Haha Got you to look but I just wanted to talk about smoking. I know for a fact that smoking reduces the effects of the anti-anxiety meds I take by 50 percent. If not more, sometimes I feel like it just cancels it out. But I also heard that smoking has the same effect on HRT. Is this true?
I obviously need to stop completely and have done a good job of cutting down but still smoke about five to seven cigs a day. I haven't smoked yet today so I'm trying to will my way forward. So what tricks/methods have any of your girls used to stop smoking? Pure will power. Patches. (eek, no, I heard they give you nightmares and I dream about my ex-fiancee/girlfriend enough as it is). What about gum?
Right now I'm running on willpower but my brother goes out to smoke all the time and on one hand it looks good then on the other his skin is horrible and he coughs all the time. So thoughts? Sorry for the trickery I'm a real b*tch. >:-)
Have you ever thought about buying an e-cig or electronic cigarette?
With an electronic cigarette you get pure nicotine in the form of a vapour. The nicotine is much cheaper than tobacco.
You get the nicotine without all the harmful chemicals and bad odours you get from smoking regular tobacco.
Also it works out much cheaper than buying normal tobacco and cigarettes.
Also if you're trying to quit, I've found that munching raw carrots seems to help.
Thanks for both your responses kkut and stella. BTW, you're not weird kkut; you're awesome. Who wants to be normal anyway?
I used nicotine patches to help me quit but it will still take a lot of will power to do it but it can be done with enough determination. But the biggest thing that helped me quit was when they jacked up price to like five dollars a pack around here. I found out my addiction to money was far greater than my addiction to cigarettes. It's though to quit but it's very rewarding to do so. And your not smoking that much a day. So it should be easier to quit for you. :)
I only speaks the truth kkut :-) and thanks Heather. I'm using the ween method of slowly smoking less and less until it becomes a non-issue but I totally get the price thing. They're so expensive! I mean a couple packs a week is the cost of a month of E. A year's worth of smoking is LHR right there. BTW, I heard you get really weird dreams from patches. Did you find this to be true? On the one hand that sounds cool. On the other hand I can have really lucid dreams as it is so I am a bit scared of it.
Quote from: Joanna Dark on March 30, 2013, 02:03:32 PM
I only speaks the truth kkut :-) and thanks Heather. I'm using the ween method of slowly smoking less and less until it becomes a non-issue but I totally get the price thing. They're so expensive! I mean a couple packs a week is the cost of a month of E. A year's worth of smoking is LHR right there. BTW, I heard you get really weird dreams from patches. Did you find this to be true? On the one hand that sounds cool. On the other hand I can have really lucid dreams as it is so I am a bit scared of it.
I don't remember any strange dreams but I don't remember most of my dreams anyways. What do remember is the weekend I stopped the patches if you think I'm moody on hormones you should have seen me then. In fact one of my friends said before I had quit smoking that I was worse than a girl on her period when I didn't have a cigarette. Buy anyways good luck with quitting you won't regret it besides transitioning and losing weight quitting smoking was the best thing I ever did for myself. :)
Thanks! I know what you mean about the moodiness. That is one thing I def don't need anymore of but it's for my health ;-)
I'm in the process of quitting again now... Having taken it up and quit ( for months or years ) so many times over the years, I know just how difficult it is.
Nicotine replacement such as patches or gum etc does work, but doesn't get your body off nicotine which is the aim. Other more serious prescribed drugs ( like Champix ) work well if you want to quit, although since they muck about with receptors, I've no idea what they'll do with HRT.
I personally opt for the cold-turkey & willpower approach. It's the hardest, quickest and most direct method. But it's hard as hell if you're around other smokers... :).
Good luck :)
Joanna Dark you got me this time, now you're asking for it girl! :D
I was addicted to Pall Malls, Camels, Lucky Strikes Chesterfields and anything that didn't have a sissy filter on it to ruin the taste. I routinely smoked two packs a day, until I could hardly smell anything good or taste anything as well as I once did. My breath smelled like ->-bleeped-<- and the index and middle finger on my right hand were stained brown and my hair was always kind of greasy no matter how much I washed it. I came to the place when I was coughing up green gubbers that it occurred to me that smoking was a dead end and I quit cold turkey in 1976. For the next four years off and on i had dreams that I was smoking. When people were standing around smoking I'd catch myself patting my breast pocket. I had one relapse, I was feeling pretty good about quitting when the boss's Goldie Hawn look alike secretary stepped outside on the deck above me with her cute summer dress blowing so that I could see her panties. She said, "Shan, come on up and take a smoke break and talk with me will you?" Not wanting to be a total dork I thought "Oh hell, one won't hurt me!" I bought a carton on my way home and it took another week to purge, most went in the garbage.
I find that now that I'm older and have some age related macular degeneration that I can't take Ocuvite or any of the vitamins that supposedly retard the degenerative effects because they all have vitamin A and if you have been a smoker and take vitamin A it is a trigger for lung cancer. They don't tell you that stuff do they? Next is that if you are smoking or using nicotine now and taking female hormones, you are setting yourself up for a nasty blood clot. If you're using tobacco products you are telling everyone around you that you are self destructive and don't care what happens to your life. I hope that helps everyone make a decision to quit. Wisdom comes with age and having made a lot of stupid mistakes.
There Joanna Dark, you asked for it girlfriend!
Spend the money on something else!I bought a 69 Plymouth Barracuda and needed the cigarette money for gas!Think of the laser or electrolysis or something else you could use it for
Quote from: Shantel on March 30, 2013, 06:19:37 PM
For the next four years off and on i had dreams that I was smoking.
I had dreams about smoking too. I haven't had one in a while but I just remember waking up thinking omg what have I done then realizing it was just a dream! I guess I should have mentioned this yesterday in Joanna Dark question about nicotine patches and dreams but I guess since I had these dreams long after I was quit smoking I actually didn't think about mentioning them :)
I've dreamed of smoking again and been disgusted that I've started again!
I smoked 2 packs a day for about 10 years. I got really sick for about a week and it was just physically impossible to smoke during that time. When I tried to smoke again it grossed me out so I just decided it was a good opportunity to quit and I've never smoked since then. I don't think it is helpful advice though, but that's how I quit.
It's been 9 years. I still have the desire to smoke. I have nightmares that I am smoking and all my hard work to not smoke has been ruined. I am also now grossed out with the smell of it, which helps me not start again. But I can't help but miss it.
To stop smoking, what you should do is to throw away everything you have related to smoking. Cigarettes, lighters, ash trays, everything. As soon as you decide to stop smoking. That way, if you want to smoke again, you need to buy everything over again. And when you realize you've made a mistake, you throw everything away again. Sometimes just this is enough help for people to stop. It requires effort to smoke, and it costs even more than smoking, which is already a huge fortune (if I could afford to smoke, I would be close to having enough for FFS, I suspect). Double dissuasive effect.
Also, a note about electronic cigarettes. Be careful of what you get. What we call "electronic cigarettes" here are cheap and they are everything but pure nicotine. They have bad chemicals in them as well, and aren't really meant as an aid to stop smoking. Make sure you get a proper inhaler that truly gives pure nicotine. We call those inhalers, whilst electronic cigarettes have an awful image and might get outlawed. Inhalers and their cartridges are much more expensive, I hear.
Something like this: http://www.nicorette.ca/products/inhaler (http://www.nicorette.ca/products/inhaler)
Also, who told you patches gave nightmares? That sounds like utter nonsense to me. If anything, I bet it's trying to stop smoking when very addicted that caused them. Both my mother and my sister have stopped smoking with patches before. My sister's had allergic reactions to the adhesive, and she also started to smoke again soon afterwards. Not a huge success, but no nightmares.
Sorry for necro but I am still an active smoker because I actually enjoy the taste of the tobacco particularly Camel Turkish Golds; besides the point. I own an eCigarette and they work wonders if I just want some nicotine. It's still addictive but is considerably better than me whipping out a cigarette when I just smoke to relieve stress. Plus you dont smell like cigarettes.
Allison, yours is exactly the kind of post that triggers a relapse.
The problem with nicotine is it has a very tight addiction cycle. One smoke makes you want another, especially if you have a history of addiction. This is why low-nicotine e-cigs, inhalers, or quit aids are never safe for someone who has quit, either cold turkey or by tapering down.
And, quite frankly, I don't trust the tobacco industry to produce a truly nicotine-free product. This sucks - I want to learn to blow smoke rings, but I know I'm vulnerable to addiction so tobacco is out of the question.
I do get the sense that quit aids are expensive for no other reason than exploiting smokers. This is certainly true of tobacco products in general. Between Big Tobacco and Big Government you are doubly screwed.
Well, if you want my opinion, smoking a fake cigarette with only nicotine, even if you never stop, is already heaps better than just smoking cigarettes. My mother is like that. She smokes her fake cigarette all the time and she doesn't have the slightest willpower in stopping. But I still much prefer that to actual smoking. For one she isn't killing her lungs in the process, and most importantly (to me, selfishly), it doesn't make her smell disgusting. Seriously, I think I might even prefer someone who reeks of vomit to someone who stinks of tobacco. x.x
And honestly, with a nicotine dispenser and a lot of willpower, it should be very doable for you to stop smoking, if the taste of tobacco is your only other problem. I mean, I love the taste of fries, but I haven't had any in, uhm. A few years. Either you need to work harder, either there are other factors. Surely you can think of foods whose taste you love but you can live without, yes?
Also, there apparently exist pills whose purpose, if they work, is to render cigarettes absolutely disgusting for the user. Apparently my cousin tried those, and even though she had a strong psychological/taste-related addiction to cigarettes, as soon as she felt like smoking and lit one, it was just "yuck" and she threw it away immediately. Dunno what those pills are, but if it worked on my cousin whose parents are two compulsive smokers who are seldom seen without their cigarette, then I have a feeling it's pretty effective.
The "theory" is that E-cigs are better for you, but it will take time before we really know.
Uhm, it's pretty obvious to anyone. Electronic cigarettes (the good kind with the approbation and nicotine) are basically steam and nicotine, aren't they? You need to have a serious issue to believe that it can possibly not be better than steam + nicotine + CO + CO2 + tons of poisons and other nocive products.
Quote from: Sarah Louise on August 22, 2013, 09:37:34 AM
The "theory" is that E-cigs are better for you, but it will take time before we really know.
In the same way cocaine isn't quite as bad for you as heroin?
Lol, no. To a smoker, a good electronic cigarette is not unhealthy in any way other than the nicotine it gives, which alone is actually not much worse than caffeine, I believe. Not to mention that usually it'll give less nicotine than a cigarette.
Of course, if you've never smoked and try an electronic cigarette, then it can get you addicted to both nicotine and the action of lifting a cigarette to your mouth, which can push you into smoking eventually, but that's besides the point.
I have to stop reading threads like these, they irritate me so much.... oh great, now I want a cigarette too..... siiiiiigh
Ok so moving along, here's the problem with these threads. They're full of goody goody health nuts who won't let science, evidence, or even common sense get in the way of their black and white world view.
To them, smoking is bad.... now that's nothing sensational, as a smoker I think I speak for all of us when I say we ALL know it's bad for you, really really bad.
Problem is unlike most smokers, unlike a great many non-smokers too, the health police won't let the consensus on that aspect of smoking be good enough. If they haven't gotten everyone convinced that tobacco is the devil plant and that every puff releases a little bit of the smoldering pit of hell then they feel they haven't done their job yet.
Smoking is bad, I shouldn't HAVE to keep emphasizing this just to reduce the likelyhood of certain people on this forum taking what I say out of context (which they do anyway). BUT despite the fact smoking is bad, that does NOT mean 'nicotine is bad'. It doesn't mean nicotine is good either, it means smoking tobacco is bad, nothing else. The truth is the science is pretty unclear on how bad nicotine as a chemical substance actually is for the human body. The aforementioned goody goodys have contaminated the research and made it that much more difficult to find out the likely truth from the evidence due to their misguided belief that nicotine and smoking tobacco are synonymous.
Using an ecig is not smoking tobacco, it is using vaporized nicotine, it is NOT the same it is VERY VERY different from a chemical perspective. And the safety profiles are almost certainly different and almost certainly in favor of better health outcomes with ecigs. This hypothesis is so obvious that nobody outside of scientists need worry about it until there's evidence to contradict it. It's obvious because you're dealing with one potentially dangerous chemical versus an enormous cocktail of chemicals INCLUDING the former one.
The health nazi's are so fixated on their black and white mindset that they actually HARM smokers in the same way as the war on drugs has harmed drug users. Deliberately spreading ignorance and fear and using pathetic strawman arguments and fallacies to suggest that daring to inject reason and logic equates to you being a big tobacco sponsor. I for one am fed up with it.
Quote from: big kim on August 22, 2013, 04:43:08 PM
In the same way cocaine isn't quite as bad for you as heroin?
Case in point. Heroin is actually, as a pure chemical product, if used in a safe way (theoretically possible in the same way morphine can theoretically be misused and used safely), is definitely a very safe chemical by drug standards. Cocaine is too in fact as a theoretical local anesthetic, however it's rarely used for that purpose. Technically they both 'can' be used safely and medically, and technically cocaine has the slightly worse inherent safety profile of the two.
But of course just like smoking I'm sure some here would take what I've just said and twist it into meaning something I did not say. Because it's never 'quite evil enough' for that sort.
Quote from: Asfsd4214 on August 22, 2013, 07:59:21 PM
I have to stop reading threads like these, they irritate me so much.... oh great, now I want a cigarette too..... siiiiiigh
Ok so moving along, here's the problem with these threads. They're full of goody goody health nuts who won't let science, evidence, or even common sense get in the way of their black and white world view.
To them, smoking is bad.... now that's nothing sensational, as a smoker I think I speak for all of us when I say we ALL know it's bad for you, really really bad.
Problem is unlike most smokers, unlike a great many non-smokers too, the health police won't let the consensus on that aspect of smoking be good enough. If they haven't gotten everyone convinced that tobacco is the devil plant and that every puff releases a little bit of the smoldering pit of hell then they feel they haven't done their job yet.
Smoking is bad, I shouldn't HAVE to keep emphasizing this just to reduce the likelyhood of certain people on this forum taking what I say out of context (which they do anyway). BUT despite the fact smoking is bad, that does NOT mean 'nicotine is bad'. It doesn't mean nicotine is good either, it means smoking tobacco is bad, nothing else. The truth is the science is pretty unclear on how bad nicotine as a chemical substance actually is for the human body. The aforementioned goody goodys have contaminated the research and made it that much more difficult to find out the likely truth from the evidence due to their misguided belief that nicotine and smoking tobacco are synonymous.
Using an ecig is not smoking tobacco, it is using vaporized nicotine, it is NOT the same it is VERY VERY different from a chemical perspective. And the safety profiles are almost certainly different and almost certainly in favor of better health outcomes with ecigs. This hypothesis is so obvious that nobody outside of scientists need worry about it until there's evidence to contradict it. It's obvious because you're dealing with one potentially dangerous chemical versus an enormous cocktail of chemicals INCLUDING the former one.
The health nazi's are so fixated on their black and white mindset that they actually HARM smokers in the same way as the war on drugs has harmed drug users. Deliberately spreading ignorance and fear and using pathetic strawman arguments and fallacies to suggest that daring to inject reason and logic equates to you being a big tobacco sponsor. I for one am fed up with it.
Case in point. Heroin is actually, as a pure chemical product, if used in a safe way (theoretically possible in the same way morphine can theoretically be misused and used safely), is definitely a very safe chemical by drug standards. Cocaine is too in fact as a theoretical local anesthetic, however it's rarely used for that purpose. Technically they both 'can' be used safely and medically, and technically cocaine has the slightly worse inherent safety profile of the two.
But of course just like smoking I'm sure some here would take what I've just said and twist it into meaning something I did not say. Because it's never 'quite evil enough' for that sort.
Drugs are bad, mmkay
Quote from: musicofthenight on August 22, 2013, 08:47:37 AM
Allison, yours is exactly the kind of post that triggers a relapse.
The problem with nicotine is it has a very tight addiction cycle. One smoke makes you want another, especially if you have a history of addiction. This is why low-nicotine e-cigs, inhalers, or quit aids are never safe for someone who has quit, either cold turkey or by tapering down.
And, quite frankly, I don't trust the tobacco industry to produce a truly nicotine-free product. This sucks - I want to learn to blow smoke rings, but I know I'm vulnerable to addiction so tobacco is out of the question.
I do get the sense that quit aids are expensive for no other reason than exploiting smokers. This is certainly true of tobacco products in general. Between Big Tobacco and Big Government you are doubly screwed.
I know you meant well but I think you were perhaps out of line in suggesting it could trigger a relapse. At a certain point, ALL talking about cigarettes can trigger a relapse, Alison was offering opinion and input that I felt was constructive and valid.
On a separate note, I don't think the tobacco industry (the industry that grows and processes the plants and produces the cigarettes) is actually the same as the ecig industry. I don't know for sure but I think they're separate.
I actually agree with you in large part about the quit aids (though at this point I feel I should also point out that there's no objective health difference between ecigs and various legitimate quit products), but some have benefited from them and I think it's perhaps misguided to suggest not trying them at all.
Lol damn, you beat me to it, Alice. Mkuy. Anyway...vape. my dad is opening up a business selling vapers. Vapors...however you spell it. They're delicious and have 3999 less chemicals than cigs. I love cigarettes, but smokin a vape tastes so much better. Just sayin'.
Tobacco contains MAOIs which potentiate nicotine. I do not know whether e-cig solutions contain MAOIs or if they are the same ones.
I will agree vaporization gets rid of the tar and monoxide. And harm-reduction is not a bad thing.
Pure nicotine is, from what I understand, a very different drug from nicotine in combination with a MAOI. Much less psychoactive effect, much less addicting.
Like how coca leaves are about as harmful as coffee. Maybe even less so.
Quote from: Asfsd4214 on August 22, 2013, 08:07:27 PM
I know you meant well but I think you were perhaps out of line in suggesting it could trigger a relapse.
Reminiscing about the good times smoking is a pretty sure-fire way to trigger someone's cravings.
QuoteOn a separate note, I don't think the tobacco industry (the industry that grows and processes the plants and produces the cigarettes) is actually the same as the ecig industry. I don't know for sure but I think they're separate.
Ever heard of
MarkTen by Altria (Marlborough, Merit, Black and Mild, Chesterfield, Skoal)
VUSE by Reynolds (Camel, Kool, Winston, Pall Mall)
Blu by Lorillard (Newport, Maverick, Old Gold)
Yes, VMR's V2 is independent for one, but there's nothing keeping old tobacco out.
Quoteperhaps misguided to suggest not trying them at all.
Oh, goodness no! They're for tapering off, which may be a good idea for any physically addictive substance. They also let people deal with the mouth habit separately from the nicotine addiction.
But, and this is important, any source of nicotine trades cravings now for cravings later. If it's been 72 hours since the last dose (in any form) there is
no benefit, pharmacologically speaking, from any quit-aid. I don't know if they tell you that.
Where I have a willpower to rival that of the gods; just reading about cigarettes doesn't actually make me want or need one. I mean it's been roughly a month since I last smoked and on the daily I see my mother smoke; my best friend smoke and I look at a Hashish Pipe daily and feel no urge to HAVE to smoke. But if you want to wane off cigarettes; e is the way to go... my best friend who smokes like a freight train used patches and they did absolutely nothing but make him want another cigarette where as the eCig made him forget he wasnt smoking a cig in the first place.
There is a huge benefit to stop-aids. I have no idea where you got that crazy idea. The principle of good e-cigarettes (those made for pharmaceutical purposes with precisely dosed nicotine and stuff) is to help you deal with your addiction to nicotine and your addiction to the action of smoking separately. You use your e-cigarette as you used to smoke, but you get progressively diminishing doses of nicotine, theoretically without realizing the difference if done right.
And at some point you don't inhale any nicotine anymore, and if you're still behaviorally addicted to smoking, well at some point you're supposed to realize that putting that thing in your mouth for nothing is sort of pointless and stop on your own. And actually if you end up smoking your nothingness forever, it's not like it's the end of the world, is it?