Ren

How can quitting be so simple - DO NOT SMOKE - and so fragile at the same time - JUST ONE can set you back, destroy your quit, make you start all over. The paradox of addiction?

I felt bad about using NRT at first too! I was/am using these little mini-lozenges you stuff under your tongue (I like them better than the gum). Four and a half weeks into my quit I went three days without them last week, and then I had one yesterday. I had told myself the third day would be the hardest, but then on day four I couldn't resist. So I think I'll just keep them around for times when a craving is threatening to mess with my quit. Hopefully, eventually, I'll forget about them.

Pot and Tobacco have always seemed so separate for me, even though I often put tobacco in my joints. I like smoking herb by itself even more, so I really don't want tobacco tainting it now. That said, I buy my own and usually smoke out of a little water pipe rather than joints so I don't find that triggering. And if someone was passing a joint around with tobacco in it I would not have a hit. I would say it just depends on you, my friend.

Nope.

neat.

Hey 10 days is amazing. Cold turkey, and you've ridden the worst waves of nicotine withdrawal. I have quit for just over a month (this time). I trust you know it's common for people to have to quit multiple times before it sticks. This is the time it sticks!! It just is. Because you just won't smoke again. You are amazing to push through your cravings for 10 days. I know everyone's quit is different. but I couldn't have done it without my little nicotine lozenges and even a bit of pot to take the edge off of my mood (and help with insomnia!!) I find having a "primary motivator" helps. First of all, you must value your life. Secondly, I think about my life in perspective, you know, big picture stuff. I see a possible future of dying of a smoking-related disease and leaving my family before I should, or watching that happen to my wife because she took up smoking after I smoked around her for so long...or just that, if you would like to be a better version of yourself, it is one thing you can do that immediately improves your health, your attractiveness, your lifespan, your physical capabilities, your ability to pick up babies without their moms wrinkling their noses at you...so many things.

Your surgery was two days ago - I hope it went well and you are resting and healing! Congrats on your quit of over a year. Even now that I don't smoke I worry I'll get a disease caused by my smoking later on in my life. Like the doctor said, what you have wasn't entirely caused by smoking. And you quit when you quit, and your body is so much stronger for it now, when it needs to be, to keep your heart lub-dubbing for years to come!!

Yay! Thanks Everyone

It's funny you mention this because I did get pretty cheeky with some policemen! I remember wanting to yell at them (they're being really annoying with pot in Canada lately because we're months away from legalization and everyone's pushing at the edges of the laws that are still in place until then - ANYWAY) I wanted to yell at them but I didn't want to get in trouble, so this came out of me, dripping with sarcasm - I LOooooVE COPS! DON'T YOU ALL JUST THINK THEY'RE DOING A GReeeEaaaAT JOB? LOOK AT THEM ALL! I JUST LOVE SEEING AaaLL THESE COPS OUT HERE PROTECTING OUR STREETS! ....I get yelly on tequila. I find it funny because I'm normally a pretty quiet person.

Nope. I would just like to add this one for this past weekend in which I beat a very emotional craving. NEWD. Not Even While Drunk.

Hey everyone! I have a sad and funny story. On the weekend I went out with a few friends and, admittedly, I drank too much. It happens sometimes. I didn't have enough for dinner and there were interesting things happening. My little stack of snapshots from the night include having a wonderful time dancing, flirting, and popping outside from time to time for chats with new friends. Then when we left the bar around 2am and started walking up the street, I looked around and there were people everywhere, lining up at the food joints or making their way home, and it was like EVERYONE was smoking. All three girls I was with don't hesitate to smoke when they drink, and walking behind them as they acquired cigarettes from people and lit them, I burst into tears! I was very drunk, yes, but it felt like I was being ripped between wanting to have one so badly and NOT wanting to have another one, ever, SO SO badly at the same time. Anyway, my ladies took care of me and threw their smokes away and brought me fries to eat and we sat on this little wall. And then I just felt embarrassed. BUT I ALSO DON'T CARE BECAUSE I DIDN'T SMOKE! And if it took crying about it then I don't care if I acted a bit foolish. Oh dear. 30 Days Today, Ya'll!

I've seen this mentioned in a few other posts, but I keep smoking in my dreams. It's so real that when I remember the next day I panic for a second before I remind myself that I did not, in fact, smoke yesterday. In the dream I am conscious that I haven't smoked in a long time and I take the cigarette knowing full well that I'm ruining my quit. And then I enjoy the shit out of it. I also have a recurring dream problem...I'll have the same (or very similar) dream for weeks on end. Has anyone had this problem and possibly find anything that helps? I hate feeling like my last smoke was yesterday, every day. I guess this is just part of being addicted to nicotine.

Oh god I'm only in week 3 but I've already hit no-man's land, I think because not everyone in my life even knew I smoked, and I never smoked that much, so people definitely think I should be over it by now. I will definitely be needing this place lol

Thanks everyone for the very supportive words!! It's all very helpful. And I am grateful that your main advice is to get more information. Knowing what smoking cigarettes are actually doing to you is an extremely powerful motivator. There is an exhibit currently showing at our natural history museum called Body Worlds RX that displays full and partial sections of real human corpses that belonged to people who donated their bodies to science. Among many other interesting exhibits, was a head-to-toe cross section of the insides of a smoker and a non-smoker, side by side. I'm sure you can imagine the differences. I'm also finding relief in taking it one day at a time...I thought my father-in-law always smoked but I just heard the story that he had quit for 6 years once but then took it up again. I hate stories like that because I don't feel like I can not-smoke forever!! I just don't trust myself yet, so I'm at peace with using the NRT for now! I can tell I have a strong psychological addiction to smoking and it helps to have something I can take when the anxiety ramps up that actually have a calming effect because my brain is all, yay nicotine!

Hello! I am 30 years old and I've been a light smoker for the last 12 years. I never got up to more than 5-6/day, and some of those months and years were actually smoke-free. My quit has never stuck, and I think partly it's because smoking so "little" didn't seem like a big deal. Then I developed bronchitis last fall and it never went away. When I smoked, my lungs felt better for a minute but then I was just angry that I was addicted to tobacco and I knew I needed to quit for good. I'm also a soprano in a professional choir and was trying to keep my smoking a secret from as many people as possible. Yep. My (most recent) quit date was March 18 so I'm currently staring down my fourth week no ciggies. I'm hoping to find some support here so that I don't smoke again. In my household, my sister in law always has a pack, not for smoking directly, but she mixes it in with her funky jazz cabbage. My wife quit smoking with me (she smoked even less than I did but she picked it up because of me), but has been taking a different route - she's had around 5 smokes in the last month, giving in to a craving when it's been a few days and she feels like it's ok, I guess. Needless to say, this has been difficult!!! I am also using an NRT for the first time ever, which I firmly believe is the reason I haven't had a smoke yet. I can sit outside with my wife while she smokes and I don't want any - IF I make sure I've just had a nicotine mint. I'm using NicHit, these little 1 mg mini-lozenges that you pop under your tongue. They burn a little, but I like it because it reminds me of my throat burning a little when I smoked. I've only been using between 2 and 4 of these a day, even right after I stopped smoking. I intend on continuing to use them for the next two months. I'm just concerned that it's keeping me addicted to nicotine (because it is) and that when I stop the NRT I will just want a smoke, and there will be that pack sitting on the table one day with nobody home.....nightmares.

Day 24 of NOPE. I'm trying really hard you guys.