Shaking Tobacco

Discussion in 'Health & Fitness' started by Dale, Mar 10, 2012.

  1. Dale Geriatric friend of trolls Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    118
    Decades ago, I found out that quitting cigarettes has an easy half-life. Three days of cold turkey takes the misery down to half. Three more days takes the remaining misery down to half, and so on. So after nine days, knowing that, most of us would stay the course and the problem is a goner.

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  3. Jeeves Valued Senior Member

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    5,089
    Lucky you.
    That half-life thing isn't true for any smoker i've ever known, though degree of addiction varies considerably, as does quantity and duration. It tends to be easier to quit for people who have smoked for less than ten years, or intermittently.
    The second three or four days may be easier than the first, but then the next week is much harder. The placebos - sweets, spice, sharp cheese, fizzy drinks, chewing gum - stop working at about two weeks in, and the weight-gain increases as the beneficial effect of compensatory food intake diminish. Concentration goes all to hell, then co-ordination; fidgets, impatience, irritability and over-reactiveness follow. Week three is easier; four is harder again. situations of stress, grief, anger and anxiety continue to present a setback for months, and often years.
    About year two, we start behaving normally and performing to previous standard.
     
    Last edited: Mar 10, 2012
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  5. Chipz Banned Banned

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    838
    I agree with Jeeves, much harder than 9 days. I've been quit for about 4 months and when I'm stressed I still crave one.
     
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  7. Michael 歌舞伎 Valued Senior Member

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    20,285
    If it's really difficult there is Bupropion which reduces almost all symptoms for most people. Can be a problem for those with heart defects. Stay on that for 3 months if needed and you should be able to deal with the residual effects of cravings from there on out.

    That's sort of a last ditch effort. Who knows what the long term effects are? But, probably better than smoking.
     
  8. Dale Geriatric friend of trolls Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    118
    Those dots and dashes admit to a falsehood, but when it worked for me I was bearing down upon attitude. Thing is, if I made myself believe my lie, it would intimidate me out of thinking of the relief to be found upon lighting up: I saw such a maneuver as a trip back to the living hell of that last first day of going without. It might have worked as part of the self hypnosis I had been fooling with. Previous failures seemed due to seeing how long I could go and it was like holding a stretched bungee cord. Overcame the notion and lived to 80. Hey, still going.:shrug:

    Memory of misery is weak enough to spare convincing contradiction. Other tricks mat have helped it work: promised teen-age daughter that if she did not get her ears pierced, I would give up smoking: that put on the pressure that if I quit quitting she would do the deed. Another trick was to, for an hour, feel that another year had passed and I was in waiting room knowing a sad eyed MD was on his way with grimmest news of my smoking's consequence. Then created an escape hatch routing be back a year for a just in time.

    Look at the ceiling for 15 minutes: it cuts circulation to the brain helping to inhibit the critical sensor. Promise self a no-pain plan. Promise you can have a cigarette any time you want it, and that you will enjoy it and smoke it down to a tiny butt. No catch. well, just one: it was to finish the session with a tip that I would think of lighting up only half as many times as the usual pack a day. It worked for five weeks and scared me off from fooling with stuff I would never understand.

    It was the half-life story that set me free, and it was after some three decades on the weed. Manhattans are better stress relievers anyhow.
     
  9. skaught The field its covered in blood Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    4,103
    If only it were that easy. I have quit many times, and I always go back. The longest I have gone is ten months. Even after that, I still felt the same as I did on the first day. I don't know why, my body just wont stop the withdrawal process. I have tried EVERYTHING!!! Vigorous exercise, junk food, sex, hell, meditation, increasing my dose of anti depressants, I even tried praying!

    I bought one of those electronic cigarettes a few weeks ago, and I just suck on the damn thing all day. But I have gone down to only about 5 real cigarettes a day with it. But when I smoke them, I smoke them all the way down to the butt.

    I'd love to quit again, if anybody has any suggestions, I am open to them!
     
  10. origin Heading towards oblivion Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    11,888
    I quit smoking 'cold turkey' in 1985. I have not had a single puff since then. I am very happy that I quit and I feel I am in great physical shape because of my decision.

    If there was a safe cigarette that tasted good I would buy a pack today. If I am diagnosed with a terminal disease I would probably buy a pack and have a smoke.

    Don't start, is my heart felt suggestion. I don't think about smoking or miss it 99.99% of the time but the truth is at some level I still miss it after all of these years.

    How could something as completely stupid as sucking choking smoke into your lungs be so addictive and enjoyable. It is really bizzare...
     
  11. tablariddim forexU2 Valued Senior Member

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    4,795
    45 years x 30 a day! I thought I would never ever give up and wanted to end up like one of those really old men you see that still smoke.

    I gave up the very next day I failed my spirometry test when the specialist told me I would be unable to breathe within 10 years because of COPD. FEAR my friends, works wonders. Just to balance my psychology I had a pack of 20 remaining and I lit one up every day after lunch, took a few puffs (never inhaled) and killed it; still have one of those cigs left over after 13 months. Seriously, it was shocking how easy it was for me to stop this time, previous attempts never had the motivation of a bad health diagnosis.
     
  12. spidergoat pubic diorama Valued Senior Member

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    54,036
    I just tapered off gradually, that worked fine. First I stopped buying packs, then I started on a cigar here and there or a clove cigarette or pipe. Finally I just stopped needing to smoke at all. I was never aware that I was quitting, it happened over a period of 2-3 years.
     
  13. Jeeves Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    5,089
    Every story different. We should have gone with wild organic MJ in the first place: it's not the burning leaf kills you; it's the commercial enhancement.

    Quitting was hard for me on all previous attempts - impossible, really: lasted from a couple of days to about two months before i resumed smoking. Having other smokers around at work and leisure didn't help.
    The final time was relatively easy: doctor said smoking would reduce the effectiveness of radiation and chemo therapy. Those made me so sick, i hardly noticed one more discomfort. Besides, there were no smokes in the outpatients lodge and after the second week, it would taken too much energy to walk to a store.
    This is an effective method that i nevertheless can't recommend.

    But i can suggest a variation: Go away on a retreat, or white-water rafting, or a mission in Samoa, or someplace completely different from your normal life, where there isn't ready access to cigarettes (alcohol, sugar, lottery tickets, pornography... whatever your weakness), where you are busy doing something completely different from your normal activities, for at least three months.
     
  14. Dale Geriatric friend of trolls Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    118
    A forgotten detail: Body English!

    During many failed attempts, I sort of saw myself in the distance as someone stretching a short bungee cord with outspread arms. The inherent attitude was "How long can I keep this up?" and I kept trying to break a new record. That was guaranteed failure on steroids.

    The "gullible fool" campaign whereby I took my "half-life of aggravation" story as absolute truth did the deed. Deliberate self-delusion went to work making the battle easier and easier instead of harder and harder. After the success was safely embedded, I restored my character by admitting to myself that it was just a little light-grey lie. Myself forgave I and we still get along OK with each other.
     
  15. Kittamaru Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. Adieu, Sciforums. Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    13,938
    Honestly, the easiest way to quit... is to find a reason worth quitting for.

    For my grandfather, it was when his wife became pregnant. He wanted to be able to run around with his children, to not have to excuse himself from family activities a dozen or more times a day to go outside and smoke, and God forbid anyone even suggest to him he smoke inside... he quit because he knew that was what he HAD to do to be the father his children deserved...
     
  16. Stoniphi obscurely fossiliferous Valued Senior Member

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    3,256
    For me it was more stress and worry when smoking than the expected relaxation from doing so. Net went in the negative and I switched to peeled carrots. After 27 years of smoking.....

    The crave is from empty receptors on living neurons. As long as they are alive the craving will be there, though you get used to denying it satisfaction. You don't want them to die either, so you gotta put up with occasional cravings.
     
  17. Crunchy Cat F-in' *meow* baby!!! Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    8,423
    I stopped nearly cold turkey. Catching a wiff of my friends' second hand smoke actually helped me. In the end, about 2 weeks into it I completely lost the craving. As you have no doubt seen, not everyone can quit as easily.

    No doubt it's a lie; however, to say "it works" without an modifiers (ex. "for you") is also a lie.
     
  18. KilljoyKlown Whatever Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    6,493
    Chantix

    It works exactly as they say it does in the commercial. When I used it I only needed it for 2 months. The prescription comes in one month packets. It takes the craving away like you can't believe unless you try it. If your worried about the stated side effects, I can only say I had zero side effects. No thoughts of suicide or bad dreams. When I smoked it was to small cigarette sized cigars without filters and not smoking cold turkey was very painful. The Chantix made it easy.
     
  19. skaught The field its covered in blood Valued Senior Member

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    4,103
    Doctor wouldnt give it to me... He says I'm too high of a suicide risk because I already take Zoloft...
     
  20. KilljoyKlown Whatever Valued Senior Member

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    6,493
    That's to bad, because it works so good. Couldn't your doctor monitor you closely for any adverse signs of trouble? I really think I could have made a one month supply work for me, but wanted to go two months just to be sure. I think the standard recommended time frame is for 3 months, but if you can get over the hump sooner, it's still better than than trying a cold turkey run at it.
     
  21. skaught The field its covered in blood Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    4,103
    Yeah, I actually saw two doctors, neither of them would give it to me. One of them, my primary dr. will almost always give me anything I ask for! Don't get me wrong, he's a great doctor, but he trusts that his patients know what they need. At least with me he does. But even he wouldn't prescribe it to me! Which surprised me and made me think there may be something to it. So naw, Chantix isn't really an option.
     
  22. KilljoyKlown Whatever Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    6,493
    I wouldn't go against my doctors recommendation either. If you aren't willing to take their advice what's the point of paying for their expertise and experience. Good luck, I hope you can find something that will work for you. It's really good to be a non-smoker.
     
  23. Stoniphi obscurely fossiliferous Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    3,256
    Go for the gum or the patch if you can't do the Chantix, as KJ has it right - it is really good to be a non -smoker.

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