7 ms·

To guys out there who still smoke. Please quit. It can be done.

collyw 10y ago
Does it matter if you live in a city where the air pollution is equivalent to smoking 20 a day? Get bikes please people.
Stwerner 10y ago
One trick that worked for me (pack+ a day smoker for 5+ years) was not exactly calling it "quitting". I had tried quitting a bunch of times, but every time I had a lapse in will power and had a cigarette, the justification to start again basically went "oh well, guess I failed quitting, time to go out and buy a pack." When I changed my mindset to more of a "I just don't really smoke anymore." it was ok to have one every once in a while when I was out with friends and not feel like I failed. Now I'm basically down to only one cigarette a year or two when I'm with old friends, and I usually feel bad enough in the morning after it that I don't really have any desire to smoke again for a long time.
- tripzilch 10y ago
  It's really different for everyone. So I'll put this out as a word of caution: my response to that one accidental cigarette has been (twice) that cravings increase over the next couple of weeks, then I was having one random shitty night, and feeling all "fuck everything", bought a pack at the night store, and was back at square zero. I'm glad it works like this for you, though :)
6stringmerc 10y ago
Well, frankly speaking, everybody does quit eventually. It's inevitable.
csn 10y ago
Yesterday I promised myself to not buy cigarettes anymore nor ask anyone to do it on my behalf. This first step only requires tremendous willpower when visiting a store, as the dispensers are placed at checkouts so I must stand right next to them when I'm in the queue.
- nitrogen 10y ago
  Best of luck! It's disappointing how much of our world is designed to trick us into regressing into bad habits.
  - Pica_soO 10y ago
    I would think it only fair to put the burden of the health damage on the company who sells addictive products. If you sell cigarettes and a customer looses part of the lung, you pay or behave to prevent. If you sell alcohol and a customer drives a car in a crowd, you pay or behave to prevent. If you are a narco and sell crack, you pay for the results. The problem is not the unknown problems with those substances, its the fact that the producers are detached from the consequences of their actions.
    - 15charlimit 10y ago
      By that logic, no individual is responsible for anything they ever do because just about everything is "addictive" or "habit forming" in some way. Your suggestion is terrible for a number of reasons, but primarily due to the shirking of personal responsibility that it promotes. Should Hershey be required to pay medical costs for morbidly obese individuals because they eat a dozen chocolate bars a day? Sugar is a highly addictive substance, after all. Should automobile manufacturers be required to pay the medical bills of every individual injured in a high-speed accident because driving very fast generally causes an adrenaline rush, which is addictive? Stop making it someone else's problem. Start casting blame where it needs to be - on the individual(s). Nobody is forced to start smoking, or start drinking, or start eating sweets, or drive recklessly, or to do this or that. I'm tired of the popular trend of infantilization that offloads the burden of one's own actions onto society/industry/government.
      - Pica_soO 10y ago
        That personal responsibility thing works out great doesn't it. https://www.niddk.nih.gov/health-information/health-statistics/Pages/overweight-obesity-statistics.aspx https://www.niddk.nih.gov/health-information/health-statisti... I think it would be a great start if we started to differentiate- some humans are capeable of this, but others are not. To just leave them to there suffering because they had a "choosing-chance" is just wrong. No pr-opaganda can explain the facts on the ground away, sorry.
agumonkey 10y ago
You need an exit plan to succeed. I believe in tested e-cigarettes and liquids to cut a chunk of chemicals. I wonder what other people do. Kick their ass into sport ? Reorganizing life ? more hobbies, more social life, more zen ?
- _ao789 10y ago
  The easiest way to break a bad habit is to replace it with another habit. Just make sure it's a better habit otherwise there was not much point was there?
johngalt 10y ago
Reminded me of "How to Quit Smoking". Interesting take on willpower. http://existentialcomics.com/comic/13 http://existentialcomics.com/comic/13
bbarn 10y ago
I think as a culture (speaking here in the US) we've made quitting smoking out to be much harder than it actually is. One of the problems with this massive marketing campaign saying things like "You can quit with help!", etc.. is it's focusing on how difficult it's supposed to be. After 20 years or so of being a smoker, I just decided I didn't want to be embarrassed about the way I smelled in elevators anymore, and quit. I was a competitive cyclist, despite being a smoker, so it wasn't helping me in those social situations either. When I did stop, it was hard for about a single day. Irritation and not being sure what to do with your hands are the biggest "withdrawal" symptoms you'll have from quitting. If I'd known just how easy it is to stop, I would have 10 years prior. So yes, listen to the above poster. It won't kill you to quit, it will kill you not to. If you honestly think you can't, it's a very simple problem to solve. There are really only three components to quitting. Nicotine addiction (easy to taper off with substitutes like gums, switching to vaping with decrementing nicotine levels, etc), Habit (the act of smoking, vaping/e-cigarettes/gum chewing/going on walks instead can help replace this) and the social pressure, which is usually smoking with your smoker friends or partner. Fun fact, they all want to stop too, even if they don't say so. Get them to quit with you, and if one or more refuse or abandon, ignore them and be selfish with your health. All that said - the "pain" of cold turkey lasts a day and all the anecdata that I've collected seems to make it the most effective way to stop.
- duozerk 10y ago
  The pain of cold turkey stopping and the hardship of quitting in general vary widely between individuals; and even to a lesser extent at different periods of time for the same individual, I think. I once stopped smoking for ~3 weeks and I too found it easier than advertised, but not nearly as easy as you; also, the most problematic symptom for me was irritability (I was a complete irrascible bastard while stopping). And I know people for which it is very, very hard (cold sweats, migraines, etc. for two weeks).
  - bitJericho 10y ago
    14 year ex smoker here. 1 week of sweating hell and tic tacs followed by 3 months of hell and tic tacs and now I'm a few years free :) Not easy but just requires certitude.
meerita 10y ago
I've quit 4 times. Last time I was sure and totally relaxed. When you know you want to quit, you will, it doesn't matter the technique used to quit, I felt I was about to quit with determination.

Does it matter if you live in a city where the air pollution is equivalent to smoking 20 a day? Get bikes please people.

Stwerner 10y ago

One trick that worked for me (pack+ a day smoker for 5+ years) was not exactly calling it "quitting". I had tried quitting a bunch of times, but every time I had a lapse in will power and had a cigarette, the justification to start again basically went "oh well, guess I failed quitting, time to go out and buy a pack." When I changed my mindset to more of a "I just don't really smoke anymore." it was ok to have one every once in a while when I was out with friends and not feel like I failed. Now I'm basically down to only one cigarette a year or two when I'm with old friends, and I usually feel bad enough in the morning after it that I don't really have any desire to smoke again for a long time.

tripzilch 10y ago
It's really different for everyone. So I'll put this out as a word of caution: my response to that one accidental cigarette has been (twice) that cravings increase over the next couple of weeks, then I was having one random shitty night, and feeling all "fuck everything", bought a pack at the night store, and was back at square zero. I'm glad it works like this for you, though :)

6stringmerc 10y ago

Well, frankly speaking, everybody does quit eventually. It's inevitable.

csn 10y ago

Yesterday I promised myself to not buy cigarettes anymore nor ask anyone to do it on my behalf. This first step only requires tremendous willpower when visiting a store, as the dispensers are placed at checkouts so I must stand right next to them when I'm in the queue.

nitrogen 10y ago
Best of luck! It's disappointing how much of our world is designed to trick us into regressing into bad habits.
- Pica_soO 10y ago
  I would think it only fair to put the burden of the health damage on the company who sells addictive products. If you sell cigarettes and a customer looses part of the lung, you pay or behave to prevent. If you sell alcohol and a customer drives a car in a crowd, you pay or behave to prevent. If you are a narco and sell crack, you pay for the results. The problem is not the unknown problems with those substances, its the fact that the producers are detached from the consequences of their actions.
  - 15charlimit 10y ago
    By that logic, no individual is responsible for anything they ever do because just about everything is "addictive" or "habit forming" in some way. Your suggestion is terrible for a number of reasons, but primarily due to the shirking of personal responsibility that it promotes. Should Hershey be required to pay medical costs for morbidly obese individuals because they eat a dozen chocolate bars a day? Sugar is a highly addictive substance, after all. Should automobile manufacturers be required to pay the medical bills of every individual injured in a high-speed accident because driving very fast generally causes an adrenaline rush, which is addictive? Stop making it someone else's problem. Start casting blame where it needs to be - on the individual(s). Nobody is forced to start smoking, or start drinking, or start eating sweets, or drive recklessly, or to do this or that. I'm tired of the popular trend of infantilization that offloads the burden of one's own actions onto society/industry/government.
    - Pica_soO 10y ago
      That personal responsibility thing works out great doesn't it. https://www.niddk.nih.gov/health-information/health-statistics/Pages/overweight-obesity-statistics.aspx https://www.niddk.nih.gov/health-information/health-statisti... I think it would be a great start if we started to differentiate- some humans are capeable of this, but others are not. To just leave them to there suffering because they had a "choosing-chance" is just wrong. No pr-opaganda can explain the facts on the ground away, sorry.

agumonkey 10y ago

You need an exit plan to succeed. I believe in tested e-cigarettes and liquids to cut a chunk of chemicals. I wonder what other people do. Kick their ass into sport ? Reorganizing life ? more hobbies, more social life, more zen ?

_ao789 10y ago
The easiest way to break a bad habit is to replace it with another habit. Just make sure it's a better habit otherwise there was not much point was there?

johngalt 10y ago

Reminded me of "How to Quit Smoking". Interesting take on willpower. http://existentialcomics.com/comic/13 http://existentialcomics.com/comic/13

bbarn 10y ago

I think as a culture (speaking here in the US) we've made quitting smoking out to be much harder than it actually is. One of the problems with this massive marketing campaign saying things like "You can quit with help!", etc.. is it's focusing on how difficult it's supposed to be. After 20 years or so of being a smoker, I just decided I didn't want to be embarrassed about the way I smelled in elevators anymore, and quit. I was a competitive cyclist, despite being a smoker, so it wasn't helping me in those social situations either. When I did stop, it was hard for about a single day. Irritation and not being sure what to do with your hands are the biggest "withdrawal" symptoms you'll have from quitting. If I'd known just how easy it is to stop, I would have 10 years prior. So yes, listen to the above poster. It won't kill you to quit, it will kill you not to. If you honestly think you can't, it's a very simple problem to solve. There are really only three components to quitting. Nicotine addiction (easy to taper off with substitutes like gums, switching to vaping with decrementing nicotine levels, etc), Habit (the act of smoking, vaping/e-cigarettes/gum chewing/going on walks instead can help replace this) and the social pressure, which is usually smoking with your smoker friends or partner. Fun fact, they all want to stop too, even if they don't say so. Get them to quit with you, and if one or more refuse or abandon, ignore them and be selfish with your health. All that said - the "pain" of cold turkey lasts a day and all the anecdata that I've collected seems to make it the most effective way to stop.

duozerk 10y ago
The pain of cold turkey stopping and the hardship of quitting in general vary widely between individuals; and even to a lesser extent at different periods of time for the same individual, I think. I once stopped smoking for ~3 weeks and I too found it easier than advertised, but not nearly as easy as you; also, the most problematic symptom for me was irritability (I was a complete irrascible bastard while stopping). And I know people for which it is very, very hard (cold sweats, migraines, etc. for two weeks).
- bitJericho 10y ago
  14 year ex smoker here. 1 week of sweating hell and tic tacs followed by 3 months of hell and tic tacs and now I'm a few years free :) Not easy but just requires certitude.

meerita 10y ago

I've quit 4 times. Last time I was sure and totally relaxed. When you know you want to quit, you will, it doesn't matter the technique used to quit, I felt I was about to quit with determination.