Nicotine Tapering Method to Quit Smoking

[Spyman]

Well, in response to the advertise attempt above, I want to repeat my opinion that any treatment that includes nicotine should be avoided.

 

From personal experience I know that they are expensive and don't always help, they can even make a person more addicted than before.

Edited May 21, 2014 by Spyman

[iNow]

I recommend the 4-Ds when quitting.

 

Delay - When you have a craving, make yourself wait at least 10 minutes. It usually passes.

 

Drink - Get a tall glass of water and sip it slowly. Get another if needed. Strangely, hydrating yourself helps (even if just psychologically) to reduce the craving.

 

Deep breath - Relax yourself. Again, it will pass.

 

Do Something Else - Seriously, this is the one that did it for me. I had a plan. When I had a craving, I would do 30 pushups or I would do 50 jumping jacks. Granted, I wound up doing a LOT of pushups and jumping jacks, but replacing the cigarette with something else helped, especially since it was healthy and I didn't crave a cigarette when out of breath. Also, replace the cigarette with other stuff... Hard candies, carrots, whatever. Try to avoid feeling like there's a gap there. You're not missing a cigarette, you're replacing it with something better for your health.

 

Also, don't EVER reward yourself with "just one" cigarette after meeting some milestone. If you've gone a week or a month or a year without a smoke, then all having one "celebration" or "reward" cigarette will do is to reawaken the dormant addiction.

 

The physical withdrawal passes after 72 hours / 3 days. The rest is just retraining your mind to remind yourself you're a nonsmoker.

 

 

The above is based on personal experience and also work I did with the American Cancer Society years ago.

 

http://www.cancer.org/healthy/stayawayfromtobacco/guidetoquittingsmoking/index?sitearea

[tar]

iNow,

 

Another week of not smoking, for me.

 

Your delaying tactics are good. Sleep is also a good self defense.

 

My central plan at this point though is to learn to live without nicotine. That is, find the dopamine releases in all the ways that dopamine is released. Cigarettes are a sure and simple, known to work, direct and fast route to dopamine release. Probably similar in chemical ways to many addictions. But drug addiction is expensive and in most cases has a lot of downsides. On the other hand, feeling good, as in having dopamine released, or whatever chemicals are involved in feeling good, can happen, and does happen quite naturally and freely in a myriad of ways.

 

I am talking about winning a game, completing a chore, looking at something beautiful, feeling a warm breeze, snuggling under a blanket, getting or giving a hug, straightening a crooked picture...all the simple and sure ways to actually get to the same "brain state" that a cigarette would offer. In this regard, a "list" of a hundred ways to feel good, would probably be helpful for anyone in my position,( that of having quit smoking,) to put together for oneself.

 

That, along with Spyman's suggestion to stay completely away from nicotine in any form, and Phi's suggestion to put smoking in the "not an option" category, and your delaying tactics, should a crave arise anyway, should put me in good shape to continue to "not smoke" and learn to live without nicotine, in a rather sustainable and therefore permanent manner.

 

Most important for me, at this point, right at my "record" of not smoking, is to not even consider a "reward" or victory smoke. Just not an option. Done with that. Need to find all the other ways of feeling good. That way is NOT AN OPTION.

 

Regards, TAR

[random]

I succeeded with a NICOTINE FREE electronic cigarette. Be careful what you buy because many have nicotine in them. It was very realistic in size and appearance and produced an abundant cloud of smoke, I found if you were distracted say sitting at the computer you totally forgot it was a fake smoke.

 

You have to get used to the lighter flavour and your brain is going to say it's no good because it's not getting a nicotine rush but it's easier than nothing.

 

I think it's the least painful method you can puff and puff and puff and the whole time your body is getting used to not having nicotine.

 

As has been mentioned what works for one may not work for the other. The chemical that produces the vapour is the same as what is used in a rock concert smoke machine, It is GRS but still probably not the best thing to inhale directly (but safer and better than cigarette smoke. )

 

I used a brand called E-ZEE Cig and a pkg of 3 disposable cartridges (6 pack equivalent) was 8 dollars. I don't know if you can buy online or just at retail stores.

[tar]

Random,

 

Sounds good. Like you say, what ever works for you is the way to do it. It does not have to be as anyone else would do it.

 

One of my thoughts runs counter to your method though. Feeling good, the natural ways is quite free and under ones own control. This seems more sustainable and worthwhile an avenue to pursue, than ANY substitute that cost money and is provided to you by someone who is interested in making money off your "use" of their product.

 

Learned a saying when I was young, having to do with drug dealers..."the first is free, the rest you pay".

I don't want to have to pay anyone to feel good, when there are so many ways to get to that point without paying a dealer.

 

Not that I have much of an argument, since many of the businesses in the country are designed to help people enjoy life in one way on another...what with amusement parks and movie houses, and restarants, and bars, and sports areana and all, but on a base level, paying someone regulary so that you will feel continually "right" according to their product or service, makes you dependent on that person or outfit, and I don't think dependency is a state that one should seek, in general. Easy for me to say now, after 47 years of smoking...don't know exactly how I rationized that MAJOR dependency, but addiction is a powerful thing. Makes people do, not so wise, stuff.

 

So, while I agree that one should quit using whatever method works, I am thinking now, that an important component of staying quit, is the recognition that you have freed yourself of an addiction and in that have won a substantial victory, which by itself can make you feel good. And to keep an eye out, against replacing smokes with too much food, or gambling, or dangerous or expensive ways of getting that dopamine, is an important side issue to stay aware of.

 

Regards, TAR

Edited May 27, 2014 by tar

[Sophia Lee]

Reffering to your "Gradual reduction is possible by switching over to a different brand of cigarette which has less nicotine. Then the number of cigarettes can be reduced. Another method of nicotine tapering is by sticking to the same brand and reducing the number of cigarettes smoked per day."

 

Initially your suggestion may work but once the person is habitual and is having more than 20 cigarettes per day then this gradual reduction is not possible. Either by reducing number of cigarettes smoked per day or by using a different brand. Also people even tried using different brand to stop smoking gradually but this does not work out, you need to either strictly not to have any cigarettes or you cannot leave this habit.

[tar]

Well,

 

At my record amount of time "not smoking". Think I did this once before. Several other attempts were about a month long.

 

But this time, is different. It is not a challenge to see how long I can go, without smoking. It is a challenge to see how to live without smoking at all.

 

It has been the toughest, just recently, some mental problems, some physical problems, a few outbursts at work, a few repremands in the speculation section and so on, that make one consider going to that sure and easy nicotine high, to feel good, to feel right.

 

But, I do believe I have stumbled upon the right formula, for quiting, and staying quit.

 

Nicotine tapering for a week, to prove to yourself that you can live without nicotine for an hour, or for 8 hours, or 12 hours, without anything bad happening. And then "replacement" of the dopamine rewards that nicotine provides, with the natural dopamine rewards that everything else about life provides. Working on the "list" of things that makes one feel good.

 

And of course, when put to the test, remembering that I have already determined and decided and promised and put into effect, the fact that nicotine, is just not an option. For my health, and so that I might be around for my loved ones, that added time, I just gave myself, by saying no to nicotine.

 

I certainly have not said no to dopamine. That is a good thing. But available for free. With no strings attached.

 

Regards, TAR

[Spyman]

At my record amount of time "not smoking".

Congratulations!

[tar]

Spyman,

 

Still not smoking, 9 weeks now. But would like to, in an effort to "keep it real" report an other bout of the "mourning the loss", you were talking about. Over the last week, I have on occasion entertained the thought, or lived with the realization, that I will never be able to enjoy a cigarette again. Loss, in the sense of "if your house got washed away in a flood" you could never go into your favorite room, and sit in your favorite chair again, because its gone. What makes quitting difficult for me, is overcoming this obsticle. Not because I can not handle the loss, but because I am the one that has instituted the loss. I had the wrecker destroy my favorite place...so to speak. And they really didn't destroy it, they just changed the street signs so I could not get to the house without going the wrong way on a one way street. If I wanted to, I could still get to my favorite room, and nobody would stop me.

 

I mention this, not to discourage anyone, but to reenforce what you said before, about expecting some continuing battles on certain levels at certain times. And to remind myself, and anybody else that might be in the same boat, that one way street signs are only signs and can be ignored if you want to. But the signs are there for a reason, and one should not disobey them. Could cause an accident, or a death.

 

Regards, TAR

[iNow]

You're now a nonsmoker. It's true! The trick is to remain a nonsmoker and don't make a stupid choice in a moment of weakness that you'll later regret. The hard part is done. It's behind you. You're a nonsmoker now. That's your future, and your present.

[tar]

Thanks iNow,

 

Think I'll go with that.

 

I've tapered off in a week and not entertained any moments of weakness since.

 

Guess I really don't need to report every week, as the quitting is already done.

 

The modified tapering method I used is 100% effective (with a little help from my friends.)

 

Thanks everybody.

 

And if anybody here is trying to quit, or would like to try and quit. Just don't smoke any more. It won't kill you, to stop.

 

Practice living without nicotine for a few hours here and there, and before you know it, you will be able to just not light one up...and it will be OK. I promise. (As long as you take Phi's advice and just stick it in the "not an option" category.)

 

Regards, TAR

 

Just say no to nicotine.

[barfbag]

This method worked for me twice from over a pack a day.

 

I told everyone I quit and then quit.

 

Then I started sneaking some. I'd drive out for lunch. Smoke with windows down on way home and took lots of "Halls" coughdrops and scope.

 

I was still determined to quit and my secret smoking was at least a lot less than my normal habit.

 

After a month or so of closet smoking which got me down to 4-5 cigarettes a day quitting became easier and I could spend the entire day with my family without sneaking off.

 

Quitting from there was easier, and I stopped smoking entirely within the following month.

 

It is deceptive and weird, but it worked awesome.

[tar]

barfbag,

 

I think it worked because you learned you could live without the nicotine.

 

One component, that I think is crucial, is that quiting is between you and you. What your friends think, or your family matters completely, but the actual quitting is between you and you. You have to know, that it is alright, not to smoke, that life will still be fine, without the automatic endorphine high that the nicotine will provide.

 

Its sort of like sideways delayed gratification. You get gratified by not allowing yourself to get gratified in the old easy way, and you find out you can get equally gratified or almost as equally gratified, by doing other less problematic things. And then you can easily ignore that "almost" part, because the difference between a nicotine induced release of endorphines and "all the other ways" induced release of endorphines is virtually indistinquishable.

 

As you found out when you didn't sneak out, and instead spent that half hour doing something enjoyable with your family...you "felt" just as good, if not better, than had you gone and smoked one behind the barn. And the "not having to sneak" anymore added some "good feeling" to replace any that the nicotine might have had to offer.

 

Besides, they knew you were sneaking off to smoke. They could smell it in your hair.

 

Before I started my week of tapering I had said to a woman that was usually on the same nicotine cycle as me at work, that I was thinking of stopping, and she said "yeah right". She said if I stopped, she would stop, as her young kids were always on her to stop. During the tapering week I would still go outside, on schedule, but would not smoke. Smoked one I borrowed from another pal around 4 the first day, and smoke on the way home. During the week the important part of the day was the morning. To not smoke that morning cigarette, and to experience life, without the nicotine. I had not yet disallowed the smoking, I would just see what it was like to do without it. I would smoke regularly once I smoked in any given day, but start the next day, not smoking. With no promises, no lies, no challenge, no disappointment, no victory or loss one way or the other. Just found when I bought my "last pack" on Friday, that the concept of it being my last pack was not disturbing. I smoked it and was done...except I found another pack in a jacket, and thought I would stop after I smoked that one up. I finished that pack around 7pm on a Sunday in Early April, and buying another pack is now just not on the agenda. If I bought another pack it would disappoint me, and my daughter and my wife (who still smokes) would not have me as an inspiration to quit, and all the people at work who are proud of me for quitting (including the woman with the kids) would not think as highly of me and "my strength", and I would not be able to report here every week, that the quitting can be successfully achieved...but those things are not reason enough to not smoke. People get disappointed in me all the time, for one reason or another, they would forgive and forget, should I start smoking again. The woman with the kids has not stopped, and I think she had planned to, on her son's birthday, which may have passed, but she is not responsible to me to stop or not. I put no pressure on her, except the pressure of seeing me come out the smoking door and go back in the front door, and not light up. More of an example than an admonishment.

 

She has stopped twice before, once with each pregnancy. She could and probably will stop again, when she wants to.

 

As for my reasons to not light up again, the big one, is I want to breath. Deeply and normally satisfyingly, by myself, for a very long time...until the end of my life. I was getting hints that my smoking might keep me from being able to do that, later on, and I did not like the prospect of sitting somewhere, dying, because I couldn't get enough oxygen into me, knowing that I inflicted the wound on myself, destroyed my own lungs, and could have NOT done such a thing, by simply not taking the nicotine route, to endorphine release.

 

So I look for the 100 other ways to get endorphine released, that a free and natural, cost very little and don't stink and mess up your lungs.

 

Sounds like a win, win.

 

Regards, TAR

Edited June 11, 2014 by tar

[barfbag]

@ Tar,

 

Nice story. The "letting people down" part I found key to my success. I also noticed I could push off morning cigarette until late afternoon but then needed to smoke after that one for rest of day, even if mildly.

 

I suppose my method would let you buy another pack and cheat. Driving was always a trigger and My job has me driving to various locals and land registries.

 

My kids were young last time I smoked. I used to take my son to McDonalds play centre and go outside of it where I could see him and the two exits and smoke at angle he could not see. None of my kids have ever seen me put a cigarette to my lips.

 

Good Luck with you.

 

If you do give in, do it privately and don't throw the towel. Just recognize it as a next stage. One or two cigarettes a day is much easier to quit from.

[Phi for All]

So I look for the 100 other ways to get endorphine released, that a free and natural, cost very little and don't stink and mess up your lungs.

 

#87 Download a free Live Wallpaper app for your smartphone. Search for one that involves something that will reduce stress, make you smile or reinforce what you want to do with your clean lungs. I've got one that shows a beach scene, with a small island near, and the waves are looped so they just come lapping at the shore over and over. I can take a quick few seconds out of my day and imagine the wind in my hair, sand between my toes, swimming out to the island and being lightly winded instead of yarking up a lung.

[tar]

Phi,

 

Nice.

 

Your suggestion made me feel good twice. Once, as I remembered a family trip to the Yucatan, and once as I laughed internally at the fact that I don't have a smartphone. (at work, I enjoy taking out my stone age apparatus and pretending to pass it to someone next to me, asking them to show me how to put the business app being presented on the thing).

 

Barfbag,

 

I think that having to smoke regularly, once you smoke later in the day, is an important thing for the "cheater" to remember. Knowing that that will probably happen, once you get your nicotine level back up to post cigarette levels is a good reason not to smoke the cigarette. I found that knowledge was my best friend. That knowledge of my nicotine level being low, reducing the pull or draw of the nicotine in the first place, to the level that you could laugh at, and ignore...and everything would be fine.

 

When you cheated, you had to refight the strong pull situation immediately afterward, as your body was asking to maintain the level (causing a reach and a lightup and an inhale, quite outside your desired condition of being a non-smoker). To this aspect, I would have to agree with your "don't throw in the towel" aspect. Regardless of who knows you cheated or not, the next morning you will be in perfect condition, at a low level of nicotine to go without it, again.

 

If there is anything I am trying to suggest, with my method, it is to give yourself some time to be both a smoker and a non-smoker, so you can notice the almost indistinquishable difference between nicotine induced release of endorphines, and the "imagine sitting on the beach" induced release of endorphines. Once in this position for a week or a month, allowing yourself to experience life at low levels of nicotine, and at high levels of nicotine, not smoking is just as nice a condition to be in as smoking, and then you can easily make the choice to exist in the non-smoking mode, by just not buying another pack, or "borrowing" one from a friend. Then, once in this mode, engage Phi's "not an option" mindset, to avoid getting yourself back into a high nicotine level situation.

 

Was at the pharmacy yesterday looking at the "smoking cessasion" area, right near the waiting area.

Nicotine Patches, Nicotine Gum, Nicotine lozengers, and trial doses in this and that form.

Really?

And what I'm thinking is to just cut out the middleman, and work your way directly toward nicotine cessation. If you quit nicotine, smoking makes no sense anyway. So don't think you are going half way by switching to a different way of getting nicotine. You have not gotten away from nicotine at all. Just found a less smelly way to get it. And you are still paying for the habit.

 

Quit the habit. Give yourself that first hour in the morning nicotine free, to see where you stand, with nicotine. The rest is betweeen you, and you.

 

Regards, TAR

[barfbag]

@ Tar,

 

You make excellent suggestions and explain your reasoning well.

 

I think of my method as an end game to a quitter that is giving in to temptation.

 

Use any method you want to quit, but if you do cheat start my method. Many people once they cheat will chainsmoke a half a pack and then give up on quitting. How many people try to quit many times before they really do? The main thing is to cheat in private and then try to quit again and keep up the ruse you have quit.

 

The first time I tried uisng my method I was quitting smoking normally and when I cheated I just new I had to keep going. I suppose I could easily tell people, but then smoking in front of them would be okay and I didn't want that.

 

Years later I smoked again for 5 years. That time when I quit I closet smoked right from the start.

 

It removes the pressure of going without. You know you will have a cigarette, just not until you are alone.

 

My "technique" is basically not giving up on your dream/goal, and not burning bridges if you do cheat. It certainly cuts down on your smoking, and then quitting for real is easier.

[tar]

Barfbag,

 

I understand the value of quitting anyway that works. And I think your method is good, and I understand the workable aspects of the plan.

 

But, and its a bif but, nicotine is insidious. It is easy to underestimate its draw, because it is so powerful and simple a way to "feel good" to feel right. It sings its siren song to us former smokers, and it is important, I think, to not pretend either that you don't want a cigarette, or that you can have a cigarette and then not want another one.

 

In this, Phi's method is bottom line, the best method, to stay a non-smoker. Make smoking not an option.

 

My additional suggestion to Phi's answer is to extend the ban to nicotine itself, as it is the nicotine that is the drug you are craving, at first, and yearning for at second, and missing at third. If you do not remain alert and onguard against the insidious nature of the nicotine, you are likely to collapse to some form of rationalization, that will allow you to yield to the temptation, and thusly make it more possible to yield, again and again, until you are chain smoking, like you said.

 

On the other hand, if your goal is to find natural ways to get endorphines to pleasure your brain, you can just cut nicotine, right out of the equation and just put it on the bad list, of those things you should not do for obvious reasons.

 

If you look at the list of addictive substances, nicotine is right up there, near the top. If you are among the 9 out of 10 people that would want to have nicotine again, after having it once, which you have a 9 out of 10 chance of being, then its best to not have the nicotine in the first place, because you are going to want a repeat performance. Saying "its alright to cheat" plays right into nicotine's hands. It actually is not a very good idea, if being free of nicotine, is your goal. It hurts four ways. It hurts the people you love twice, once because of the deception, and twice, because of the you, you are taking from them in terms of shortening your life and squandering your income. And it hurts you twice, once because you are not being honest with yourself, and twice because you are not taking care of yourself.

 

I stay away from pain killers and only have had them by perscription and the few times I have had them, I have not finished the bottle, and only take them, if I can not bear the pain.

 

I have never had heroin and never will, because I know from what I have been told that it is easy to get "hooked" on it, so I DONT DO IT.

 

I was a big drinker in my youth, and in the Army, and gave it up in Germany, with all that good beer around, after blacking out a few times, considering the expense, the brain cells that I was killing and the possibilty of accident and loss of license, and the fact that I was going for a promotion, and I should be a role model for my subordinates, which being a drinker would not make me.

I had wine at my wedding, a farewell drink at a dinner in Japan, and a half a Yeagermeister at conference once, but have put alchohol in the "do not indulge" category.

 

If you look at the list of addictive subtances you will find a few on there that are socially acceptable, like smoking and drinking, but most are really insidious nightmares, that take money, and mind and sense and freedom away from a person. Most leave people messed up mentally, broke, lonely and in poor health physically.

 

So sure, anything you can handle, that the people around you can handle, that makes you feel good, makes you feel right, is acceptable. But the stuff, where there is reason to say no, there is reason to say no.

 

The fact that the stuff itself is telling you to say yes, is even MORE of a reason to say no to it.

 

I doubt my method would work for people addicted to oxycodine or crack cocaine or meth...but hypothethically it might. Its a given that you are going to want to take the stuff, but what if, that first hour on Saturday morning, you put the stuff right within your reach and when your body and mind say to reach for it, you say 'dont reach for it" . If its in your hand, you say "put it down". if its in your mouth, spit it out, put it in the ashtray or in a paper towel and let it burn, let it waste, let it not get in you. For an hour, and notice you don't die, you don't fall apart, nothing bad happens at all, you just don't get the euphoria the drug will give you. But what you do get is an exact understanding of what your relationship with the drug is, and the rest is between you and you.

 

Regards, TAR

Never had cocaine or meth or crack or heroine or the powerful pain killers that so many of our youth have gotten addicted to, and switched to the less expensive heroin, but I am really really concerned about the epidemic of meth in W.VA. and the recent epidemic of heroin among the youth of suburban NJ.

 

The W.VA thing has broken a family very close to me. The NJ thing might affect my friends and neighbors, workmates and schools, and maybe someone in my family. Addiction is an obvious potential problem for people.

 

Probably best to solve the thing from the inside out, not the outside in. The illegality of the stuff is only because its so dangerous, not because the people that get hooked are bad.

 

My theory here, is that it is better to help a person find the strength to put the stuff down, than to tell a person they shouldn't do the thing. Its obvious that the decision to say no to the gratification, is up to the person that is going to go without the gratification. The taker is the only person in the world that can say "don't reach for it", "don't put it in your mouth", "don't light it", "don't inhale", "put it in the ashtray, and let it burn".

And so what if you have a few shakes and shudders and your body and mind tell you you have to have the stuff. You really don't have to have it. You can live without it, you can feel good without it. Just give yourself a chance to find out what its like to live without the stuff. Things that taste good still will taste good, things that look beautiful will still look beautiful, things that smell good will still smell good, stuff the feels good against your skin, will still feel good against your skin. Completing stuff, winning stuff, straightening stuff, fixing stuff, solving stuff, will still all feel good and right to do. Hugs and kisses will still be sweet and enjoyable.

 

I promise.

[barfbag]

@Tar,

 

Just wanted to comment on painkillers. People should not fear pills. A person taking blood pressure pills is smarter than someone damaging themselves for pride.

 

Small daily doses of aspirin have been proven to lower risk of Heart Attack and Cancer.

 

Your lifestyle choices seem very responsible, but medicine should be rejoiced not feared. 100 years ago a mans life expectancy was 52 years of age on average. Medicine and health education have added over 20 years to that number.

 

Anyways... Just wanted to comment on the painkiller comment.

 

My overall "method" is a total "Cannot Smoke at all in front of people you know". I suppose it would be less effective if you live alone, etc., but it helped me. It is basically a just because you cheated does not mean its over thing. Battle lost, war won.

 

Cheers

[tar]

barfbag,

 

You are right. People should not fear pills. But my "pride" in not currently being on any medication, does not mean I am not proud, as well, of medical science and our advances in fights against disease and injury.

 

My knees are shot, bone against bone, and I am watching with great interest the advances in ways to get material between the bone that will lubricate and substitute for the cartilidge that was once there. Just can't bear the thought though of having my knee cut off and plastic and metal put in its place. Just can't imagine how all the nerves that worked before, would work after. How will your brain know the position and pressure of everything if the sensors are cut out? Plus I hate pain. Plus I have "faith" in one's body's ability to grow and heal and sense and move. Seems somewhat huberous filled to think a replacement, human designed knee, would be "better", than the one that allowed me to run like the wind when I was 18.

 

I am not ignoring the value of nicotine patches, or methadone, as patches are better than smoking, and methadone seems to be less insidious than heroine. And there is no doubt that unbearable pain is unbearable and pain killers are a blessing and a wonderful gift of science and our knowledge of brain chemistry. I take them when required. My only comment was, I do not finish the bottle. I do not take them, if I can bear the pain.

 

Friend of mine at work had a heart attack many years back. Is on many drugs. Drugs that conteract the effects of the other drugs...and so on. Things he can't eat, things he can't drink, unintended consequences of the mixture of this or that, at inappropriate levels.

 

I am not saying medical science is not wonderful. I just like to not put complete faith in it, and retain some faith in the original equipment we came with. A balance is good. We should not be either completely dependent, nor completely independent on/of each other. We can make mistakes, individually or in groups, and we have tremendously good judgement, individually and in groups.

 

Perhaps its a philosophy, as well as a method, that I am proposing here.

 

Trust each other, trust capability and trustworthiness wherever it is evident, but trust your own judgment as well. And if someone is taking advantage of you, as in a drug dealer, you should allow yourself to step back from a destructive, dependency based relationship with the guy/gal. Don't let draw of the euphoria, take you, where you don't want to go.

 

And never think that someone else, knows better than you, what is good for you...unless you trust them. And its good to NOT trust drug dealers in general, as they do not primarily have your best interests in mind. They just want to sell you chemical happiness, and control you, through your desire for pleasure.

 

My "tapering" method, at its base, is a method to allow yourself the time to see that you can get the dopamine for free, of your own accord, and need not be dependent on any supplier.

 

I now do not have to "make sure" I have a pack of cigarettes within reach. I don't have to think about when I am going to "run out" and when I am going to go to the store and replenish my supply. I do not have a pack in my sock drawer, and another on the top shelf of my closet, and one in a jacket pocket in the hall closet, and three in my car, and one in my pocket and one in my smoking room.

 

I have one cigarette, a "spare", sitting on an entertainment shelf, next to a speaker, behind a little bucket of odd stuff. It has been there for a few years, as a stale old spare, should I ever have been desparate. I can actually see it from here.

 

Smoking it, is not an option. And I am proud that it can sit there, in plain view, and I could go an light it up, but I have judged that that would not be a good thing to do, and it is better, much better that it just sits there, because then I win.

 

Regards, TAR

[barfbag]

Deleted. Off topic post.

Edited June 20, 2014 by barfbag

[hypervalent_iodine]

!

Moderator Note

Just a reminder for everyone to please try and stick to the topic.

[tar]

Dear Nicotine,

 

We have had a good run, You have been there to provide completion when I sensed no end, you calmed, you satisfied, you moderated, you pleasured me in that general way you do. I want to still be with you from time to time, I touch my pocket, when my mind gets going on a subject, to check for you, to get that "interim" satisfaction, that you give.

 

But, you are no good for me. You cost too much. You stink. You hurt my lungs. You mask and mimick real joy, real pleasure, real completion, real victory.

 

I don't want to see you anymore. Its over. I have moved on.

 

Love Tom

[tar]

All and anyone,

 

Still not smoking. Seems I have quit the habit for good. Just drove 1500 miles with my wife (who smoked at rest areas from time to time.) Used to smoke quite a bit while I drove. Did not need it, or miss it. It is just not an option. And there really are a whole lot of other ways to feel good.

 

For anybody that has just quit, hang in there, it does get easier, and you don't fret about it as much as time goes by. I have learned to live without the nicotine, and everything is fine. Consider from time to time, how easy it would be to light up and enjoy a cigarette, but...it is just not an option anymore.

 

Regards, TAR

 

And anyone that does smoke, and would like to not...try not smoking for an hour on Saturday morn. Learn what it is like to NOT be high on nicotine...its really something like being high on nicotine...without the costs.

[tar]

Thread,

 

Passed the young woman today, who said she would stop if I did.

 

She told me she was 5 days into NOT smoking.

 

I congratulated her, and welcomed warmly her decision. We will see each other, I am sure, outside, just NOT smoke, now.

 

Regards, TAR