Experiences kicking nicotine addictions

Davesax1965 wrote: SteveG wrote: When I was a youngster, I got a job at a factory that used steam for everything. There were signs all over that said "Caution: Steam Kills". Sounds like that's come around again with vaping. It seems so innocent until people start dying. 95% safe compared to tobacco, Steve. Most vaping deaths have been caused by people vaping cannabinoid derivatives. A lot of it is being deliberately blown out of proportion. The Guardian article above is well worth a read, one of the few decent and well balanced articles I've read on it in years.  But that's another post. ;-)

I've been getting two stories. The cannabinoid (say that three times fast) and some kind of vitamin E component that's used in it's manufacturing, with both said to be the the cause of people getting ill.

Edited by SteveG - February 19 2020 at 10:07

Today marks one month off the drug. However, for some reason today I’m having some of my worst cravings and withdrawals. It seems strange but I feel like I’m going crazy right now.

I don't know about nicotine addiction at least as far as being hooked on it myself.  My parents and grandparents are from Carrollton, KY (the state and not the jelly ) It's where the Kentucky River empties into the Ohio.  There were, when I was a kid, and probably still are a sh*tload of tobacco drying warehouses.  My parents, grandparents, aunts, and uncles all smoked.  Neither my brother, sister, nor I ever took up the habit and for that I am grateful.  I just wanted to put in the good word for SMART Recovery (redundant, but what the hell).  That acronym is for Self Management And Recovery Training.  It's a science based approach to substance and other forms of addiction. I am there for alcohol.  Anyway, if this helps anyone out they are on the web. http://www.smartrecovery.org

Edited by Slartibartfast - February 20 2020 at 20:00

Hey Doug, don't worry, you'll be OK. This is normal. 

Nicotine is a neurotransmitter. Basically, it's like having extra voltage in your brain: remove it and there's a kind of voltage drop, so it gets mode confusing to think straight. You've probably noticed. Now, the good news is that after about 72 hours of not smoking, the cravings mainly subside (no nicotine left in your system, it's all been metabolised) BUT the brain keeps going where's my nicotine ? for quite some time. "I was on nitromethane, now I'm on diesel, give me nicotine, you ba$tard" etc etc. 

So, what you have is nothing unusual but a perfectly normal reaction. Don't worry, you're not special. ;-) 

The way to cure it, possibly, is to treat it as merely an irritating itch. "If you scratch it, it'll only get worse". Two ways to go, either wait for a while, and yes, it's unpleasant, but your brain will adapt, or to feed it nicotine. In which case the brain says AHA give me more, more, because brains are like that and back you go to the top of the rollercoaster again. And again. And again. 

Now, if it gets really, really bad, a good method is not to go cold turkey but to let yourself down slowly. Get an e-cigarette, get some 18mg nicotine vape mix, quick toke. You'll be surprised at how little you need to stop your mind flying out of the window. Really, just an occasional toke. You then reduce it to a 12mg dose, then a 10mg, 8 6, 2... before you know it, the nicotine receptors in your brain have normalised to a lower level of expectation. It's like putting a lobster in a fridge. Sort of. 

Either jam on the brakes, or slow down in stages. No matter what, you eventually end up stopping. 

So. In summary, don't worry. It's normal. You're not special or anything. It'll pass. You can use WILLPOWER (and if you don't have enough, see you back in Smoke Land) (let's hope you do) or take the (logical) ahem easy route and slowly, but surely, wean yourself off nicotine. It's not failure, you're achieving the same result, albeit more gradually. People fail to do things when they say none shall pass, never again: it can just be too extreme a solution. Who cares what you do so long as you get there in the end ?

So hopefully that helps. 

Incidentally.... just an aside but "one month off the drug" tends to hint that you're looking at it as "drug addiction". That's a bit ... extreme. People wind themselves up to regard cigarettes as being some kind of gigantic, deadly monster with which they have to fight some kind of enormous battle. They're really not, end of the day, cigarettes are habituating and merely paper tubes with dead plants in. To regard them otherwise makes the whole process into a giant struggle. It needn't be. Coming off them causes mild (I'm afraid it really is mild) withdrawal symptoms, which are really no worse than a bad cold: they won't kill you. The symptoms can be managed and WILL pass. Good luck. 

Edited by Davesax1965 - February 21 2020 at 03:57

Davesax1965 wrote: I think this is why some people fail to quit smoking. They rely on WILLPOWER.  ... But. They're just using the wrong methods and keeping on repeating a methodology which doesn't work. Lots of people have actually given up cigarettes by not applying WILLPOWER but a different route instead, ie. let yourself down slowly using e-cigarettes if necessary.  If the end result is that it works, rather than doesn't, well. The ends justifies the means. Ain't failure, it's common sense.

timothy leary wrote: And there you have it......advice on how to quit cigarettes from a smoker who has yet to quit

Davesax1965 wrote: timothy leary wrote: And there you have it......advice on how to quit cigarettes from a smoker who has yet to quit And there you have it, a childish response from someone who doesn't like to be crossed. Or hasn't thought about it beyond "willpower". There's more to it than that.  Actually, the thread is about addiction, not giving up smoking, the clue being in the title. I gave up for three years at one point, it wasn't very pleasant at first, but I gradually totally forgot I was ever a smoker. After a few years, I realised that tobacco (for me) was nothing like alcohol. I could have the occasional smoke, without it completely taking my life over.  Addiction is about NOT being in control. That's the big weight on the shoulders - that you'll keep smoking, even through ill health, financial pressure, whatever. You'll turn around with a cigarette magically appeared in your hand. You'll smoke six before breakfast and cough your way through the day. You'll painfully trudge your way up a hill or even the stairs, coughing, with a cigarette in your hand. That's addiction. Been there. Not there any longer.  So now, as in the thread, I have a very few cigarettes a day, 4 or 5. I get no nicotine cravings or withdrawals. I'm in control, not the tobacco. I can do without for days. Having been addicted and now addicted no longer, that qualifies me to actually make an observation.  Let's face it, life is short. If you want a cigarette: have a cigarette. The key is "not to excess". Occasionally won't kill you. If you're scared that "occasionally" will lead to "20 a day a week later", then that's a different conversation.  But "never again shall I smoke" seems to me to be a way to set yourself up for a fall later. "Never again shall I be addicted" is probably a more sensible way of doing things. If you can. If not, avoid cigarettes entirely. I've done the same with alcohol, different subject for me. Although I can occasionally go out and just have three or four beers. I found that I don't like alcohol very much, bizarrely.  It's something like telling a man who's lost weight "You're never having a burger ever again". Unrealistic. Hopefully there's an element of logic where someone says wooo, well, I can have a burger again, but I just can't have 15,000.  Oh yeah, "about the pipe". Very little nicotine in pipe tobacco. And you smoke quality, not quantity. Most pipe smokers want nothing to do at all with cigarettes. As I mentioned at the start of the thread, "Cigarettes are an addiction, cigars are a hobby, pipes are a religion." If you honestly believe that "quit" means "not one more ever again", that's a total extreme view and it's setting yourself up for a potential fall and regression.

Seems you are getting personal with your "childish " remarks. This is just a forum. If the original poster likes your strategy for quitting smoking so be it. personally your strategy does not sound like quitting smoking to me. Your mantra of pipes are a religion sounds like a copout. Smoking is smoking and quitting is quitting.

I get your points Dave, especially about kicking addiction vs quitting smoking. For me though, completely quitting both, we'll substitute vaping in for me, took a lot of will power.

Well, congratulations!