Anyone feel like quitting smoking?

[Proletariat]

For years I've felt like having a smoke was a perfect contrast to my first impression. Young gal, runs a mile each morning, watches what she eats, but smokes a pack a day (at work, on partying nights this can easily sky rocket to 2-3 packs a night).

For whatever reason I've decided this could possibly be a bad habit (there's rumors it can be fatal, believe it or not). If there's any other Orgah's who've been smoking for a decade or two, wanna start a thread to see who can go the longest without? I'm sure I'll be the first failure, but what the hey. Could be a fun competition.

Reply here (of course) if there's any interest. Maybe we could start a pool and the first to give in (me, undoubtedly) gives a donation to a charity of the first loser's choice. I say five bucks for everyone who fails, and the first Orgah out, has to fork out the sum to the charity of their choice. Of course, we're following the honor code here.

Anyone game?

[Lemur]

I smoked for ten years. It's a hard habit to give up. Whenever one of my attempts to free myself of the nicotine monkey would fail, I would take comfort in Mark Twain's words: "There is nothing so hard about quitting tobacco; I myself have done it hundreds of times."

I strongly recommend you take yourself off in stages, using some sort of nicotine replacement at first. The cheapest nicotine gum can be bought here. It's much, much cheaper to buy your gum from overseas, so bear that in mind. I've used the linked pharmacy, never had an issue, so you have them as an option.

Glad to offer any encouragement anybody wants. It ain't easy getting the monkey off your back.

[naut]

I think Robert Downey Jr once said "It's easy to stop taking drugs, the hard bit is not taking it up again." The same applies to cigarettes. I got a couple mates all smokers, started with them just doing it at parties. But now its a pack or more a day. It really takes a toll on their fitness, and it shows.

My dad was a heavy smoker and he said the best way is to do it with a couple of people who want to quit as well and will push you through it.

[Bijo]

For about 5 or 4 years have I been a smoker and heavily addicted too. Strangely I ceased it multiple times without noticeable trouble: it was easy and I somehow instantly "switched" my mentality.

Later I made conscious decisions on restarting the habit due to the reason it would relieve boredom if I ever had it and the fact I enjoyed the taste of smoke (of good cigarettes and cigars).

Now I have not smoked in a long time and undergo no difficulties once again. A mental barrier is to control the act and urge to smoking. Even if both the physical and the mental are feeble, one must control the urge mentally and logically. Suppress your need and you are to succeed.

Your need is then to be negated (soon enough).

[Rodion Romanovich]

Only thing I've quit is soft drinks, so I have no experience in quitting smoking. Given the horrible taste of the smoke, the coughing it causes, and the blurry vision, I can't see how it's possible to get addicted to it in the first place?

[Mikeus Caesar]

Only thing I've quit is soft drinks, so I have no experience in quitting smoking. Given the horrible taste of the smoke, the coughing it causes, and the blurry vision, I can't see how it's possible to get addicted to it in the first place?

Because everyone knows it makes you look cool and will get you beautiful girls.



Not that i can talk...i would give up, but i see no reason to, and hey, i enjoy it.

[Ice]

Only thing I've quit is soft drinks, so I have no experience in quitting smoking. Given the horrible taste of the smoke, the coughing it causes, and the blurry vision, I can't see how it's possible to get addicted to it in the first place?

I can agree with cigarettes. A good cigar, on the other hand, is, in my opinion, easier to get addicted too.

Prol, I don't smoke cigarettes, but I wish you the best of luck.

[Togakure]

Not at the moment, but it's on the agenda.

[Csargo]

Good luck prole.

[Stig]

Heh, I always like it when people say that smoking may kill you, sex may kill me as well. As does falling from a skyscraper. You'll die anyway, why bother.

[Proletariat]

That's basically how I feel. Cigarettes are damned good fun, fun which is of course inexplicable to non-smokers. Ah well, some charity will go wanting for prize money. My brand has a buy-two-get-one-free deal right now so naturally I bought near a shelf-full.

[Csargo]

[Louis VI the Fat]

I seriously need to quit too. I didn't even make it through to the end of this thread without a puff.

I've promised myself to quit next year, in september. I will be going to America for vacation then with my father. To Disneyworld, for old times sake. I know about their anti-smoking policy, and hope to make good use of it.

The tough part will be not picking smoking up again. I've quit before, it's not that hard actually. But once an addict, always an addict.

It's not the smoking I miss when I've quit. The problem is that I can't stand coffee without a smoke. Every bloody day, with every cup of coffee I drink, I feel miserably sorry for myself. So my days are ruined. Then at night I want a smoke after dinner with that glass of wine. But I can't enjoy that glass of wine without a cigarette. So I skip the wine. Then I notice I can't enjoy dinner without that glass of wine. So I skip dinner too. Which makes me hungry after a couple of weeks, so I long for nicotine to surpress my appetite, lots of it. And inevitably, at this stage I'll get a chain-smoking girlfriend. Or I will spend a few days in a row in bars hanging out with smoking friends. And I simply can't resist the temptation of a cigarette when I'm drunk, no matter how long I've quit.

[CountArach]

Good luck Prol and all other Orgahs who are going to take up the challenge.

[Marius Dynamite]

Problem with smoking is that you have to give money to some guy who is living off human weakness to a drug*, i.e you take some and your brain hurts to make you get more. The upside is that you will feel your body fitness deteriorate which could force you to quit smoking. Although smoking in pubs 'n' clubs on a night out can add to the fun along with alchohol, it adds no reason to need to smoke at all points in the day but if you don't smoke at all points in the day you will not spend as much money on them.

To be fair, I can see more point in cigars. Good cigars are well made and designed for pleasure and generally more tasteful.

If you want to quit smoking then try to think of it as if you have a hard life where you have been captured by the enemy and they are putting you through immense amounts of pain to reveal the location of "the rebel base". Being the strong-minded, proud human being that you are, you ignore the pain and refuse to take a cigarette (reveal the location of "the rebel base") and instead spit in the face of the guy who offered it (the torturer).

In other words, show some brass mortal and stop a stupid habit!

*Dont forget, this guy has kids you inconsiderate so and so who wants to quit smoking!

[naut]

You'll die anyway, why bother.

Fair enough. But if you've seen the anti-smoking ads we have here you might change your mind, they're quite gruesome.

[Big King Sanctaphrax]

I seriously need to quit too. I didn't even make it through to the end of this thread without a puff.

I've promised myself to quit next year, in september. I will be going to America for vacation then with my father. To Disneyworld, for old times sake. I know about their anti-smoking policy, and hope to make good use of it.

The tough part will be not picking smoking up again. I've quit before, it's not that hard actually. But once an addict, always an addict.

It's not the smoking I miss when I've quit. The problem is that I can't stand coffee without a smoke. Every bloody day, with every cup of coffee I drink, I feel miserably sorry for myself. So my days are ruined. Then at night I want a smoke after dinner with that glass of wine. But I can't enjoy that glass of wine without a cigarette. So I skip the wine. Then I notice I can't enjoy dinner without that glass of wine. So I skip dinner too. Which makes me hungry after a couple of weeks, so I long for nicotine to surpress my appetite, lots of it. And inevitably, at this stage I'll get a chain-smoking girlfriend. Or I will spend a few days in a row in bars hanging out with smoking friends. And I simply can't resist the temptation of a cigarette when I'm drunk, no matter how long I've quit.

Don't the cigarettes negatively effect the taste of the coffee and wine, though?

[Lemur]

Just for the record, I had to quite coffee and alcohol for a good, long time when I went off the ciggies. Took me a couple of years to be able to enjoy them without wanting to smoke.

Honestly, dropping caffeine and alcohol was dirt simple compared to getting off nicotine.

I had a friend in NYC who lived next to an addiction halfway home. All of the ex-heroin junkies would be out front smoking. They could kick heroin, but they couldn't get off the smokes. It's some seriously addictive stuff. (And oh how I miss it.)

[Pannonian]

I smoked for ten years. It's a hard habit to give up. Whenever one of my attempts to free myself of the nicotine monkey would fail, I would take comfort in Mark Twain's words: "There is nothing so hard about quitting tobacco; I myself have done it hundreds of times."

I strongly recommend you take yourself off in stages, using some sort of nicotine replacement at first. The cheapest nicotine gum can be bought here. It's much, much cheaper to buy your gum from overseas, so bear that in mind. I've used the linked pharmacy, never had an issue, so you have them as an option.

Glad to offer any encouragement anybody wants. It ain't easy getting the monkey off your back.

My dad must be one of those exceptions then. Having smoked for ages and ages (since long before I was born), one day he decided to quit smoking, and has never felt the urge to return.

[Husar]

Wow, a good step into the right direction, Prole.

Personally, the only contact I had with cigarettes was when I held one for a friend, and then I tried to hold it into the wind, hoping it would be burnt on his return...
Anyway, cigarettes are evil, smell very, very bad and make you addicted (yeah, land of the free etc. ).
I don't really get how anyone can say they're fun or tasty, to me that sounds like his/her addiction is speaking.

[AntiochusIII]

Good luck, Prole.

Personally, I hate the smell, so yeah. Never saw the appeal. Then again considering my dislike for alcohol, drugs, (you name it), etc. as well my taste might be slightly skewed.

I'm already unhealthy enough as is.

[Lemur]

My dad must be one of those exceptions then. Having smoked for ages and ages (since long before I was born), one day he decided to quit smoking, and has never felt the urge to return.

It's variable from person to person. Most people who smoke are highly addicted, but ask any neurochemistry major to expound on idiosyncratic reactions to addictive stimulants, and you'll get an earful.

My dad, the Marine, used to tell us that everybody has their drug, and if you're very, very unlucky, someday you'll meet it. Mine was ciggies. Getting off them was pure hell. Many a time I wished fervently that they were illegal, 'cause the sheer availability of them worked against me.

Before I got addicted, I used to suffer from two related fallacies: (1) Addicts lack willpower, and (2) I have a high pain threshold, so I must be very strong-willed. Both of these concepts came crashing down when I finally admitted I was hooked on smokes. High pain tolerance just means you can endure a lot of physical ouches, and has jack-all to do with willpower. And when you're well and truly addicted, it takes rather more than "I will it so!" to get you clean.

But as I said, not everybody reacts to drugs the same way. I've never encountered any other substance that got its claws into me quite as bad as ciggies.

[Caius]

Anyone feel like quiting being 10 hours dayly in a pc?

[naut]

Lmao CF.

[Caius]

Lmao CF.

ITs not funny. I need serious help.

[Reverend Joe]

Try smoking marijuana. In vast quantities. I'm talking two-gram joints, all at once. Or better yet, find some heavy-duty hash.

At the very least, the resulting psychedelic episode will force you to face your addiction firsthand.

Plus, aside from being more dangerous to your respiratory system, marijuana is far safer for your entire body than tobacco. And no, I am not pulling that out of my ass; the American Medical Association recently released a report summarizing some 1,400 studies indicating that tobacco consumption essentially damages every organ in the body.

[Mikeus Caesar]

Try smoking marijuana. In vast quantities. I'm talking two-gram joints, all at once. Or better yet, find some heavy-duty hash.

At the very least, the resulting psychedelic episode will force you to face your addiction firsthand.

Plus, aside from being more dangerous to your respiratory system, marijuana is far safer for your entire body than tobacco. And no, I am not pulling that out of my ass; the American Medical Association recently released a report summarizing some 1,400 studies indicating that tobacco consumption essentially damages every organ in the body.

Now there i agree with you!

Once a month is all i can afford and once a month is enough for me. No addiction and a zillion times better than the tobacco monster.

[Dutch_guy]

Fair enough. But if you've seen the anti-smoking ads we have here you might change your mind, they're quite gruesome.

Yeah, it's not so much you'd die anyway so why would one bother stopping, but to me it's more the way you could die. Wouldn't want lung cancer eating away at my body, if I - to some extent - had that in my own hands by quitting the cigs.

Anyway, I'm glad I didn't take up the habit as so many of my friends did. Sometimes I wonder where they get the money from, 4 euro's (6 dollars ?) for a pack is a lot...

Try smoking marijuana. In vast quantities. I'm talking two-gram joints, all at once. Or better yet, find some heavy-duty hash.

Isn't smoking a joint the equivalent of 6 cigarettes ?

And putting two grams in a joint is a waste you know, and that's not even taking into consideration the pain it takes to light one of those monsters...

[naut]

Wouldn't want lung cancer eating away at my body, if I - to some extent - had that in my own hands by quitting the cigs.

Or Gangrene brought on by smoking, or your teeth failing out and rotting, or cancer of almost every major bodily organ.

[Fragony]

Nicotine is a killer, but so is stress. Since I have the tendency to go bonkers over nothing smoking is the best choise.