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On Smoking

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Re: On Smoking

#101

Post by refulgentis »

awakeasleep wrote: post #66
shoto_io wrote: post #57

I quit about a hundred times 20 yrs ago. I don’t why, but after that I finally grabbed this damn book by Allen Carr. I would have never that it would work. But for me it did. Been smoke free ever since. Maybe just pure luck. Maybe it was the goddamn book.

That book is a gentle and thorough introduction to an idea that I, as a smoker, had been hiding from or confused about. Pretty amazing.

Can you tell me more? I'm familiar with the book but it didn't click with me, and I've had a strange feeling the past couple months I'm missing a really good mental model for where it comes from (tl;dr psychiatrist started talking about it after a year of hinting, but they thought I was a step ahead of where I actually am)

Re: On Smoking

#102

Post by [deleted] »

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

[deleted]

Re: On Smoking

#103

Post by defaultname »

TchoBeer wrote: post #82
mavhc wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Alcohol is also addictive expensive and bad for you, and yet no one asks why anyone would drink alcohol

Smoking is magnitudes more addictive than alcohol. Regardless, a lot of people do ask why anyone would drink alcohol, given that it offers up an enormous array of detrimental health effects, the possibility of addiction and social troubles (DUI, violence, etc), and as a mental "holiday" altered state is an incredibly poor mechanism.

Alcohol hangs around because it was accessible in earlier eras. There will come a time, I suspect in the very near future, when it will look ridiculous. Where having a `drink' will be an anachronism.

Re: On Smoking

#104

Post by greenshackle2 »

pengaru wrote: post #5
jessriedel wrote: post #2

> too embarrassed of chewing-gums In case others don't know, there are nicotine lozenges that are smaller than the gum and require no chewing. And if you happen to swallow them nothing happens, the nicotine is destroyed by your stomachs without being absorbed. They are really very discreet to use. (Even the gum isn't actually chewed like regular gum; you just chew it for a few seconds and let it sit on your gum.)

It's also worth noting nicotine has interesting "nootropic" properties. You don't really have to quit your addiction to quit smoking, and there can be some advantages to continuing if you can afford it in safer forms.

I got myself addicted to nicotine gum and I never even smoked. To the point that I was constantly using it. Going through maybe 10-15 2mg gums per day. I used patches and regular non-nicotine gum to quit but I still have the urge, especially when I have difficulty focusing at work, because it does actually seem to help with that.

Re: On Smoking

#105

Post by warent »

dimmke wrote: post #46
unixhero wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

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.

This is my experience as well, and I can still occasionally have a cigar or hookah on special occasions a couple times a year without any problems. Then again I only smoked about 1/3rd of a pack a day for about 3 years, so maybe the addiction levels also depend on the quantity and the length of time

Re: On Smoking

#107

Post by warent »

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

I started because I thought it made me look really cool. Plus menthols tasted great

Re: On Smoking

#108

Post by dominotw »

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,…

don't try drugs because you might just like it.

Re: On Smoking

#109

Post by Torwald »

lwhi wrote: post #88

I'm still smoking at the moment. I've quit for years and started again. It's the push and pull .. the need and that satiation that I find so satisfying, and to a certain extent it's that rhythm I find ultimately attractive. The slow build up of a hunger, before you end it with a delicious meal. The relaxing bath after a 30 mile hike. The 10 hour sleep after a stressful few days running on caffeine. The buzz of endorp…

Allen Carr's Easy way out. It's a book. He explains the mind hack that smoking is. Once you grok that, quitting is easy.
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