A stoner's guide to quitting nicotine

[freedom4ever]

Hi there, I wrote this guide a couple of years ago and posted it at another forum, it's helped lots of people so I thought I'd post it here in the hope that it helps some more.

Sorry mods if this is in the wrong place...please move or delete if necessary.

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My nicotine stained background: I am a 32 year old woman. I smoked 25+ cigs per day, plus 5 or so spliffs with added baccy for about 15 years. To say I had a love affair with cigarettes is an understatement.

I am by no means a smug ex-smoker. I am a non-smoker who finally got to a stage where I knew if I had any real respect for my health, I should at least try and quit.

Yes, I still smoke bud.

I quit cigs three years ago and I haven’t looked back, I also quit on my first attempt. If someone had told me two years ago that I would be a non smoker now, I would have laughed. Quitting seemed absolutely out of my reach and I was even too scared to try, for fear of failing. I had absolutely accepted the fact that I would be a smoker forever.


I really wanna share some stuff I’ve picked up along the way in the hope that it might help someone else. My opinions are just that, please remember that life experience varies from person to person, what worked for me might not necessarily work for you, but if it does – Coolies.

You may also find it really easy to quit with no added help, I hear some people do, but I wasn’t one of them and was grateful for all the help I could get, this guide is for those of you who feel you could use the extra help. If you found it easy, please feel free to share your methods and experiences, maybe you’ll inspire somebody.......

 

[freedom4ever]

Part 1 - Do you actually want to quit?



It sounds stupid, but have you actually considered why you want to quit? Think about why you started, was it because you thought it made you look cool? Did you want to fit in with particular friends? Do the things that made you start smoking, apply to your life now?

I thought about giving up for years before I even attempted it, I just never really felt ‘ready’ to give it a go.

Often it takes a trigger of some sort to kick our asses in to gear. A health shock or a particularly bad cough, maybe you nearly hacked up a lung this morning or you just worked out what it costs you per month to smoke what you do. For me, it was having the levels of Carbon Monoxide in my lungs measured.


The Carbon Monoxide test:
In the UK you can do this test at any NHS stop smoking clinic or at most Tesco pharmacies for free. To buy the machine itself is over £100. It digitally measures CO from a long breath.
The NHS use a chart ranging from 1-20. Anything from 1-6 is a non smoker…6-9, light smoker etc etc, you get the idea. My first reading was 36

and the woman in the pharmacy gasped with surprise. I wanted to try giving up there and then, but I made myself set a ‘quit date’ and practically forced myself to smoke cigs I didn’t really want in the lead up to it.


Only when you are serious about giving it a try must you proceed. Jumping in feet first and falling at the first hurdle is too easy and could set you up to fail again in the future. I was adamant that I would succeed first time. Firstly, because I’m a competitive person and when everyone kept telling me “you won’t succeed first time” I wanted to prove them wrong and secondly, because I couldn’t bear the thought of putting myself through the experience more than once. To this day, this is the mindset I am most grateful for. This doesn’t mean that if you don’t succeed first time, you won’t. Just that it will save you some time and heartache if you can and it helps spur you on in the process.

You will know when you are ready because you will almost be looking forward to the challenge.....

 

[freedom4ever]

Part 2 – Preparing your brain.


Experts claim that giving your brain a chance to prepare for such a great change in your life gives you a much better chance of success. You can see why, our brains are very mechanical organs that have a tendency to try and protect us from sudden change. Trust me, you need your conscious and subconscious mind on board for the task ahead!

With that in mind, do not attempt to quit on a whim. Plan a quit day in the future and enjoy a right royal smoke all the way up to the night before your quit day. This gives your mind a chance to ‘say goodbye’. Do not underestimate the feelings that quitting nicotine can give you. Experts claim that nicotine is as, if not more addictive than heroin. Losing it from your life exposes you to a form of mourning.

Try to break and change habits before the big day. That cigarette after a meal is unbeatable. Do yourself a favour and in the week leading up to quit day, make yourself wait longer and longer after you eat before you smoke. This will get your brain used to the fact that it can’t expect nicotine after food. Equally, if your habit is sparking up when you make a phone call, ban smoking on the phone and wait until your call is finished.

Do enrole in the NHS stop smoking scheme if you re in the UK or the equivalent if it’s available in your country. I had access to free nicotine replacement in various forms and a weekly session with a counselor, who also took my CO test. They are non patronizing and don’t berate you if you fuck up, they just guide you in the right direction.

Put a diary on your wall that you can mark off each day as you go. These small moments of achievement become pretty significant a few days in.

Go to bed the night before remembering that you are doing this for you and no one is making you do it, you want control of your life BACK from nicotine and you are going to take it. There are many, many benefits to giving up this terrible drug and you have them all to look forward to.

 

[freedom4ever]

Part 3 – Quit day.


You must prepare for quit day. The night before, you must take time to place air fresheners all over the house and in the car. Make sure you have clean clothes available that do not smell of cigs. Make sure before you go to bed that there is not a cigarette to be found within a half mile radius of you!! Get rid of ashtrays and lighters. Write a list of reasons of why you are quitting and leave it somewhere where you can read it as soon as you wake up and are craving that first cig of the day. Try to eat something, fruit is good and drink still drinks from bottles with ‘nipple’ tops, it satisfies the oral fixation to a certain extent. Have a crossword or some sort of puzzle handy and make yourself do it. By the time you’ve attempted half of it you will already have successfully got through the first craving.

Cravings only last a few minutes. Watch the clock if you have to, but know that it will subside in no longer than 5-8 mins, sometimes less.

Try to enjoy the fact that your house and car smell better. Just do whatever you have to do to get through that first day, it is the hardest but it’s over pretty quickly and then your over the worst.

I was very apprehensive about day1. I hadn’t gone a whole day without a cig in over fifteen years. The morning was hard and saw me sat in the corner looking decidedly foetal, but each hour that passed became easier. I ate a lot of seeds, berries, gum, smoothies etc and tried to enjoy the fact that finally I was going to have a proper diet rather than living on black coffee and cigarettes.

 

[freedom4ever]

Part 4- Which methods to use.


You probably already have a pretty good idea of the myriad of products available to help you quit. Different things work for different people so I can only share with you what I learned as a user or tryer of most of them!

Nicotine patches: - I used these for 6 weeks. You start with a big dose and move down. Generally they just pissed me off. They left sticky shit all over my arm. Quite possibly relying heavily on the placebo effect. I can’t say they didn’t work either

, although once or twice I took them off earlier than I was supposed to and it made no noticable difference.

Nicotine gum: - I expect I owe quite a lot to the gum. I had never tried it before and was surprised a how much like having a cig it was. Come quit day I was heavily armed with the stuff and the strong one at that. In my first week I was getting through 12 or so pieces a day! It became like having a treat and I even had one after a meal to replace that inevitable craving.
The down side of the gum is that it is addictive itself and I gave myself a mouth ulcer where I kept biting my lip in the same place when I got over excited with it! Mouth ulcers fyi, are also an inevitable side effect to quitting nicotine.


In reality, weining myself off the gum was way easier than I thought it would be. My advice is to use it if you need to, but it’s not candy! Use it sparingly and try to recognize when you don’t need it anymore. If you are still eating a lot of it after three weeks, see you doctor for advice. Or PM me, I bet I can put you off it with one quick sentence.

Hypnotherapy: - I know some people swear by it, but I have now been “hypnotized” twice in my life and both times just seemed like an expensive sleep. I wouldn’t bother with it again. Nothing that happened for my £80 was anything that one of my friends couldn’t have done. However, some people seem more receptive to it, if you can afford it, give it a go for funsies! Whatever keeps you occupied!

Drugs!

: - In terms of alternative sources of nicotine, you can also get lozenges which melt on your tongue and inhalators which give you the hand to mouth action. There are also drugs available such as Zyban… talk to your doctor if you want to try these, my knowledge of them is limited.

I strongly recommend keeping a diary if you decide to try and quit, it occupies your hands, organizes your thoughts and keeps you out of denial.


Once you’ve made it through your first day or two, take a moment to appreciate the advantages. Whilst you probably find yourself thinking endlessly about cigarettes, keep in mind that it will pass, it’s just your addiction trying to reel you back in. Already your breathing and pulse rates have returned to a normal level. Your taste and smell are beginning to improve as is your circulation. It was a revelation to me when heat returned to my hands and feet, they’d been cold for so long from poor circulation that I think they’d gone numb!
Get an empty bottle and shove £10 in it, cos you’ve probably saved that already. Write ‘cash not ash’ on your bottle and watch the cash add up. You’ll have to smash the bottle to get your money, but we’ll come back to that. Try to leave it be for now and think about all the lovely bud you’ll be able to buy with it soon.

Have you noticed that you and your breath don’t smell of stale cig? Nice huh?

 

[freedom4ever]

Part 5 – Your first week as a non smoker and what you can expect to happen to your body and mind!


Remember, every cell in your body is changing. Each cig you’ve smoked has topped up the 4000 chemicals which each cig gives you. Now you’re giving it the chance, your body has to work really hard to get rid of each and every one of these chemicals. As you lose each one, your body will send messages to your brain to tell you that you are losing something that you need. This is your addiction and must be ignored, clearly you don’t need the likes of arsenic and various metals in your system, but you’ve absorbed them for so long that your brain thinks you need them as much as oxygen. Think of it in terms of retraining your brain.

Here’s some landmark moments to work towards:

20 minutes after giving up
Your blood pressure and your pulse rate return to normal. Therefore, from the minute you give up, your chances of heart attack are reduced.

8 hours after giving up
The carbon monoxide levels in your blood are halved.

Energy levels start to improve as more oxygen and less carbon monoxide is moving through your lungs.


24 hours after giving up
Carbon monoxide has now completely gone from your system.

From now on, all exercise will be easier, breathing during exercise will not be as difficult and you will find yourself able to do more.

48 hours after giving up
Your ability to taste and smell has improved greatly.
Nicotine has now completely gone from your system. Naturally your brain is going to resist this loss. The 48 hour mark is a difficult one, losing this most addictive substance sends your self preservation skills into overdrive! These moments require will power. Try to remember why you are feeling like this and why you are doing it.

Your subconscious mind doesn’t necessarily want you to give up nicotine, it is telling you that you like it, need it and aren’t coping without it. All evidence is to the contrary though, you are getting through it and you’re already through the hardest part!

Remember, if you quit quitting now, you’ll have to go through this all again at some point in the future. You may as well put up with a few shitty days now and then never have to go through all this again.

2-21 weeks after giving up
Circulation has improved greatly.

Poor circulation can result in many things, including cuts/sores taking a long time to heal, cramps, cold limbs etc

After 1 year
Your risk of a heart attack falls to about half that of a smoker.

After 10 years
Your risk of lung cancer falls to about half that of a smoker

After 15 years
Your risk of a heart attack is the same as someone who has never smoked.


So you don’t have to wait long to see the benefits, however you can see how long it will take for your body to recover completely, so do you really want to prolong the agony? Quit now and you can make a huge difference to your life.


Okay, I admit it’s not an entirely rosy process.

You are going to experience a number of things that aren’t entirely pleasant, I am not going to hide these truths from you, because they were kept from me and that made me angry. If you are aware, then you can be prepared.

It should also be said that you may not experience many side effects at all, it is dependent on the severity of your habit.


You can expect mouth ulcers, itchy skin, headaches, insomnia…. Not tempting huh? I never said it was easy. What you must remember is that it is not impossible and that nothing in life that is worth having, comes easy.

After a couple of weeks when you start to lose various chemicals from your body, your body will eliminate these in different ways.

I remember expecting to have wonderful skin almost straight away

(For as long as I smoked, my skin was terrible) but it just got worse! My skin was erupting with acne!!

This lasted for a few weeks.

At 8 weeks, (they say this is when arsenic leaves your body) just when you are thinking, ‘I could well be over my addiction’ your body craves the arsenic and can take you completely by surprise, be ready for it.

I vividly remember yearning for somebody to tell me how long I would feel shit for, when would I start feeling all these amazing benefits? Of course, no one can give you a definitive answer, we are all different. The science of the process explains a certain amount, but you are learning to live your life in a completely new way, you have lost what was a permanent extension to your hand and everyone reacts differently to this.
I can tell you how long it took me, a professional smoker, to truly feel better. Between 2-3 months I got to a stage where I knew I wouldn’t fall off the wagon, the deed was done for sure, all I had to do now was learn to live with it. What followed was, a good two-three months of depression which I did NOT see coming and it totally floored me. For the first couple of months I had been spurred on by the encouragement of my friends and family, it had been somewhat of a novelty which had now worn thin and I just missed my cigs. I got very low and seriously questioned whether or not life was worth it without cigs!! I know how irrational that sounds now, but at the time, that feeling was very real. This period saw my toughest times, but keeping in mind what I have shared with you here got me through it.

Now use the cost calculator to work out how much you’ve saved so far. Make sure you have put all savings in your bottle, it should be looking pretty tempting to break into by now.

Coming up next, the all important benefits.

But I think I'll wait and see if this thread is welcome first....

 

[cocktail frank]

thanks for this thread.
it is just what i needed today, for i am just starting to quit ciggs TODAY!
just polished off my last pack last night.
doing it for my kids and my wallet.
rather spend the $ on them than the ciggs.

it's super rough sitting here w/ my coffee and NOT smoking.
eh, i just gotta get thru the 1st couple days and i'll be good.
i did quit for 8 days last new years, but failed like a dumb ass.
well past the cravings, should have never done it.

been smoking over 1/2 my life. started at 15-16 and im going on 33 this year.
i think it's time to let this fad pass..........

 

[freedom4ever]

thanks for this thread.
it is just what i needed today, for i am just starting to quit ciggs TODAY!
just polished off my last pack last night.
doing it for my kids and my wallet.
rather spend the $ on them than the ciggs.

it's super rough sitting here w/ my coffee and NOT smoking.
eh, i just gotta get thru the 1st couple days and i'll be good.
i did quit for 8 days last new years, but failed like a dumb ass.
well past the cravings, should have never done it.

been smoking over 1/2 my life. started at 15-16 and im going on 33 this year.
i think it's time to let this fad pass..........

Hell yeah

I figured it was a good time to post this, what with New Year's reso's and the like. I actually resisted the Jan 1st thang just 'cos I hate to go along with convention. My quit day was 1st Feb.

You state GREAT reasons for ditching the cigs man, well done you and best of luck to you. Don't beat yourself up btw, 8 days is a tough time in the process, at least you know to be ready for it this time around.

 

[bj368]

i have been quit for 7 months now . i smoked for 32 years. no patches, no gum. cold turkey how ? i just doubled down on the weed. worked for me. i am saving $5.34every day. saving 160.20 per month . saving $1922.40 per year. being able to tASTE my weed again priceless.

 

[DaPurps]

Good post. I need to quit.

I quit after college by replacing the cigs with weed. I would just blaze everytime i had a craving and it worked.

A few years later i picked them up again.

 

[dustin27]

good luck guys. My girlfriend and i are about to quit smoking and these tips will help us alot.

 

[Mr. Bongjangles]

Little tip - joints rolled with vaped bud remains have a "toasted" taste that is somewhat similar to cigarettes.

Perhaps not the best way to kill cravings, but thought I'd throw it out there.

I've also had great success with an ecig. Not smoked tobacco in over 6 months now. I recommend the Silver Bullet or the similar but smaller BB. Both will last a whole day on 1 battery and make tons of vapor, and are built like a rock.

I started with medium strength nicotine liquid and am now down to the lowest strength available, and will soon start cutting that with zero nicotine liquid. Tried a bunch of liquid companies, but the one I order from these days is Tasty Vapor. Cherry Cola flavor ftw

Anyways yeah, real glad I quit the cigs. My sense of smell is dramatically improved, and even with the cost of the ecig I've saved over 500 dollars.

 

[LovableHuggable]

i have been quit for 7 months now . i smoked for 32 years. no patches, no gum. cold turkey how ? i just doubled down on the weed. worked for me. i am saving $5.34every day. saving 160.20 per month . saving $1922.40 per year. being able to tASTE my weed again priceless.

Doubled down on the weed is how I made it through week one.

I quit for the second time Dec, 2005. I had smoked 20 by 6pm and bummed 4 more and those were gone at 830. I haven't smoked since. I started in 99 but quit in 2001. Made it one year and one month and started back after pulling some all nighters partying. Went strong from 2002-2005 smoking up to 40 a day. It was by far the hardest thing I've ever stopped doing and I did it cold turkey except for lots and lots of nugs. I had a cig craving I'd squash it with the bong.

Some five years later I've realized that I may have only switched up the tools of my addiction b/c now I can't stop smoking weed at all. Haven't went more then 3 days without since I quit smoking cigs. Before I quit cigs I could go over a week without even thinking about smoking weed.

 

[Anita Bonghit]

People smoke cigs to feed to their addiction. They make it a habit to smoke within a period of time or while do something, like driving or waiting for the bus.
It is so much worse than picking your nose; so i really get pissed when I get yelled at.
My dad quit cigs many years ago, but now he chews that gum and smokes 3 cigars a day, to feed that addiction/bad habit. Now i get to breathe in that smoke and it sucks.
If the police didn't take my vape (da buddha and vapr genie) I would sound less hypocritical because now I hit my homemade bong. My cig smoking friends have two attitudes, 'somethings gotta kill me' or 'i am quitting soon'. i haven't heard one good reason FOR smoking, so i end my post asking people WHY? why do you smoke? )*(

 

[El Toker]

I gave up three years ago, not long after watching my father die as a result of smoking. The important thing for me was realising that the only thing that the cigs did for me was to relieve my craving, smoking wasn't the pleasurable experience I was fooling myself into believing it was.

I was a hardcore chain smoker who would feel a panic if separated from my cigs for more than an hour.

The method was to baton down the hatches, and stay stoned for a solid week, every time I felt a pang of craving I had another bong hit. (I know that for some people on these forums this would be more a description of an average week rather than a technique for fighting addiction.) Staying away from smokers for a couple of weeks after that helped as well.

Now, when I see someone smoking I have no craving or even curiosity about trying one, I just keep asking myself why I did something so stupid, expensive and self harming for more than twenty years.

I have to hold my breathe when I walk past smokers because the smell is so vile.

I think of all the excuses that I made up for not giving up and bullshit I convinced myself of to justify postponing it, despite wanting to for pretty much the whole time I was smoking.

Anyway, I came to a few conclusions along the way.

Cigarettes really don't help you to deal with stress, they just add the stress of having to feed an addiction to everything else that's going on.

Cigarettes don't feel good, they just ease the aching agony of your addiction.

I am going to die some day just like everybody else, but that doesn't have to be 20 years before my time gasping for air to draw into what's left of my lungs after pouring carcinogens and tar into them for twenty years.

Cigarettes aren't a good way to make friends and bond, unless you want to surround yourself solely with people who are too weak to overcome a simple addiction.

I forgive my parents for bringing me up in a cloud of tobacco smoke, because they really had no idea of the harm they were doing to me. However, nobody has that excuse today and there is a special place in hell for those who smoke around non-smokers, particularly children.

 

[TrichyTrichy]

almost 2 packs a day... ugly
patches,gum and

silkquit widget to keep me on track:
Nine years, eleven months, three weeks, two days, 12 hours, 55 minutes and 36 seconds. 109336 cigarettes not smoked, saving $38,267.65. Life saved: 1 year, 2 weeks, 1 day, 15 hours, 20 minutes.

cost of cig's was at 5$ at the time so money saved is wayyy more.

 

[gdawg]

Great thread k+. I finally quit two years ago after a couple failed attempts. I took the chantix to stop and well it worked...side effects tbd. You can do it Frank!

 

[Purple Monster]

180 days tobacco free today for me.

i quit cold turkey, just smoked lotsa herb.

 

[mean mr.mustard]

Patches!

 

[ZEROorDIE]

hmm.

ive quit twice in the past. once for a month and once for 2 months. first time i started again was because my shit job made me super stressed and i just caved at some point.

second time i came back after i was hit with a big wave of depression brought on by uncontrollable life situations.

both times were cold turkey. i may give your method a try. im stteing my date to feb 1st. that gives me a week of work and a weekend of drinking to say goodbye. then a monday to get rid of the remainder and buy a big ol bag of buds.