The Giving Up Smoking Thread!! Part 2

larmy16

Different_Corner wrote: »

Yep me again.
Still think I'm going to stop 'tomorrow'. Am always thankful tomorrow never comes. Tired of this energy sapping habit. I really, really, can't afford it. Kids hate it. Reading the thread again for inspiration.

I know I can do it.

DC try to take that step, just that one little step. I am a serial quitter so I feel something of a fraud trying to help others but Sue asked me to keep posting, so here I am.

I have cried and prayed over my smoking addiction. I stopped alcohol no problem when I attempted to quit many years ago. I just could not imagine a drink without a cig. Never went back to alcohol and love not drinking but nicotine lured me back again and again.

I never have attended any alcohol meetings but have heard little snippets of the programme and it is this one day at a time idea, that started me on my latest and FINAL quit.

I kept a journal for the first few weeks and then it tailed off - a sure sign that nicotine was no longer dominating my life!:j

So glad you posted. We are all here for you. Be as brave as Batman and sling that stuff in the bin (wetting it of course!) - he he. I can remember trying to dry out my tobacco in the microwave - what a pong!

Post again, keep posting till you get that little spark of "at least give it a go" to get you on your journey!

Good luck and have a great weekend.

Different_Corner

Larmy
Thanks for that. Those words all make sense. Mainly because I've cut down on drinking. I really think the two go hand in hand with me.

I know how good I will feel once I've stopped smoking, been there and lapsed, hence why I return. As the late great AC says if I only could transport myself forward to the 3 weeks later, renewed energy, bright sparkly feeling, and the self confidence.

I want all that back.

larmy16

Different_Corner wrote: »

Larmy
Thanks for that. Those words all make sense. Mainly because I've cut down on drinking. I really think the two go hand in hand with me.

I know how good I will feel once I've stopped smoking, been there and lapsed, hence why I return. As the late great AC says if I only could transport myself forward to the 3 weeks later, renewed energy, bright sparkly feeling, and the self confidence.

I want all that back.

It is there waiting for you to embrace it - the joy, the energy, that bright sparkly feeling (with the odd bad day thrown in - let's not get carried away!) and most important for me the removal of that guilty black shadow ever present.

It's funny how the guilt feeling goes the instant you stop and stay stopped.

vapourA

I tell people that I am an expert at stopping smoking because I have done it so many times

I used NRT every time and it just didn't work for me. This time I stopped by accident. A friend introduced me to smoking alternatives, vaporization, snus etc and the vaporization cracked it for me. I enjoyed it so much I didnt want a cigarette any more. I started with vaporized organic tobacco but now inhale harmless, flavoured sugar beet molasses from a vaporizer. It gives me the ritualistic work breaks and after meal experience with a visible mist to inhale and exhale but with none of the health hazards or expense.

larmy16

vapourA wrote: »

I tell people that I am an expert at stopping smoking because I have done it so many times

I used NRT every time and it just didn't work for me. This time I stopped by accident. A friend introduced me to smoking alternatives, vaporization, snus etc and the vaporization cracked it for me. I enjoyed it so much I didnt want a cigarette any more. I started with vaporized organic tobacco but now inhale harmless, flavoured sugar beet molasses from a vaporizer. It gives me the ritualistic work breaks and after meal experience with a visible mist to inhale and exhale but with none of the health hazards or expense.

Would you care to explain further just what you mean? I just hope it does not involve any expensive equipment!!!!;):D

vapourA

Sure Larmy, I can send you some links too if you need more detail.

Tobacco smoking is particularly hazardous to health due to the combustion process. Tar and Carbon Monoxide are released in massive quantities. The paper in the cigarette is just as toxic as the tobacco in this respect. Tobacco can be used relatively safely if the combustion is avoided.

The process of vaporization causes no combustion, the material is heated until it gives off a vapour. Only the alkaloids anabasine, nornicotine, anatabine, cotinine and myosmine are released from leaf tobacco when it is vaporized. This would make it more addictive than purely using nicotine therapies, but still eliminates the nasties associated with smoking. The risk to health drops to 0.1 to 1% that of smoking cigarettes. You are inhaling more toxic chemicals by lighting your gas stove.

Once I had switched to tobacco vaporization, I then moved to vaporizing the herbal molasses product so that tobacco was completley eliminated. I find the Soex and High Life brands very good, they are easy to obtain and cheap. The selection of available flavours is large too.

This method is unusual, but it worked for me. I found the ritual of smoking far harder to give up then the chemical addiction. Now I can enjoy my 'fake smoke' with absolutely no harm done to my health and I find it completely satisfying. For anybody finding the NRT is just not working for them, they might want to research this more. We are all different and so are our addictions. In the USA, tobacco giant Philip Morris have recently released a product called the 'Heatbar' which is just a rechargeable vaporizer for tobacco.

There are a number of methods of vaporization. Various pipes are available for a very reasonable cost. I now use a much more expensive device called the Iolite, which is a butane powered handheld vaporizer that uses a catalytic reaction to heat a chamber where you put your material. It is about £130. Vaporization has long been used by those using illegal substances (that never was something I did).

I hope I didnt confuse you even more

Merrywidow

:beer: Congratulations to you all for your attempts to give up the weed. After smoking for 40 years my doctor finally pleaded with me to give it up. I am a diabetic type 2 and smoking only adds to the many problems diabetes causes. I had the patches on and off for a year but still fell off the wagon. 18 months ago I was invited on a winter holiday in Austria with my family who are fervent non smokers and also have two small children. As we would be way up a mountain out of reach of shops for two weeks I talked to my doctor for help with the final push.

She gave me a script for Nicorette Inhalators, plus another supply of patches. On December 14th 2007 I smoked my last fag and toddled off to Austria without any cigarettes. Inhalators for the uninitiated, are little plastic mini fags into which you insert a 'capsule' which when inhaled give you a burst of nicotine. They saved my life. Every time I felt the urge I puffed on my inhaltor - urge gone. My little niece of two who was always sucking on her dummy was facinated and refered to it as my dummy.

The bottom line is that I didn't have withdrawal systems, no mood swings but of course I put of weight - eating more to ease the longings. I too put on about 8 lbs which I have been unable to shift - mainly due to the fact that I can't work it off because of an arthritic back. Swimming has helped me shift some of it eventually. I can smell smoke a mile off and I now hate it.

I have since redecorated my nicotine coated house and abolished the orange glow. I have not smoked one cigarette since. Even being near a smoker turns me off.

So dear friends it can be done. I am convinced that without the inhalators I could not have suceeded. I still have a supply in the house which I puff on in times of stress or purely for filling that gap at the end of good meal or that evening drink to unwind. Breaking the habit of a lifetime is difficult but it can be done. Good luck to you all. :T

larmy16

Merrywidow thanks for your wise and encouraging words. I am assuming though you did not really mean you smoked your last ciggie in 1907!!!!:D

larmy16

VapourA many thanks for all that information. I had a look at it all on google and as you say Whatever works for you. I am curious though just how you would fit this vapourizer into your life. Do you use it mainly at home or would you use it in a pub for instance?

I have heard of herbal nicotine but assumed as Allen Carr said in his book it was a complete waste of time as it was the nicotine one was after. I did find an empty cigar case not so long ago and found that sniffing that deeply went some way to satisfying my need to inhale.

In one of my previous quit attempts I used to sniff at a jar of old used ciggie butts. It was supposed to repulse you but I found it quite helpful but obviously not helpful enough! Those plastic cigarettes with some sort of herb inside are pretty good too.

Merrywidow

Oooops...sorry - my last ciggie was in 2007 - fingers on the wrong keys.

I was wondering if anyone has tried the inhalators?