhaler minutes before grabbing the Drum sack. What idiocy!
Got rid of the pigs, the sack and some many months later the inhalers.
At first it was either smoke or breathe, and that got me through the jones.
A Chinese herbalist helped me kick the asthma. He tells me that herbs and acupuncture can help with new quitters.
Keep your eyes on the prize- extra$$ and healthy years
Mike
 
leadbreath said:
AFAIK nicotine is not the killer
Click to expand...

actually nicotine is a poision used in some insecticedes. so in fact u r actually burning the poison and sucking the smoke into the lungs..nice.

i smoked for about 18 years and one day i just stopped, no patches, vapourisers, e -cigs nothing. the way i look at it if u wanna stop just stop you know??
Click to expand...

So is alcohol and many mood altering substances.

As with so many things the poison is in the dose...  Smoking and drinking generally kills us from secondary effects, not the poison alone.

JR
 
I think if you give up smoking and want to succeed, then you need to take baby steps, which is why I wrote in the original post that I am weening myself off everything but nicotine...

As of tomorrow, I will be on a reduced amount of nicotine intake, and if things go to plan, I will be on a zero nicotine based intake in the next week.

Yes, you can just stop and go cold turkey....been there, done that....did 7 months with no ciggies, boozey drinks or that green stuff....

Also, please remember that 50% of smoking is not chemical dependency, it's the psychological association, which is why most people have different triggers....

Either way, this is the best and easiest way i've found so far.

Go me.

P:)x



 
So is alcohol and many mood altering substances.

As with so many things the poison is in the dose...  Smoking and drinking generally kills us from secondary effects, not the poison alone.

JR
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yeah man u right, thats why i stick to smoking silicon and germanium these days ;D , not to keen on sucking the lead smoke though...
 
I think if you give up smoking and want to succeed, then you need to take baby steps, which is why I wrote in the original post that I am weening myself off everything but nicotine...
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i think what made giving up smoking easy for me  was that i had earlier in my life gone through the experience of kicking the addiction of much stronger substances.
i took up meditation and that really helped.
anyway good luck, its in your hands wether u succeed or not.
 
Here's the truth - it only takes one good proper health scare.
It will come.

Then quitting is easy.

Very easy.

There is one hell of a lot that can go very badly wrong with the human vehicle  ;D
 
Nicotine does indeed acts on neurotransmitters and increases relaxation and concentration for a short period (a few minutes). The problem with it, like with almost every drug injected into your system, is that this triggers downregulation. Consume it for some time, and the levels of neurotransmitters with Nicotine are at about the level they were before you started it. And without Nicotine they fall below that level. That's when the restlessness and craving start.

There are very few long-term benefits but a host of detrimental effects, some of them quite severe.

In order to increase your ability to focus with negligable negative side effects regular exercise (weight lifting and intervall training) and plenty of Omega-3 fatty acids (fish oil) are the way to go. Caffeeine (preferably in the form of coffee) also looks favorably in terms of cost-benefit according to a huge body of studies.
These might even help you quit smoking.

Anyway, stay at it and good luck!
 
Beside the previous joke, good luck with the effort. It can be tough. When my dad (rip) quit smoking in his early 50s he stopped dead and went cold turkey. So we thought. One night I got up to go to the loo and caught him stealing a ciggie from my bro's pocket. Ha ha ha. My dad. Rest in peace. But he was beyond chain smoking when he did. He lived on tea and cigarette. Anyhow, he had stopped for about thirty years before he passed away.
 
I have many reasons to stop and they are:

I know people who stopped in their early fifties and died or had some serious problems shortly after stopping....

I'm so done with paying "The Man", who, got me into this in the first place, (media citation not needed...;))

and thirdly, I have some diy sh*t I need to finish.....

:)

P:)x

 
Paultec said:
I have many reasons to stop and they are:

I know people who stopped in their early fifties and died or had some serious problems shortly after stopping....

I'm so done with paying "The Man", who, got me into this in the first place, (media citation not needed...;))

and thirdly, I have some diy sh*t I need to finish.....

:)

P:)x
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First off, Best of luck! You will succeed. Of that, I am sure.

Second off.... I think you need to re-organize your priorities and get your DIY to the top of the list.

:)

Cheers,
jb
 

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