multiple attempts over the years like everyone else who smokes. smoker for 20years
but i wanted to quit. life managed to interrupt my attempts fairly regularly but what got me was nicotine chewing gum. that really helped with the addiction so i could focus on separating the act of smoking from the addiction. this worked on so far as i realised I was addicted to chewing gum and had removed the act of smoking. addicted to chewing gum? what a stupid thing to be addicted to! the absurdity was quite clear and I stopped that day. 13 years ago. dabbled here and there but find it gross and disgusting. have vaped a bit of other people's, and even smoked for a week once. that was disgusting, my body felt awful my lungs hurt and i couldn't taste anything.
so i guess this ramble is too say never give up and try to separate the addiction from the act to make it absurd.
good luck
What I don't understand is how people get addicted to smoking in the first place. It hasn't been "cool" to smoke in my lifetime. Going near a cigarette as a non-smoker is gross as fuck. Who decides "I don't care about my health or the gross smell, imma do this thing with no upsides" before being addicted?
Because it's a drug that gives you a feeling. Some people enjoy the feeling that smoking gives them, the addiction slowly follows after.
The same works for just about any drug. I can assure you that heroin and crack addicts didn't suddenly decide they wanted to be addicted to those drugs. Curiosity gets the best of people sometimes.
All it takes is one low point, friend. I'm glad you've never been there around the wrong person at the wrong time but understand that its not just a "hmm I want to smell terrible today ❤️" situation.
I don't smoke and I never will and I'm just here to emphasize how disgusting smoking is for non smokers. I literally can hardly breath when someone smokes next to me. Sadly, my nearby city has a lot of smokers.
Whenever I need to pass by someone that smokes, I hold my breath for as long as possible. I understand you're addicted, but come on, stop using that poison. If not for yourself then for others at least, or maybe at least while in public.
I hear you. I had cancer in my neck and radiation to the throat, not from smoking ( i am a non smoker), but if I even smell smoke or on a heavy smokers clothing I start coughing. Same with smelling vinegar --go figure
My guy they (formerly I) know. After you're hooked it feels out of your control. It becomes a mechanism your brain uses to alleviate stress or to relax. For me, for a long time, it helped me socialize, as I was alone in a new city, working a serving job. After it became a part of who I was, stopping wasn't just ceasing buying and smoking cigarettes, it was now changing my identity and my personality.
I've quit now but I'm here to tell you its big ask of someone, and you shouldn't judge folks who try and fail, but treat it as a vallient effort, and encourage them to try again.
I hear you though, having been a non smoker for a few years now I can smell it and I know what you mean. Just try to remember those are real people behind the addiction, and that for those of us old farts, some of us thought it made us look cool, and were led into it, despite the warnings.
Used to smoke 2 packs a day. Quit 20 years ago. Quit because I figured I always smelled like smoke which greatly diminished the dating pool. I missed it every day until I managed to get hooked on nicotine pouches. Was using 10-15 of the 8mg On every day. Managed to do that in secret for years. Quit those about a year ago after my wife found out. Now I get to miss smoking AND nicotine pouches every single day.
I love nicotine. I miss it every single day. I think about it all the time. If I ever found myself single again I would go back in a heartbeat. I am salivating just writing this. It is evil shit.
I quit smoking and got on the nicotine lozenges. I was eating a bunch of lozenges, almost constantly. Then I started kinda smoking again, but didn't stop the lozenges. Then I had a stroke which left me with a permanent disability, likely partially caused by wild blood pressure swings due to high levels of nicotine.
I quit by default after 3 weeks in a rehab center. The lesson here is... quit before the hospital. It's worth it.
First time I quit I’d get the occasional craving, the second time I have maybe had a craving once. I think what helped me the second time was a minor health scare, (why is my tongue sloughing?), first kid on the way, and I reallly got into cardio
Edit: I smoked from 2007 to 2014? And then 2017? To 2020
Amount varied widely, but I probably went through a pack in 3 days average. Only hit a pack a day during finals week heh.
I smoked for almost 20 years. I lost track of how many times I tried - and failed - to quit. Last December I just felt done. Put it down and haven't gone back to it. I even had a few cigarettes while out with a friend in March and had no desire to go back to it after. I know a few other people who quit like that, but far more who have struggled with it for years and still smoke.
I have no idea what changed for me. Every other attempt failed, even if I felt really ready to quit.
This is my story, too. I'll have a few if I go out to a bar, but I'm done doing that shit all the time; having to go outside when I'm home, in my car, sneaking out at family gatherings, etc.
However, if I were to return to hanging out at bars a lot, I would absolutely become a full time smoker again.
Stopping smoking is easy, i used to do it every time my cigarette went out, quitting on the other hand is a lifelong task, but it is worth the struggle. I still crave cigarettes to this day, but dont miss being a slave to that addiction. I would literally collect cigarette butts off the ground and reroll them. If i can quit so can you.
It is for certain people, but not typically. I know two people who quit cold turkey and my fiancee knows another one. Everyone else has fought and struggled, relapsed, or shifted to e-cigs.
Strangely this can be true for hard drugs too. As I understand it, biology is a big part of it, but psychological, social, and circumstantial factors are pretty important too.
I was one of those people and consider myself very lucky. My first puff was at 9 but I didn't start regularly smoking until I was 14. In a third-world country where the laws, if they even existed, were hardly enforced, it was easy to buy smokes as a minor. It was normal, even.
I smoked through my teens and 20s and into my 30s. Then one day, I decided to quit because I knew it wasn't healthy and I had seen pictures of smokers' lungs. I didn't experience any "jonesing" and didn't need to replace the habit with gum or patches or anything. It might have helped that I worked from home at the time and was addicted to video games, so I was very motivated to stay at home. I turn 50 this year and haven't smoked since.
Fuck they don't. Stop paying people to destroy your health! I stopped just like that. I take care of my father in laws who smoked until he was 75. Lost his leg due to poor circulation. Lost toes on second leg. Doctor was able to squeeze out circulation in one last hardening artery in his remaining leg. Told him if he didn't quit he would lose that too. He stopped smoking the next day. Still has that leg. We use nitro patches to keep circulation going on his foot. If he gets a sore or cut it takes months to heal.
Fuck smoking! Don't trade your later days for today.
It was for my dad, he smoked from 16 till about mid 40s, then one day he said I'm done with the expense of this habit and never went back. My mom kept smoking till 60 then just gave it up. For some will power is enough
I do have empathy. It is a very steep hill. For some, seemingly vertical. I also care very much about people's health (and my own). Your health is more important than the urge or habit. My point is mostly that if we had the ability to be in our future bodies to feel the effects we all know are coming, that hill would be horizontal.
That may have worked for you but for other people it's not so easy nicotine is very addictive and smoking also makes you feel good it makes you rely on it mentally and physically and you don't feel like yourself when you stop smoking also smoking is related to being social with your friends and having breaks at work witch are good for your mental health
I keep hearing how addictive nicotine is (7x more than heroin??), but in my experience, i never got addicted. Is there something wrong with my brain?
I never smoked two packs a day, but i spent at least 3 years smoking socially (2 or 3 smokes at work every day and then 2 or 3 smokes at the bar on the weekend). So around a pack a week.
But during that time, i could always just take a week or two off if i needed to. I always wanted a smoke (especially with a beer or coffee) but i could resist the urge, no problem.
At the end of the 3 years, i just quit cold turkey. I would keep smoking once in a while with a beer, but i never went back to regular smoking...
Do you only get addicted if you're smoking a pack a day or more?
It’s super hard to quit but I’ll tell you what helped me. I got altoids and every time I wanted a smoke I’d eat a mint. If I still wanted a smoke I’d eat another mint. At break I’d go out with all the smokers and I’d eat a mint. Driving home I’d eat a mint. It took a few containers of mints but I eventually got sick of mints (and cigarettes). After I quit I would still try taking a drag off a random cigarette and I absolutely hated it. Not sure if I rewired my brain or what but I was able to stay off the smokes. Good luck. You got this.
Pro tip: take your smoke money and save it in another account or a piggy bank or whatever. You will be blown away about how much your addiction was costing you.
Yer i stay well away from it I've heard it does some pretty nasty things to you I have seen what it can do though my grandpa was a heavy smoker he died of a stroke
I did the same with mixed nuts. I kept a big container in my car for stop-and-go traffic during my commute. It was the only way I made it through the first few months.
