in reply to Do you smoke tobacco?

I smoked for 24 years, then quit. I was off of nicotine for over three years, when a combination of events caused me to take it back up in April. In less than a week from now, I'll quit again.

I've toyed around with other addictive substances that shall remain nameless here, and had no trouble at all after the decision to leave them be. Tobacco is tougher than all of them combined.

I could be fooling myself, but I don't expect to have too much trouble kicking the habit this time. Practice makes perfect, eh?

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Re^2: Do you smoke tobacco?
by daveinthesky (Beadle) on Sep 01, 2004 at 07:04 UTC
    Quitting tobacco is indeed very difficult--if there's anyone considering smoking, maybe go build a bong, but don't smoke tobacco. People need to know how addictive the stuff is. More addictive than heroin and cocaine, and even worse, it's so heavily advertised that people overlook the damage it has on people's lives.

    The advertising is particularly scary. Since nicotine is such a powerful substance, tobacco companies can trigger a nicotine headache with very subtle and simple advertising. Since you'll feel like shit until you get you get your cig fix, it's very effective. Whoever posted the comment about clarity--the clarity they're talking about is that very fix. Clarity from the grips of the nicotine headache. The headache that never goes away.


    So.. uh.. don't do it. Try something productive.. like LSD
    David
[reply]

      Yep. When I was at college, I smoked quite a bit of weed. Before I started, I read a lot - basically that it was non-addictive physically, can be psychologically addictive in large amounts, but is generally not that bad.

      Of course, in the UK, everyone smoked their joints mixed with tobacco, and I became addicted to it.

      Now? I'm addicted to tobacco, but haven't smoked weed regularly in years. Probably been 2 years since my last toke at a party. It just doesn't appeal anymore - I value being able to think.

      My attempts at quitting are sporadic. It's got to be the nastiest addiction out there. The longest I've lasted is 6 months until a very traumatic event triggered using it again.

      Nasty stuff from evil companies.

      I'm currently lasting a couple of days at a time, but am thinking of trying hypnotherapy and acupuncture soon as a double whammy.

      Guess I need to walk around with a picture of my kid dangling in from of my face all day ;-)

      cLive ;-)

[reply]

        Oh man, quitting was so hard. For two years afterwards I still wanted one. Hell - I wanted one just a few months ago, and it has been over four years since I gave it up. And I only smoked for 2...It is one hell of an addiction. The only addiction I have had worse than that is caffeine. But caffeine won't kill ya fortunately.

        The good news is we types who get addicted to stuff are less likely to get Parkinson's - our dopamine connections are just too f**king strong.

        I think one thing that helped me quit was to start doing cardio exercise - once I started getting in better shape, I didn't want to mess it up by smoking. Anyway - good luck to those of you trying to quit.

[reply]

      Quitting is EASY, I know people that quit smoking 15-20 times a day. Not lighting the next one is HARD.

      g_White
[reply]

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