[Tarcanus]

You can manage it, Gothos!

I'm with HD on this one, too. Don't plan on being a casual smoker! You need to kill that parasite, and kill it dead. Not dead as in Leprechaun dead when the damn thing keeps coming back to kill your friends, but final dead as in Graboid destroyed with dynamite dead.

[Gothos]

Nah what I meant was that probably at some point when I'm rip-roaringly drunk with friends somewhere I'll have one or two. Non-smokers do. Can't really plan ahead for what I'll do when intoxicated, but what I can do is prepare myself for not going back to smoking day to day after that...

[cerveza_fiesta]

Gothos, on 25 August 2010 - 08:27 AM, said:

Day 2. Slowly forcing myself to accept the fact that I don't smoke. I doubt I've had my final cigarette in my life, but I never want to be a regular smoker again.
I'm finding it very effective to tell myself that nicotine just plays with my subconscious, fucking with my brain, and I'll have none of that on a regular basis. That in fact the craving is a desperate death cry of a parasite.

H.D., on 25 August 2010 - 08:44 AM, said:

Good luck.

In the end, it is mind over matter. But, you have to realize that your mind is trying to trick you at the same time that your mind over matter is actually matter over matter.

It's better to do just about anything you can think of than to smoke in the first few days. I took sleeping pills to knock me out at night, so the massive night craves wouldn't kill me. Exercise is another fantastic supplement, as it both occupies your time and gives you a pick me up through its endocrine distribution.

Edit: By the by, very few person who have been addicted can be a "semi-casual" smoker. Maybe you are one, but I'd think it'd be best to discover whether or not you can actually quit, and remain being quit for a while. Otherwise, you are just an addict that can slow down.

What HD said.

Tell yourself it is the last one you will ever smoke and resolve to that. Anything less and you're still a smoker. I started with an automatic and aggressive "fuck you" to my brain any time I got a craving. Since I'm not an angry or aggressive person I think it helped that I associated smoke cravings with angry thoughts.

And its soooooooooo easy to get back into it after just one, speaking as a long time casual / drunk smoker that cut back many times without fully quitting. It always gets you back unless you force quit 100%.

And none of that BS nicotine patch. You gotta quit the nicotine. Its the only real way.

You ARE strong enough.

[Tapper]

cerveza_fiesta, on 25 August 2010 - 06:22 PM, said:

And its soooooooooo easy to get back into it after just one, speaking as a long time casual / drunk smoker that cut back many times without fully quitting. It always gets you back unless you force quit 100%.

As much as this is NOT the purpose of this thread, I'll respectfully agree to disagree. Tis best done after a year or two, three of total non-smoking, though - cutting back as a means to quit entirely some day is just not going to work.

Quote

You ARE strong enough.

That is the truth.

[Gothos]

Day 3.
Okay so this is odd. I've been getting chest pains and some bad cough, along with dull pain in the sternum - I haven't when I smoked. WTH is going on? Is this something I should've felt but was sedated?
Also, I'm having tonnes of problems with sleeping. Can't fall asleep, waking up early.
I'm not feeling the tinies bit better yet. But I guess it takes time for my organism to clean up a bit.
I've done an experiment with booze... 2 bottles of Pilsner Urquell, and I didn't get elevated craving at all. Just the same, static, dull emptiness.
I'm also experiencing increased appetite, and not in the good sense - my appetite was fine to start with. I'm picking casual weightlifting up again to offset the increased intake of calories. Also, taking some more time walking home from work, sitting down on benches, catching fresh air.

[Raymond Luxury Yacht]

Gothos, on 25 August 2010 - 08:27 AM, said:

Day 2. Slowly forcing myself to accept the fact that I don't smoke. I doubt I've had my final cigarette in my life, but I never want to be a regular smoker again.
I'm finding it very effective to tell myself that nicotine just plays with my subconscious, fucking with my brain, and I'll have none of that on a regular basis. That in fact the craving is a desperate death cry of a parasite.

Sorry buddy, but you are an addict and this is your addiction talking. TYou're already justifying to yourself your next cigarette, as soon as you feel you've quit, you know have givin yourself permission to smoke again, just "only once in a while." We both know how that will end.

sad to say, just like any addict, it's an all or nothing situation. Recovered alcoholics can't have a drink every now and then, recovered junkies can't shoot up every once in a while, recovered coke addicts can't just do a line or two every once in a while, you can't be a non-regular smoker. People who aren't addicts can do these things. You, just like everyone else in this thread, are an addict. A drug addict, if you want to be melodramatic about it. As such, you have to make the decision that you have, in fact, smoked your last cig, otherwise you'll gradually pick it up again and bew a full time smoker.

Not to beat the dead horse too badly, but this is where my philosphy of "don't quit smoking, become a non-smoker" comes in. A person who is quitting smoking can allow their addiciton to concvince them to smoke. A person who has become a non-smoker will not slip up and smoke, because they are a non-smoker, and by definition non-smokers don't smoke.

Make the committment. Become a non-smoker. It's the only way.
As far as how you ar currently feeling, this is normal. You will feel shittier before you feel better. It's all good tohugh, it's a ourification process.

This post has been edited by Raymond Luxury Yacht: 26 August 2010 - 10:13 AM

[Gothos]

I'll take that advice.

Another thing I forgot to mention - muscle spasms. Along with an almost-insomnia came muscle spasms in my hands and legs, they trigger when I try to relax and go to sleep. Makes my extremities randomly curl up and release. Very annoying. Is that part of the withdrawal or maybe magnesium deficiency?

[Gothos]

Allright folks, some updates!
I've had 1 aromatic cigarette on friday night, and 3 ordinary ones on saturday night at a wedding (where I was absolutely, totally shitfaced).
These made me realize some things:
1. I no longer have any cravings for a smoke in day-to-day situations. No anxiety, no nervousness, no feeling "out of place" when not going to smoke when I normally would.
2. Cigarettes are foul and deadly. Even after this, less than a handful, I seriously felt like shit the next day (and I can tell alcohol hangover from nicotine hangover). I seriously don't want to have anything to do with that shit.

So, it's gonna be a week in about 10 hours, though I have to reset the counter. The clock is back to 32 hours now, technically.


PS. Seriously. The feeling of toxicity from saturday's break is doing more for my motivation to quit than any rationalizing could ever achieve. It's uncanny. But a real eye-opener.

This post has been edited by Gothos: 30 August 2010 - 09:55 AM

[cerveza_fiesta]

Yeah, for sure the longer you go the more you start to hate it.

Even after stopping I still enjoyed the smell when other people smoked in restaurant patios and stuff.

Now it's become foreign enough to my physiology that I find it unpleasant.

Funny enough, the prospect of having to come on here and fess up to failure stopped me in the end. Yay malaz.

Keep it up though.

[Slow Ben]

Gothos gets the attaboy for the day.


Attaboy Gothos!

[Darkwatch]

I find tobacco smells really good unlit.
I hate the smell of it when burned though.

Always found that to be strange.

[Adjutant Stormy~]

What's a nicotine hangover?

Never had one.

On a different note, I was in the store two weeks ago, and found myself on autopilot (sleep deprivation does this to me) and discovered a pack of cigarettes in my basket!
In summary: Fuck you subconscious.

[Darkwatch]

They don't keep cigarettes behind a counter where you shop?

[Raymond Luxury Yacht]

Smoke smells like shit to me now, and I can detect it from very far away. It's gross. Good job Gothos, and good job admitting that you have to reset the counter. That's important. One of things that motivated me was knowing that I had gone X amount of time without a smoke, and not wanting to mess that up. It gets more important the longer it's been. It's easy to reset your counter after a week, but once it's been everal months you'll find pride in that and not want to muck it up.

[Adjutant Stormy~]

Darkwatch, on 30 August 2010 - 05:38 PM, said:

They don't keep cigarettes behind a counter where you shop?

Depends on where. Though technically they're supposed to be behind the counter, or in locked shelves.

[Gothos]

holy HELL my chest hurts SO MUCH right now. It's like someone was crushing me in a vise. I'm also feeling sharp pain in the throat. I don't know if it's tied to quitting, but I sure hope it's the fallout from my body healing itself.
Fuck you, smoking. Fuck you.

[Salt-Man Z]

Gothos, on 01 September 2010 - 10:01 AM, said:

Fuck you, smoking. Fuck you.

This is, I believe, entirely the proper attitude to take.

[Beezulbubba]

Quit cold turkey. .. the physical addiction will diminish after about 4 days. The hardest part is working on the emotional/psychological aspects to the addiction . . .have to recognize those triggers and take back control.

[worry]

http://news.blogs.cn...s-quit/?npt=NP1

That baby quit smoking.

[Raymond Luxury Yacht]

Dodged a bullet the other night. I was on a late night walk, like 2 in the morning to clear my head after some crazy shit went down at the house. Stopped in a gas station to get a soda and the fucking smokes were calling to me. All the bullshit excuses that always come up were there. "You had a rough night, you deserve a smoke! You can smoke just for tonight and then throw the rest of the pack away tomorrow! There's no way you can get through this stress wiht a cig! One won't kill you, or get you smoking again!" I almost caved but did not. It was a close call though. I thought of you guys, it helped. It would have been a bit embarassing to come in here and admit that i was smoking again after all the preaching I've done in this thread. So, thanks?

~RLY, still smoke free