I started smoking when I was 12. I’m 39 now. I’ve never made any serious attempt to quit before; I do believe the people who say you can’t quit unless you truly want to, and I freely admit to myself that I don’t want to.
I’m getting closer, though. I’m not having any health problems - yet. But I’m starting to feel like I’m pushing it - one of these days my luck will run out, so wouldn’t it be better to quit now, rather than wait until I have some health crisis? There are a bunch of other thoughts and reasons running through my head, but I don’t really want to get into all that, or I’ll be writing all day.
Anyway, this thread has me feeling encouraged. I’m kind of going back and forth, but I’m finding my fear of quitting slowly being replaced by a sense of excitement over being smoke-free. I’ve acquired a copy of Alan Carr’s book, though I haven’t started it yet.
I’m also an ex-alcoholic, sober for five and a half years now. I quit drinking due to an unexpected trip to the hospital. When I got out, I was enrolled in a group-therapy type of program that lasted four months. During that time I tried going to a few AA meetings, but I decided that wasn’t for me. Since that therapy program ended, more than five years ago, I’ve done nothing “active” to keep my sobriety going. I don’t work steps, or have a support group, or anything like that. I don’t drink because I have no desire to, or to go back to the way I was. I am deadly serious when I say I’ve not had any kind of craving for alcohol.
So this is what I’m wondering about - how does quitting smoking compare? I hear horror stories from people who quit smoking and constantly struggle, still have cravings ten years later… but then again, I hear the same about ex-drinkers, yet I haven’t had that problem.
Anyone here who has quit both, did you find one to be easier or harder than the other?
Hmmmm… that didn’t come out quite as clear as I thought.
What I was trying to imply is that, back when I was drinking, I couldn’t imagine life without alcohol, nor could I imagine it being possible to stop drinking. And yet I did it, and it was relatively painless. I’m locked into the same mindset towards cigarettes…
To me the two go hand in hand and once I quit smoking I was golden after about 6months. Sure you think about when your having your morning coffee or when people are smoking in movies and after a big dinner. But you did the hard one. What made me smoke again was starting to drink again and then it was over because I knew to do one I had to do the other and your half way there. So I say grin and bear it and you will be fine. Look at that pack on the table smoke it and say goodbye to cigarettes forever. The best way to do it. Good Luck.
I’ve never been addicted to alcohol, though I do drink a bit on occasion. I’ve never felt that there was anything to “quit”, so I’m sorry I cannot advise you there. But I am definitely addicted to cigarettes and I have quit once before (for several months). Cold turkey just wasn’t very hard once I had good motivation to quit (my motivation to stop was going for a RL meeting with an online boyfriend who wouldn’t kiss a smoker). But once we broke up, I started again out of pure spite and a desire to express my uh, independence I guess?
Anyway, I am coming up on a financial crunch in my life (student loans uuuugh) which is kinda motivating me to quit again. As it is, I feel like I’m just not as hooked on ciggies as I used to be. I only had 2 in the 7 hour timespan between getting home from work and going to bed last night… and it just wasn’t a big deal. Plus it’s getting balls cold outside at night, I can’t smoke inside, and there’s no sheltered porch or balcony for me to hide in. boo
So I guess what I find works/worked for me is the desire to quit. When I have that, cold turkey is easy. Who knows, I have been thinking all day about just not buying another pack after work tonight.
Drinking went first 22 years ago. At that time, I felt as though I wanted to, and could, quit smoking, too. I was advised, however, that I shouldn’t try both at the same time, because a relapse with one could promote a relapse of the other, so I smoked for another 15 years or so.
Like you, I had some counselling for a while, but stopped AA after a few weeks and I’ve never had the urge to drink again–no support of any kind for nearly the whole time.
Smoking, I quit about seven years ago, using the patch. I actually didn’t finish the complete patch program. Before the last week I didn’t want to pay for another week’s worth of patches and I didn’t need them. Unlike the alcohol, I am sometimes–very rarely–tempted to smoke a cigarette, though I never have. The smell of smoke in the air does it sometimes, or stress/anger/frustration.
I fear I could easily fall victim to either if I ever smoked or drank again, so I don’t.
I’ve had extensive experience both quitting alcohol and tobacco.
Alcohol once I made up my mind was easy. Day 1,2,3, easy. Slip on day x months later and hoping for another “chance” to quit. For me AA finally solved that problem.
Tobacco I’ve quit several times cold turkey. Slip on day x many months or years later, resulting in years of smoking thereafter. Recent experience with Chantix has proven to me that there are two components to tobacco addiction. I quit with Chantix, it was just too easy. A month later I succumbed and tried Chantix again and found out it was easy once again. When I say easy, I mean I didn’t suffer acutely like I did quitting cold turkey. I’ve been tobacco free since Nov 7.
There is a physical AND psychological component to tobacco addiction. Trust me, it really helps to get the medication that blocks nicotine from your brain for a while.
Smoking was easier for me to quit, but that’s because (as previously mentioned) they kind of go together, and I only smoked when I drank.
I quit them both at once, three years ago. I pick Halloween as my anniversary date, as that was the day I had my appendix removed. Got out of the hospital and thought “now’s my chance. Self, do not pick up another drink”. And that was that.
Cigs are tough. I have quit a couple of times and haven’t had *any *tobacco for maybe a decade. The first days/weeks are tough. It finally took when I quit hanging out in the local bar where all my buddies were smokers. Otherwise, I’d be good for a few days, have a couple of beers, and say what the hell. I found at least for me that if I had had maybe 6 beers over a few hours around other smokers, then I would fall of the wagon sooner or later. After a while, I can’t remember how long, the urge to smoke decreased. After a while longer, the smell of cig smoke is kinda nasty. the longer it goes, the easier it gets but goddamn if I don’t get the urge to fire up every once in a while. That urge probably lasts 5 minutes or maybe a half hour, and then it goes away. Now I’m in an environment where if I get the urge, I’m not readily tempted.
I don’t smoke celebratory cigars either, not even cuban ones, as a) I don’t like cigars a lot b) I usually have a nasty hangover if I smoke a cigar and c) I don’t want to go through those nasty weeks of fighting the monkey on my back.
Kicking barbituates was a breeze comparatively. I’ve gone years without alcohol and that was easier too.
I remember in Malcom X, he talks about heroin addicted brothers that had a much easier time of kicking the smake than the cigs.YMMV
Heck yeah they can. Heck, the reason you can die in alcohol withdrawal and in benzo withdrawal is the same: they both work on GABA receptors. That’s why they are cross tolerant.
I smoked when I was a teenager to early 20’s. It was a bitch to quit but I didn’t really think about it after a few months and now not at all. I have even smoked a few since just because and didn’t pick up the addiction again. It wasn’t so great and I just didn’t do it again without any thought. Quitting drinking was much harder for me and it is harder to get away from.
Cigs are tougher in the short run. But after a while, many (but by no means all) ex-smokers find themselves revolted by the smell and idea, and never want to go back.
OTOH, if you’re a true alcoholic, for most the craving is never 100% gone. Apparently for you that wasn’t a problem.
Based upon that, *my guess *would be that once you get past 2 weeks of no-smoking, you should be fine.
I want to remind you, and write this down and put it on your fridge- *Smoking does not reduce stress. It increases it. The illusion of decreased stress is due to the fix feeding your addiction. ** After the two week period, most smokers seem to go back for one of two reasons- they still hang our with smokers, or they get into a stress sitrep and think that smoking will help. It won’t.
*thus- GESancMan and other soon to quit smokers- this means no hanging out with smokers while they are smoking. This is why I have had ex-heroin addicts tell me that quitting smoking was harder than heroin- it’s far too easy to slide back.
Fortunately, this won’t be a problem. I live alone, obviously I don’t hang around bars, and the only other people I know who still smoke live hundreds of miles away.
it took me about ten years to quit smoking, which i’d been doing since my senior of high school. i’m now 54. looking back, i have to comment that there is no doubt in my mind that cigarettes and alcohol are truly the unholy duo of addiction. get a beer, light a cigarette.
while i do still drink, at the time i quit cigarettes for the LAST time - now about ten years ago - i made it a big point to stay out of bars where smoking was allowed for nearly two years.
avoiding the temptation religiously to break the addictive cycle now allows me the occasional visit to a bar with or without smoke. i even dated a guy who smoked and i got him off of them while we were together. hopefully he’s stayed off them since we split, altho i know he did like cigarillos at the time. interestingly, **he **quit drinking about ten years previously, altho he continued to smoke up until he met me.
I’ve been quit about 2 years now. I don’t crave it every day, or even every week, but there are triggers that I think, yeah, I could totally go a smoke right now. Tough days, being early for work when I would normally stand outside and have a smoke, hanging out with my friends who are smokers.
Honestly what gets me through is that I made a big deal out of quitting, and I quit with one of my friends. She started back again. I’m too bloody minded to let her do the Nelson ‘HA HA’ at me.
That, and the cravings are pretty minor. And I think I would smoke until I died if I started back, I can’t live with the insomnia and the mush-brain and the weird, out of space and time feeling I had for WEEKS after I quit. Ugh. I can’t cope with having not-smoking occupy every thought for days on end. So I just don’t.
In college I was a pretty big week-end drinker and at one point, things had gotten a little out of hand and I decided to stop drinking for a month. That was easy. Smoking, has been tougher by a long shot. I have tried to quit a half a dozen times and 3 of those times had some serious intention behind doing so. Of those 3, the first 2 were failures as I needed to learn some lessons about smoking. Those were 1) the “cut down” method does not work for me, 2) once you stop, you cannot go back for “just one” cigarette as it re-awakens the addiction. I have been off cigarettes for a week now. I still have some cravings, but they are really minor and easy to ignore as I have made my decision to not smoke. But I do have to treat it as an addiction which I never had to do with alcohol. I drank a lot but was not alcoholic.
Read the Carr book. It will help you. It doesn’t take very long to get through. But that book only helps you do what you already know is the right thing. It helps you stop smoking because you know it is an addiction and it is going to cause health problems and it is damn expensive.
