Quitting a habit

[Jstpssng]

I watched my dad drink when I was younger and used to leave notes with his hidden liquor bottles asking him to quit. When I turned 20 years old I got drunk for the first time. I stayed drunk for many years. If I bought a 12 pack or 18 pack of beer I thought I had to drink them all. It was a problem I had. I finally quit cold turkey when my wife got pregnant with our son. I told her if he grows up to be an alcoholic he wouldn't learn it from watching me. I got back into church and reading the Bible more and God helped me quit and stay sober, it's been 7 years and 6 months since I've had a drink.

I went to church with a guy who drank, smoked and did drugs. He quit them all and said smoking was the hardest of the 3.

It's also the one which is least harmful to others. Would you prefer to see somebody driving down the road smoking a cigarette, lighting up a joint, or having a beer?
I hate cigarettes, yet believe that it's one's right to smoke them as long as they aren't blowing smoke in my face.

 

[Sigarms]

I watched my dad drink when I was younger and used to leave notes with his hidden liquor bottles asking him to quit. When I turned 20 years old I got drunk for the first time. I stayed drunk for many years. If I bought a 12 pack or 18 pack of beer I thought I had to drink them all. It was a problem I had. I finally quit cold turkey when my wife got pregnant with our son. I told her if he grows up to be an alcoholic he wouldn't learn it from watching me. I got back into church and reading the Bible more and God helped me quit and stay sober, it's been 7 years and 6 months since I've had a drink.

I went to church with a guy who drank, smoked and did drugs. He quit them all and said smoking was the hardest of the 3.

I was a friend of Bill W.

It was through the Bible and Jesus and the love of my parents (my mother in particular) that I was able to stop.

That said, what works for some doesn't always work for others. Everyone has to understand that (I'll never stop questioning the Big Book).

Always found it ironic that at meetings people drank coffee (caffine) and smoked cigarets (nicotine) non stop.

In general, one drug replaces another from my experience.

 

[Gem99ultra]

The experiences of most of the others all have pretty much one simple theme, and that's that it is extremely difficult to break the chewing, smoking, drinking habit. And it is true - I know.

Having an alcoholic Dad, I avoided liquor and beer like the plaque. But at age 5 Dad got me started on coffee. And by the time I was 13 (65 years ago), I was smoking cigarettes and cigars. I'v quit a couple of times, once while in the Armed Services and once while working in a fuel production facility. Once out of those environments though, I immediately picked the habit right back up.

Cost for me has not been a factor. I roll my own cigarettes which bring the cost down to around $9/carton. If I were paying $70/carton like my spouse, I'd have second considerations. Even so, cigarettes, i.e. smoking, isn't the worse habit. Coffee holds the crown. I'm on a 10-cup per day habit. Without coffee, my morning doesn't start. And once started, the coffee pot doesn't shut off until bed time. There's no craving like cigarettes, or lack of, create. Its headaches, nausea, shaky hands, and dizzy spells sometimes.

Coffee, although determined by some physicians is harmful, it is stated to be the opposite by others to not be harmful. Regardless, it does have a negative effect on me. I may die from smoking with lung cancer, or an asundry of other illnesses, but I will die with a cup of coffee at hand. I have, and can, quite smoking, but coffee? Not possible.

 

[PILOON]

I started smoking as a teen at 16.
I quit 5 years ago at 75.
I averaged a pack a day (25 per) always filters.

A routine scan suggested possible lung cancer.

One test is to insert a tube via a nostril to get a sample from my lung.
That procedure involves a lot of water and me gagging all the while.
Making it worst nobody had advised me that I could not drive as I was to be sedated so the MD proceeded anyway.
Let me tell you I know how it feels to drown!
Sheer terror!
Result was inconclusive.

So next they did a PET scan which involves an injection of a radioactive that will show any cancer cell.
Result, inconclusive.

So they next drill (literally) a hole and extract some lung tissue.
Makes you bleed like a stuck pig as you cough and spit blood.
Again inconclusive.

Last week, 3 years down the line (after the last scan) MD says my lung 'spots' have shrunk. Good news, also I breathe better now.
(They had me do scans every 6 months)
The lung specialist says he'll just double check next year and the hospital will advise for that date.

Fortunately I'm in Canada and covered by Medicare so my only costs have been parking fees. (and that is deductible as a medical expense)
I do need to use an inhaler however but that's not all that bad (plus under Medicare very affordable).

And you southern neighbors turned down Obamacare?

After all that I still crave a smoke every so often and chew lots of gum.

PS, hope my ranting deters a few smokers.

 

[kc5dlo]

Never used tobacco but I did drink a LOT of beer. Back in 2001 I decided I should cut back and only drink on the weekends. Made it thru the first week OK. Second week of not drinking went surprising well too. Friday evening came (part of the weekend) and i decided to see if I could skip it. Did the same thing Saturday and again on Sunday. I have not had any alcohol since. When people asked me about it, I made sure to tell them I was cutting back as i was afraid of failing. After about six months I admitted to myself and others that I had quit. For many years I would wonder what it would take to get me drinking beer again. That finally went away also. After beer, I really started drinking way too much soda. Kicked that habit about 10 years ago. Took 4 months for the craving to go away. Currently I am working on my food addiction. Tough to do since you have to eat to survive. You cant just quit cold turkey. Diets to me are always temporary. Someone told me about intermittent fasting and for some reason I felt like it was something I could do. It is something that can be a permanent part of my life and is working well so far.

 

[Industrial Toys]

There is a very good book "Rational Recovery" that outlines a very effective (for some) method of dealing with addiction. Particularly if you are not, a follower, groupie, religiously minded (AA), don't like giving control over to others and like dealing with such matters on your own.

 

[CobyRupert]

There is a very good book "Rational Recovery" that outlines a very effective (for some) method of dealing with addiction. Particularly if you are not, a follower, groupie, religiously minded (AA), don't like giving control over to others and like dealing with such matters on your own.

People talk about going cold turkey, or using hypnosis, etc..or otherwise being able to train their brain ("reboot" it) from "addiction", to change their associations with the substance they're trying to quit.
Michael Pollen also has a new book out "How to Change Your Mind" which takes a scientific, research based, approach on effective drugs that "reboot" the brain, and are effective in stopping addiction, or treating trauma (PTSD, rape, etc..) but were abandoned in the 60's when their acceptance by the hippy counterculture made any valid research on them taboo.

I was once talking to a doctor friend about addiction. He said: "I don't believe in it. It's a made up word." That statement really stuck with me. I think it's true.

(Funny how if you make up a word, for a made up concept, or "condition", it somehow becomes a real "thing", but I digress. Consider how people are "addicted" to things that aren't even ingested: like gambling, or video games, or other behaviors. IMHO, it is totally a mental condition and very little to do with the cravings your body experiences.)

Sure, substance have an effect on your body, and your body has physiological cravings (for a while, until it adjusts as the levels in your body decrease), but are you saying your mind has no control?
B.S.!! I don't buy that. I believe in "free will" (or at least the illusion of it).


p.s. If I could only kick my sugar addiction. Now that stuff is really POISON!

 

[4570Man]

I started smoking as a teen at 16.
I quit 5 years ago at 75.
I averaged a pack a day (25 per) always filters.

A routine scan suggested possible lung cancer.

One test is to insert a tube via a nostril to get a sample from my lung.
That procedure involves a lot of water and me gagging all the while.
Making it worst nobody had advised me that I could not drive as I was to be sedated so the MD proceeded anyway.
Let me tell you I know how it feels to drown!
Sheer terror!
Result was inconclusive.

So next they did a PET scan which involves an injection of a radioactive that will show any cancer cell.
Result, inconclusive.

So they next drill (literally) a hole and extract some lung tissue.
Makes you bleed like a stuck pig as you cough and spit blood.
Again inconclusive.

Last week, 3 years down the line (after the last scan) MD says my lung 'spots' have shrunk. Good news, also I breathe better now.
(They had me do scans every 6 months)
The lung specialist says he'll just double check next year and the hospital will advise for that date.

Fortunately I'm in Canada and covered by Medicare so my only costs have been parking fees. (and that is deductible as a medical expense)
I do need to use an inhaler however but that's not all that bad (plus under Medicare very affordable).

And you southern neighbors turned down Obamacare?

After all that I still crave a smoke every so often and chew lots of gum.

PS, hope my ranting deters a few smokers.

A good argument against universal healthcare. The rest of us taxpayers shouldn’t foot the bill for your bad habits.

 

[Industrial Toys]

I see addiction mostly as trying to ESCAPE from reality. Why, because many people, I guess, don't like their reality, but no one likes to talk about that. So, best to focus on the addiction. The question is, why are people so damm unhappy?

One of the unfortunate things about alcohol is that you need more and more of the stuff to get high, and you can quit for years and go right back to that same same level of required booze!

 

[YanmarFever]

To make a long story short, same thing here. I felt like telling my girls never to smoke was a bit disingenuous when I had a cigarette in my hand...and I really couldn't be the man, the father and husband and Christian I wanted to be and still smoke. We had a prayer session, claimed victory and I haven't had a cigarette or any form of tobacco since 1982. I swore they would take me to the emergency room before I would ever smoke another cigarette, and it was the toughest three months of my life, but here we are today!

2 lane,
We did the same thing, after years of smoking, we prayed, obeyed, and God did the rest, I did not even have withdrawals, in fact I hated cigarette smoke after that, they made me sick.
However my wife still likes the smell of smoke, but she hasn't smoked either in years. That was back in Sept of 1977