Addiction - i need to quit smoking

[brain_wreck]

i've tried cold turkey, wellbutrin, and nicotine patches in the past, but it didn't work for me. a was talking with a friend about quitting smoking, and he said that he just decided to quit and stopped. he described the withdrawals as being severe for the first few days, but it became manageable after that. he told me that if i want to stop, just stop. just hearing those words gave me a glimpse of this being a real possibility. it seems to me that a person must have a certain mindset to do this successfully. i feel that i don't have a good grasp on that mindset. i know that i can push through for a few days, but it's the long run that i'm worried about. i'm miserable enough without withdrawals hanging over my head for some unknown amount of time. when i tried quitting cold turkey and a craving came on, i would try to occupy my mind with something, but i couldn't stay focused. i'd like to hear from anyone who has decided to quit unaided and did so successfully. can you describe to me what went through your head when a strong craving for a smoke came on. there must be some certain mental processes going on for someone who has quit this way. please be descriptive as possible. i asked my friend about this, but he seemed to have a tough time describing what was going through his head when he quit.

fwiw, i've had my fair share of different drugs and managed to tough through a few addictions. quitting smoking just seems much more difficult for me.

[oakley24]

Ok man it's this simple, all you need to do is when you have a craving smoke one toke, then throw it out. Not only will this teach you to not want cigs but also wean you off. In diets they don't tell the people not to eat candy but eat less. Smoking is different tho, you go a while without a cig and you have cravings, so give into them but only one puff, eventually your body will adapt. How this helps, and if not just don't buy any more cigs, spend your money on other drugs that arn't addictive.

[wespawloski]

I was going to suggest wellbutrine, but I see you tried it. XL version? and you know it takes a month in your system to really have an effect?

SWIM wishes you the best of luck, if you are a pot smoker you could try to offset cravings but smoking some dank.

Also SWIM had been doing some light learning on drugs in the medical setting, and nicotine is very hard to quit. Withdrawls arnt as bad as coke and shit, but you can feel really really down and its so easy to get one more to lift you back up. FIGHT IT MAN, if you can hold on for 3 days it only gets easier SWIM heard. If you can make a week, SWIM has confidence you can make it. SWIM really hopes you can quit, and is cheering for you!!!

AGAIN : SWIM heard the first 3 days are the worst and a week is very admirable. Keep a strong mindset!

Reputation Comments on this post:

helpful, good job at trying to answer the question

[arelite2]

SWIM quit after reading Allen Carr's "The Easy Way to Stop Smoking". It sound wild that a book could help with quitting, but after seven years of pack a day+ smoking SWIM managed to quit for good.

[chillinwill]

Originally Posted by arelite2

SWIM quit after reading Allen Carr's "The Easy Way to Stop Smoking". It sound wild that a book could help with quitting, but after seven years of pack a day+ smoking SWIM managed to quit for good.

I have heard from numerous people that this book is very helpful in helping to stop smoking....I have only read about half of it but can see how it can be beneficial to someone that really wants to quit

[oakley24]

So swims method is crap? Well he just made it up so.... just trying to help.

[fiveleggedrat]

Originally Posted by wespawloski

I was going to suggest wellbutrine, but I see you tried it. XL version? and you know it takes a month in your system to really have an effect?

Then why do they give out sample bottles in a 7 day supply? Even though everyone says it takes weeks/months for SxxI's to take effect, Swim has taken them and felt them the same day. Perhaps the main component is what takes that time(Addiction, anyone?) Swim vomits on SSRI's, for example. He would always throw up taking them and did not make the connection for a while, so it's not an association, pavlov response, or placebo.

Anywho! Dumb question, but has Swiy tried tapering? What about puffing on fake cigs or cigs with non-psychoactive stuff while using a nicotine patch? Just something I came up with, and I know it's not a great idea,

This method is a bit more extreme, and Swim has done this type of thing before: Create a negative association with ciggarettes. A small example of this would be keeping a rubber band on your wrist. When a craving comes, snap yourself with it. It's just the concept that works here; pain, a nasty smell/taste, doing something you don't like, just something to relate smoking with that is negative or annoying. Either you'll later decide against it or get to the point you can't stand cigs from that association. I like this idea, but other's will probably find it stupid

I know these types of things are done all the time training animals, but they do work with people, and damn good, but people don't conciously realize it. The power of association is STRONG.

Reputation Comments on this post:

many good suggestions and bits of advice

[wespawloski]

Then why do they give out sample bottles in a 7 day supply? Even though everyone says it takes weeks/months for SxxI's to take effect, Swim has taken them and felt them the same day. Perhaps the main component is what takes that time(Addiction, anyone?) Swim vomits on SSRI's, for example. He would always throw up taking them and did not make the connection for a while, so it's not an association, pavlov response, or placebo.""

You, sir, appear to have ecstatic serotonin levels already :P why even bother with a SSRI. (Serotonin is involed with desire to eat AND nausea :P so if your throwing up it would be a good time to say "mm thats enough"

[fiveleggedrat]

Nausea is a confirmed side effect of SSRI's.

[yaba]

Swim stopped after 15/16 years of smoking and was on 40+ a day

First nicotine patches then Allan Carr's book The Easy Way To Stop Smoking, Allan Carr session (he had to take a plane to it, expensive xxx amount) bupropion (Zyban) Then bupropion again. Then champix and champix again. Now he stopped for about 7 months/ 29 weeks.

All that over a 3 year period !!! It wasn't easy but his ex ex girlfriend was anti smoking his other ex smoked and said: If you don't do it don't worry about it, Witch helped him a lot..

Oh and smoking joints with herbal cigarettes !!

Good luck to anyone who is quitting.

[Pringles]

Beating the tobacco monster.

Here are my experiences with stopping smoking, it is my hope they will be of use to anyone who has decided they don't want
to smoke anymore.

I did not come to this decision lightly, ive been planning it for weeks now. Everytime i smoked i thought
about the dirty ciggarette & what it was doing to me. That re-enforces the fact that i'm not giving up something nice at

all but something quite unpleasnt & pernicious. Ive come to the end of the ciggarette road. I smoked my last ciggarette at

5:am, 15 minutes later i applied a nicotine patch, ive been a non smoker for 12 hours now. Thats right, from the moment i

applied the patch i was a non smoker, even if i pulled it off an hour later & smoked i would have been a non smoker for an

hour.

Into battle

Because i had prepared by thinking about each ciggarette i smoked & the damage it did, i am now in a good position to

suceed. Now i need two tools to do this, one is absolute determination, the other is the ability to win over anger. The

determination is mine, i will not give in. You cannot have "just one ciggarette", In the past i failed because when

irritated i would explode in fury, break something & then have a ciggarette. How stupid i have been. I know know that its

quite possibe to over come rage, i can imagine this anger monster doing it's best to make me lose control of my situation.

I also imagine in my minds eye that anger monster & i laugh at it & give it the finger. Its not having me, it's led me

a dance before & now i'm not dancing to its tune anymore. As i type this ive been smoke free for 12 hours, in that short

time i found cycling up hill was easier, my health will be be so much better in a few weeks.

Goodbye ciggarettes, it's not been a good relationship.

How do i know i will succeed? - Ive been there before. You cannot have "just one ciggarette"
It becomes two a day, then 3, then 4 until your a full on smoker again.

Pringles added 26 Minutes and 41 Seconds later...

I do feel forgetful at the moment, perhaps That comes with quitting!

I found its very important for me to change the nicotine patch at the same time each day. Don't try getting extra value by using it for more than it was meant. Also it's very easy to reach out for a cigarette without even thinking about it. Ive got rid of my ciggy stash & washed the ashtray. Well i might get visitors who smoke.
Again, good luck with quitting)

[DAVOTHEGOD]

Ok I quit smoking a while ago and I did just like brain wreck had idealy proposed. The thing though when I was quiting smoking, I was also kicking coke. The two go hand in hand as we all know. So I quit those two things together and I can tell you that its not how to ignore your cravings its a matter of how to emliminate your cravings. If you think about smoking you will smoke plain and simple, however once you have successfully weened yourself off of cigs, you're good and you can go back to bars and shit like that where you wont be tempted. The trick is to absolve your mind of all thoughts of smoking and all of the associations that go along with it. When a craving comes along most people try to distract themselves, which inevitably leads to cracking. You have to find out some way to not pay attention to the cravings. If you concentrate on ignoring the cravings your still thinking about smoking. If you think about what to do about quitting smoking youll never quit. You have to learn how to forget about it all together. Assume when you wake up tomorrow that you never smoked in the first place. swim usually finds that trading smoking brown for green is sufficient, also it helps with the forgetting about everything part.

[dadrone]

A couple of SWIM's friends have had success with the hypnosis to quit smoking.

[DAVOTHEGOD]

I hear hypnosis only works on 4% of subjects who try to use it to wuit smoking.

[Pringles]

Its day 9 for me & ive not succumbed yet. The urge to smoke exists but it's not overpowering. I'm using nicotinell 21mg 24 hour patches to soften the withdrawal & its working. Ive felt slightly light-headed & more tired than usual. Yesterday i thought about cigarettes more than i have since quitting. Some of this was a mild craving but mostly habbit, Feeling good made me feel like celebrating with a ciggy, just for a fleeting moment, then i realized the stupidity of it. I seem to do that quite a lot, think about smoking & remember a fraction of a second later that i dont smoke. Ive also not had the unusual dreams that often come when i use patches. Its all good, more to follow..

[Pringles]

I agree that its a matter of how to eliminate your cravings in #14, for me this is to face up to them & neutralize them by being stronger, knowing its a waiting game, patience & calmness will get you everything

[Riverhead]

Originally Posted by DAVOTHEGOD

I hear hypnosis only works on 4% of subjects who try to use it to wuit smoking.

That depends on the hypnotherapist. SWIM is a professional hypnotherapist and SWIM's success rate is >90%. SWIM even offers money back guarantees.

[bananaskin]

Well someone I know very well quit smoking in the last month, for the second time.
It was really hard for her this time as she really found dope useful for her and had her daily dose.
She cut down for a few days, with the help of 21mg 24 hour patches, but after these few days decided that this was quite counterproductive and decided to go for it.
The first few days was as said before, very hard for a number of reasons... habit, idle hands, the ritual of making the cigarette... and other reasons.
The weed was easier to do without for her, quite possibly because she is well aware that there are lots of other ways to prepare dope, and if she wants to, she can.
Another reason for the stutter and difficulties is that she is very interested in substances that are best smoked.
She had many broken nights' sleep with the patches, not wanting to give in and remove the patch before retiring, however she did enjoy the vivid dreams.
Her caffeine intake has decreased by probably 80pc though, down from 10+ mugs a day to 2 to kickstart the morning (probably habit too), although she drinks more tea now.
Her appetite is greatly improved, probably due to nicotine and caffeine reduction as opposed to not smoking... nicotine and caffeine are both appetite suppressants.
She pigged out on junk for a couple of weeks, to compensate for the nicotine reduction... cravings are often disguised as hunger.
She is also hungry more though, she calls it stomach hungry as opposed to head hungry.
The first few days were painful, she feels she was not really ready to quit which didn't help at all.

However, now her body is used to the daily nicotine portion, she feels stronger, she can breathe easier (apart from the occasional breathlessness which can be a side-effect of the patches), she eats properly, and doesn't big out on junk. She has bags more energy as well.

The patches for her this time were NOT an easy option, and she caved in more than once, even drying out tobacco she had thrown in the bin after watering it, although she feels that she was just being naughty, the truth is that nicotine one of the most addictive substances known to man , if not indeed THE most addictive.

Her advice to folk would be don't give up giving up, and if one can't give up completely all at once, each cigarette NOT smoked is a bonus.
Don't concentrate on the crashes, be strengthened by the victories and each day will be easier.

And remember, there are many forms of smoking cessation treatment, there are microtabs, inhalers, gum, meditation, and more, so if one treatment fails there is choice.


Peace

[W!SE]

smoking everywhere - ecig

no reason to quit. the nicotine high with the oral fixation WITHOUT the negative side effects, hassle to find places to smoke, and cost.

im in love (until fda regulates nicotine)

im literally smoking at work now like im at home...i smoke in the mall..its so nice to have my drip and a cig wherever i am. again i am just in love

[bananaskin]

That's the electric ciggie isn't it?
That was the thing my friend forgot about in her previous report.

[bananaskin]

An update from my friend...
She reports now being on the 14mg patches, down from 21...she feels her doctor should have given her another 2 weeks of 21 but maybe she is wrong,
Stepping down is not easy, the body is just used to 21mg/24 hours patch, then it receives 1/3 less... she has been munching today, but she feels this is as much psychological as physical.
She has been removing her patches on retiring, when she remembers, as she said earlier in the thread, she doesn't mind the vivid strange dreams that are continuing (caused more by quitting smoking than the use of the patches she thinks, and not caused by caffeine which she limits to 2 a day in the morning,) but more puzzling to her is the broken sleep nightly.
There are many possible reasons for the sleep problems ... waking herself from her dreams,waking herself to remind herself to remove her patch, etc.
But it is all worth it as she is still smoke free, apart from one spliff with a good friend of hers about 3 weeks ago but that's another thread!
She feels stronger physically, she just feels HEALTHIER, she is eating better(although that still needs improvement) and all her senses are keener which in itself makes quitting worthwhile.
However, she is on a herbal tea crusade now

[Phentasies]

Deprenyl is fantastic for this purpose.

Combine Deprenyl (2.5mg-5mg) everyday with a healthy dose of FUN HOBBIES and before you know it your over it.

Deprenyl = MAO-B Inhibitor = Increases synaptic dopamine neurotransmission = feeling of content/satisfaction without using cigarettes to get that satisfaction = success!


Of course, you have to WANT to quit. But youd be amazed how well Deprenyl works for this. You can also add in L-DOPA 250-500mg everyday with the Deprenyl for some extra "oomph".


EDIT:
Oh also, try combining the above therapeutic path with the Become An Ex philosophy. I havent visited their website before but the commercials seem to spell out the philosophy (I could be wrong with this assumption though). But the general jist seems to be to phase out the use of a cigarette during a time in the day you always have one (i.e. first thing in morning, right after dinner, etc.), and then once youve managed to do that, subtract yet another cigarette from another point in time you always have one.

Basically I think their idea is that you sorta gain momentum/confidence in yourself being able to quit as you see yourself being able to go without those couple cigarettes that you always smoke after certain things/at certain times.

I believe their webites www.becomeanex.org

Im just making this logical assumption of the philosophy behind the program based on their TV ads, so this might not actually be how it works at all.



EDIT #2:
ALLLLSSSOOOO, it would be really helpful if you have any close friends who smoke and want to quit and you guys can make a pact with eachother to quit and lean on eachother for support and take up hobbies together to help you all keep your minds off them - COMBINED with all the things SWIM mentioned above.

You know what a great hobby is that you may havent given serious consideration; paintball. Its physically demanding adrenaline pumping action. Plus it really works your cardiovascular system especially the lungs, and while it might be hard at first the FUN of the game makes it easy for you to forget how you cant run for more than 15 seconds without wheezing, and after just a couple games youd be amazed how quickly your lungs will bounce back their lung capacity and such.

[Nikolan]

This was a letter SWIM found under his bed from his long lost uncle when he was thinking of quitting smoking..

I know this may seem like just a replacement, but I successfully used swedish snus to quit smoking. I was smoking a pack a day for 5 years (20 cigarettes/day). The snus helped me get over the first part of the addiction, mostly of the psychological addiction of needing to go outside for a smoke, have a smoke with a beer, etc. I now use 3 portions of snus/day (24 portions in a tin) at rougly half the cost of a pack of cigarettes per tin. Healthwise, chew itself has shown to be not even close to being as bad for you as smoking, and snus even less. I quit snus/nicotine all together for 5 months straight, and started back on snus when some norwegian friends of mine visited in the states, but I also know that with snus, I've gone full days without it as I don't feel the urge like I had with cigarettes. I think this can definitely be a stepping stone in the correct direction to finally being completely "off" nicotine and tobacco. (and a hell of a lot cheaper than patches/gum)

Just something to consider. Good luck!

[Spucky]

My Cat stops Opiat/ Opioids
My Cat stops Alcohol
My Cat even stops Crack
sucessfull!

But with Cigarettes he have very big Problems.

The Book from Alan Carr say nothing else, just "Stop it"!
I done this with all the Drugs, but this shitty Tobacco create big suffering and Pain!