I'm sick and tired of my smoking addiction

[Carl-Richard]

You should try as many things as possible all at once. I'll name the things that worked for me when I quit weed (some of which have been mentioned already):

1. Smoke until you puke. It will recondition you from associating smoking with something good to something bad. That is essentially how naltrexone treatment works. The last time I smoked weed and got truly high, I got the mental equivalent of a panic attack, and every time I thought about weed again after that, I was only thinking about that horrible experience.

2. Replace the smoking with something else. I replaced weed-fuelled philosophizing with green tea-fuelled mindfulness meditation. And yes, the green tea was central

3. Your desire to change must be coupled with a concrete goal. I realized weed was interfering with my ability to meditate and achieve enlightenment.

4. Awareness alone is curative. Whether it comes to catching your cravings dead in their tracks, or being able to generally feel good, think clearly or be internally motivated, a daily meditation habit is essential. Your mind needs everything it can get of in terms of that meta-cognitive edge.

5. Usually a big life change comes with a big change in perspective and priorities. Consider having a psychedelic experience, or aim for something spectacular which requires your highest potential. For me, again, I had decided to dedicate myself to enlightenment.

[Hojo]

20 hours ago, Pavement said:

 

Maybe if you hold all the smoke you smoke in your lungs forever

[Raze]

Read the easy way to stop smoking by Allen Carr

Try learning meditation. For a free online meditation training try unified mindfulness.

Meditation has been shown to strengthen the part of the brain associated with willpower and quiet the part associated with impulsive urges over time.

It can also be used to directly handle urges.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_dawQLA-mA

https://www.shinzen.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/art_urges.pdf

[Michael569]

I think once a brain has become addicted to a substance, that tendency to fall back will be there throughout your whole life. I heard a quote in a movie once that sounded a bit harsh but realistic "once an addict, always an addict".  This means you may need to be on the lookout throughout your whole life now even if you quit. Same for any addiction out there. I don't believe the desire ever goes away 100%

That being said, millions of people have quit and so can you. Books have been written, and courses and seminars are out there. Work of people who dedicated their life to addictions is at your fingertips for free. 

Don't expect an easy fight. The curve of withdrawal is a sinusoid curve rather than an upward linear curve with the drops gradually diminishing and the gains gradually increasing in timeline. You may fail many more times before you succeed so be prepared for that. 

Right now you just have to find something else that gives you that satisfaction and pleasure, cut yourself of all external sources that will invoke the desire (idle socialisation with people who have bad influence on you etc.) - and read the shit out of relevant literature (look into work of Anna Lembke, Gabor Matte and Alan Carr). Having a sense of purpose and vision for life may give you the dopaminergic drive you need and crave with nicotine. 

You probably already know what you need to do. Chemical withdrawal is a hell but you can ride that wave and win but extreme commitment is needed. Maybe you should go sit into oncology clinic for respiratory diseases for a few hours and observe patients coughing out blood into tissues - Or find someone with lung cancer and talk to them about their journey to understand that is a potential outcome if you don't quit. 

maybe what you need right now is negative motivation by fear before you can motivate yourself with passion and love. 

[Carl-Richard]

On 25.8.2022 at 11:57 PM, Carl-Richard said:

You should try as many things as possible all at once. I'll name the things that worked for me when I quit weed (some of which have been mentioned already):

1. Smoke until you puke. It will recondition you from associating smoking with something good to something bad. That is essentially how naltrexone treatment works. The last time I smoked weed and got truly high, I got the mental equivalent of a panic attack, and every time I thought about weed again after that, I was only thinking about that horrible experience.

2. Replace the smoking with something else. I replaced weed-fuelled philosophizing with green tea-fuelled mindfulness meditation. And yes, the green tea was central

3. Your desire to change must be coupled with a concrete goal. I realized weed was interfering with my ability to meditate and achieve enlightenment.

4. Awareness alone is curative. Whether it comes to catching your cravings dead in their tracks, or being able to generally feel good, think clearly or be internally motivated, a daily meditation habit is essential. Your mind needs everything it can get of in terms of that meta-cognitive edge.

5. Usually a big life change comes with a big change in perspective and priorities. Consider having a psychedelic experience, or aim for something spectacular which requires your highest potential. For me, again, I had decided to dedicate myself to enlightenment.

6. A community, family or friends that supports and encourages your decision, whether it's carrot or stick. My mom gave me an ultimatum (quit or move out), and my online spiritual community was suddenly heavily anti-drugs. I managed to quit despite all my friends smoking regularly.

Edited August 30, 2022 by Carl-Richard

[Someone here]

Thanks to everyone who commented on this thread . I sincerely appreciate it . I'm making some progress. I'm about to hit three weeks smoke-free and I've never been more happy. 

Now all I want is to keep pushing myself through these first days/initial steps until I can overcome the withdrawal symptoms. 

Wish me luck ?. 

[Roy]

On 8/25/2022 at 2:57 PM, Carl-Richard said:

1. Smoke until you puke. It will recondition you from associating smoking with something good to something bad. That is essentially how naltrexone treatment works. The last time I smoked weed and got truly high, I got the mental equivalent of a panic attack, and every time I thought about weed again after that, I was only thinking about that horrible experience.

This is probably why I hate alcohol and really haven't been drunk since 2011. When I was 16ish I went to parties quite a bit and had a lot of bad hangovers, but the absolute worst one was from the time I tried to outdrink my dad. I think I had like 18 beers over 6 hours. The next day I was puking and dry heaving for the ENTIRE day. I couldn't even eat any food because it was just coming up again.

That experience I believe fully rewired my brain to associate alcohol = sickness.

[MarkKol]

Perhaps try ibogaine if all else fails 

[Carl-Richard]

21 hours ago, Roy said:

This is probably why I hate alcohol and really haven't been drunk since 2011. When I was 16ish I went to parties quite a bit and had a lot of bad hangovers, but the absolute worst one was from the time I tried to outdrink my dad. I think I had like 18 beers over 6 hours. The next day I was puking and dry heaving for the ENTIRE day. I couldn't even eat any food because it was just coming up again.

That experience I believe fully rewired my brain to associate alcohol = sickness.

Yes. It's incredible how changing the stimuli-reward dynamic for just one occasion can change your behavior forever. It's literally the case that the feel-good dopamine signal strengthens the neural pathways that lead up to that signal, while the feel-bad anti-dopamine signal makes you want to avoid whatever lead up to that signal. Naltrexone is an opioid receptor antagonist which effectively reduces dopamine signalling.

Edited August 31, 2022 by Carl-Richard

[Nilsi]

15 hours ago, Aleister Crowleyy said:

I'll do any drug whenever wherever. I am beyond death.

 

 

Edited September 1, 2022 by Nilsi

[Someone here]

I smoked again today .

Fuck this shit is more difficult than I thought .

I wish I never started smoking. 

[Carl-Richard]

1 hour ago, Someone here said:

I smoked again today .

Fuck this shit is more difficult than I thought .

I wish I never started smoking. 

What did you do to not smoke?

[Someone here]

Just now, Carl-Richard said:

What did you do to not smoke?

Absolutely nothing man ?

It's not so much stopping that's difficult. Believe it or not ,I can put down smoking cigarettes right now if i wanted to . It's the withdrawal I cannot bear. I've noticed I've become very short tempered and my overall anxiety increases when i don't have nicotine. I tried to quit for two weeks and those two weeks were full of stress .I could not sleep .I had no energy .and my mood was awful .

I regret that cursed fucking day when I put the first damn cigarette in my mouth .

I need help man .

 

[Carl-Richard]

9 minutes ago, Someone here said:

Absolutely nothing man ?

You gotta do sumthin

 

Edited September 1, 2022 by Carl-Richard

[Someone here]

@Carl-Richard ? or  ? 

It's my choice .

[Carl-Richard]

1 minute ago, Someone here said:

@Carl-Richard ? or  ? 

It's my choice .

Drink tea instead Become a monk.

[Someone here]

5 minutes ago, Carl-Richard said:

Drink tea instead Become a monk.

Lol 

Nobody told you that those first few sips of tea in the morning with some fine Marlboro Gold makes for a perfect combo? 

I usually smoke while drinking tea . They are wired together in my brain.  Afraid that I need to drop tea as well 

[Nilsi]

57 minutes ago, Carl-Richard said:

You gotta do sumthin

 

Banger

[MarkKol]

On 9/1/2022 at 7:10 PM, Carl-Richard said:

You gotta do sumthin

 

Omg he's Changing Flavors!

[Nilsi]

This was pretty informative, maybe youll get something out of it.