Advice for Quitting Smoking as a gamer

One,op,is a realation you have free ac now with all the holes in your clothes and have to buy new ones to replace them,catch a ash tray on fire to sound a smoke detector. Reality hurts at times.

Thank you, I really appreciate it. Honestly I wouldn’t even know where to start and I hate bothering other people with my rl problems lol.

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Have you ever thought about psychedelic therapy?

https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/psychedelic-therapy

Some interesting research on the “re-tracing” of pathways for your neurotransmitters that are associated with the addiction behaviours.

Edit: A quote from the article -

" A 2016 study suggests psilocybin might also help people quit smoking. Researchers recruited 15 volunteers to receive both psilocybin and a cognitive-behavioral therapy-based quit-smoking program.

A year later, 67% had successfully quit smoking, and at 16 months, 16% remained non-smokers. These are significantly higher success rates than doctors typically see either with other medication or with therapy alone."

Edit 2: Note the small sample size in this particular study. This branch of therapy has a long way to go, yet looks extremely promising.

It’s a resilient habit that is difficult to beat. I did it multiple times with just will power, but eventually relapsed. I used patches when the willpower was in short supply, which made it easier and yet the temptation was always there.

Eventually I tried hypnotism as I was struggling with my health, willpower was in short supply and that actually worked. It wasn’t the “no cravings” outcome promised, but they were managable. One thing that did turn out as promised was that the smell of cigarette smoke was no longer a temptation, quite the contrary. I haven’t had a cigarette since then.

You mentioned mental health problems. I don’t know if you’re on any anti-depressants, but they can make you want to smoke. I was put on Effexor, a speedy type of anti-depressant as a treatment for the chronic fatigue I was suffering from. While they worked to an extent for that purpose, I fell off the non-smoking wagon very quickly and could never quit while I was taking them. I tried patches but still smoked a lot.

Eventually they stopped working as anti-depressants have a habit of doing, so I weened myself off them and had no trouble quitting once I was free from it.

This isn’t really the best advice.

Here’s a few good articles, if anyone wants to read:

https://www.mayoclinichealthsystem.org/hometown-health/speaking-of-health/a-doctors-warning-about-the-dangers-of-vaping

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The 1st point on an article you linked:

1: Vaping is less harmful than smoking, but it’s still not safe.

I’m not saying vaping is healthy. I’m saying it’s healthier than smoking.

My father has suffered substance abuse my whole life. I know first hand how hard it is. It’s a lesser of two evils and a step in the right direction.

You have to be 100% committed to quitting smoking. You can’t have any fail back options if you feel like you need a cigarette. If you do things like keeping a pack in a drawer in case you can’t quit, then you’re already going to fail at quitting. It’s not all mental, as nicotine is obviously addicting, but much of it is at the end of the day.

I was 100% committed because I was tired of waking up coughing up a lung every day for 20-30 minutes before I started to feel, “normal” again.

I made myself a mental checklist of the benefits of quitting smoking, got into that mindset and when I was 100% ready to commit to it, I quit smoking cold turkey.

I was fifteen when I started smoking back in 1993. I smoked all the way up until I was 39 back in November of 2017, so for almost 25 years. I was up to close to two packs a day. I would sometimes wake up in the middle of the night vomiting excessive phlegm because of how much I smoked.

It wasn’t just health ramifications that pushed me over the edge. At the time, I was putting myself further in the hole because of how expensive smoking was and is. The financial repercussions of smoking are horrific. Even smoking cigarettes from the reserve was still expensive.

My advice is that you have to be ready 100% mentally to quit. Have no fallback plans, no crutch, if you fail, then try different approaches. For me, quitting cold turkey was my only approach. I offered no crutches or fail safes. It was all or nothing for me and for four years and almost four months, I’ve been winning.

It’s okay I don’t mind, feel free to vent to me. I spend lots of time by myself, so I know how jarring it can be at first.
I mailed you my contact info ingame lol, feel free to reachout whenever.

Damn are you for real? I’ve been back on Effexor for the last year and 2 months roughly, I was diagnosed with BPD and OCD so even though I went back on it for depression following my separation, it also has helped a lot with mood stabilisation and intrusive thoughts. I’ve never really put two and two together that it’s always been harder for me to quit when I’ve been taking them (I’d been on them previously last time I was smoking long term too).

Unfortunately out of the 6-8 different meds I’ve tried these are the only ones who don’t make my mental health worse. Maybe I’ll try and talk to my GP about it.

Damn man, I’m really glad you were able to kick the habit. I’m sure you’re feeling a lot healthier and happier now, congrats on the 4+ years smoke free :slight_smile: You definitely do have to be 100% in the mindset to quit, because even the slightest amount of doubt you have in your head about quitting just leads to going out at 11pm at night to buy another pack.

Thank you! I’ll definitely be checking in with you soon :slight_smile: I really appreciate it

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I’d say exchange the cigarettes for a vape and then take the time you need to wean yourself off the nicotine. You can’t really vary your nicotine intake with cigarettes - a possibility with e-juice. The main problem with smoking cigarettes is not the addiction, as you probably realize, it’s the harm it does to your body. Addiction to nicotine is not really a big deal in and of itself, I’d say.

Find someone in the game that never shuts up

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I have developed a simple trick to avoid this problem you simply don’t smoke no matter what

I quit cold turkey about 20 years ago. Cutting back doesn’t help. Chewing gum helped, drinking a diet soda or a cup of coffee habitually at that point point you would usually go for a smoke helps. The nicotine gum made me sick. Avoid the places you normally would normally go to buy cigarettes even, for awhile. Quitting is a shock to the system but you can rise above it. Think of all the money you will save and how much better you will feel.

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I switched to vaping and things got worse because I could vape constantly and it messed up my lungs so finally went cold turkey.

Vaping was originally viewed as not as bad, but if you do it all the time, it can be bad.

I feel called out LOL

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Last time I mentioned smoking in the form of the W word, I got reported lol.

I have quit smoking several times over the years.

The things that worked best for me were:

  1. Stop smoking inside. This works wonderfully if it is cold outside. Makes enjoying that smoke less enjoyable. I recommend going out barefoot, even in the snow. Try to take as much pleasure out of it as possible.

  2. Stop doing things you associate with smoking. For me it was drinking. Glass in one hand and smoke in the other. Had to stop for about 2 years before I broke that association.

  3. Don’t let your wife take you to a fancy steakhouse and cigar bar to celebrate 6 months w/o smoking.

  4. Worse comes to worse, replace the addiction w/ a lesser one. Vaping, pretzel sticks, carrots, some even say exercise, but I don’t get that one.

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Don’t vape.

I also started again recently, but I’m vaping.

When I quit cold turkey last time the best thing I found was water, dum-dum lollies, and chewing gum.

I still have to get up at resturants and step outside for fresh air as that’s a tick I have from when I would smoke cigarettes.

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Quitting anything is basically just a personal decision to stop doing something, there isn’t really any good tricks for it. Don’t buy a pack of cigarettes when you run out, maybe switch to gum or hard candy for a while until you’re back off them.

If you drink, avoid it for a while because booze and cigarettes go together like peanut butter and ladies. That’s about it.

I’m aware but I’d still consider it safer than cigs.