Just quit smoking... • Non-Gaming • Social • Eurogamer.net

ShogunAssassin 4 Dec 2007 20:01:26 471 posts
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...and it´s killing me. I get easily aggravated and extremely irritable. I alos get slightly depressed. Now I don´t have a way to cope with stress anymore... It´s ok when there's nothing bothering me, but as soon as something comes up, I feel the craving instantly.... Fuck it, I´m bitching now...

Anybody here been or are in the same boat? Surely some of you guys must´ve tried to quit at one point or the other...

Deleted user 4 December 2007 20:02:55

Yeah I know exactly how you feel. Can't help you with any advice on how to get through it though.

/goes off for a smoke

MetalDog 4 Dec 2007 20:03:13 24,076 posts
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I quit for a month once. After I came within a hair-width of sticking an axe in someone's skull, I started again, for the good of humanity.

Deleted user 4 December 2007 20:09:54

Think of how shit your insides must look because of all the poison you're giving it.

EDIT: That or get yourself addicted to something else. Like cleaning, or going to gym or pornography.

ShogunAssassin 4 Dec 2007 20:10:23 471 posts
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MetalDog wrote:
I quit for a month once. After I came within a hair-width of sticking an axe in someone's skull, I started again, for the good of humanity.

Hehe... I feel that I might freak out on someone at some point... I´m on my first week now. So it doesn´t get any easier with time? Or quite the contrary?

MetalDog 4 Dec 2007 20:11:34 24,076 posts
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Varies from person to person. I was still demonically angry after a month, but it was a particularly shite section of life I was trying to give up in, maybe it'd be easier now.

elredeyegrande 4 Dec 2007 20:13:16 2,382 posts
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insert obligatory "I'd give up smoking if I knew I wouldn't become one of you" Bill hicks quote here

glo 4 Dec 2007 20:25:35 3,608 posts
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I have pretty much stopped after 20 years of smoking this year. I still have the occasional cigarette socially (about once every 2-4 weeks) but considering I smoked every day of my life my 18 to 38 I think I am doing well.

The initial anger and frustration does lessen over time. Try distracting yourself with something and the cravings do pass surprisingly quickly. They do recur very frequently for the first month or so I found though. I was absolutely furious with every one and every thing in the world for a large portion of the first few weeks. When the nicotine rage flares up try taking a deep breath and most of the time you will calm down.

If its any consolation I am finding it easier and easier as time goes on though I still have the occasional craving.

Jmek 4 Dec 2007 20:39:02 1,520 posts
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Best of luck man. I too have tried to give up over the years and each time my urge to kill has shot off the scale.

MetalDog 4 Dec 2007 20:43:02 24,076 posts
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Something tells me Narcissus needs a fag.

ShogunAssassin 4 Dec 2007 20:45:41 471 posts
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NarcissusRedux wrote:

ShogunAssassin wrote:
...and it´s killing me. I get easily aggravated and extremely irritable. I alos get slightly depressed. Now I don´t have a way to cope with stress anymore... It´s ok when there's nothing bothering me, but as soon as something comes up, I feel the craving instantly.... Fuck it, I´m bitching now...
Jesus, you were weak to take it up in the first place, now you're weak, whiney and neurotic in your attempts to quit.

Is retaining the ability to surmount a small flight of stairs important to you? Do you want to be diagnosed with lung cancer in your mid-40's which, even if swiftly treated, will give you a mere 14% chance of remaining alive for five years? Yep, despite all our wonderful medical science, 86% of lung cancer "victims" die within 60 months of their diagnosis.

And those aren't a pleasant bunch of months, bud. It'll be like your smoking years in reverse, but sped up, as your dying body desperately ejects entire mounds of tar through your trachea and out of your mouth. MmMm, delish...

You dashing, attractive figure with a fag hanging out of your mouth, you. Hard to believe people will one day see you in your sick-bed and mistake you for an AIDS patient. Uh-huh. Hard to believe that your friends and relatives will deep down hate you, and posthumously write you off as an idiot who destroyed his own body and died a pathetic, wretched death for no reason.

Or, alternatively, you could STFU and stay the course. Should you relapse, should you fall, then you will have proven yourself not only unworthy of life, but entirely deserving of horrible, foolish death.

I guess you´ve never been a smoker, so you can´t relate.

Yes, I know that it´s fucking unhealthy to smoke, why the hell do you think I´m trying to quit? The fact that it kills doesn´t make it any easier to quit. Nicotine is the most addictive "drug" in the world.

Oh, and by the way, fuck off, condescending prick.

Psychotext 4 Dec 2007 20:49:29 64,988 posts
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NarcissusRedux wrote:
Is retaining the ability to surmount a small flight of stairs important to you? Do you want to be diagnosed with lung cancer in your mid-40's which, even if swiftly treated, will give you a mere 14% chance of remaining alive for five years? Yep, despite all our wonderful medical science, 86% of lung cancer "victims" die within 60 months of their diagnosis.

I smoke, and I'd wager I'm fitter than you. Not all of us have trouble breathing you know... I can still cycle all day without stopping and while I haven't done any marathons in a while (dodgy knee) I doubt it would be an issue either. Oh, and bad news, you have a 1/3 chance of developing cancer if you smoke or not.

Good luck with your quitting though SA. Don't let dickheads like NarcissusRedux get to you.

ShogunAssassin 4 Dec 2007 20:54:53 471 posts
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Hehe, thanks man...

Red-Moose 4 Dec 2007 21:05:19 5,344 posts
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ShogunAssassin wrote:
...and it´s killing me. I get easily aggravated and extremely irritable. I alos get slightly depressed. Now I don´t have a way to cope with stress anymore... It´s ok when there's nothing bothering me, but as soon as something comes up, I feel the craving instantly.... Fuck it, I´m bitching now...

Anybody here been or are in the same boat? Surely some of you guys must´ve tried to quit at one point or the other...

Has it occurred to you that being aggravated, irritable or depressed can be signs of nicotine dependence?

urban 4 Dec 2007 21:12:20 13,072 posts
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ShogunAssassin wrote:
...and it´s killing me. I get easily aggravated and extremely irritable. I alos get slightly depressed. Now I don´t have a way to cope with stress anymore... It´s ok when there's nothing bothering me, but as soon as something comes up, I feel the craving instantly.... Fuck it, I´m bitching now...

Anybody here been or are in the same boat? Surely some of you guys must´ve tried to quit at one point or the other...

BOO!

ShogunAssassin 4 Dec 2007 21:15:29 471 posts
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Red Moose wrote:

ShogunAssassin wrote:
...and it´s killing me. I get easily aggravated and extremely irritable. I alos get slightly depressed. Now I don´t have a way to cope with stress anymore... It´s ok when there's nothing bothering me, but as soon as something comes up, I feel the craving instantly.... Fuck it, I´m bitching now...

Anybody here been or are in the same boat? Surely some of you guys must´ve tried to quit at one point or the other...

Has it occurred to you that being aggravated, irritable or depressed can be signs of nicotine dependence?

Well, yeah, that´s kinda the point... ahem...

TakeTheVeil 4 Dec 2007 21:17:05 5,057 posts
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my eyelid has been twitching a lot lately.. i should probably start smoking soon.. plus i'll look like a real mo-vie star

SirScratchalot 4 Dec 2007 21:18:00 7,918 posts
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ShogunAssassin wrote:
...and it´s killing me. I get easily aggravated and extremely irritable. I alos get slightly depressed. Now I don´t have a way to cope with stress anymore... It´s ok when there's nothing bothering me, but as soon as something comes up, I feel the craving instantly.... Fuck it, I´m bitching now...

Anybody here been or are in the same boat? Surely some of you guys must´ve tried to quit at one point or the other...

I live in Sweden so I could send you snus, much easier and nicer way to get your nicotin on... eh? eh?

BanjoMan 4 Dec 2007 21:25:47 13,692 posts
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I gave up just over two years ago. I've caved in on two occasions, but generally when you get past a few months it gets really easy. The first few weeks are a killer though - if you're determined enough you'll tough it out.

Use the patches, but cut them in half and don't wear them all the time.

Red-Moose 4 Dec 2007 21:39:09 5,344 posts
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ShogunAssassin wrote:

Well, yeah, that´s kinda the point... ahem...

Okay, but I was thinking that you don't get those things really, it's just a sign of nicotine peaks and troughs and withdrawals.

After you are off them a few weeks, you'll probably be a lot calmer. Nicotine = worsens stress.

Psychotext 4 Dec 2007 21:45:41 64,988 posts
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Red Moose wrote:
After you are off them a few weeks, you'll probably be a lot calmer. Nicotine = worsens stress.

Only if you can't smoke as much as you'd like.

CosmicFuzz 4 Dec 2007 21:48:04 32,585 posts
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Hehe no nicotine binds to haemoglobbin on your red blood cells, blocking the points where oxygen needs to bind. As a result your heart needs to beat faster to get the same amount of oxygen round your body as it would do if you weren't smoking at all

markypants 4 Dec 2007 21:53:14 2,842 posts
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Best decision you'll ever make.

I quite in March and immediately bought myself a £2500 piano. I pay off the piano with the money I would have spent on cigarettes (which amounts to about £50 a month... I've got a way to go yet).

I feel better for quitting. It was tough for a while, but then I knew it would be. I turned it into a competition with myself, a chance to stop doing something that I knew deep down inside was stupid.

Plus points (besides not smelling, tasting things again, feeling generally healthy) are that you have no where near the same terrible hangovers. I never realised how much my smoking gave me an even worse hangover.

Be warned though you DO become a smoking Nazi. I fucking hate the smell of other people smoking.

Psychotext 4 Dec 2007 22:27:36 64,988 posts
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markypants wrote:
Be warned though you DO become a smoking Nazi. I fucking hate the smell of other people smoking.

That's not actually true, I know plenty of ex smokers who aren't convicted ex smokers. =)

ShogunAssassin 4 Dec 2007 22:28:26 471 posts
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Yeah, focusing on the things I can buy for my money instead of smoking helps a bit... But I wasn´t sure about the effect it had on hangovers, thought it was just a myth... But I guess I´ll find out if a pattern emerges over the next few weekends...

edit: @ markypants

slinkiebinkie 4 Dec 2007 23:40:11 10 posts
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I gave up smoking nearly four years ago and it is the best thing I ever did. I had been smoking for nearly twenty years, although not heavily, and was starting to feel the effects and got scared. So I stopped and it was relatively easy because - and this is the only way to give up -I really really wanted to kick it . I had tried in the past but failed after varying lenghts of time because it felt like a sacrifice - like I was missing out on something that I needed and enjoyed. And telling yourself that you can never ever have a cig again in the pub or whatever seems impossible.

Its only later - after a few weeks of getting used to not having a cig with a drink or any of those other habitual smoking times that I realised that I didn't really like it - it was the nicotine's way of keeping me hooked and b) I certainly didn't need it - it doesn't make life any easier or problems any easier to deal with. It's just self delusion to enable you to carry on doing something because you think you want to and your life is somehow better with it. Its only difficult for a few weeks then you start to forget.

I am a smoking nazi now (and very pleased with myself about it too!) but I remember the mental trap that I was in and how the only way to get out is to want to.

Good Luck.

WrongShui 4 Dec 2007 23:46:43 6,781 posts
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I quit smoking cold turkey, what your feeling will last about a week.

Its the easy part, its breaking the routines that is hard.

Psychotext 5 Dec 2007 00:13:05 64,988 posts
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WrongShui wrote:
Its the easy part, its breaking the routines that is hard.

That's very true. I quit a few years back, and it was pretty damn easy for a while until one morning while gulping down my coffee I reached for my friends pack of smokes and lit up before I'd even realised what I was doing.

That was one overpowering nicotine / caffeine rush I can tell you! Still, it was encouraging to know that it's mostly to do with changing my routines on a longer term basis if I want to do it again.

[Edit - that's not saying it's easy for anyone, obviously it's not. It's just that when I'm busy I can go a day without smoking and not realise... when I'm bored or distracted I generally smoke like a trooper]