How did you quit smoking?

[Chris_T]

Though isn't the difference in addictiveness between heroin and nicotine, that heroin hooks you quicker, and that you typically can't quit cold turkey or you run a good chance of dying? Or is that a different drug I'm remembering.

Yeah, generally all it takes is one good mainline of H and you will be fighting the monkey for the rest of your (literally) damned life. And you are correct in the assumption that coming off heroin can kill. Heroin tends to alter the bodies metabolim to such a great extent that coming off of it cold turkey will cause large amounts of physical sickness as the body adjusts to the non-presence of the chemical.

From what i have read from some written medical journals regarding the similarites in tobacco vs. heroin is that when the body is deprived of nicotine it tends to send the same signals to the brain that a body deprived of heroin would as well. The sickness is not present but the whole idea is that the brain reacts in the same way to the absence of the nicotine.

Some of the studies i read showed such a similarity in a persons mental state from the withdrawel of both drugs were both astounding and frightening. The nicotine users of course not experincing the sickness associated with heroin withdrawel, but the assumption was that the brain of both types of users tend to send the signal that if the body didn't get more of the drug that it would die.

As for me personally, I smoke, I'm now 29 and have been smoking for 15 years. Yes, i want to quit. But I'm not really in the position of wanting to try at the moment. As i use smoking for more of a mental crutch than anything. Meaning, it keeps me from getting bored. And that's not an excuse at all, but a fact. Coupled that i am high-stress enough that it worries me what my mind would be like if i did try to quit, again. Last time i tried i ended up on Halcion because i couldn't sleep for over a week. And a week without sleep causes strange things to happen to the brain, or at least it did to mine. So now I feel I'm smoking for mental sanity. But its not only that, I also smoke because i like it.

And why did i start ? Why do some people prefer the color red over blue ? Why do some people like Mercedes over BMW ? All i can say is that i started smoking because i did.
And for all those "health insurance price" concerned types, if i find out tomorrow i got cancer, fuck it, guess i will cash in the few stocks i have and buy a few cases of smokes and wait for the guys with the morphine drip to arrive. 8)

 

[Silent_One]

I smoked for 29 years. Started when I was 15. My lungs were aching and I was tired. I finally said enough. Used a patch for 1 week, ripped it off, and haven't looked back.......

 

[Sage]

i quit cold turkey... 3 times. actually, i never was very addicted to it. wierd. crack cocaine, however...



I WANT MY COKE!


nah, it's not really a problem. i rarely even think about it anymore although for a few years I was constantly dreaming of holding an armed bank robbery and using the money to surround myself with piles of the stuff, and just roll around in it and eat it, snort it, and absorb it through my skin for the rest of my life.... obviously, I didn't do that

 

[Sage]

i quit cold turkey... 3 times. actually, i never was very addicted to it. wierd. crack cocaine, however...



I WANT MY COKE!


nah, it's not really a problem. i rarely even think about it anymore although for a few years I was constantly dreaming of holding an armed bank robbery and using the money to surround myself with piles of the stuff, and just roll around in it and eat it, snort it, and absorb it through my skin for the rest of my life.... obviously, I didn't do that

 

[Sage]

i quit cold turkey... 3 times. actually, i never was very addicted to it. wierd. crack cocaine, however...



I WANT MY COKE!


nah, it's not really a problem. i rarely even think about it anymore although for a few years I was constantly dreaming of holding an armed bank robbery and using the money to surround myself with piles of the stuff, and just roll around in it and eat it, snort it, and absorb it through my skin for the rest of my life.... obviously, I didn't do that

 

[Ilfirin]

I used to smoke *a lot* when I was really young (ages 6-12).

I'd go to the store and steal entire cartons of cigerettes, then me and my friends would go smoke them (several packs a piece, per day) while skating (or snakeboarding) and doing a bunch of other shit. After doing all that for 6 years, one day (overnight) when I was 12 I just up and quit that entire life pretty much - the day before I was hanging around with all the same people like normal, doing all the normal shit we usually did (that we shouldn't have been doing) and smoking; then, I never talked to them again, stopped doing everything, stopped smoking. All completely cold turkey. Started (well.. it became a central focus, rather than just a hobby) doing graphics programming, go figure.

Then when I was 18 (6 years later), for some reason it all came full circle, and I'm smoking again, and I work with all those people I used to hang out with.. and the snakeboard is in the mail, on the way back

Go figure.

So, due to something going into my lungs Saturday, around midnight, and the night long pucking session that followed I can no longer smoke a cigerette without wanting to throw up.

Normally I would smoke a cigerette for every hour I was awake.. roughly one pack per day (20 hours out of the day). Now I haven't smoked in 3 days and I still get physically sick everytime I even try one..

We'll see how long this lasts

 

[Deepak]

I don't understand why people pay to get killed? There are several other options, jump from rooftop, jump in front of a train etc, atleast you 'll save your hard earned money.

 

[sytaylor]

I don't understand why people pay to get killed? There are several other options, jump from rooftop, jump in front of a train etc, atleast you 'll save your hard earned money.

They don't connect the two, one is seen as a pleasure like drinking alchol and the other is seen as something that happens to old people.

 

[Simon F]

I've never smoked at all - some friends at school did but I just thought they were being stupid.

I know someone who used to go through 1 pack a day. A couple of years ago he came down with a bad case of flu for a couple of weeks and so didn't exactly want to smoke then. He just simply didn't start again after getting over the illness.

 

[Jabbah]

I seem to have a natural defence mechanism against smoking. Im OK in smokey atmospheres such as pubs/clubs etc, but as soon as I take a drag I turn green and through up. Used to think it was just because the only time I was daft enough to try smoking was when I had had a lot to drink, but tried it sober once and same thing happened.

Interesting article in the paper the other day said that lung cancer is caused by a change in chromosones in the lungs and in some people the change can self reverse after giving up, but some people it doesnt and so remain at a much higher risk of cancer after giving up smoking.

 

[London Geezer]

How did you quit smoking?

Never started. Easy huh... Not being peer-pressure sensible is the best.