Thinking of giving up nicotine.

[Metalhead]

My therapist is discouraging me from going on that route right now, as she is concerned I may be trying to bite off more than I can chew and make too many life changes at the same time.

Still, cigars are an expensive habit. Not as expensive as the alcohol addiction was, but pretty close. Plus there are health benefits to cutting out the smoking that I want for myself.

But I recently gave up alcohol and I recently had to reshape my diet due to a gout diagnosis. I also am making an effort to hit the gym a few times a week. And I am curbing my addictive shopping habits.

Why do all vices have to have downsides? Why can’t cigars not cause oral cancer? Why can’t raw broccoli taste as appealing to me as chips and queso? Why can’t I lose weight by playing video games (technically, I can since I own a DDR mat, but that’s beside the point)?

I want the patience to effectively change my life, and I want that patience RIGHT NOW!

 

[stevens]

Choose battles carefully. I've given up both, years ago, successfully. Consider your therapist's concern. Empowerment should be relished, one step at a time.

 

[watersprite]

I want the patience to effectively change my life, and I want that patience RIGHT NOW!

Me too.

Well said.

 

[Metalhead]

Choose battles carefully. I've given up both, years ago, successfully. Consider your therapist's concern. Empowerment should be relished, one step at a time.

You’re probably right. I have been known to throw in the towel after taking on too many fights at the same time.

 

[Gerontius]

If you want to slow down & save money, working on getting away from smoking entirely, pipe tobacco is really cheap and people often use it to quit cigars. I have been able to get it from the local shop for about four dollars an ounce which, since I'm more of a weekend smoker, lasts me for a month or two on a two-ounce pouch of the store's own house blend.

And since going to the tobacco store is out of the way. I also only buy tobacco with cash. Only when everything lines up (I'm headed that way to go to the hardware store, AND I have cash, AND the tobacco store's open, AND I want a smoke) will I buy pipe tobacco--If I remember. You don't need expensive pipes either or all that other stuff; you can get a corncob that works fine-or Dr. Grabow is a famous name for cheap but decent tobacco pipes. Tobacco is neat stuff and I love to smoke it, but it's been probably three months since I smoked. Before that I was smoking maybe once every week, once every three days. The most I smoked was about two or three pipes a day for a couple weeks--which was honestly more smoking than I really hanker after. I was also smoking while working & all the ashes & match heads & that sort decided to get away--the window was open & the wind was blowing so gradually my jacket pockets & the mechanism of my typewriter began to look like the insides of an ash tray. Which wasn't great.

This would let you keep the routine of it and gradually work yourself away from cigars. Those are an expensive habit; it's like buying nice fountain pens & using them for Jarts. Pipe tobacco is inconvenient enough that it will gradually get you out of smoking, but it's nice & may fill the gap which cigars & whiskey have left.


(Edit: great, now I wanna smoke.)

 

[watersprite]

I know it’s a bit odd since not many women smoke cigars, but the thought of having some in the cupboard is comforting.

When I get a painting done that I am satusfied with, I allow myself a cigar.

So I really only smoke part of one every few weeks (or longer), and the habit has become stretched way out since Covid arrived. I figured my lungs would have been mad at me if they had to deal with smoke and a virus.

 

[Fino]

Maybe you can first just reduce the amount you smoke and then go from there.

 

[Suzette]

I think only you know the value of the momentum you have built up so far. Sometimes you just have to do it when you feel like doing it because thinking on it somemore just kills courage.

The problem isn't if you do or don't quit smoking but having a mental backup plan if your initial effort fails. Don't use a failure as an excuse to completely undo all the other chanes you have made in the last year.

If you can still feel good, even if you fail at quitting smoking, then just do it! But if a failure will send you into depression, then stick with it until you can still feel good if you fail. Make sense?

 

[Streetwise]

My therapist is discouraging me from going on that route right now, as she is concerned I may be trying to bite off more than I can chew and make too many life changes at the same time.

Still, cigars are an expensive habit. Not as expensive as the alcohol addiction was, but pretty close. Plus there are health benefits to cutting out the smoking that I want for myself.

But I recently gave up alcohol and I recently had to reshape my diet due to a gout diagnosis. I also am making an effort to hit the gym a few times a week. And I am curbing my addictive shopping habits.

Why do all vices have to have downsides? Why can’t cigars not cause oral cancer? Why can’t raw broccoli taste as appealing to me as chips and queso? Why can’t I lose weight by playing video games (technically, I can since I own a DDR mat, but that’s beside the point)?

I want the patience to effectively change my life, and I want that patience RIGHT NOW!

Prescription for previous nicotine users apovarenicline 1 mg for 12 weeks helped a 50 year smoker quit going on 4 months plus people praying for him

 

[Suzette]

Prescription for previous nicotine users apovarenicline 1 mg for 12 weeks helped a 50 year smoker quit going on 4 months plus people praying for him

I smoked for 35 years. I quit many times and stayed quit for a year each time. Quiting s the easy part. Staying quit is the hard part. You can quit with out pills but no one has made a pill that will keep you off the nicotine.

 

[Streetwise]

I smoked for 35 years. I quit many times and stayed quit for a year each time. Quiting s the easy part. Staying quit is the hard part. You can quit with out pills but no one has made a pill that will keep you off the nicotine.

The operative word is do YOU WANT to give up smoking

 

[Suzette]

The operative word is do YOU WANT to give up smoking

I know what you intend with this. But addiction doesn't follow wants and self control. The pschologicall pathways created through addiction are more pervasive than desire or self control. It's hard for me to explain but it contributes to the entire problem and is the most difficult thing to overcome in addiction.

After all, I have quit numerous times, so I have a bit of experience in how this all works. It's damn difficult to quit and you don't work through all the crap you do if you simply "don't want" to quit.

 

[Streetwise]

I know what you intend with this. But addiction doesn't follow wants and self control. The pschologicall pathways created through addiction are more pervasive than desire or self control. It's hard for me to explain but it contributes to the entire problem and is the most difficult thing to overcome in addiction.

After all, I have quit numerous times, so I have a bit of experience in how this all works. It's damn difficult to quit and you don't work through all the crap you do if you simply "don't want" to quit.

@Metalhead is an individual what he will do will be decided by him I'm going to wait for his next update

 

[Suzette]

@Metalhead is an individual what he will do will be decided by him I'm going to wait for his next update

You are so very right about that! Sorry if I take it all a little personally!

 

[Moonhart44]

I often wonder how a person lives with 0 vices when even other species of animals get drunk

 

[Tom]

I smoked for 40 years. I did quit for a year, but found it too difficult to maintain so switched to E-cigerettes. Some say it's just as bad, but I disagree and am happy with the change. Not a total fix, but an improvement I'd say.

 

[clg114]

Having a real good incentive to quit smoking helps a lot. When I was 56, I had a heart attack. The cardiologist said that it was caused by smoking and that if I did not quit right away, I was going to die. At the same time my wife said that I would be quitting right away. I quit smoking at that time and I am still here. Why did I quit? Because my wife said so, that's why.

 

[Suzette]

I smoked for 40 years. I did quit for a year, but found it too difficult to maintain so switched to E-cigerettes. Some say it's just as bad, but I disagree and am happy with the change. Not a total fix, but an improvement I'd say.

I have done this too. It's cheaper, more convenient, doesn't stink, and I don't feel the need to inhale so it IS healthier.

 

[Raggamuffin]

I quit roll ups over 10 years ago. I have a couple of cigars a year. But I find it best to space them out throughout the year. If you have a couple within a few days - the old brain starts to crave them. But 2 or 3 a year doesn't break the bank.

Ed

 

[Tom]

I have done this too. It's cheaper, more convenient, doesn't stink, and I don't feel the need to inhale so it IS healthier.

Yes, and I don't have to go outside anymore to smoke. It is sufficient to just go in the basement. Which is nice when it's in single digits!