Let's talk addiction.
- Thread starter BlueberryMUNCH
- Start date
Recommended Videos
well i started to smoke tobacco because i was smoking weed in my youth , after i gave up weed which wasnt hard inh te lest when the time came, i continued to smoke tobacco for about 10 years, then i decided it was silly expensive and pointless so just stopped cold turkey, the physical stuff fades after a couple of days. then you just have the habit stuff like a smoke with a pint or after a round of a high stress game etc which is no big thing.
i am aware from watching other people quit i seemed to have an amazingly easy time of it, other than rediscovering food had taste and putting some weight on it was a breeze for me.
the only thing i have noticed helping is you have to want to quit, if your doing it because you think you should or know its bad your doomed from the start. if you say ill stop after this pack or on a date your pretty much doomed, its as yoda said do or do not there is no try.
i am aware from watching other people quit i seemed to have an amazingly easy time of it, other than rediscovering food had taste and putting some weight on it was a breeze for me.
the only thing i have noticed helping is you have to want to quit, if your doing it because you think you should or know its bad your doomed from the start. if you say ill stop after this pack or on a date your pretty much doomed, its as yoda said do or do not there is no try.
Good luck giving up smoking. I'm really rooting for you. Get your family and friends involved - get them to help, rather than hinder - get every cigarette out of the house. Identify the times/locations and activities where you will be most tempted and have a plan - even if it means stopping going out for a bit. If you slip up, make a note of the cirumstances, regroup and move on. Give yourself a treat from the money you've saved from not buying cigarettes - take a trip abroad. Give your hands something to do when you're at a loose end - carrot sticks and humous - go for a run - get a punch bag. You will be able to cope without ciagarettes. You can do this. You may not know how just yet - but walking the path is easier than the anticipation of the difficulties.
A friend of mine was having trouble quitting smoking too, so we devised a weird little solution that actually helped him quite a bit when he was on a night out.BlueberryMUNCH said:
Get something, anything, about the same size of a cigarette (we used a rolled-up label) and hold it in your hand the way you normally would a cigarette when standing idly. My friend said it made him think less about having a smoke and when he automatically put the label to him lips he recoiled in shock and laughed about it.
He was shocked by how much of his 'addiction' was habit - he felt strange not holding something like a cigarette in his hand and he went the whole night without a smoke when he usually had at least a few.
Might not work for everyone, but worth a shot.
I smoke occasionally but I've never had a problem stopping for weeks or even months if it was necessary. I don't know why people make such a huge deal out of cigarettes. If you don't want to do something, don't do it. There's no need to complicate things more than that. It's not like anyone is forcing a cigarette to your face, and you don't feel physical pain like with heroin withdrawal. I think people who say "I know it's hard but you have to persevere!" are ultimately exacerbating the problem. It's not hard at all, and pretending it is just gives people an excuse to fail because hey, it's really hard to quit.
But it's not. Sorry to break it to you like this.
But it's not. Sorry to break it to you like this.
Best of luck, OP. I hope that what you have is primarily a physical addiction. Since (for whatever reason) you're going to be unable to smoke going forward, if it's purely a physical addiction the cold-turkey withdrawal will take care of it for you and, once you come out the other side, you should be largely free of it (unless you're crazy and start up again).BlueberryMUNCH said:
If it's a mental addiction (i.e. you're using smoking to deal with other issues), as soon as you have the opportunity you'll need to take up smoking again (or replace it with something else... alcohol, sugar, sex, drugs, etc. etc.). In this case your best hope is to try to identify and deal with whatever issues are driving your actions, whatever issues you are using ciggies to avoid dealing with. As someone who KNOWS, this is not easy, so if you're in this position, BEST OF LUCK!
If this is your advice, then you honestly know nothing about addiction and you certainly aren't an addict like you claim. Anybody that says "Just man up" or "Use your willpower" clearly has never BEEN an addict and knows nothing about it. Unless you're in a position where you're choosing games over life (e.g. staying home to play when you should be in work or at school, unable to leave the house etc.) and no matter how many times you realise you have a problem and try to change your behaviour only to see yourself fail time and again anyway, you have no idea what you're talking about.krazykidd said:
Real addicts never get over being addicts, you simply learn to cope and to channel the drive into other things. You're never free of it and if you slip up it's entirely possible that the next time will kill you, either through actually killing you (e.g. drug overdose or related criminal activity) or by wrecking your life so badly that you actively or passively suicide.
Addiction is not a joke. It's not funny or classy or something to play around with. It is a crippling disease that, in many countries, has more related deaths than violent crime combined. Before you talk about addiction again, or claim to be one, perhaps you should attend some of the various Anonymous meetings. You'll meet real addicts there and maybe you'll start to realise just how worthless comments like "Man up" and "Use willpower" are.
Then you're not an addict and have no idea what it's like to be an addict. Smoking =/= addiction, which is why you get casual smokers who only smoke when they're out clubbing (or whatever). Addictivity (yeah, I made that up) may well be a genetic thing, with some people being more resistant to addiction than others. In addition, some people are resistant to SOME addictions but not to others. It's entirely possible to be an alcoholic who smokes casually and could give up smoking at any time, but it utterly incapable of giving up alcohol.manic_depressive13 said:
Smoking has a physically addictive aspect in the nicotine. This can be relatively easily broken by simply resisting cigarettes for 2-3 weeks. Once the nicotine has cleared out of your system and you're over the withdrawal and cravings, you're basically set. There's no reason you'd pick up another cigarette unless you wanted to.
Unfortunately, mental addiction will simply replace one destructive behaviour with another unless you can address the underlying cause of the behaviour, and that's not nearly as simply as simply stopping smoking.
Sorry to break it to like this, but you have no idea what you're talking about.
Yup smoking addict as well. Been at it for 11 years. Not really a bother to me as I'm never without em and I have no urge to quit anytime soon. I mean sure sometimes I feel like a piece of shit but then I get over it and have another smoke 
I'm addicted to procrastination to the point that I have serious trouble doing any kind of school-related work at all.
Shit.
Shit.
Huh? But you just said yourself that the physical addiction can be broken easily. Cigarettes aren't any harder to give up than meat or chocolate or fizzy drinks. The things that make ciggies hard to quit is routine and self loathing.Lawyer105 said:
So stop smoking, take up a destructive behavious which doesn't smell as much. Simple.
I must have misread the original post then, sorry. I just get offended when people trivialise real problems by minimalising or misinterpreting them.krazykidd said:
People who are having a bad day or are feeling a bit miserable claim to be depressed. NO, YOU AREN'T! They have no idea what real depression is like.
People who drink or smoke a little more than they'd like claim to be addicted. NO, YOU AREN'T! Addiction carries things to the point of danger. Drinking to unconsciousness repeatedly might be addiction. Having 4 when you meant to have 3 is not addiction.
One of the primary defining factors of addiction is that "One is too many and all of them aren't enough."
We're facing a very real problem in modern society where problems like addiction and mental illness are trivialised and/or stigmatised. If somebody has a heart condition, everybody feels sorry for them and sends "get well" cards. But if the brain gets sick, half the planet thinks you're faking it, and the other half tells you to "just buck up" or whatever. It makes me more than a little irrational, so I'm sorry if my first post came over a little strong. It's just really important to me to educate people about these problems that are being ignored by so many,.
Kinda off topic to the thread, but that's the fucking truth right there.Lawyer105 said:
Of course, far be it from me to judge other people's depression, I've seen others who have it FAR worse than me, then again I am medicated when I'm saying that.
As for the OP, I echo the sentiments of other here; one of the most infuriating things is going to be mouth-boredom, might be worth getting one of those nicotine inhalers (not sure if they have a common name, they're basically an artificial cigarette), and then hopefully wean yourself off that.
Best of luck to yeh.
My mum had a method wherein every time she wanted a cigarette, she drank a glass of water.
Three days from then, she was sick by the amount she had drank, and gave them up completely, so I guess you have to associate the substance with an uncomfortable feeling, or something along those lines.
Three days from then, she was sick by the amount she had drank, and gave them up completely, so I guess you have to associate the substance with an uncomfortable feeling, or something along those lines.
Just curious... did you self diagnose that? Careful man... you may well be addicted, but it's also possible you have a severe underlying problem that you aren't addressing.krazykidd said:
In my case, my parents brought up concerns about addiction. At this point I was aware something was wrong with me so I went ahead with inquiries and consultations.
After 2 years of hoping around an answer finally arrived. I am prone to deep depression and suffer from crippling anxiety. This isn't "I feel sad" and "I'm shy"... I was slowly shutting down and shutting myself off from others. Video games were my escapism, but not my affliction. In turn I likely did become obsessed over them, but once the core of my issue was recognised I was able to take measures to break away from it. I still play games, but I don't have that compulsion and I'm no longer as irritable when I do play.
Just a few things that should be noted. If you are withdrawing from social circles (few friends, getting fewer) have very weak motivations (to the point of not being able to get up some mornings) and are abandoning goals (college courses you actualy want to do) or self destructing (gaining weight, drinking excessively) then you might want to reassess your issues.
Depression and Anxiety are deceptive problems, since we still live in an age where people think "cheer up" and "man up" are enough to tear someone out of it. You may be aware of problems I mentioned, but even then your brain might refute it as being paranoid or something. It took me months after diagnosis to actually comprehend the problem.
Keep your mouth and hands busy. Pistachios are great for this, although you can put on a bit of weight.
Alternatively, every time you have a craving, do another piece of a jigsaw puzzle. I know someone who finished a 750 piece puzzle this way (they had a hard time stopping smoking), but at the end, the cravings were very manageable.
Alternatively, every time you have a craving, do another piece of a jigsaw puzzle. I know someone who finished a 750 piece puzzle this way (they had a hard time stopping smoking), but at the end, the cravings were very manageable.
Well, if there's just a dirty little stain of love you feel for yourself remaining, you'll just stop smoking. No need for patches, pills or other costly mumbo jumbo. Just don't smoke. It will be hard and harsh and very uncomfortable for a brief period of time, but the only thing that helps quitting is just plain to refuse to go out and buy fags, refuse to stick them in your mouth, refuse to light them up, refuse to inhale. For a moment, you'll feel like going through ashtrays or sucking on discarded filters people dropped on the floor, but if the goal is to just plain not smoke, all you have to do is to keep you from going through all the required motions that allow you to stick one in your mouth and huff and puff away. It's really that simple.
I still enjoy cigars and the like, but I only developed a cigarette habit when I considered it the least offensive outlet for my then prevalent self hatred. I also developed a bad caffeine habit which was hard to get a grip on, as not drinking coffee/coke/tea sent me into craving and heaving fits, had me on berserker mode and gave me cramps until my minimum dosage of caffeine was administered. Holidays, tea and an iron will helped me get rid of that rather uncomfortable habit. I now enjoy two to three cups of coffee - at the very most. For stressful times, there's guarana powder, which goes into teas, milk, yogurt or on fruits. Anything goes if handled correctly.
I still enjoy cigars and the like, but I only developed a cigarette habit when I considered it the least offensive outlet for my then prevalent self hatred. I also developed a bad caffeine habit which was hard to get a grip on, as not drinking coffee/coke/tea sent me into craving and heaving fits, had me on berserker mode and gave me cramps until my minimum dosage of caffeine was administered. Holidays, tea and an iron will helped me get rid of that rather uncomfortable habit. I now enjoy two to three cups of coffee - at the very most. For stressful times, there's guarana powder, which goes into teas, milk, yogurt or on fruits. Anything goes if handled correctly.