Trigger warning: I am a drug addict to nicotine.

[YeshuaRedeemed]

The nicotine is more addictive. I go overboard smoking. I am calling out big tobacco for selling a deadly and addictive pruct. I am so addicted to nicotine, I was raped over a cigarette I still can't stop, or I turn into a supper blank (I don't want to profane), and I make my loved ones upset with me. I want help, but I can't do this without help from my doctor. Advice?

 

[YmirGF]

Well, sit down and breathe!

I too am a nicotine addict. I am now on day 31 of smoking cessation. Day fricken 31 and I have not had a cigarette during that time and simply do not want one. I smoked 1 - 1-1/2 packs a day for 30 years! You CAN do this, but you have to want to quit first. There has to be a real desire to quit.

I feel so much better already that it is mind-boggling.

 

[SalixIncendium]

Stop making excuses like "it's the tobacco companies' fault for selling it" and "not smoking makes me a super *****" and start listing reasons NOT to smoke.

If you have issues with cessation on your own or with OTC aid such as the patch or nicotine gum, seek medical advice. There are drugs that can help curb the nicotine addiction.

 

[YeshuaRedeemed]

Well, sit down and breathe!

I too am a nicotine addict. I am now on day 31 of smoking cessation. Day fricken 31 and I have not had a cigarette during that time and simply do not want one. I smoked 1 - 1-1/2 packs a day for 30 years! You CAN do this, but you have to want to quit first. There has to be a real desire to quit.

I feel so much better already that it is mind-boggling.

I am so proud of you. How are you doing this?

 

[YmirGF]

I am so proud of you. How are you doing this?

I've done the 3 week Nicoderm patches system. The neat thing about the patches is that they release nicotine into your system so that you have the "room" to change deeply ingrained behaviors attached to smoking. The patch keeps the monkey off your back while your work on permanently changing your behaviors. After 3 weeks of doing that with patches, you have already changed your supporting habits and can now face the lack of nicotine without the enabling behaviors. If it can work for me, a guy who was going outside every night, several times, in the wind and the rain, at 4AM for a smoke. It can work for you too!

Plus we will all be pulling for you!

(Jeez. Is this part of my therapy being organized by @SalixIncendium If so, that is very cunning.... (ie. now I have to help someone else quit. LOL))

 

[YeshuaRedeemed]

I've done the 3 week Nicoderm patches system. The neat thing about the patches is that they release nicotine into your system so that you have the "room" to change deeply ingrained behaviors attached to smoking. The patch keeps the monkey off your back while your work on permanently changing your behaviors. After 3 weeks of doing that with patches, you have already changed your supporting habits and can now face the lack of nicotine without the enabling behaviors. If it can work for me, a guy who was going outside every night, several times, in the wind and the rain, at 4AM for a smoke. It can work for you too!

Plus we will all be pulling for you!

that's awesome. I am thinking about Wellbutrin. That is an antidepressant that helps people quit smoking, but if my prescriber won't switch me, I will try the patch or gum. Ugh. Love ya. I am so proud of you. We can both do this.

 

[YmirGF]

that's awesome. I am thinking about Wellbutrin. That is an antidepressant that helps people quit smoking, but if my prescriber won't switch me, I will try the patch or gum. Ugh. Love ya. I am so proud of you. We can both do this.

If you do do this make sure you follow the instructions and do not deviate from those instructions. Also, stay the course of the treatment. For example, nowhere in the patches documentation does it tell you that you cannot have a cigarette. It just has a cryptic warning about a nicotine overdoses that doesn't sound like too much fun. So, my guess is that you might get sick as a dog by having a smoke while using the patch. Pretty effective.

I still have one cigarette left in my last pack. I might do a Danny DeVito trick with it and have it encased in Lucite so I can put it on my mantle piece, along with the date I quit on the box.

 

[SalixIncendium]

that's awesome. I am thinking about Wellbutrin. That is an antidepressant that helps people quit smoking, but if my prescriber won't switch me, I will try the patch or gum. Ugh. Love ya. I am so proud of you. We can both do this.

Wellbutrin (bupropion) worked from me the first time I quit about 18 years ago. At the time I was smoking three packs per day. I also used generic bupropion when I quit again about a year and a half ago. The other two times I quit was cold turkey.

The events in my life was a determining factor in the aid I needed to quit.

 

[Brickjectivity]

I have been a smoker. What I have found is that craving is at the core of my existence and does not go away. There is a nameless craving that always exists in the core of my self, and it attaches itself to all kinds of things. Smoking is just like eating a meal at a nice restaurant with friends. I can order the best meal, better than everyone else's and still be curious about how theirs is. With cigarettes its the same way. Even while you are smoking you want another, so there is just no point. The cigarette is not real. Its not really what is desired. The desire exists always and merely looks for things to attach itself to.

My observation is that desire is a painful form of curiosity. Its related to curiosity somehow and also to pain. Its always there no matter what I do. Its just...some nameless pain that can not be avoided. Its not stinging or aching. I haven't smoked for years and no longer desire to smoke, but I still feel constant craving. It is a feeling that I want to get rid of but can't. I feel like I ought to feel better, but I know now that I can't. That's why I found the cigarettes addictive. It felt like I was doing the right thing, because I had pain. It felt like I ought to be doing something and ought to be getting some relief. Pain felt wrong. The cigarettes actually did not help though. Anyway the subtle pain is still with me at all times. I always want a distraction of some kind, but nothing truly takes care of it.

 

[YmirGF]

that's awesome. I am thinking about Wellbutrin. That is an antidepressant that helps people quit smoking, but if my prescriber won't switch me, I will try the patch or gum. Ugh. Love ya. I am so proud of you. We can both do this.

I went the doctor route simply to make it "official" that I was going to do this. I felt that if it was just my choice it might not be enough, but if I was doing it as part of "doctors orders" I would be far more conscientious about it. Do whatever psychological game you have to (within reason) to get to where you need to be to decide its time to quit.

My GP said, "It's never too late to quit!" I smiled and instantly realized that that was not true. It was too late for my dad when he finally quit.

 

[Revoltingest]

Well, sit down and breathe!

I too am a nicotine addict. I am now on day 31 of smoking cessation. Day fricken 31 and I have not had a cigarette during that time and simply do not want one. I smoked 1 - 1-1/2 packs a day for 30 years! You CAN do this, but you have to want to quit first. There has to be a real desire to quit.

I feel so much better already that it is mind-boggling.

Listen to the caped operatic rodent.
His advise is sage, caring & useful.
All I'd offer is a command to quit yer mewling, & just man up.

 

[Stanyon]

If a camel can go 24 hours without a drink of water you can go 24 hours without a cigarette.

 

[PureX]

It's a tough nut, but not an impossible one. Over 20 years ago two friends and I went to an acupuncturist that claimed she could eliminate the desire to smike. We were all three over a pack a day smokers.

Friend one was smoking again in less than a month, but he did quit, eventually, and stayed quit. Though it took him a couple of tries.

Friend two claimed it was miraculous in that he had no cravings at all. He said it was like that acupuncturist had somehow "flipped a switch" and just shut off his desire to smoke. He went over a year without smoking but then started again during a stressful family visit. And he is still smoking 23 years later.

As far as I could tell, the acupuncture had no effect on my desire to smoke, at all. And I was crazy and miserable for a long time dealing with a mind that would NEVER shut up about wanting to smoke. But in time, this did lessen and eventually go away, and I have never smoked since, nor do I feel any desire to. I don't even think about.

So I think this is one of those things that people have to keep trying at until they find the right 'method' for them. Which means that you really have to want to stop. And one of the things that I found very helpful was not to allow myself to 're-negotiate' the decision to quit every time I'd get a craving. I had to think of it as a 'done deal'. As something that had already happened, tat was permanent, and so I'd have to just suffer through the resultant discomfort and insanity until it passed. Because I knew if I allowed myself to keep rethinking whether or not I "really" wanted to quit, sooner or later I was going to chose 'no', and then I'd be right back to square one. And the quitting process was so difficult that I really did not want to have to go through it more than once.

 

[Axe Elf]

I smoked about a pack a day for 28 years, starting at the age of 18. I NEVER thought I would quit; I loved smoking. I loved the first cigarette in the morning, and the last cigarette at night. I loved a cigarette after meals, and I loved taking smoke breaks at work.

And then in the summer of 2009, I for some reason became convinced that cigarettes were harming my body. I had experienced several cases of what I thought was severe heartburn, which I later found out were probably mild heart attacks, but I honestly don't remember ever connecting those symptoms directly with smoking. I had also been experiencing periods of tachycardia for more than 10 years at that point, maybe they got worse? I really don't remember. But for some reason, I decided that I needed to stop smoking.

And so, on the opening day of football season, 2009, I had two cigarettes spread across the day, and I have never had another one since. It was just that easy. And now I can't stand the smell of smoke, and have no desire to smoke, ever, for any reason. So I think it's pretty much like anything else in life; if you want to do it, you will, and if you don't want to do it, you won't.

 

[Poisonshady313]

The nicotine is more addictive. I go overboard smoking. I am calling out big tobacco for selling a deadly and addictive pruct. I am so addicted to nicotine, I was raped over a cigarette I still can't stop, or I turn into a supper blank (I don't want to profane), and I make my loved ones upset with me. I want help, but I can't do this without help from my doctor. Advice?

There's a book by Allen Carr called The Easy Way to Stop Smoking. Carr was a nicotine addict who developed a method to help nicotine addicts defeat their addiction. It's inexpensive, easy, effective... in fact, my recommendation of this book has helped a few people on this forum become former smokers.

I gave this book to my uncle. He was a nicotine addict. tried everything he could think of to quit. nothing worked except the book. he put out his final cigarette in January 2010, and never had a craving for nicotine since.

 

[Saint Frankenstein]

Try switching to vaping. It's cheaper over the long run and you can wean yourself off of nicotine by choosing the strength of the vape juice. I used to smoke and then switched to vaping. I eventually lost the urge to even vape and now I do neither. At the very least, vaping isn't as bad as smoking. Even oral tobacco carries less risk.