I'd Murder For A Bloody Fag

[Hostile_Dialect]

The American Cancer Society website gave me a pretty good idea that I’ve used a couple times: when you get stressed out, take ten deep inhales (of air!); light a match during the tenth and blow it out with the exhale.

BTW, I feel great now that I don’t smoke anymore. I don’t suck wind after a flight of stairs anymore, I breathe so much better and I can put in a good workout without wanting to pass out. I’m not sitting around antsy waiting for my next cigarette break anymore; I feel fantastic all the time.

@Mama Zappa

would you recommend that Case use nicotine patches or gum or whatever?

I didn’t. They’re way, way more expensive than cigarettes. But I wasn’t nearly as bad as a lot of people are. The thing of it is that if you use those, you’re still taking drugs, and you’re still hooked. Not much of a gain if you ask me, unless you really feel like your timelines for “stop smoking” and “kick the addiction” are different from each other in some way. The idea of Nicorette et al. is that you scale down slowly…but you can do that with cigarettes, too.

I mean, if you’re really worried about your lung health in the short term, like your mother, I think it’s great. Also, if you feel like you’ve been smoking too long to quit, patches/gum/etc might be the way to go. YMMV, IANAD, etc. You just have to keep in mind that if you use that stuff you’re still hooked on drugs.

Just finished hour 391 here, BTW. ;j

[ILovCoffee]

The best part about quitting the cancer sticks is after a decade one’s lungs are pink as new. I had the best incentive to quit-MrLovCoffee hated ashtrays and said he dind’t want to kiss one ever again.

[Frank]

@fetus

They’re way, way more expensive than cigarettes.

But they’re not. A patch costs me $4, less than half of what I, a heavy smoker, spend on cigarettes. One would have to smoke less than a pack a day to make them at all more expensive.

The thing of it is that if you use those, you’re still taking drugs, and you’re still hooked. Not much of a gain if you ask me, unless you really feel like your timelines for “stop smoking” and “kick the addiction” are different from each other in some way. The idea of Nicorette et al. is that you scale down slowly…but you can do that with cigarettes, too.

No, the idea is that you receive nicotine while changing your habits and while you’re beginning to reap the benefits of being smoke-free. Then you can wean yourself off the nicotine. It works for many people, and I can’t believe you’re so disparaging of it.

Different ways of quitting will work for different people, and if playing “Rule Brittania” on a kazoo works for some people, more power to them, I say.

[TellMeI_mNotCrazy]

@Frank

But they’re not. A patch costs me $4, less than half of what I, a heavy smoker, spend on cigarettes. One would have to smoke less than a pack a day to make them at all more expensive.
No, the idea is that you receive nicotine while changing your habits and while you’re beginning to reap the benefits of being smoke-free. Then you can wean yourself off the nicotine. It works for many people, and I can’t believe you’re so disparaging of it.

Different ways of quitting will work for different people, and if playing “Rule Brittania” on a kazoo works for some people, more power to them, I say.

@Frank

and if playing “Rule Brittania” on a kazoo works for some people, more power to them, I say.

Have you been spying on me??

[Hostile_Dialect]

@Frank

One would have to smoke less than a pack a day to make them at all more expensive.

I did, so there you go…

@Frank

No, the idea is that you receive nicotine while changing your habits and while you’re beginning to reap the benefits of being smoke-free. Then you can wean yourself off the nicotine. It works for many people, and I can’t believe you’re so disparaging of it.

Fair enough. I wasn’t really trying to be disparaging, although rereading my post it definitely reads that way. I know it works for a lot of people, but for me the important things were (a) I would still be spending money and (b) I would still be using nicotine. Those were deal-killers for me, but for others it may be the only way or the best way. YMMV. I apologize for how I came off initially.

[Frank]

@fetus

I apologize for how I came off initially.

Is OK. I think I may be mildly grumpy. I can’t imagine why.

[Scissorjack]

Day 6. Still hanging tough. Not quite so moody, more just a background surliness. Yelled at little case last night for singing and dancing, though, so I’m a rotten shit.

Desire to smoke is actually lessening - I think my brain is getting used to the idea that my lungs don’t get smoke at regular intervals anymore. Some sullen neural mutterings, but the rebellion seems to be subsiding. Have made 37 origami frogs so far. When this is all over, the little fuckers are getting a Viking funeral.

My senses are starting to return: holy hell, did I really put that much mustard on my food? My tastebuds are going to need recalibrating. My sense of smell is staring to return, too, after being almost non-existent for a while: aerosol paint cans really do stink up a room, don’t they? Just discovered that my middle and index fingers aren’t supposed to be pale brown.

More mad propz to **Frank, TMINC, Sgt. Pepper, ** and Johnny LA.

[Hanna]

Good for you who have quit! I want to add a few more things that helped me.

Sgt.Pepper, you said:

Then I’d feel a loss because I couldn’t have a smoke. That was the worse, actually.

Try to change that way of thinking. Don’t think you are making a ‘sacrifice’ by foregoing that cig - think of it as finally being free of your addiction. Thinking like this every time I felt a craving really helped me overcome them and made me feel stronger. Don’t think of what you are missing, think of what you will gain by being free of the smoking addiction. I would think of how inconvenient it is to be a smoker on a long plane flight, and how much more I can enjoy traveling once I quit.

Allan Carr says people who allow themselves one cigarette a day (for example) when trying to quit are worse off than those who go cold turkey. His reasoning is the person who quits cold turkey knows that they will never allow themselves to smoke again, while the person who is slowly weaning themselves are always looking forward to the next cigarette from the minute they stub out their last…so in effect they are prolonging the agony of quitting because they get 5 minutes of relief and 23 hours 55 minutes of wanting that next cig. They have to go through withdrawls many, many times, while cold turkey people only have to go through it once.

[pulykamell]

@Boscibo

Good for you who have quit! I want to add a few more things that helped me.
Allan Carr says people who allow themselves one cigarette a day (for example) when trying to quit are worse off than those who go cold turkey. His reasoning is the person who quits cold turkey knows that they will never allow themselves to smoke again, while the person who is slowly weaning themselves are always looking forward to the next cigarette from the minute they stub out their last…so in effect they are prolonging the agony of quitting because they get 5 minutes of relief and 23 hours 55 minutes of wanting that next cig. They have to go through withdrawls many, many times, while cold turkey people only have to go through it once.

I suppose that’s true, but I’ve a feeling that everyone’s reactions to cigarettes are slightly different. I quit two years ago from a 10-year-long pack-to-pack-and-a-half-a-day habit. I didn’t intend to quit. I just stopped one day. After about 3 months of absolutely no cigarettes, I allowed myself one day to light just one up. And I did. And that was it. Since then, I will very, very occassionally smoke a cigarette–I’ve had maybe three packs total since I officially quit. I don’t think that “if you have one, you’ll start again” applies to everyone. Addiction is a personal thing, YMMV and all that.

[Qadgop_the_Mercotan]

@pulykamell

I don’t think that “if you have one, you’ll start again” applies to everyone. Addiction is a personal thing, YMMV and all that.

You’re right. Not everyone will start again if they pick up one. But a few halfway decent studies indicate that about 90+% of former smokers can’t go back to picking up the occasional cigarette. Rather, they go back to smoking as much or more than they used to.

The battle does not always go to the strong, nor the race to the swift. But that is the way to bet.

[Scissorjack]

@Qadgop the Mercotan

You’re right. Not everyone will start again if they pick up one. But a few halfway decent studies indicate that about 90+% of former smokers can’t go back to picking up the occasional cigarette. Rather, they go back to smoking as much or more than they used to.

That’s why I have to go cold turkey - from past experience, it’s an all-or-nothing deal. In theory it sounds fine - well, I’ll smoke ten a day this week, nine a day next week, and so on until I’m free. In practice, I just strike bargains with myself: “well, today was a shitty day, so I’ll smoke a couple more tonight and only smoke eight tomorrow instead.” Never worked like that, though: in the end I’d get so disgusted with my lack of will-power that I’d just give up quitting altogether.

Either that, or I’d reward myself: “well, I’ve gone without a smoke for a week, so I guess I’m entitled to one.” Of course one would become two, then I’d go out drinking and smoke half a pack, and give up on myself in disgust and smoke a whole pack the next day.

That’s why I can see the benefits of using patches, although I’m not: there’s the physical withdrawal symptoms, and then the psychological ones - like I said in an earlier post, a major problem is that you just get habituated to having a smoke at particular times, like after meals or during breaks, and it’s really hard to break the routine of having something in your hand and mouth - you feel like you ought to stick something in them, and that’s when the craving becomes most urgent. If you can become accustom yourself not to having that routine of holding and smoking something at particular times, it becomes that much easier to break the habit.

As far as the cost goes: well, I lie to myself and say that I smoke half a pack a day, but in reality it’s more like two-thirds. Call that five packs a week, which in NZ is over $50. A week’s supply of patches costs about $25, so even if I used patches instead it’d still only be half the cost, and that’s not even taking into account that patches will only be an expense for three months or so.

$50 a week - yeesh! That’s over $2600 a year - multiply it by 15 years, subtract a bit for the years I smoked less and the prices were lower, add a little for inflation, and I must have spent well over $30,000 trying to kill myself. Stupid shit.

[jabiru]

@Case Sensitive

As far as the cost goes: well, I lie to myself and say that I smoke half a pack a day, but in reality it’s more like two-thirds. Call that five packs a week, which in NZ is over $50. A week’s supply of patches costs about $25, so even if I used patches instead it’d still only be half the cost, and that’s not even taking into account that patches will only be an expense for three months or so.

$50 a week - yeesh! That’s over $2600 a year - multiply it by 15 years, subtract a bit for the years I smoked less and the prices were lower, add a little for inflation, and I must have spent well over $30,000 trying to kill myself. Stupid shit.

Are you spending that $50 on yourself, at least in these first horrible weeks? If you can spend it on yourelf, it can be a positive way to reward yourself for being a brave little soldier. I don’t know if I could have continued to kick the habit if I’d just put the extra $$ into housekeeping.

[wheelie]

@Shirley Ujest

Besides, don’t you deserve a good dump today?

Have you ever considered a position in pharmaceutical sales?

Hang in there guys, you can do it!

I strongly recommend rewarding yourself with your former cigarette money. Me, I bought this. Paid it off last year, and it was cheaper than a pack and a half a day at under 2 bucks a pack!

wheelie, last cig snuffed out 12-31-1999, 11:59:59.

[Scissorjack]

@wheelie

I strongly recommend rewarding yourself with your former cigarette money. Me, I bought this

Ooh, shiny! Haven’t thought that far ahead yet, but there’s a really nice Triumph TR4a up for sale on the local auction site - am I allowed to extrapolate forward the money I’ll save over the next 15 years and buy it?

[pulykamell]

@Qadgop the Mercotan

You’re right. Not everyone will start again if they pick up one. But a few halfway decent studies indicate that about 90+% of former smokers can’t go back to picking up the occasional cigarette. Rather, they go back to smoking as much or more than they used to.

Wow. I had no idea. I must be lucky, then.

[Sgt.Pepper]

@Boscibo

Good for you who have quit! I want to add a few more things that helped me.

Sgt.Pepper, you said:
Try to change that way of thinking. Don’t think you are making a ‘sacrifice’ by foregoing that cig - think of it as finally being free of your addiction. Thinking like this every time I felt a craving really helped me overcome them and made me feel stronger. Don’t think of what you are missing, think of what you will gain by being free of the smoking addiction. I would think of how inconvenient it is to be a smoker on a long plane flight, and how much more I can enjoy traveling once I quit.

Yeah, I manage to do that when I’m doing fine in a non-stressful or triggering place, then I can give myself that pep talk. But as soon as a craving comes it all goes out the window. No, I suppose that’s wrong and you’re right, now that I think about it. The word “slave” does pop into my head when I’m weak. I can see how that would work, and I think I may be doing that.

Anyway, day two over. Yesterday, for the most part, was easy. Throughout the day I was fine with no cravings, just minor jitteryness. But then it got really bad last night. There was just a hint of stress and I really let it bother me. Then while watching American Idol, I had a visitor and that really upset me. Watching AI was taking my mind off my problem, and my visitor wasn’t letting me watch AI so that created more stress.

I probably sound like a baby. But it’s the small things that add up, or they seem more stressful then they really are.

Thanks for the encouragement, and for those who are also quitting, keep at it. Knowing you guys are with me has helped me tremendously.

[Johnny_L.A]

I quit for eight years once. I had a g/f. I smoked when we met, but stopped because she didn’t like smoking. I stayed off cigs after we broke up. But then I went to New Orleans to work on a friend’s film. ‘Everyone’ smokes on a film set. Another film the following year. And some student films in L.A. Finally, just last Fall, I decided enough was enough. I quit.

Then we started working on a film. The director said, ‘Dude! You can’t quit now! Wait until after the film.’ Only quit for a week. Well, the film isn’t finished. Holidays intervened. Other business has priority now, so that we don’t have to worry about it when we start filming again. Being round the house all day, I saw that I was smoking more.

I’m starting Day 3 without a fag. I thought I’d crack yesterday. I really wanted one. And I’m trying to lose weight at the same time. It’s tough. The craving isn’t as bad this morning, and I’m sleeping better. I hope I can stick it out.

[light_strand]

Sunday is 90 days for me. I had my smoking buddy over last weekend, and it actually wasn’t too bad. But I think it probably a good thing that I hadn’t seen her since I quit. I let her smoke, she just had had to smoke outside, which was cool because I never smoked outside. It sure did smell good though.

[Frank]

I am smoking this evening. I had a incredibly bad day at work, walked back into my apartment and smelled the smoke, and headed straight out to buy a pack. Better luck to me tomorrow.

Hope the rest of you are doing better than I!

[light_strand]

Frank, since I’m not your mother, and more importantly, I’m a smoker, I will not tell you not to have one. However (and here’s the part where I tell you not to have one) unfortunately you have to buy a pack, so you’re not just getting one, you’re getting twenty.

I don’t know what I can tell you, but instead of cigarettes, treat yourself to a cheesecake, eat it, and do not feel guilty. If this doesn’t help, we’ll give you a leg-up when you decide to climb back on the wagon.