I’ve been a smoker for ten years… Since I was twelve… A pack or more a day since I was sixteen.
I’ve tried quitting several times in the past few months, only to start smoking more. Now my habit is nearing two packs a day… I have a lot of stress in my life, but I feel the smoking is exacerbating the physical and mental aspect of my anxiety. A half an hour cannot pass without burning a cigarette in under three minutes.
I bought some nicotine gum tonight, 4mg fruit flavored walmart gum, and I still have extreme cravings… Quitting hard drugs was a walk in the park compared to this crap.
Has anyone any advice?
EDIT: I posted this in the wrong board…Sorry guys! reports self
I smoked for 24 years and I quit over 4 years ago. I used Chantix. It worked for me because it blocks the nicotine from having any effects to you. I was too cheap to keep buying expensive packs of smokes when they weren’t doing anything for me, and I was too proud to bum them off of my friends or neighbors. So I just stuck it out and didn’t smoke. After a few months, I did try to sneak a smoke here and there, but when I did, I found that I got extremely nauseous for the rest of the day, and eventually I threw up really violently. That was the last time I smoked, when I vomited. I hate vomiting, so that keeps me from ever smoking again. That just showed me how vile cigarettes really are, but I had gotten used to the poison of them over time. Chantix isn’t for everyone- it did give me some psychological/mood effects, but for me it was worth it. I am so glad every single day that I don’t smoke anymore. I never miss it.
I do wish I could help. I smoked from the time I was 13 until I was 30. I am 48 now. Since then, I have hit a friends’ cig maybe 5 times…just recently, actually. I have no desire to start again. I only do when my life is shit, and then something stops me…not sure what. You know, I had tried to quit a number of times before I finally did, but all I can say is that the reason why I couldn’t was because I really wasn’t ready to give it up. I enjoyed smoking, everything about it. We are all wired (chemically speaking) differently. For some people quitting addictive habits can be pretty painless, not so much for others. When I quit, I just…quit. This doesn’t make me any stronger, or have more will power than the next person. I’m like that with most things, however. When I am ready for a change, or ready to drop something out of my daily life…I just do it. My guy smokes cigs. I wish he’d quit, but I will not nag him about it because he will quit when he wants to and that’s that. My worry is that it will kill him, I sure hope not. Regardless of what type of person you are – how you are wired…you have to really want to quit. I know other dopers’ opinions will differ from mine, and that’s OK. I quit on December 24th, 1993. I was at a party. A lot of people were gathered in my friends’ home - some of us smoking cigs and grass. My friend had a 4 year old son. He, and his little bud ( a little girl) crawled by me on their bellies while I was standing in the living room talking with a friend (cig in hand)…I heard the boy say, “Let’s pretend we are snakes, it’s not so smokey down here.” He had figured out that there was less smoke in the air the lower he was. Yep, that was my kicker.
Yeah. I’ve tried numerous times, using patch, gums, lozenges, nicotrol inhalers, all that.
Good luck. If any of those methods help you, you rule and good for you.
I chew matchsticks, but I tend to keep pipe tobacco on hand. Terrible for the body, but I don’t find the habit as addictive. And I still buy a packed cigs every once in a while – maybe twice a month.
I wouldn’t advise doing what I do at all – I think it’s masochistic, hair-shirt asceticism, and that’s partly why I challenge myself to keep a pack of cigarettes on the desk without smoking one. Weird, and it causes me great challenges sometimes, and makes me often angry and erratic in behavior.
I hope you do it for real – it’s one motherfucker of a bad habit, smoking cigs.
Oh, I just noticed your anxiety level observations. I have noticed that if I smoke a few packs in two days, after going myself a hard day of no cigs, my chronic anxiety is lessened by not smoking.
I think for me, the need to have a supply of cigarettes can be so great that it exacerbates any anxiety one may already feel, or probably creates some anxiety if it weren’t already there.
It’s a damned funny thing to observe anxiety levels when coming off cigarettes – I hope you get to enjoy the experience with as much amusement as I did. It’s neat to treat your body as an experiment, and even neater given that this is a great thing for your body in the first place.
If you’ve been smoking all your adult life, think of it like a fun experience or adventure, like skydiving or tripping on some new synthetic drug, if that helps you – it’s helped me get over some hurdles.
How do those nicotrol inhalers work? Are they any better then the gum? I’m sitting here, pondering walking to the store for a pack of 'dem Marlboro smooths… They disgust me, but, I’m hooked like a fish.
Electronic cigarettes are a joke… if anyone was curious… at least the gas station ones.
(I am not a doctor)
Based on your history of failed attempts to quit and past drug use, together with your current stress and anxiety, I wouldn’t personally recommend trying to quit cold-turkey with just nicotine-replacement alone. Based on the same, I would be worried about trying Chantix and probably more inclined towards Wellbutrin. (Though, I’ve never tried either, personally - that’s just based on what I know of them.)
Can you go into a bit more detail about your past attempts to quit? What did you try, and how did you fare, and for how long? Is it mostly the ritual, the oral-fixation, and/or the chemical addiction that you feel made it difficult?
I’m an experienced labrat… Though at this stage in my life, I am trying healthy lifestyle experiments rather than mutations. I switched to veganism, and lost 12.5 pounds in 8 days. This just doesn’t fit.
About the skydiving… It feels like I am falling off a building when I don’t have a cigarette.
So something I guess I am more interested in, is how long the irritability (if present for yourself)or withdrawal effects were apparent? A few days? Weeks?
Yeah, they were the only nicotine replacement that worked for me. They didn’t really “work” in the sense that they freed me from the habit, but they were neat.
They work, at least in 1999 and in 2004 when I tried them, technically, by plugging a little capsule of nicotine, basically, into a cig-shaped little inhaler. Take a few puffs if you want, and stick it in your shirt pocket. They make your throat a little raspy, like a cig, so I think they are kind of like ecigs without the vapor.
I used them kind of like an asthma inhaler in public, because I was too self-conscious to pretend the inhaler was an actual cig. Kind of cupped in the fist, and a few hard draws when I felt a craving.
Thinking back, they weren’t so bad at all, really. I’m happier now just chewing matchsticks cause I think its socially acceptable at all places, gives me something to “chew on” literally when I’m reading and trying to think, and frankly I don’t think nicotine is either very addictive or something I really want to pay for to jazz me up. I have Xanax for that.
Zyban (or Wellbutrin) did it for me. In early December it will be 3 years. I was very lackadaisical about quitting - I did not set a ‘stop date’, I just took the Wellbutrin and carried on as usual. What I found was that Wellbutrin made me stop thinking about smoking. I didn’t quit the first time, and I’m not really sure how many times I tried it in all, but the last time I ran out of cigarettes I just never went to get more. I have not had so much as a drag since - with one exception. I turned 40 in August and took a few drags off a friend’s cigarette that night. That was my exception - and yes, I savored those few hits.
I stopped the Wellbutrin shortly after stopping smoking.
Chantix is out of the question due to my anxiety issues.
Mostly, my attempts have been with an electronic cigarette.. Which, are useless. The periods withoutsmoking have never lasted more than thirty hours. It is most deffinatly a chemical addiction, rather than fixation.
Those, or Klonopin would be a life saver right now, but them benzos have cause some seizures… so those aren’t as great in the long run.. but anyone could tell me or you that.
I was thinking about taking some low dose Seroquel that I have laying around.. Maybe for a three day period, just to help with the worst part. I don’t know if that is a good idea or not though, as I despise psychiatric drugs at this point… or the idea of switching a drug for a drug… but in theory.. it might work, as Curiosity said, making myself just not think about it.
I smoked 2+ packs a day for nearly 20 years. The antidepressant-type drugs for smoking cessation did absolutely nothing nothing but mess with my head and other bits you’d probably rather not hear about. Gum/patches got me through a 3 hour airplane trip but I was raving mad upon landing. Needless to say they weren’t going to work to help me quit.
Iowa banned smoking in bars in 2009 and I thought I’d “get around it”: I ordered one of these newfangled electronic cigarettes. Plan was to only use it in bars when it was too cold to go out on the patio. I quit smoking the very next day and haven’t had a real cigarette since. No joke. At the time I wasn’t even trying to quit.
Of course I’m still addicted to the nicotine so for me it was trading one for another, but my hacking cough is gone and I’m not smoking. That’s all that matters to me.
Certainly never buy an e-cig from a gas station or the mall, etc. A decent quality variable voltage one will set you back $100+ but it’s well worth it. The mall ones where you have to buy cartridges are absolutely worthless so I get see where they give the whole business a bad rap.
(Alright, I’m gonna make a quick reply, because I’m about to eat, but I’ll come back and try to give you a more thorough response in a bit.)
RE: Chantix… Yeah, that’s exactly what I thought, which is why I steered you towards Wellbutrin, instead, if you want to go the prescription route.
Anyway, if you can’t restrain your immediate urge to go to the store for some cigs, here’s what I’d do, for now. Go ahead and get those cigs, but along with them, pick up a tin of Camel Snus (Frost flavor, since you’re a menthol smoker) - they sell 'em at all 7/11’s, but not a lot of other stores usually carry them.
Pop in a snus between your upper gums and cheek, and give it a while to take effect. If you still feel you must smoke, see if you can just puff off an unlit cig to get that oral fix while the snus provides the rest.
This is really just a short-term attempt to see if you can avoid actually smoking for now. I’ll try to come back a little later with some more longer-term (and possibly more effective) advice, but see how that goes - it might just work by itself.
I didn’t answer your question about how long it takes me to get over the nicotine “hump” – keeping in mind I still go 30 cigs a day a few weeks at a time probably…twice a year? I don’t know for sure. And also keeping in mind I still smoke a pipe – so I still have some nicotine kicking around at all times in my body, most likely.
So, going by my very acute memories of coming off tobacco in the past entirely, which I still do at least twice a year, with cigs, it’s about three days. No more than that, for me. First day = worst day. I think you’ll be OK if you can get through that one.
I forgot I did try Wellbutrin once, when I was about 22 or so. Couldn’t deal with the intial side effects, so I quit taking it. I am on citalopram, though, for anxiety, and that had some pretty gnarly initial adjustment side effects for me too.
So, you can’t really take my experience as typical, but since you asked, there it is.
I do find that not smoking, after the first few days, really does cut down anxiety for me. Like, in a major, huge way. One less thing to deal with, one more thing to put a smile on your face, I guess is how it worked out for me.
I don’t know if the snus would work, as I am positive I am addicted to the additives, rather than the nicotine… As the gum does nothing much… and American Spirits do nothing for me. A shitty thing it is.
I personally quit using the patch. It still ended up being third time’s the charm for me. I too was one of those people that actually enjoyed the taste, routine, etc. The patch took care of the physical dependency so that I could take care of the habitual concerns. The final thing that did it for me were the multiple quit attempts. I fixated on the defeat and embarrassment I felt each time I resumed smoking, and how physically ill I ultimately would start feeling after resuming smoking. Eventually I got far enough out that it just seemed too insane to start up again. It’s been just shy of twenty months now. I rarely get the old itch, but it’s easily quashed. It’s what worked for me, at any rate.
I’m the Official Poster Child for anxiety disorders and depression, and I used Chantix successfully 5 years ago without any problem. The only side effect I had was extremely mild nausea (treated by sitting still for 10 minutes) immediately after taking each dose. I’d been smoking for over 30 years and was sure I’d never be able to quit, but it was a breeze with the Chantix. It made smoking so unnecessary that I quit 2 days before I had to and even threw away the extra pack I had squirreled away. I haven’t missed smoking at all, not even for a second.
I remember reading a few years ago (?) that in a large controlled study there was little or no evidence found for most of the psychiatric symptoms rumored to be caused by Chantix. Most of the previous information leading to the package warnings had come from case studies, as I understand it. The larger formal study was not widely publicized, IIRC, but it might have been done by the University of Minnesota, which would explain why I heard about it. I suck at looking up completed research studies, but somebody with better Google skills might be able to find it.
Just keep in mind that the tobacco companies are even more evil than pharmaceutical companies and they have a serious need to keep you addicted to tobacco, so there is possibly some misdirection going on regarding the actual side effects of the medication.
BTW, if you have had seizures, your doctor might not be able to prescribe Wellbutrin.
Alright, well you gave me the perfect opening to start with what I was already planning on telling you… But first let me assure you, you’re not addicted to the additives - that’s almost a complete myth. As far as I’m aware, the only additive in cigarettes that would directly impact addiction is the ammonia they use in order to turn nicotine into a free-base, making it more addictive/potent than it would be in its natural form. But don’t worry, that still doesn’t mean I’m saying you’re primarily addicted to the nicotine - I know I wasn’t.
It’s a common misconception that nicotine is the only and/or the strongest addictive substance in tobacco. There are all kinds of other *natural *addictive compounds (alkaloids) contained within tobacco, many of which have strong anti-depressant (MAO-inhibitor) effects. That’s what makes cigs so friggin’ addictive - not only do they contain a cocktail of variously addictive substances, there’s also the social, ritual, and oral fixation aspects. If it were just a matter of nicotine addiction, cigarettes wouldn’t be *nearly *so hard to quit for a lot of people.
Yup, put simply, cigarettes are really anti-depressants, and many smokers use them to self-medicate with natural MAO-inhibitors. I know you’re probably thinking I’m crazy, because if this were true, it would/should be common knowledge, and people wouldn’t be blaming nicotine and focusing on nicotine-replacement therapy to quit smoking. Well, this shit has been known for a very long time, I can’t explain why it isn’t common knowledge and people still insist on focusing on nicotine.
So, here’s where I’ll break you off a few links, just to prove I’m not crazy, and I’m not making this shit up. But since I’m not a scientist or doctor, I’m going to try not to get bogged down in the technical specifics. I did a lot of research on this when I quit smoking (and I’ve forgotten a lot more than I remember) and rest assured, I could provide a metric shit-ton of more citations backing up what I’m saying. But to start you off with some reading material:
Cotinine
(..and these are to name just a few of the things other than nicotine!)
**So, now that you know I’m not just making shit up, let’s get back to my advice on how I think you should try to quit smoking, based on your input. And that’s the most important thing here, quitting smoking. It would be great if you can eventually quit all forms of tobacco, but it’s really the “smoking” part that is the most important thing to quit, and which you should concentrate on accomplishing first, since you’ve tried and failed previously multiple times.
And that’s why I recommended the Camel snus for now - that’s the least harmful form of tobacco that’s widely available in the U.S. But *real *Swedish snus are much better than the Camel brand, and IMO, dissolvable tobacco is even better than snus. These “harm-reduction” alternative forms of tobacco are much, much better for you than continuing to smoke cigarettes. They still contain all the stuff you’re addicted to, but they contain a relatively negligible level of carcinogens, and they don’t affect your lungs adversely whatsoever.
So, as for the stuff that’s an even better alternative than the Camel Snus you can get at 7-11:
Dissolvable Tobacco:
To my knowledge, this is the safest form of tobacco there is, and I highly recommend using these if you are unable to quit smoking using traditional methods. The company that makes this stuff is called Star Scientific, and the two brand names are Ariva and Stonewall. The two brands are the same thing, except Arivas are smaller, so less potent. For this reason, it’s much more economical to just get the Stonewalls and break them in half if you need a smaller dose. I recommend the Java flavor, the Wintergreen isn’t bad, but the Natural flavor can be kind of nasty. Here’s a completely legal (state taxes get paid) source for Stonewalls.
Snus:
That same site also sells snus (that’s actually their specialty) if you’re interested in them. (But I’d recommend just sticking with the above Stonewalls, if they work out for you.) There’s a lot more brands, varieties, flavors, and strengths to choose from in snus, so it can be quite confusing and daunting. Most traditional Swedish snus have some weird tastes that can take getting used to, and some of them can be quite strong to the point of excess. But with careful selection, you can find the kind that’s right for you.
IMO, the two brands that are the most accessible for typical American sensibilities are Northerner Whites and Thunder. The Thunders were my favorites taste-wise (I hardly ever use snus anymore), but they are seriously, seriously strong stuff. A few minutes with one of those in your mouth will hit you a lot harder and provide a tobacco “fix” a lot faster than a cigarette ever would. But whatever you do, stick with “portion” snus that come in the pouches (the same as Camel snus) because if you get “loose” snus, they are exactly what they sound like - loose bits of tobacco.
Anyway, this is already much longer and tl;dr than I had planned for, and I really gotta go. But if you have any questions, just ask, and I’ll be happy to help with what I can.
