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On Smoking

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Re: On Smoking

#71

Post by OrbitRock »

CraigJPerry wrote: post #30
murat131 wrote: post #3

The thing about smoking is that when you quit smoking you quit it every day. Imagine a light switch on the wall. You turn it off by quitting smoking and you can always go back at a desperate time for instance and turn it on. And some time later off again. Smoking your first cigarette implants that light switch on your mind and you can't make it go away. Since you know how it makes you feel good when the switch is on,…

Anecdata but that’s not how it worked for me. I was “20 a day” (which means 30 a day but that wasn’t socially acceptable to admit) for 4 years, 3.5 of which were spent trying to give up. The only 3 days i didn’t smoke in that time were when i had a horribly bad septic throat due to some infection and physically couldn’t smoke. Patches, lozenges, gums, the little ball tablet things, herbal cigs, e-cig - not the curren…

Same here. I was a heavy smoker who struggled terribly to quit.

But once I quit, well, your “pay me to drink petrol” analogy is accurate. Its been this way for about 10 years now. I just don’t smoke, it’s now repulsive to me, and there’s almost no conceivable way for me to go back to it other than putting myself through the punishment of the early smoker again where it’s just disgusting and doesn’t feel good at all for several weeks.

Re: On Smoking

#72

Post by enneff »

unixhero wrote: post #24
murat131 wrote: post #3

The thing about smoking is that when you quit smoking you quit it every day. Imagine a light switch on the wall. You turn it off by quitting smoking and you can always go back at a desperate time for instance and turn it on. And some time later off again. Smoking your first cigarette implants that light switch on your mind and you can't make it go away. Since you know how it makes you feel good when the switch is on,…

I quit smoking, and it was very very hard. I don't agree with you that the addiction, need and nicotine + other triggers will remain with me until the end of time. Deprogramming is part of the process of quitting to smoke. I do now never want to smoke. It is not attractive to me as a way to relax or focus. I can stand in a tobacco section of an airport taxfree shop holding a 5 cartons in my hands with absolutely no d…

A big part of my process for quitting was associating smoking with feeling disgusting and sick instead of feeling relaxed (which was never true anyway). For me it was more like reprogramming than deprogramming. But in broad strokes my experience was similar to yours.

Re: On Smoking

#73

Post by TameAntelope »

1_player wrote: post #54
TameAntelope wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My experience has been similar. I've smoked cigarettes probably ~12 times in my life, maybe up to 20 if you count cigars, but I've never felt like I need one or am in any way compelled to continue smoking on my own. Always, always while drinking. Maybe that helps isolate the context?

Sorry, I downvoted you, I hate when people think they're immune. They're one of the reason other people find themselves addicted to it. It's irresponsible and frankly immature. Smoking one or 100 cigarettes doesn't guarantee addiction, it's a Russian roulette. If you haven't heard BANG yet, doesn't mean there's no ammo in the chamber. You're not better or smarter than smokers. You just were more lucky.

I guess my only thought here is: how can someone like me talk about my experience if I'm going to get shouted down by someone like you? I was trying to share an anecdote to explain a potentially interesting alternative view, but I feel now that if I don't toe the orthodoxy line, I'm not allowed to participate.

I don't think I'm immune, but I am certain I'm not addicted to nicotine despite having smoked dozens of times, and I think that's a story worth sharing, even if you don't.

Re: On Smoking

#74

Post by [deleted] »

1_player wrote: post #49
whereis wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I smoked for ten years. Took Chantix for a week about fifteen years ago, which increased the frequency and intensity of my suicidal ideations. I then quit for good, with help from the Carr book, about a year thereafter. Quitting was horrible, but it got better. Now, the thought of smoking a cigarette is repulsive. Zero cravings, and the smell is highly offensive now. There's no light switch. YMMV.

Telling yourself there is no light switch in you, that you are stronger or better equipped than others, is a dangerous way to eventual relapse. Though for your own sake I really hope I am wrong.

[deleted]

Re: On Smoking

#75

Post by ciconeniba2 »

I have been a smoker for over 20 years as well, I think it was hard at first to quit smoking but I agree with the author article, something changes in you.

Every now and then I feel like I want to smoke and I buy a pack of cigarette, I smoke chain a couple of them and figure out I don't really like it and don't want to do that anymore and I don't get the urge anymore for four month or six...

I have been doing this for the last five years or so, maybe i didn't quit fully but I don't do a pack and half every day or have to wake up mid night to have a smoke anymore.

Re: On Smoking

#76

Post by developer2 »

whereis wrote: post #22
murat131 wrote: post #3

The thing about smoking is that when you quit smoking you quit it every day. Imagine a light switch on the wall. You turn it off by quitting smoking and you can always go back at a desperate time for instance and turn it on. And some time later off again. Smoking your first cigarette implants that light switch on your mind and you can't make it go away. Since you know how it makes you feel good when the switch is on,…

I smoked for ten years. Took Chantix for a week about fifteen years ago, which increased the frequency and intensity of my suicidal ideations. I then quit for good, with help from the Carr book, about a year thereafter. Quitting was horrible, but it got better. Now, the thought of smoking a cigarette is repulsive. Zero cravings, and the smell is highly offensive now. There's no light switch. YMMV.

I'm very thankful for Varenecline (aka Chantix/Champix); it's what got me to quit after many years of pack-a-day. I didn't even set a quit date when I started. That drug took away every tiny ounce of satisfaction I ever got from smoking. Every cigarette became a cigarette that did not give me what a cigarette is expected to provide. The best way I can describe what happened to me is that I felt like a non-smoker trying to smoke, and all I got was the scent and flavour of licking an ashtray with none of the brain-altering effects.

It's been over a year now, and I can't imagine going back. The only trigger I have is seeing someone else smoke, and even then it has never been more than a fleeting thought that dissipates within seconds. I know exactly what 2-3 puffs would do to me, and I have no interest in going back. I've never had the urge to buy a pack myself or to bum off someone. Smoking is now well into my past, and for that I am thankful.

I got the well-known "nightmares" from Verenecline, but I actually really enjoyed them. Those dreams were some of the most vivid and intense I've ever had the joy to experience. In fact, I still have the last 50 1mg pills leftover that I didn't need to use, and I've only kept them because I know I'll eventually use them just to revisit that kind of dream state. :)

Re: On Smoking

#77

Post by varjag »

I quit after some 15 years of smoking. Not experiencing any cravings at this point. On the onset of COVID I even bought multiple packs to experiment with using the filters in 3D printed nasal breathers - didn't even want to light one.

However I wouldn't have bothered quitting had it not been long term health hazard. I quite enjoyed the routine.

Re: On Smoking

#78

Post by [deleted] »

1_player wrote: post #49
whereis wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I smoked for ten years. Took Chantix for a week about fifteen years ago, which increased the frequency and intensity of my suicidal ideations. I then quit for good, with help from the Carr book, about a year thereafter. Quitting was horrible, but it got better. Now, the thought of smoking a cigarette is repulsive. Zero cravings, and the smell is highly offensive now. There's no light switch. YMMV.

Telling yourself there is no light switch in you, that you are stronger or better equipped than others, is a dangerous way to eventual relapse. Though for your own sake I really hope I am wrong.

[deleted]

Re: On Smoking

#79

Post by smitty1110 »

mavhc wrote: post #52
dimmke wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree. I quit smoking back in 2016 and I don’t think of myself as a smoker at all anymore. I sometimes have to remind myself I used to smoke.

Why do people start smoking? Surely they know it's addictive, expensive, and bad for you

For me it was something I did with co-workers, and eventually at home, to de-stress. I was in a terrible place mentally, physically, and from a career perspective at the time, but it helped me feel like I wasn't going to suffocate from stress. I got my life together after that, but it so bad at the time that taking half an hour to smoke a cigar in the evening was a godsend.

Re: On Smoking

#80

Post by qayxc »

mdoms wrote: post #35
murat131 wrote: post #3

The thing about smoking is that when you quit smoking you quit it every day. Imagine a light switch on the wall. You turn it off by quitting smoking and you can always go back at a desperate time for instance and turn it on. And some time later off again. Smoking your first cigarette implants that light switch on your mind and you can't make it go away. Since you know how it makes you feel good when the switch is on,…

I smoked for 10 years and quitting was difficult (but not THAT difficult - don't even get me started on the "it's harder than quitting heroin" nonsense). But now, 9 years since quitting, I don't even think about it anymore. It doesn't follow me around, I don't constantly fight the urge to smoke. I'm not "always" an addict. It's gone. It's in my past.

> don't even get me started on the "it's harder than quitting heroin" nonsense)

Out of curiosity: did you try both to know that for fact?

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