Smoking.
 

Over the past couple of years I have gotten a lot worse with my smoking habits.

Before it was strictly the green stuff but smoking fags has cropped up on me more and more, before it was only when drinking now that has expanded to "whenever there is a risler and filter about".

Before I never really understood cravings but now I regret every single fag I've smoked, both from a health and financial view.

My main point is that I want to cut down and eventually stop and wondered if any of guys have had an success? Those nicotine patches don't do sod all for me.

Re: Smoking.
 

Well I do smoke, and I have tried to quit in small periods because of work being told it was strictly not allowed to be done, smelling of smoke and such. So the best advice I can give you is that if its not working for you now, and yes I completely agree those patches are rubbish, you should wait for a stress free period, its very easy here. I'm talking times like summer holidays off school or college if you're there, because if you are in either of them they really make it that bit more difficult to stop yourself.

And obviously whatever amount you're on now think of that as the most you'll ever be, no point in raising the habit when you have an eye for quitting.

Re: Smoking.
 

I'm pretty much the same way, I started smoking the "green stuff" when I was a around 15 years old and slowly started smoking cigarettes. It got worse when I started drinking and it didn't help that everyone around me smoked. I knew it was terrible and I tried quitting a few times. My husband had a big roll in my quitting, and I haven't have a cigarette in 2 years. That time around I REALLY wanted to quit and my willpower was very high! During that time I was drinking only water, so when I quit I decided to start drinking a little bit of Soda again. I also chewed a lot of gum and carried bags of mixed nuts with me to munch on. It was honestly a lot easier that time then the previous times I tried to quit. By the time I got pregnant, I was completely over wanting cigarettes.

Now the smell of smoke just disgusts me. Looking at it now I see how gross and awful it really is and wish I never started smoking. A lot of people these days or at least here in America are very disrespectful to those who don't smoke. There is always employees of one of my local Wal-Marts that are always smoking right beside the front door in front of customers. It pisses me off, I have to take my baby daughter through that smoke. I have complained a few times, hopefully this time it actually works :/

Re: Smoking.
 

I never tried the patches or the gum as I had heard both were near useless (and simply replaced one addiction with another), but I more or less decided to go cold turkey and stuck with that, always reminding myself it wasn't worth the $$ (the health aspect is meh, it's not my greatest concern with smoking).

One thing I can recommend is keeping yourself busy. I used to smoke a lot when I was at school because besides classes, I had nothing else to do. I was always waiting for a bus, or waiting long periods in between classes, etc, all moments where I'd kill time by smoking. When I wanted to cut down on my smoking, I found better ways to occupy my time. If I decided to stay in the library longer and read more, I ended up smoking less, stuff like that. Cutting down the amount I smoked on a daily basis really helped quitting later on.

Re: Smoking.
 

Don't get addicted in the first place?

I have two ideas that may provide a solution.

1. You could try chewing. I've always preferred chewing tobacco to cigarettes myself.

2. You might also try switching from cigarettes to cigarillos; basically mini cigars. Use them to ween yourself of the cigarettes. But when you switch to the cigars don't inhale the smoke all the way. Pull the smoke into your mouth only, the exhale it. This still delivers the effect but with much less potency. Might be useful in quitting altogether.

Note, I have never tried to quit because I've never been addicted. So I have no proof this would work, I'm just speaking from my experience in using various kinds of tobacco.

Re: Smoking.
 

I used to smoke. Mostly to help with nerves. I get really nervous in unscripted social situations and in interviews... driving. Stuff like that anyway. Having cigs helped take some of the edge off.

Quitting I didn't have any particular plan or any hard limits on it. I find that when I set myself boundaries that if I cross I've failed and I cross them, I start thinking really negatively and feeling like I'm worthless just makes it harder not to cross the same line next time. So, I try to give myself as few chances to fail as possible.

What I did was whenever I wanted a cigarette and didn't have one, immediately on making the decision, No I'm not going to. I gave myself something nice; a candy or a cookie or a bit of energy drink or whatever; an immediate hit of something physiologically rewarding. I also remembered to keep telling myself nice things about myself when I didn't have one. It sounds silly but those sort of, "Hurray! You did it! Look, that's one you didn't smoke! That's 10 cigarettes you didn't have today! Well done!" Mental narratives can really help you think better of yourself. Over time exercising the willpower not to do it became easier.

If you're like me, big abstract bribes don't really work. Recent studies suggest that some people when asked to picture themselves standing on a beach in a year's time the part of their brain that operates is more to do with imagining a third party on the beach than themselves really. And those results for those people seem to correlate with having much less ... enticement from abstract rewards, deferred success, that kind of thing. I wonder whether that ties in with how easy some people find it to quit vs others with strategies based on buying yourself something nice with the money saved from cigarettes down the line :uhm:

But, yes. That's generally how I alter my habits. Minimise the chances for hard failures, maximise the immediate returns on good behaviours and tie it into a positive mental narrative.

Re: Smoking.
 

You could use an e-cig. Two of my siblings have done so. Still get your fix, but you don't get that smell. From what I've heard, it is also a bit easier to ween yourself off of them than it is for regular cigs, but I can't confirm that myself, as I don't smoke either e-cigs or regular cigs.





On a somewhat related note, I've always like the smell of unsmoked pipe tobacco, particularly regular Captain Black pipe tobacco.

Re: Smoking.
 

Ryojin has a point, electronic cigarettes are the addictive nicotine of a regular cigarette without the carcinogens. I don't know if they are easier to ween off of or not, but in theory, you get your fix without the cancer.

But, you look like a total doofus smoking them, in my opinion.

Re: Smoking.
 

Thats a problem I have, nearly all my close friends smoke including my mum, step Dad and brother sometimes it's difficult.

Yeah I have to admit it is those 'inbetween moments' that get me, waiting for a bus, walking somewhere etc. From what you have said it does seem to be doing nothing that gets me.

Wasn't exactly my plan :rolleyes:

Sounds like a good idea, do they help cut down the nicotine addiction?

Actually sounds like something that would work for me. Cheers for the advice; I'll give it a shot.


My parents used them for a bit and I had a go, didn't like them at all, probably shoudl of included that in the OP. There is just no feeling of the smoke and I ended up taking huge drags and smoking the equivalent of 10 fags much faster than I normally would.

Cheers for the replies guys. I think I'm going to give all of it a go.

Re: Smoking.
 

Maybe conditioning can help. If you associate smoking with something disgusting or painful you'll probably stop after a while. For every draw on a cig drink a sip of coal (from a pharmacy, sold as medicine for when you have a flu) dissolved in water. Tastes horrible.