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I managed to give up fags over four years ago after 30 odd years of smoking around 20+ a day. I'm still quite surprised that I managed it but in retrospect I d

I managed to give up fags over four years ago after 30 odd years of smoking around 20+ a day. I'm still quite surprised that I managed it but in retrospect I did a mental job on myself - you have to be hard but in the end it wasn't quite as bad as I thought it would be. If I can, you can but you need to find your strategy. Initially I thought that I'd transition to e-fags and climb down from there. Nope. You are trading one habit with another - it doesn't matter if a e-fag cloud is better for you it is still not good and keeps you tethered to smoking. I think it would be quite easy to go back to tobacco if you "allow" yourself to vape as a transition. I rapidly realised that once I started down the abstinence route I had to be very hard with myself. It wasn't actually that bad in the end. I came up with two mantras that I repeated to myself in my head whenever I really wanted to smoke: they were - "I don't want to smell" and "I don't want to die". They are pretty self explanatory. I did and sometimes still have dreams about smoking. It is a very insidious habit. I was a smoker for 30 years so it is obviously still a part of my life at age 52 but it is fading and I rarely have to say my mantras these days. I had another strategy too, which helped in the short term: I started my give up, in the early afternoon of day one (Easter 2018 as it turns out) and had a very long lie in on day two. That got me to over 24 hours with minimal stress. I then progressed to a series of time based targets: A day (tick), two days ... a week ... two weeks ... (tried a drag on daughter in law's fag - no thanks) ... a month ... two months (weird dreams) ... six months ... etc ... four years.

jakzurr 4y ago
My dad quit smoking about 50 years ago. (2 weeks chopping wood in backyard, mostly not speaking to anyone.) When my brother-in-law decided to quit about 30 years ago, he asked my dad when the craving would quit - Dad told him, "It's not quite so bad after 2-3 years." I think Mark Twain said it best, "Quitting smoking is easy. I've done it hundreds of times." Or something like that.
- gerdesj 4y ago
  You are spot on mate. Now imagine how hard giving up heroin might be. I think there are loads of decent approaches to giving up ciggies, from your dad's work out in the woods to my mental thingie. Getting out from fags is really hard - they are sooooo cool etc. Mr Twain is correct for those that don't get it right. Me and your dad did get out and it's really fucking hard. Really hard. Me and your dad have something in common - we are still alive and fucking kicking.
  - selectodude 4y ago
    Most heroin addicts say that quitting smoking is more difficult than kicking opiates.
    - eurasiantiger 4y ago
      Both smokers and heroin addicts have significant levels of beta-carbolines in their systems. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0006291X04025999 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S00062... https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1530-0277.1996.tb01034.x https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1530-0277.... (paywall, sorry)
  - hoorible 4y ago
    Never did heroin, but my experience was that quitting drugs was way easier than quitting smoking. I’ve never had the urge to take drugs again even once, but I miss smoking all the time.
- trwired 4y ago
  I used to be a heavy smoker, at the height of my habit I could smoke 2+ packs a day. It was bad. When I finally decided to quit, I went cold turkey. For a week or two I had strong but manageable cravings, however they started to fade away and eventually the smell of cigarette smoke started being really unpleasant. Years on and I feel no pull towards tobacco and the idea of smoking it is repulsive to me now. This is of course anecdotal evidence, but you (you, a smoker reading this thinking about quitting) are not doomed to suffer cravings forever nor are predestined to fail, like the Mark Twain quote could make you believe. Perhaps there are people, who find it really difficult to quit, but it is also possible to completely move on. Just don't fixate on how hard it is and simply do it.
  - owlninja 4y ago
    I for sure appreciate your points, but my anecdotal experience is I smoked for ~15 years and I really didn't want to quit. Eventually I got a family going and realized I needed to consider it and, boom, I tried a Juul - it replaced them 1:1. I am in the same boat in that cigarettes are repulsive to me now but this ruling would be like taking away my ability to buy a pack of Marlboro lights, suddenly overnight, back when I smoked. It is just frustrating that they want to suddenly take this product down from a convenience store, but the wall of actual cigarettes next to it seems to be ok?
    - easygenes 4y ago
      Yeah, seems to be a sign that the old guard tobacco lobby has their talons sunk in a good deal deeper than the newcomer vaping lobby.
      - owlninja 4y ago
        Yep, this just feels like something is afoot that we'll never be aware of. By some accounts in this very HN post, Juul was operating wildly until Altria (phillip morris) bought a stake. If this does happen, the next likely benefactor would be the Vuse vape that is operated by RJ Reynolds (the 2nd place big tobacco company). The entire thing is so frustrating.
- hoorible 4y ago
  I started when I was 12, and quit around 21. I still get cravings, and I’m in my mid 30’s now. If I walk by someone smoking on the street, I take a loooong breath in as I go past them, and I can feel my body immediately releasing all sorts of feel-goods. It’s wild.
seanmcdirmid 4y ago
I tried to use a vape when I quit smoking, didn’t work well. Turns out cold Turkey is the way to go, it helps I don’t live in China anymore where it is so easy and accepted. The dreams are the worst. I still have them occasionally, I still miss it and it’s been 5+ years now. I didn’t even smoke that long (basically 8 years when I was living in Beijing).
- gerdesj 4y ago
  Try my mantras! Basically, whenever you even think of smoking you condition yourself to repeat the following to yourself mentally: "I don't want to die" "I don't want to smell" I picked those two because they are pretty nasty and represent what fags do to you. Whenever you fancy a smoke, you say those phrases to yourself. My method is mine and perhaps another method will work for you. Have a think about what might work for you. Cheers Jon
  - seanmcdirmid 4y ago
    I haven't smoked in more than 5 years now, so I think I'm good. The cravings never really go away completely, and I'm probably one crisis away from starting again, but my life has been fairly crisis free for a long time now.
    - gerdesj 4y ago
      Keep the faith mate. As you say - the cravings never go away but I managed to do a mental job on myself. I find that if I repeat (mentally) a couple of phrases - "I don't want to die and I don't want to smell" then that kills off the cravings. You've managed longer than I have - what's your strategy?
  - mirekrusin 4y ago
    Hey, emotional algebra doesn't have negation (it does have fear though), may want to try "I want to live" "I want to smell nice". It can also help to visualize ie. headache pain when inhaling etc.
s3p 4y ago
Not to question your vernacular but in some circles I think using the f word instead of cigarette could be.. misleading
- jquery 4y ago
  - aiisjustanif 4y ago
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
  - l33t2328 4y ago
    Basic human decency to ask another culture to change its language on behalf of some abstract group that may have members with hurt feelings?
  - junon 4y ago
    Gay man here. I'm pretty able to understand what they were intending. Any harm done is self-inflicted.
    - Akronymus 4y ago
      Yeah, having others try to police language on your behalf just screams "I am better than you so I have to protect you" to me.
      - gerdesj 4y ago
        Aye. I picked my words deliberately.
      - jquery 4y ago
        Asking someone not to use american slurs on an American forum is the same as saying 'I'm better than you'? Hard disagree. I think that says a lot more about you than it does about me.
Liquix 4y ago
> I came up with two mantras that I repeated to myself in my head whenever I really wanted to smoke: they were - "I don't want to smell" and "I don't want to die". This is another part of what makes vaporizers so insidious. When you go to quit, there's a vague notion that it could be seriously harmful. Perhaps there's an equally vague notion of regaining lost discipline. But without that existential dread ("I am going to die if I continue") or social pressure ("I smell all the time and colleagues wrinkle their noses"), it can be trickier than cigarettes.
- gerdesj 4y ago
  Are you having a laugh?
- gerdesj 4y ago
  "This is another part of what makes vaporizers so insidious. When you go to quit, there's a vague notion that it could be seriously harmful" Vapes may work for some - an atomized <whatevs> is probably better for you than tobacco smoke. I have quite a lot of experience of both.
sumy23 4y ago
I had a similar experience to you. You must come to the understanding that you will never smoke a cigarette again. You must accept that. You can't quit without that being true (modulo the social cigarette here and there). And yea, I remember sleeping for 20 hours on day two.
- gerdesj 4y ago
  I look at it as time wasted. ie I would berate myself that I'd managed say six months and I could not lose six months progress. You have to be so hard on yourself. It is worth it though. Good skills sumy23 I think you have won at life in some way.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
legohead 4y ago
Wife and I would smoke a cig every time we walked the dog. Neither of us became addicted. I liked the smoke though, so I started vaping. Constant all-day vaping with 5% nicotine for several months. At some point I decided to attempt to quit, curios if I could do it. I quit the next day for 2 months. I never got an urge - other than "hey I liked that feeling", but nothing strong - and had no withdrawal. Apparently there's a gene that helps combat nicotine addiction. I don't know if I have it, but it seems like it. Not trying to brag here, but I thought it was interesting enough to mention.
- 55555 4y ago
  Be careful mate. I'm an expat with a lot of French friends, so I smoked socially for ten years. Could never imagine how someone could smoke all day, as it felt disgusting, but a few cigarettes on a night out once a week was nice. Like I said, did that for ten years. So did my girlfriend. Then she tried vaping and I tried snus. Both addicted. 2 years in, on and off. The amount of wasted time and effort spent on, and irritability from, trying to quit, has been such a waste. Addictions are weird. Nicotine is hell to quit, but it's mostly mental. I build it up in my head to be some impossible thing, but it's really not. Cigarettes seem to have a grip on people far more insidious than snus or vaping, though. The real reason it's hard to stay off is the modern world we choose to live in. Full of stressors and always just a minute or click away from relapsing. Sometimes I think about how bad it would be to be an alcoholic. You wouldn't even be able to turn on the TV and relax without a beer commercial ruining your mindset. You leave your house and see a billboard. You get fed up, strength depleted, and walk in the woods to get away from all the reminders to drink. You see a spent can...
- undersuit 4y ago
  I'm going to have to downvote you despite experiencing a similar resistance to tobacco. Why did you smoke a cigarette every time you walked the dog? You liked to smoke? Why didn't you quit instead of switching to vaping? You quit for ONLY two months?
albrewer 4y ago
> I managed to give up fags over four years ago after 30 odd years of smoking around 20+ a day. Off topic, but this sentence reminded me of an amusing Urban Dictionary entry[0] [0]https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=smoke%20a%20fag https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=smoke%20a%20...

jakzurr 4y ago

My dad quit smoking about 50 years ago. (2 weeks chopping wood in backyard, mostly not speaking to anyone.) When my brother-in-law decided to quit about 30 years ago, he asked my dad when the craving would quit - Dad told him, "It's not quite so bad after 2-3 years." I think Mark Twain said it best, "Quitting smoking is easy. I've done it hundreds of times." Or something like that.

gerdesj 4y ago
You are spot on mate. Now imagine how hard giving up heroin might be. I think there are loads of decent approaches to giving up ciggies, from your dad's work out in the woods to my mental thingie. Getting out from fags is really hard - they are sooooo cool etc. Mr Twain is correct for those that don't get it right. Me and your dad did get out and it's really fucking hard. Really hard. Me and your dad have something in common - we are still alive and fucking kicking.
- selectodude 4y ago
  Most heroin addicts say that quitting smoking is more difficult than kicking opiates.
  - eurasiantiger 4y ago
    Both smokers and heroin addicts have significant levels of beta-carbolines in their systems. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0006291X04025999 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S00062... https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1530-0277.1996.tb01034.x https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1530-0277.... (paywall, sorry)
- hoorible 4y ago
  Never did heroin, but my experience was that quitting drugs was way easier than quitting smoking. I’ve never had the urge to take drugs again even once, but I miss smoking all the time.
trwired 4y ago
I used to be a heavy smoker, at the height of my habit I could smoke 2+ packs a day. It was bad. When I finally decided to quit, I went cold turkey. For a week or two I had strong but manageable cravings, however they started to fade away and eventually the smell of cigarette smoke started being really unpleasant. Years on and I feel no pull towards tobacco and the idea of smoking it is repulsive to me now. This is of course anecdotal evidence, but you (you, a smoker reading this thinking about quitting) are not doomed to suffer cravings forever nor are predestined to fail, like the Mark Twain quote could make you believe. Perhaps there are people, who find it really difficult to quit, but it is also possible to completely move on. Just don't fixate on how hard it is and simply do it.
- owlninja 4y ago
  I for sure appreciate your points, but my anecdotal experience is I smoked for ~15 years and I really didn't want to quit. Eventually I got a family going and realized I needed to consider it and, boom, I tried a Juul - it replaced them 1:1. I am in the same boat in that cigarettes are repulsive to me now but this ruling would be like taking away my ability to buy a pack of Marlboro lights, suddenly overnight, back when I smoked. It is just frustrating that they want to suddenly take this product down from a convenience store, but the wall of actual cigarettes next to it seems to be ok?
  - easygenes 4y ago
    Yeah, seems to be a sign that the old guard tobacco lobby has their talons sunk in a good deal deeper than the newcomer vaping lobby.
    - owlninja 4y ago
      Yep, this just feels like something is afoot that we'll never be aware of. By some accounts in this very HN post, Juul was operating wildly until Altria (phillip morris) bought a stake. If this does happen, the next likely benefactor would be the Vuse vape that is operated by RJ Reynolds (the 2nd place big tobacco company). The entire thing is so frustrating.
hoorible 4y ago
I started when I was 12, and quit around 21. I still get cravings, and I’m in my mid 30’s now. If I walk by someone smoking on the street, I take a loooong breath in as I go past them, and I can feel my body immediately releasing all sorts of feel-goods. It’s wild.

seanmcdirmid 4y ago

I tried to use a vape when I quit smoking, didn’t work well. Turns out cold Turkey is the way to go, it helps I don’t live in China anymore where it is so easy and accepted. The dreams are the worst. I still have them occasionally, I still miss it and it’s been 5+ years now. I didn’t even smoke that long (basically 8 years when I was living in Beijing).

gerdesj 4y ago
Try my mantras! Basically, whenever you even think of smoking you condition yourself to repeat the following to yourself mentally: "I don't want to die" "I don't want to smell" I picked those two because they are pretty nasty and represent what fags do to you. Whenever you fancy a smoke, you say those phrases to yourself. My method is mine and perhaps another method will work for you. Have a think about what might work for you. Cheers Jon
- seanmcdirmid 4y ago
  I haven't smoked in more than 5 years now, so I think I'm good. The cravings never really go away completely, and I'm probably one crisis away from starting again, but my life has been fairly crisis free for a long time now.
  - gerdesj 4y ago
    Keep the faith mate. As you say - the cravings never go away but I managed to do a mental job on myself. I find that if I repeat (mentally) a couple of phrases - "I don't want to die and I don't want to smell" then that kills off the cravings. You've managed longer than I have - what's your strategy?
- mirekrusin 4y ago
  Hey, emotional algebra doesn't have negation (it does have fear though), may want to try "I want to live" "I want to smell nice". It can also help to visualize ie. headache pain when inhaling etc.

s3p 4y ago

Not to question your vernacular but in some circles I think using the f word instead of cigarette could be.. misleading

jquery 4y ago
- aiisjustanif 4y ago
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- l33t2328 4y ago
  Basic human decency to ask another culture to change its language on behalf of some abstract group that may have members with hurt feelings?
- junon 4y ago
  Gay man here. I'm pretty able to understand what they were intending. Any harm done is self-inflicted.
  - Akronymus 4y ago
    Yeah, having others try to police language on your behalf just screams "I am better than you so I have to protect you" to me.
    - gerdesj 4y ago
      Aye. I picked my words deliberately.
    - jquery 4y ago
      Asking someone not to use american slurs on an American forum is the same as saying 'I'm better than you'? Hard disagree. I think that says a lot more about you than it does about me.

Liquix 4y ago

> I came up with two mantras that I repeated to myself in my head whenever I really wanted to smoke: they were - "I don't want to smell" and "I don't want to die". This is another part of what makes vaporizers so insidious. When you go to quit, there's a vague notion that it could be seriously harmful. Perhaps there's an equally vague notion of regaining lost discipline. But without that existential dread ("I am going to die if I continue") or social pressure ("I smell all the time and colleagues wrinkle their noses"), it can be trickier than cigarettes.

gerdesj 4y ago
Are you having a laugh?
gerdesj 4y ago
"This is another part of what makes vaporizers so insidious. When you go to quit, there's a vague notion that it could be seriously harmful" Vapes may work for some - an atomized <whatevs> is probably better for you than tobacco smoke. I have quite a lot of experience of both.

sumy23 4y ago

I had a similar experience to you. You must come to the understanding that you will never smoke a cigarette again. You must accept that. You can't quit without that being true (modulo the social cigarette here and there). And yea, I remember sleeping for 20 hours on day two.

gerdesj 4y ago
I look at it as time wasted. ie I would berate myself that I'd managed say six months and I could not lose six months progress. You have to be so hard on yourself. It is worth it though. Good skills sumy23 I think you have won at life in some way.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

legohead 4y ago

Wife and I would smoke a cig every time we walked the dog. Neither of us became addicted. I liked the smoke though, so I started vaping. Constant all-day vaping with 5% nicotine for several months. At some point I decided to attempt to quit, curios if I could do it. I quit the next day for 2 months. I never got an urge - other than "hey I liked that feeling", but nothing strong - and had no withdrawal. Apparently there's a gene that helps combat nicotine addiction. I don't know if I have it, but it seems like it. Not trying to brag here, but I thought it was interesting enough to mention.

55555 4y ago
Be careful mate. I'm an expat with a lot of French friends, so I smoked socially for ten years. Could never imagine how someone could smoke all day, as it felt disgusting, but a few cigarettes on a night out once a week was nice. Like I said, did that for ten years. So did my girlfriend. Then she tried vaping and I tried snus. Both addicted. 2 years in, on and off. The amount of wasted time and effort spent on, and irritability from, trying to quit, has been such a waste. Addictions are weird. Nicotine is hell to quit, but it's mostly mental. I build it up in my head to be some impossible thing, but it's really not. Cigarettes seem to have a grip on people far more insidious than snus or vaping, though. The real reason it's hard to stay off is the modern world we choose to live in. Full of stressors and always just a minute or click away from relapsing. Sometimes I think about how bad it would be to be an alcoholic. You wouldn't even be able to turn on the TV and relax without a beer commercial ruining your mindset. You leave your house and see a billboard. You get fed up, strength depleted, and walk in the woods to get away from all the reminders to drink. You see a spent can...
undersuit 4y ago
I'm going to have to downvote you despite experiencing a similar resistance to tobacco. Why did you smoke a cigarette every time you walked the dog? You liked to smoke? Why didn't you quit instead of switching to vaping? You quit for ONLY two months?

albrewer 4y ago

> I managed to give up fags over four years ago after 30 odd years of smoking around 20+ a day. Off topic, but this sentence reminded me of an amusing Urban Dictionary entry[0] [0]https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=smoke%20a%20fag https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=smoke%20a%20...