Weird - I just had a cigarette craving.

It's been 5 years since I quit and I seldom think of it, but I just had this real urge.  Weird.

 

I had originally quit from 1992 - 2000, then relapsed for 3 years (although I never went back to a pack a day like when I was younger, I just had 5 or 6 a day, and never in the house).

 

I'm confident that I'll never relapse again, but wow was that a weird feeling.

 

Funny because Japan is kind of a smoker's paradise... 

The power of addiciton...scarry! There are psych triggers! What do you think yours was?

Original Post by lucindadevries:

The power of addiciton...scarry! There are psych triggers! What do you think yours was?

 Probably stress because I live in Japan and earn my living in dollars - which are rapidly devaluing, so it's like I've had a 20% pay cut in the last several months.  There are bears calling for a further 20% dollar deval vs. the yen in the coming months, so this is a problem for me.

I may have to quit my US job and take a job with a Japanese company, which I have done before and it's a whole other can of worms. 

 

But from experience, I know that nicotine only relieves stress momentarily.  It makes people more stressed-out except when they're puffing and immediately after. 

I'm still a smoker...I live in not so fabulous Las Vegas. My car is a major trigger for me. The second I get in, I want to light up. I can go all day at the office and not smoke but ohhh the car ride gets me.

Stress...you think? I would be freaked out! I have major issues here in the US too. I am involved in real estate...yep...the bubble burst and I have been left swimming in the mess...then the lending market...there goes the rest of my clients...no income right now. AHHHH Can I get a job in Japan too?

Original Post by lucindadevries:

I'm still a smoker...I live in not so fabulous Las Vegas. My car is a major trigger for me. The second I get in, I want to light up. I can go all day at the office and not smoke but ohhh the car ride gets me.

Stress...you think? I would be freaked out! I have major issues here in the US too. I am involved in real estate...yep...the bubble burst and I have been left swimming in the mess...then the lending market...there goes the rest of my clients...no income right now. AHHHH Can I get a job in Japan too?

Good luck - I hope you can parlay your experience into some related field as RE looks to be bad for at least a few more years.  Anyway, cigarettes are EVIL.   In addition to spending $60 a month or more on them, I found that they made my weight problems worse because they made me more compulsive in general.  Like for a while, I would try to eat less and smoke more because I felt fat, but of course that would make me feel gross and stinky and hacky, so then the next week I'd try to cut down on smoking and eat like a total pig...  It was like a roller coaster of insanity.

Of course in the first months after quitting, I would never try to diet.  Getting off the sticks is priority 1. 

I should have started working on my diet a couple months later once I felt less vulnerable to cigarettes, but It was more than 2 years of uncontrolled eating and drinking before I took action.  I was going through a midlife crisis as well as facing out-of-control debts that I didn't know what to do about.

Anyway, I'm in a better place now and able to keep my weight in check and not smoke, although there is the rare twinge now and then.

 

Anyway, good luck with  everything. 

I did try quiting a couple years back and used the patch. I went through such a terrible depression that I decided I need the help of a doctor and some good drugs like Welbutrin (sp?). It is an anti-depressant and a stop smoking assist. Getting through the rest of this year and seeing what I am going to do about my business, etc is first. maybe I will be so poor I won't have the money to smoke :)

Good luck to you too!

I just started 3 years ago (at 22)...and it is just because I love the taste of menthol. I will go weeks at a time without...because I don't want to spend the money or just don't think of it but right now it is my only "unhealthy" thing so I will worry about it later. I am eating healthy and not even drinking lately, and am back at the gym. The smoking doesn't seem to hinder my working out so I am telling myself it is ok....for now.

Original Post by lucindadevries:

I did try quiting a couple years back and used the patch. I went through such a terrible depression that I decided I need the help of a doctor and some good drugs like Welbutrin (sp?). It is an anti-depressant and a stop smoking assist. Getting through the rest of this year and seeing what I am going to do about my business, etc is first. maybe I will be so poor I won't have the money to smoke :)

Good luck to you too!

 It's interesting you mention that.  I went through a period of depression for about 2 or 3 years after quitting - I had always chalked it up to midlife crisis and too much alcohol, but the long-term nic withdrawal might have been connected too.  Not on any sort of medication, but since I stopped drinking alcohol (mostly for dietary reasons), I've been on a much more even keel emotionally.  Not happy-happy-joy-joy all the time, but much less morose and morbid and sad than I was when I overate and drank myself silly on a weekly basis.

Original Post by princesslauren:

I just started 3 years ago (at 22)...and it is just because I love the taste of menthol. I will go weeks at a time without...because I don't want to spend the money or just don't think of it but right now it is my only "unhealthy" thing so I will worry about it later. I am eating healthy and not even drinking lately, and am back at the gym. The smoking doesn't seem to hinder my working out so I am telling myself it is ok....for now.

 I was 22 about 5 minutes ago, and now I'm almost 39.  It really does come up that fast, and past 35, your mortality suddenly comes into focus as something very real and inevitable, and the time frame is suddenly no longer beyond ready comprehension.

 At least that's how it should be.  I decided that I could no longer indulge in habits that would shave years or even decades off my life.  I enjoy life too much to throw any of it away.  Having kids makes it that much more important.

Aren't menthols the worst in terms of damaging your lungs? 

Good for you udokier on passing on the urge...we all know it takes just one.  I started smoking at 22 (which was yesterday for me too) and have tried to quit several times to no avail.  I am going to try again when I hit the 20 pound weight loss mark (a pound or two away from where I am now) and I am nervous.  I know I can never have just one, it is the same for alcoholics.  So when I do quit again,  will have to abstain from my triggers (friends and booze).  Way to go!  Hopefully in a month or so I will be able to say I am smoke free.

Aren't menthols the worst in terms of damaging your lungs? 

 

yes. it's like a fast food addiction to me (though fast food was much harder to let go of). I know it's bad for me but it just tastes so good. I think if it were more of a nicotine thing I would be concerned, but because ti is just the taste, it is not as if it is "out of my control". I think this is my rebellious  phase and smoking is the extent of my rebellion. It is not "habit", more like a superficial desire. By summer I'm sure I will be down to smoking only in social situations, if that. maybe naive, but i'm not too worried.

I second udokier all the way! Princesslauren, give up now, you'll either realise that you're more addicted than you think or hopefully you'll just bypass the whole addiction thing. Without wanting to sound rude, I don't believe for one second that you are not addicted. 

I have just quit. 10 weeks in - never felt better, finally I have blown that habit and I never ever want to smoke again. I'm 28, and udokier you are so right, you go to bed 22 and wake up suddenly 28 one day... In fact in some ways I still feel like I'm 22. I smoked for WAY too long. At times I'd smoke a full pack or more a day, other times just a couple of rollies. I tried to quit a few times before, sometimes it seemed to work but then I would make that stupid mistake of having 'just one' and I'm back on the death slide. This time things have clicked and I'm doing well, I faltered twice but the second time was my saviour. I gave in to the craving, bought a pack, realised how bloody expensive it is, smoked half of one, realised it didn't do anything for me and gave it away. That's it. Done. I love not smoking it's brilliant.

I'm not naive... smoking is a habit and an addiction, it's easy to fall back into the trap, I know this, I know I will have cravings and temptations in the future but I also know I will stay resolute. Udokier, hang on in there, I've seen mates who have quit for years have 'just one' and down they go! Smell an ashtray or something. Remind yourself (as you have done already) that the cigarette won't solve the problem or actually do anything to relieve the stress.

What else has given me the push... I lost two good friends last year, both just 40, one to cancer (she left behind her a young family) and from a heart attack.

This life is way to precious to throw away 

I have not smoked for 8 years.  However the cravings are still there once in a great while.  I on the other hand have a husband that still smokes and have always like the smell of them as he smokes them.  It seems to calm me.  I have tried smoking since than a time or two but I get so sick to my stomach and get a huge headache that it just isnt worth it to me.  Guess that is a good thing since it will prevent me from going back to it again.  Have to admit a person sure feels better when they are not smoking. 

April 22 will mark my 14th year since quitting.  I started smoking at 12 (yes, my mother bought the pack for me), and quit at 21.  That is 9 years that I harmed my body for no benefit.  At least with my food issues, I got SOME nutrition.

Quit smoking NOW.  It is never okay, and does more harm than you think.  Please take care of yourself, and nurture your body.  Cigarettes just aren't worth it.

I know it's hard.  I woke up, decided I couldn't smoke any more, and never picked one up again.  It took a lot of willpower, but it can be done.  Just refuse to be a victim.  Refuse to put more money into the pockets of the tobacco companies.  Put yourself before your addictions.  You have the power inside of you to do it.  Prove to yourself that you are that strong.

To all you reformed smokers...good job! Someday I will be one too! Any of you use Welbutrin to help stop or any other meds besides the patch?

Original Post by lucindadevries:

To all you reformed smokers...good job! Someday I will be one too! Any of you use Welbutrin to help stop or any other meds besides the patch?

I used Cigarrest, which is mostly "brainwashing" CDs and herbal pills to help with anxiety/withdrawal.

 

www.cigarrest.com ;

I;ll check the website out.