ya thos are some ****e savers

Weekend is here. Always the hardest for me because it's when I usually drink.

Was pretty drunk last night.. Went out to dinner with some friends and a few smoke. Managed to stay strong, felt like a huge win.

Weldone, another battle victory! Here's a few things helped me quit nearlly 6 years ago:

1. Have your reasons clear in your head for giving up. For me it was to excercise, lose weight, kickbox, running, play longer poker sessions without tilting, feel healthier, save money, better skin...How much do I want these things in my life?

2. Break the physical habit. The mental addiction is BY FAR the strongest obstacle*, it's your crutch in life, so its important that you break free of the habit of putting things to your lips and inhaling. This means pen lids, rolled up paper, pencils, and especially not ecigs. If you try to gain comfort from mimicing smoking in any way you are strengthening your physical addiction, and you won't be mentally breaking free from the real addiction. I also used Tommy Angelo's trick of a rubber-band around the wrist and gave it a snap every time I longed or yearned for a cigarette, or mimiced the habit. Tell yourself to snap out of it and let it go!

3. Displace the physical habit - I found nicotine gum a huge help here by basically replacing the physical habit of smoking with the physical habit of chewing nicotine gum and pushing it into my gums, helped me out on nights out for sure. Tea or coffee is another good one.

4. Tell yourself pangs only last 5 minutes and get weaker everytime you win, your next pang will be easier, so stay strong - At the time pangs feel like an everlasting ache for the one true passion in your life, but its just your brain tricking you, cos 5 minutes later, your fine! Push through those 5 minutes! The habit WILL get weaker and weaker, and remember that in 3-4 months time you'll barely miss it, and in 6+ months they just aren't an issue in your life any more.

5. Try adding a few more things to your life. There's this ridiculous feeling of loss when you quit smoking, and being able to focus on some extra and positive activities in your life can help eleviate this feeling. Maybe pick a goal, something you can work at.

6. Face your addiction head-on on nights out, prepare yourself. Arm yourself with lots of nicotine gum. Be very mindful that you can still drink, chew gum and have a good time without smoking. When the nights over and your tanked up, pat yourself on the back. Everytime you have a positive experience without smoking it reinforces the realisation that you really dont need it in your life.

7. KNOW FOR SURE that one day in the not too distant future, your cravings for a cigarette will be about as strong as your cravings to put on a hat, you really won't care either way, you'll be completely free of its power over you. I used to worry when I heard ex-smokers say 'corr I could still really go for a ciggy', I used to think '**** that, id rather die early than live my life craving', but remember these people have not yet quit the physical habit mentally. For them its the equivalent of still keeping pictures and clothes of an ex-girlfriend, you've gotta let that **** all go. Take my word when I say all my family and friends quit, and they never even think about smoking now.

8. When you feel weak and about to crack, remind yourself:
- how far you've come
- how many mental battles you've fought and won to this point
- that you will have to climb to this point again anyway if you crack
- your reasons for quitting
- that it gets easier the longer you go
- pangs last 5 minutes


* The reason I believe mental addiction to be so much stronger than chemical is while I chewed high doses of nicotine gum in the first few months, I was a mess and went through an incredibly tough mental fight. I envisaged that switching from nicotine gum to regular gum would be even worse, but to my surprise, I was absolutely fine.

Best of luck, it took me many times to quit, but when the time was right and I had the right reasons and mindset, I achieved it.

ps I smoked for 15 years, about 30 a day on average, quit 6 years ago.

Thx for the advice and post Dummy101...

One day at a time seems to be working really well. Same approach I took to gambling. I will not smoke today and just worry about that day. Next thing I know I got a few months behind me.

Chantix works Rockets. I smoked for 50 years with an overall average of a carton a week. Quit almost two & a half years ago now without dealing with cravings. Ask your doctor, most are happy to prescribe it.

Still think it's worth a try? I'm 6 days smoke/nicotine free now. Cravings aren't really that bad at this point.

If you've made it that far just keep doing what you have been.

it doesn't get any easier going forward. as long as you think about smoking you'll be a smoker.

Hmm this thread is too long to read and this has probably already been said but the fact that you want to "quit at life" technically means suicide. Don't do that. Do smoke an ecig like you said you won't, they rule and studies are coming out that they're 95% safer. They don't smell bad and you can use them as a secret forever if you care to let people know you quit.

Link to studies?

Today marks one week no smoking or nicotine and I feel pretty damn good.

I did gamble this weekend. Had a friend come over and we played 100$ on his poker account. I feel super guilty about this as I hadn't placed a single wager in over 2 months. No scratch offs, no football pools, no fantasy sports, no casinos, and no poker. Out of all the gambling it was poker I missed most as I was always a decent winner. The degen tendencies turned me into an overall big loser in the gambling scheme. Of course we binked a decent tourney for little over 1500 and now my brains trying to rationalize "poker only" is ok.

Sorry to ramble about the gambling addiction but it's been eating away at me since the weekend.

Weighed myself today. Gained 8 pounds in 8 days. Yikes.

haha ya that will do it. next goal is for healthy eating

10 days, hit the gym today for 30 minutes. It was miserable.

It's now 730 and I'm ready for bed. I gotta get myself back in some sort of workout routine. Is it bad when I'm beyond sore and it's only been 30 minutes since I worked out.

How screwed am I tomorrow?

Sore 30 minutes after a workout?!?! Just wait until tomorrow and the next day!

Ugh I have a wedding tomorrow...

I did 20 minutes on the elliptical and incline, flat, and decline bench... My legs and chest are killing me

Decided to skim my responses in this thread.. It's been an interesting year 😒..trying to stop smoking while still smoking on the weekends, gambling addiction in full force, and dabbling in some other addictive favors as well.

If I were to try and say why this time is different? I want to stop.

I am no longer gambling and partying. I'm optimistic about the plan I've put in place and how I am going to accomplish this. Tbh if I fail this time I know I'm destined to just be a complete degenerate for the rest of my life and that's not the goal.

Had a wedding last night, was reallyy drunk.

No cigs. That was the highlight of the night tho, other antics took place but another win!

bro take 100$ and buy a good vaping setup with a subtank you wont even think about smoking again

I want to remove the nicotine addiction not replaced it.

I'm in very much the same situation as you.

Longest I have stopped for in recent times is 6 weeks (the odd smoke here and there while drinking) until an argument with the ex about my kid and then straight back into it.

I find these days I can stop for a few days at a time but I really find it hard not to smoke while driving or drinking (not at the same time obv). I have bought e-cigs before but this just leads back to me smoking.

After reading this thread pretty much decided on going to see a doctor and get a prescription for champix. Probably won't have a chance to do this til Friday but will let you know how it goes

Let me know how it goes. Tomorrow will be 2 weeks for me. It no longer feels like it's a daily grind for me to quit. The cravings are getting less and less and easier to fight off.

Good luck and def share your experience.

hate to be a negative nancy bro but you can't go from being an all day everyday regular smoker to an only weekend smoker. (you can do the opposite, but it doesn't work in reverse. If that was possible, nobody would ever quit smoking they would just go from smoking constantly to only smoking on the weekends.

Making a switch to only use a vape cig 100% of the time? That is possible
Quit smoking completely? That is also possible
Go from being fully addicted to only smoking on the weekends? Not possible in the long run. You can keep struggling and do it for a couple weeks and then on/off again but in the long run you're just chasing your tail

If it was possible to reverse an addiction to go back to a sustainable level of moderation you wouldn't have people joining AA. An alcoholic would prefer to go back to drinking in moderation on the weekends without the negative consequences of overindulging, but unfortunately it doesn't work that way. Hence the dilemma of addiction.

^I know that isn't what you want to hear but that is my experience

Since you don't seem interested in quitting completely, I think the idea of switching to a vape cig is the most realistic option available to you at this point. MAYBE switching to a vape and only vaping on the weekends is possible, but I would be willing to bet 99.99+% of people who are truly addicted to smoking would not be able to make that last permanently

I've realized this after my last few attempts to quit have failed.

I don't know if you have read my last 10 posts but tomorrow will be 2 weeks smoke/nicotine free.