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By Evil Cloaked User (Wed Jul 19, 2006 at 07:25:06 AM EST) (all tags)
I'm going to try quitting smoking. Key difference this time being the fact that I actually want to.

I've been working on developing will power for a while now.

First, there was a whole weight loss thing. That's plateaued, but I'm happy enough with my current weight. Will probably drop a few more pounds in August, but at the moment, I'm just maintaining.

Then there was the Coke habit. I haven't had a drop of coke in 38 days. I used to drink about 4 cans a day.

So having beaten that particular habit of a life time, it's time to try and kick the habit of about 5 years.

It was my birthday yesterday, but the drinking happens tonight, hence the fact that I'm quitting tomorrow. Wish me luck.

In other news, I somehow ended up telling MGM that I'd nicknamed her. And disturbingly, she likes it. A lot.

As well as American Dad on DVD, she also bought white bedsheets and dyed them bright bright pink. Now when the hair dye runs, who will know?

We went camping on an Island off the coast of West Cork for the weekend with a few friends. Two of them decided to jog home from the pub - 2 miles in pitch darkness on bad roads. So that was a fairly bad idea, but then the third guy, Tippex, decided to do likewise on his own a few minutes later. And he's not as sporty. Seems the mocking of his man-boobs had gotten to him.

Anyway, about a mile down the road, MGM and I got to a fork in the road where we should go right, but on the left fork, we thought we saw someone. Shone the torch and saw Tippex. We told him he was going the wrong way and he announced, "Yeah, I thought that. But then I found a dead body in the ditch."

Ok, the body wasn't actually dead, but it was unconscious. We wandered up and tried to rouse the drunken unconscious woman who was face down in a ditch on the side of the unlit road. She was not happy that we had intervened. Much abuse was hurled. Two more tourists showed up and we eventually got her to her feet and walked back to the junction.

At this point, she got all "Get your hands off me you dirty fuckers!", so we let her go. And she did a Forest Gump. If Forest wore flip-flops and had very poor balance. The flip-flops went first. Then she started to go down, and righted herself, and then fell, smacked her head off the ground, bounced, and landed in the ditch again.

Tippex went in search of a local when it turned out that the emergency services where no use to us. He brought us a pensioner with a gammy leg. It was now 3:30am. The crowd of passers-by had grown to double digits.

Then a chap on a bike happened by, and he was the most helpful we'd found so far. He rang around, and it turns out there was a doctor living around the corner. So MGM, the cyclist and myself went in search of the doc. We hammered on doors, and eventually, MGM wandered around the back and started knocking on the guys bedroom window. He came to the door and we tried to explain what was going on. He was German, and largely non-comprehending.

He eventually packed a cardboard box with some bandages and we set out. Back at the ditch, there was an interesting sight. By now, the only people there were The Drunk, Tippex, The Local, and funnily enough, a doctor, taking The Drunk's blood pressure. Doc #1 pretty much turned on his heel immediately.

To add to the drama, it turns out The Pensioner was the uncle of The Drunk. Also, it would appear that The Drunk and Doc #2 had some sort of tryst about 20 years ago - she was 44. At one point she asked him "Do you want to take me home for a fuck?". When he didn't, her reply was "Well then fuck off back home to your wife and your 18 kids!" Apparently 18 was only a slight exaggeration.

We got home at about 4:30, having left the pub about 2:15.
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How long will I last off the cigarettes?
- 1 day 0%
- 2 days 0%
- 3 days 14%
- 4 days 0%
- 5 days 0%
- 6 days 0%
- 1 week 0%
- 1.5 weeks 0%
- 2 weeks 14%
- 3 weeks 0%
- 1 month 0%
- 2 months 0%
- 3 months 0%
- 4 months 0%
- 5 months 0%
- 6 months 0%
- 9 months 0%
- 1 year 0%
- > 1 year 71%
- WIPO 0%

Votes: 7
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About 18 hours to go. | 14 comments (14 topical, 0 hidden) | Trackback
Good luck! by Cloaked User (2.00 / 0) #1 Wed Jul 19, 2006 at 07:48:56 AM EST
I used to smoke socially, but was persuaded to give up about 8 years ago; basically my gf told me to either quit, or she'd start.

I've not had too many relapses since then, but then I was never a big smoker in the first place. I'm still slightly tempted every now and again, but mostly when I'm a touch under the influence...


--
This is not a psychotic episode. It is a cleansing moment of clarity.


GF smoking by Evil Cloaked User (2.00 / 0) #2 Wed Jul 19, 2006 at 07:56:00 AM EST
Well, MGM has pretty much always been a smoke-while-drinking person, but that's kinda increased over the last couple of weeks to the point where she's smoking without drinking and it is undoubtedly my fault. She's gonna try not to smoke while I'm around at the very least and will hopefully actually quit too.

One thing I find is that I tend to drink more when I quit smoking simply because there's none of that walking outside, chatting for 10 minutes while leaving the pint inside thing going on, so there's simply more time to drink. It has been suggested by MGM that in order to avoid this, smoke breaks in the pub should be replaced with snog breaks.


--
Still, I think most of the problem is just a mental hurdle to overcome, - Cloaked User
[ Parent ]

Drinking by Dr Thrustgood (2.00 / 0) #4 Wed Jul 19, 2006 at 08:16:38 AM EST
The last time I attempted to give up, I found that the best way of dealing with it was to get smashed. Double G&Ts, shot with a pint, whatever it took.

Worked, too. Until I started again. Best part of giving up, that.



[ Parent ]

Ah, smoking gfs by Cloaked User (2.00 / 0) #6 Wed Jul 19, 2006 at 09:15:40 AM EST
I was in some small danger of becoming a "proper" smoker about 9 years ago, as I had a succession of short-term gfs who either smoked or smoked when drinking. It's surprising how much more you can end up smoking when there's someone else there offering you a ciggie whenever they have one.

Hhhhmmm, note to self: when pulling, avoiding smokers might be a good idea...


--
This is not a psychotic episode. It is a cleansing moment of clarity.
[ Parent ]

Ex-smoker by hulver (4.00 / 6) #3 Wed Jul 19, 2006 at 08:05:00 AM EST
I'd tried several times to stop in the past. "I'll stop after when this packet is gone", "I'll stop tomorrow".

Never worked for me.

When I finally stopped I screwed up and threw away a half smoked pack, and just stopped.

Sure, I slipped occasionally. Usually while I was drunk, I'd smoke some cigs, or perhaps even buy a pack. When I sobered up I'd throw away the pack or just get on with being stopped.

My trick was not to think that because I'd failed once I couldn't do it, and so start smoking again.

It's been nearly 10 years now. I noticed that I'd stopped craving a smoke when I was drinking after about 7 years. Still hits me occasionally though.
--
smart, pretty, sane. pick two - georgeha


IHAWTP by yicky yacky (2.00 / 0) #5 Wed Jul 19, 2006 at 08:48:37 AM EST

I quit (for the seventh and final time) fifteen months ago. It's well worth doing.


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Done.
[ Parent ]

Yay no smoking!! by me0w (2.00 / 0) #7 Wed Jul 19, 2006 at 09:24:51 AM EST
I quit smoking almost a year ago (my one year anniversary is August 14), and it was the hardest thing I've ever done. Your first few weeks will be hell - be prepared for that so that you don't fail (I sat on the sofa and cried for the first week). Keep in mind the places/things/situations that make you want to smoke and either stay away or plan some other activity.

If you are determined, you'll be able to do this.


"There's really only one sexually related thing I'm good at: Producing incredibly volumous amounts of spooge on a regular basis." - ni


I dunno if it will help you by blixco (4.00 / 2) #8 Wed Jul 19, 2006 at 09:26:29 AM EST
but I used a book to quit.  And strangely, it worked.  I haven't smoked in a year, and quitting left me light-headed but with no cravings at all.

The book was The Easy Way to Stop Smoking.  It worked for me and a couple of others.

Wanting to quit helps, but it is a powerful addiction.  Just remember when you want to light up that smoking doesn't satisfy any cravings.  It increases them from the instant that you light up.

And though I d now have mild cravings at times, it's only when I'm bored.

---------------------------------
Taken out of context I must seem so strange - Ani DiFranco


Thanks for the reccomendation by zarathus (4.00 / 1) #12 Wed Jul 19, 2006 at 10:43:23 AM EST
Filip is quitting smoking now and is on nicotine gum.  I just ordered that book from Amazon!

----------
Blogger - n. Someone with nothing to say writing for someone with nothing to do.
[ Parent ]

It really worked by blixco (2.00 / 0) #13 Wed Jul 19, 2006 at 10:53:40 AM EST
for me.  But tell him, if he's going to use the book, to stop with the gum right now and start smoking again.  Throw the gum away.

The book is very very specific with this: you must smoke while you are reading it. No quitting until you are ready.  And no replacement therapies.

Replacement therapy (gum, patch, lozenge) don't work against the addiction, they help re-enforce it. The goal is to quit nicoteine, and realize that once the chemical is gone, you're in charge of the rest.  It's easy from there.
---------------------------------
Taken out of context I must seem so strange - Ani DiFranco
[ Parent ]

The book by yicky yacky (4.00 / 1) #14 Wed Jul 19, 2006 at 12:54:23 PM EST

also says that, if you've stopped before reading the book, don't start just to read the book (i.e. continue what you were doing). Carr mainly assumes that the reader is still smoking, and the advice is geared to that end.

The book is basically a pep-talk. Beneath the surface, it's essentially bollocks; but pep-talky bollocks is exactly what some people need to get them to perform "hard" acts in the correct frame of mind. The book's whole pitch is to get you into that frame of mind. I was bought the book, and read it, and it really helped me quit the fourth time ... and the fifth ... and maybe the sixth (I can't remember) ...

Where I think the book's real value lies is as a process accelerator. He says it himself straight-up near the start that he failed numerous times until he recognized all the psychological traps set forth in the book and then just quit dead. Some people buy into the pep-talk (i.e. don't need to 'know', first hand, the failure vectors) and just unquestioningly quit straight away: That's terrific, if it works, but it's really no more than the effect of a cross-bred Sargeant Major / Granny.

For me, the raw technique was too painfully obvious to buy it at face value, but where it worked on a deeper level was that I recognized my repeated failures in his own and, thanks to the fact that someone had simply written them down and described them, it didn't take me until I was fifty to get to where he ended-up in psychological terms. I think it's really good that the book can work in two completely different ways to get differently-wired people to the same positive end state.

The one thing I really agreed with him over was his raw assault on the entire culture of "Quitting Hardness". He's right: It's nowhere near as hard as the culture surrounding quitting and cigarettes more generally would make you believe, and there are fairly transparent parties (many pretending to be on the quitter's side) with a vested interest in perpetuating the quitting-is-hell myth.


----
Done.
[ Parent ]

Fake fags by Breaker (2.00 / 0) #9 Wed Jul 19, 2006 at 10:04:24 AM EST
Boots do them, the inhalator thingy things.  They're not cheap but you don't go through many.

Worked for me, anyway.




Especially if some drunk bastard by ambrosen (2.00 / 0) #10 Wed Jul 19, 2006 at 10:14:35 AM EST
Cadges a load of them off you for the buzz. My apologies once again. I feel it can hardly be coincidence the number of LHuSi drinks went down dramatically once I started coming. ;)

[ Parent ]

Water & Pee by CheeseburgerBrown (2.00 / 0) #11 Wed Jul 19, 2006 at 10:26:48 AM EST
I found it very helpful to take a drink of water every time I had a craving. This way, I had a response to the craving rather than just "willing it away" or whatever.

Two bonuses of this method: 1) drinking water is good for you, and in the first few days helps flush the nicotene out of your system; 2) having to go pee a lot because of all the water you're drinking provides a distracting activity not entirely unlike stepping out for a fag. It's a break.


I am from a small, unknown country in the north called Ca-na-da. We are a simple, grease-loving people who enjoy le weekend de ski.


About 18 hours to go. | 14 comments (14 topical, 0 hidden) | Trackback

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