Quitting smoking

I quit drinking coffee every morning at the same time as I stopped smoking, but I caved on that one the other day. I had two cups yesterday and was crazed all day and didn't know it. So today, no coffee.

And yeah, I stopped smoking indoors a long time ago and I just got a new car, and I don't smoke in it at all.

I guess the most positive thing I can say is, it wasn't as hard as I thought, in that after the first week the time does just seem to go by. Of course there's always the danger of going back but I figure just take things on a day to day basis and you'll be fine.

Running definitely helps and also acts as sort of further motivation, the idea that you can actually be physically fit and a non smoker is an attractive one, I found, anyway.

You'll feel alot better, and I found I slept alot better too, just go for it. In the first 3 weeks I smoked one or two on my birthday, and one or two some other night, I didn't buy a pack though, which I think is key. So don't buy a packet.

I'm not sure about others but I really did find the first week or two hell, but after that it got alot easier.

My usual smoking crowd is this one girl who just sits at home and watches war movies on DVD and this other hermit who just sits around with his dog smoking his hookah.

i gave in eventually, and had one cigarette. it has to be my last one. i am worried about my health

Huh?

Anyways, good luck, Gear. I quit last December, and it was hard as shit. Now, though, it's no big deal. You really do feel better. Hang in there.

Now I feel pretty confident. I would suggest quitting cold-turkey. I am sure there are pros and cons to any method, but cold-turkey has an absoluteness to it. "I did not smoke any today" is far more motivational than "I only had two today."

Also, after a while you start not to like the things. I started actually smelling cigarettes and not liking the smell. I also became much more aware of the smoke. Go into a restaurant and look at the smoking section and the non-smoking section. The non-smoking section is so much nicer.

found that by running more and taking Vitamin B6, I was able to pretty easily stop my cravings.

Wow, does this actually work? Even if it's just a placebo, why not, I'll go take some-a those supplements I got months ago & haven't touched.

I can't run right now because I am sore from the other night when I had to run 4 miles total to the store & back to get my dog some syrup of ipecac after he ate roach traps. (excuses) And I don't want to take up a new hobby because I always get frustrated at learning curves. I was good at smoking right from the start. *bittersweet laugh/cry* Maybe I'll just start making art regularly again and maybe meditating more (aka zoning out to drone in semi-dissociative state and eventually taking a nap).

So the ONtario government will send you a five week supply of nicotine inhalers for free if you agree to participate in their "study" which consists of three no doubt long and irritating phone calls over the course of the next year.. http://stopstudy.ca I foolishly started smoking again in June after 6-8 months without, and I've tried to quit a few times since and it's been a lot harder. I suspect it'll get easier soon as I can only smoke outside and it's starting to get very cold and terrible outside, but I just tried my nicotine inhaler's first puff and it's an incredible replication of smoking without the smell, smoke or being outside in the cold. Apparently it doesn't contain the many other toxins that you would find in a cigarette, only the nicotine. Anyone else ever use one to quit?

I believe I would just get addicted to those.

it depends on how much you believe your addiction is due to chemical dependence and how much you believe your addiction is due to habit. in my case it was mostly the latter.

former for the first three days, latter for the next 8 months

...then i started again, of course

meditating more (aka zoning out to drone in semi-dissociative state and eventually taking a nap).

― Abbott, Sunday, July 8, 2007 8:10 PM (1 year ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

hey, been about two months!

Haven't smoked since August of 2007 but I swear to God, I just started craving one.

don't!

Well, I'm not gonna.

hey, been about two months!

― donna rouge, Tuesday, October 21, 2008 11:02 PM (1 month ago) Bookmark

i "broke edge" when i was in georgia two weeks ago (for some reason i can't resist when it's legal to smoke in a bar) but that's been it since quitting in august

This morning an insurance agent asked me if I smoked, and I said "no," and realized I've been off them for a year and a half. This is pretty much a miracle for me. I loved smoking and did it for twenty-plus years. I have been through some REALLY AWFUL PERSONAL LIFE SHIT since I quit and it hasn't even been a problem, and have gotten drunk innumerable times without goin' "fuck it, I'm drunk, I gotta smoke!"

I just wanted to testify because it felt really great to actually feel, in response to the question "do you smoke?": "of course not"

High fives, duder! High fucking fives. I haven't smoked since February and this breathing thing is a thing I can totally dig.

Abbott let me just tell you that this time next year you are gonna 1) barely remember that you used to smoke and 2) have one of these "fuck yeah, this is way better!" moments when you do remember

High fucking fives!

i wonder if the next questions of the insurance man was: have you smoked in the past..

"you got this" otm

Like yourself I have done this a few times and relapsed, so you already know you can do it.
Yeah it is fucking miserable for sure, but if you've made it this far you've got to see it through now.

yeah, thanks for the encouragement, lads - I reckon the last 2 days was probably the worst of it. At times like this (breaking a rather troublesome + difficult addiction to a highly addictive legal chemical) I'm just glad it's not opiates I got into - it can always be much worse!

You can do this

A buddy of mine starting vaping to quit smoking, with the idea of gradually decreasing the nicotine level... however, he's still vaping a couple years later

Cold turkey is probably the best way to go

Heyyyyy NV!! Good to see you! Yeah apparently even overnight is enough for the chemical need to dissipate. You can do it, calz! Can you change up your schedule/physical habits to respond to how you feel? Ie find ways to relax or refocus or etc?

breaking chemical addictions is a lot harder than altering delivery habits in the case of nicotine imo. I was quite happy wearing the patches and having crazy long REM sleep every night. Dreaming more than sleeping! But during this period even though I'd stopped smoking and vaping - I was no closer to breaking the underlying addiction behind my habit.

i've been on my PRC vapes for a couple of months before somebody pointed out there's no nicotine in them lol

anyway personally rules make me want to break them, whatever works is the only plan

also <3 io it's very good to see you too

You can do it calzino! Echoing map, if you're past day four then you're over the hump

I need to do this. I dont want to but I need to.

I love it so much. But it is bad. Calzinzo you're doing v well.

(I've vaped for the last 10 years but I smoke weed and have gotten into the UK thing of putting tobacco in joints so I need to figure that bit out too.)

love u calz, u are an A+ poster and a stand up guy, u got this

ENBB u are great too, sending strength

I quit in Jan 2006 and it was a perfect storm: a bad night where I smoked wayyy too many, I was doing snuff at the same time, cigarette prices went through the roof, and I think I had one more that monday and that was it

I think quitting vaping is going to be harder than just quitting smoking would have. I sleep with my vape. :( This feels like such a lame thing to say but I have the worst oral fixation. I never sucked my thumb but I chewed the necks and sleeves of all my shirts as a kid and I ate/chewed my hair and bit my nails until I was 30. I also chewed all my stuffed animals. I hate gum. I'm gonna need to find some kind of sugar free candy or something. I have smoked/baked for 30 years. That's not good.

I meant vaped not baked for 30 years tho that also is true. Not looking to stop that.

I would recommend patches and pouches ENBB. The pouches seem like a newish thing (kind of like Skoal bandits without the mouth cancer!). The pouches don't contain any tobacco derivatives at all and come in various strengths of minty flavours. You just stick them in the cavity between your gum and your top lip and the nicotine is absorbed through the membranes. The first few times it burns quite harshly and then you don't feel a thing and it becomes an oddly addictive practise itself. The other day when I was rattling for nicotine I found a discarded one in my bathroom next to the toothbrushes and was overcoming the urge to put it into my mouth, like there might be a few dregs of nicotine left in it!

I'm glad the pouches work for some, even if they seem to become their own problem addictively speaking. Since I dropped cigs in 2018, I've remained a steady vaper. I cut the tobacco and nicotine element out of the juice I buy altogether, so now it's nothing more than the oral fixation and routine/habit keeping me at it.

I think even you were only transferring your addiction from a vape to lungs delivery to pouches, it would be a healthier option. Or if it is the oral fixation there are the non battery/no vape/nicotine free thingies that I don't even what they call them yet, have heard them described as more comparable to herbal tea than vaping. Not to be confused with those people that do actually vapourise herbal tea in their vape guns!

Wait. People are vaping tea leaves? What?

Do you mean the things that are like aromatherapy vapes? I think I know what you mean but I haven't tried them. The pouches are a good idea. I will look into it. I'm down to 3mg liquid at this point.

Have been using the Nicorette spray for a month now and am completely addicted to it

Not to be confused with those people that do actually vapourise herbal tea in their vape guns!

when I was working at an occult shop in the Bronx an herbalist friend gave me a big paper sack full of his homemade herbal smoke blend for rollies to help wean me off the cigs
I don't remember what exactly was in it but lots of mugwort for sure, and a little lavender
it smelled and tasted absolutely revolting and was never going to work
not least because everyone in that place was chainsmoking weed and cigarettes all day

sometime later he gave me an herbal tea blend that was afaict p much the same shit

The pouches seem like a newish thing

it was very odd to see so many women using these in Sweden... like, I always grew up thinking 'chew' was an exclusively dude addiction but it's not the case over there. They even have little shops that exclusively sell snus

death by snus-snus

the pouches are not snus related at all, they don't contain any tobacco derivatives at all - just basically pharma grade nicotine and some flavour.

ah okay

I got a flyer advertising the latest vaping sensation through my door the other day. I'm not joking here, this new phase of vaping... it's called "heated tobacco" .. lol

xp wait maybe they are one and the same

Snus (/snuːs/ SNOOSS, Swedish: [ˈsnʉːs] ⓘ) is a Swedish tobacco product (in Scandinavia) and non-tobacco nicotine product (outside of Scandinavia; often marketed as nicotine pouches) consumed by placing a pouch of powdered tobacco leaves or powdered non-tobacco plant fibers under the lip for nicotine to be absorbed through the oral mucosa.

A nicotine pouch is a small bag that contains the addictive chemical nicotine and some other ingredients. It doesn’t have tobacco leaf in it. Some companies that make nicotine pouches market them as a safer alternative to smoking and dipping. But talk to your doctor before you use them to try to kick the habit. They’re not an FDA-approved type of nicotine replacement therapy, like nicotine gum or lozenges.

god knows, maybe some brands are more like snus. I was under the impression the brand I used contained no tobacco - but now I'm confused!

I know that some varieties are not at all linked to oral cancer, so maybe those are the ones without any tobacco

I've seen these tiny refrigerators in liquor stores that have the cans, but I've never tried them myself. After almost twenty years without a nicotine habit, I'm in no rush to get re-hooked!

just had to ride the dopamine fluctuation rapids for the last week and am also in no rush to go back. But these pouches did help me break the vaping/smoking habit. That was my problem, I was vaping and smoking back in May.

"4 days is past the very worst, it just gets easier from here"

you couldn't even sell me that shit tonight, it's done!

First I quit liquor, then all alcohol, and now cigs— I’m not to Day Four nic-free yet and I gotta say… I feel like absolute shit. I’m trying to wallow in it now, remembering “you’ll never feel as bad as you feel now ever again”

I'm using the very novel excuse that I've quit tobacco as a reasonable justification to get drunk on gold label barley wine and other strong shit tonight! Next act, this clown will be justifying hard liquor as a good (post smoking) lifestyle choice!

smokeless

everything tastes SO much saltier now

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/12/style/smoking-cigarettes-comeback.html

it's back, baby. l-i-v-i-n

Twenty years ago today, I believe... I was at a house party in San Francisco, Jan 2006, and I had like a dozen cigarettes and felt like shit the next day and that was the end. I don't remember having much trouble quitting, and never really looked back

A caveat: I've smoked spliffs with a little tobacco in them (not in a couple years)... I think I got more high from the tobacco than the weed

8 days now. I've managed around two weeks before. The real test will be next time I go out for a drink

i quit for four months, i learned that i need daily exercise in the process. snow and ice and winter generally took away my daily run and i fell back into smoking mid-december, but i'm glad i experienced how "easy" it was to quit and plan to do so again as soon as it becomes not-icy

you can do it!

I think I'm 18 months free of nicotine addiction delivered through smoking or vaping now. Not even thinking about the health benefits at the moment, it's just too expensive - even the vaping. Although in my dreams I'm still a cigarette smoker, irl I have no temptation to relapse at all because I've stopped about 4-5 times now in the last 25 years and that last stage of nicotine withdrawal seemed to get harder every time. Don't want to go through it again.

Honestly the withdrawal isn't usuallyv a big problem for me, or at least I don't think so. I can put the thought away easily until my synapses are triggered by, say, someone smoking on TV or a trip to the pub. I associate smoking with socialising and vice versa. A night out (I DJ and promote club nights in my spare time) involves regular trips to the smoking area, where I can get away from the general hubbub, light up, and decompress for a few minutes. Obvs I can go stand in the smoking area without smoking, but that's going to be tough

it’s fun imo. you still get the camraderie, decompression and freezing cold, just without gallons of smoke entering your body

xp definitely get that. feel like i could write a whole book about cigarette addiction. i think the chemical addiction aspect is totally overblown (and some days i'm even inclined to lend credence to the conspiracy theory that tobacco companies hype up this aspect on purpose), at worst you have one or two nights of uneasy sleep. immediately my body started to feel better. but for me it was almost like grief in terms of losing a beloved ritual, a way to mark time, something small to look forward to while doing monotonous or unpleasant tasks, just a small form of "switching it up," stepping outside and feeling connected to and recharged by a small fire to rekindle the light inside me and sustain me through whatever was next

Friend of mine used to say, "If I give up smoking, what will I do with my hands?"

i think the chemical addiction aspect is totally overblown

hard disagree, it's a very real chemical addiction with very real withdrawal symptoms imo. In my case during the last stages I get serious migraine style auras and blind spots, totally reduced ability to concentrate on the simplest of tasks and extreme irritability. It's always been difficult for me.

different from person to person. if i experience any real chemical withdrawal, it's normally in the form of mild malaise or ennui - a general pessimism that there isn't anything good to look forward to. other than that, it's not too bad. it's just the situations i mentioned above - i am weak and cave too easily, especially if i see someone else smoking, i'll find i really really crave

this is the best time of year for me to quit. the weather's shit, so i'm not in a pub garden or a park. i can sit indoors and watch films - ones where they don't smoke, preferably.

in honesty, i'm lucky i don't feel chemically addicted (i'm sure i am). it's time to be an adult about it and not just cave the second i go out

you can do it!

― Tracer Hand, Thursday, January 8, 2026 3:34 AM (seven hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

Thank you! Also, I just sent you a message via ilx mail about something unrelated, lmk if you get it?

just checked, yes i did! will reply