I quit smoking at my (then) wife’s insistence at age 33. It took about two weeks after my last cigarette for the bad cravings to go away. That and the marriage lasted four more years. By 49, I really was feeling bad effects from the smokes and wanted to quit again. Ended up in an ICU for three days with congestive heart failure that I’m sure wouldn’t have happened if I hadn’t started smoking again. Since I left the hospital nine months ago, I have had no desire to smoke. The only problem I have is when I dream I started smoking again- it scares me since I know I’ll either have to quit again or die. Waking up from those dreams is very welcome!
I do believe that I am unable to ever use any nicotine again ever. I’m also growing very fond of the money I’m not spending on cigarettes.
I’m back to being a smoker but I did quit for over a year and I would have smoking dreams and I would wake up in a panic thinking I had smoked and be all upset about it until I realized I didn’t actually smoke. So things like that will happen. It never happened with drinking tho. Because that wasn’t such and issue with me since I have no desire to ever quit drinking again since I only drink once or twice a month and when I do it is about 2-3 beers or maybe 1-2 mixed drinks. Not at the same time. haha
A death due to a straightforward withdrawal from any opiate, even heroin, would be a rare event, yes.
Underlying severe health problems, especially undiagnosed ones like critical coronary artery blockages or cerebral aneurysms could and have complicated the withdrawal and caused death in the past, I am sure.
Got it. Would it be fair to say, then, that a chronic alcoholic really does have a harder time kicking the habit than a heroin addict? Sorry for being obtuse, but I’m doing battle with my own ignorance here.
I would not say that a chronic alcoholic would have a harder time than a heroin addict, only that they’re far more likely to die from the alcohol withdrawal than a heroin addict would from heroin withdrawal. (I suppose some would say that death is the ultimate hard time.)
I’ve read cases of a few alcoholics who reported the actual withdrawal wasn’t all that bad, up until they seized and died.
In terms of suffering, withdrawal from just about any substance may be subjectively horrific for the person going through it.
For sheer physical, psychological, emotional, and spiritual misery, few experiences are worse than acute opiate withdrawal. Fortunately, it’s generally over in a few days.
As for what’s hardest to kick, folks who have been polyaddicted to such diverse things as alcohol, opiates, cocaine, benzos, and nicotine often report that nicotine was the toughest thing to give up in the long run.
The first time I quit smoking I was 39 years old. It was the
hardest thing I had ever done. It took me a year to reach a
point where the cravings were not intense, I felt like I was
doing acid, light headed. It was really bad. I went 5 years
without untill at a party I had a cigar, it was all down hill
from there. Don’t ever tell yourself you can have even one
drag on a cigar or a ciggarette after quitting. So I started smoking again. Same amount as before about a pack and a half a day. So I started again in 2002. In 2011 on Thanksgiving Day I had a Heart Attack. My L.A.D. was 100% blocked. They call the condition The Widowmaker. I should have been dead. I haven’t had a smoke since then and it was one of the easiest things I have ever done. This tells me it’s all in your head. All
the bullshit that you go thru is all in your head. There is no physical withdrawal only mental. I’m telling you I was able to
simply not crave. I would get a craving but unlike the first time
I was able to brush it away like it was a fly and it was gone.
2015, still sober, 23+ years, still smoke free. (never hung out in bars much & now I still don’t
Wife smokes, I do not hate the smell, nor ever mess with or nag at people who do.
If you did not inhale cigars, pipe & cigarettes, you are just a wananabe.
Kool Filter Kings baby… That is slapping the health gods in the face… Bawahahaha
If you have done it, quit, it does not make any difference, just the fact that you did is the thing.
If you do not take up your addiction or start a new one up to your death, then you are a recovered addict. If you ain’t dead, you are just working on recovery. YMMV
I hesitate to ask but what drugs cause these fatal withdrawals you are mentioning?
This is really rubbish, as a rule, that is. We’ve grown up with the scare tactics pushed into our heads that, “once you quit, you can never, ever take a single puff on a cigarette again for the rest of your life or you will be immediately transformed into a decrepit old hack speaking thru a hole in your neck”. It’ just scare tactics to prevent smoking. Laudable but also laughable.
Sure, some ex-smokers may fall victim to immediate regression into total, uncontrollable addiction if they so much as smoke a single cigarette. But that is more of an exception than a rule. I was a heavy smoker for many years. I consider quitting the very best decision of my life. It’s been about 12 years since I’ve quit. I still love the smell of a freshly-lit cigarette and the smoke doesn’t bother me at all. In fact, on a couple of occasions when I’ve been quite inebriated, the idea of smoking just that one cigarette for old times sake has proved to be irresistible. And I loved, loved, loved that smoke.
However, I have never, not for a fraction of a second, even considered ever returning to the habit of smoking cigarettes. Yes, it was a fun time when I did smoke that single and it made me miss the pleasure I did get out of them when I smoked. A huge however, although, is how much my life has improved since I’ve stopped smoking. It has been nothing short of amazing. It has improved every area of my life, even areas I had no idea were being impacted by my habit.
But when I successfully quit, I had to make some (at least temporary) changes to my daily life. I was young and went to bars a lot. When I was quitting, I had to remove myself from bars and similar situations because that would have without a doubt proved to be too much for me (this was before no smoking inside in MI). I also had to replace my habit of smoking with something else, preferably something more healthy and/or constructive that the smoking. For me, that replacement was a journey towards understanding the physical capabilities of my body and embracing fitness with a passion.
I quit both and for me quitting smoking was the hardest, like you I smoked from a young age until I was in my 50’s. Most of that time 3 packs a day. In fact it took me about 10 years to get over the cravings, and I still love the smell of second hand cigarette smoke.
Why the fuck would you make such a dickish comment like that? I don’t understand the way some of you think. What does my previous life-altering tragedy have to do with this thread. And what the fuck have I ever said to you would provoke such douchebaggery?
I wanted to become a pilot in 1992 - that was motive enough. I did a quite deliberate OD of nicotine - it worked, and my heart had a sense of humor about it.
At the time I was working with a very nervous, flighty person. Turns out she has quit smoking a year earlier and still had intense craving for a smoke.
She was the only person I ever even heard of having that reaction.
The alcohol was 48 hours of unpleasantness, followed by a couple of weeks of Ativan (Lorazepam) - a benzodiazepine (nasty stuff) which took the edge off.
You’re not getting younger, and starting smoking at 12 is very, very scary.
Although I’ve come late to this party, I will just say that quitting smoking was one of the hardest things I have ever done. Of course, I had an incentive. I had just had a heart attack and was confined to hospital, no smoking even 50 years ago, for two weeks and so was over the worst. Still, I dreamt of smoking for at least five years and I fantasized that I was diagnosed with a disease and given six months to live, so I might as well enjoy it by smoking. Now I find smoking disgusting. When I see a teenager smoking I want to shake him or her to tell them how bad it can be. I never drank more that casually and rarely drink anything any more. Maybe a beer or a glass of wine once a month. So I cannot judge which is harder.
Like you, I’ve quit smoking, never had a drinking problem; it was tough to do, mostly mentally, because it was hard to imagine not enjoying a smoke ever again. Now, like you, I’m not tempted.
I guess I’m an outlier. I started smoking in 5th grade. In college I gave a half pack to a friend that asked for a smoke, and told him I just quit. I’ve never had another. I really don’t remember it being that hard. Almost everyone I knew smoked and I went though the Army when it was, “Smoke 'em if you’ve got 'em.” I was even in the Pentagon when it was OK to smoke in the hallways. I just gave them up.
I’ve never had a reason to think I needed to stop drinking so I never have.
