Addiction - Quitting Cigs cold turkey.

[Hlucn8]

AH!!! Swim woke up hung over, out of smokes, and still seven days from payday. Decided at $5.70 a pack, swim should buy groceries for family instead of smoke, so he's feeling it right now. Oh boy. Anybody else quit cold turkey? What helped?

[Hlucn8]

Sorry, didn't realize there was a tobacco forum. Would this go there, or mabey addiction and recovery? huh.
Any Mod want to help me out? How do i change forums?

[Nahbus]

Yeah SWIM just quit cold turkey from 2 packs a day.
Mind you, SWIM has recently been perscriped Wellbutrin, which is the same chemical in Zyban, which is perscribed to help smokers quit. And SWIM barely made it... he definately couldn't have done it without the Wellbutrin.
But he's made it, so far, and has not had any since the 14th of last month (well actually.. he had almost a full one... but he actually thought it was quite horrible. Some say Wellbutrin makes the smoking experience pretty nasty. That cig actually made SWIM not want cigs even more.)

You can do it! It WILL be hard. Very hard. But if you really want to you can.

SWIM is not addicted to nicotine anymore... but out of habit still craves one after a meal, after sex, when drinking alcohol (thats when he smoked the 'almost' full cig), while driving and when he's bored. These cravings are definately going away, though.

[Hlucn8]

Thanks for the encouragement.

[Nahbus]

No problem. Is SWIY the type of person who has a very bad addictive and habit forming personality? SWIM has this veryyy badly. So if SWIY doesn't get severe habits or addictions he should be alright!

[Hlucn8]

Swims not and addict its cool, he feels alive.
Actually swim can resist anything but temptation. No, swim has many habitual bad habits.

[Each Hit]

swim recently quit cold turkey. he was doing good for about a month and a half, but recently, he has had cravings again. swim will be okay, though.

it's not really the feeling that is craved, it is the habit - the process of smoking in itself. swim used to smoke when he drove, so driving was tough for him at first. smoking is kind of pavlovian, i guess...

[Nahbus]

Each Hit is so correct. The habit and process of lighting the cig, drawing it to your mouth.. inhaling. Especially when you did it most (like most people with after meals, driving, etc.)
Yikes... SWIM is having a craving now... and this beer is not helping!

[grandbaby]

I'm 21 days smokefree now ($10 a pack where I live!!!) and not having many cravings at all; yesterday I was awake for over two hours before I even THOUGHT about cigarettes. I'd recommend everyone considering quitting read "Allen Carr's Easy Way to Stop Smoking." It's a nice piece of propaganda that helps with the hard part: the mindset. Hell, the withdrawal's easy if you can kick the mental shit.

Good luck, 'Lucy! (Great Woody avatar, by the way!)

[Hlucn8]

Originally Posted by grandbaby

(Great Woody avatar, by the way!)

Dude, I was wondering if anybody would recognize. Excelent.
Again, thanks for the personal stories and encouragement. Having a hard time not yelling at my wounderful children, but wife is helping.

[Secure.H]

Use eAllen Carrs "EasyWay" it works for cold turkey. Makes it easy as possible and has about a 90%+ success rate:

[tayo]

nicotine is out of the system in about 7-10 days. it was all mental for SWIM, no cravings after stopped. it is good to set a date about a month in advance to go cold turkey. and keep reminding yourself that you're stopping on that date, and keep telling people that smoke with you that you're quitting on that date, they'll hold you to it, and if you are of your word, which in this case everyone would like to be, there's more pressure to not smoke. SWIM smoked for a year (roughly 5 a day), decided to go cold turkey from cigs, alcohol, and weed for a year... it's been 8 months, and SWIM feels GREAT and frequently goes to the gym without coughing up muck in the lungs.

[Secure.H]

Originally Posted by tayo

nicotine is out of the system in about 7-10 days. it was all mental for SWIM, no cravings after stopped. it is good to set a date about a month in advance to go cold turkey. and keep reminding yourself that you're stopping on that date, and keep telling people that smoke with you that you're quitting on that date, they'll hold you to it, and if you are of your word, which in this case everyone would like to be, there's more pressure to not smoke. SWIM smoked for a year (roughly 5 a day), decided to go cold turkey from cigs, alcohol, and weed for a year... it's been 8 months, and SWIM feels GREAT and frequently goes to the gym without coughing up muck in the lungs.

Thats very good advice. Allen Carr also says when you commit and consider yourself "a non-smoker" no need to sit around and crave a cig or mope about it. Accept it and move on, whatever emotions come up deal with em and forget smoking.

The process can actually make you feel great not all bummed out and angry if the negative can be chaneled into positive. Quitting smoking can be fun, exciting and rewarding my energy levels skyrocket when I quit.

Reputation Comments on this post:

Good, positive advice about quitting.