Thread: Quitting nicotine, wanting to want to ....

I read the thread on the E-cigs with interest. Sounds like a great thing that might work. I smoked Camels with no filters for 36 years. Quit those ten years ago. I've been smoking a pipe for over 20 years and still do on a too regular basis. I might smoke 15 to 20 bowls a day. At work when I'm actually tattooing I can't smoke so I dip Copenhagen snuff to take the edge off.

Seriously addicted to nicotine not to mention the habit and ritual that goes with it. The doc says I am pre emphysema and I don't doubt it. I don't inhale the pipe and I ride bicycles a lot. One of the main reasons I'd like to quit is to improve my performance on road and on the trail.

Anyhow, I remember when I was in AA years ago a mentor of mine told me that some guys, "want to want to, but they don't want to." He was referencing quitting drinking. That is where I am at with the tobacco. Smoking GL Pease Blackpoint in a Peterson as I type this.

I smoked heavily for 7 years and gave up numerous times, only to regress. It wasn't until my lungs started feeling sharp pains when inhaling that I decided to quit nearly 2 years ago.

I used nicotine gum for about 5 months and then just regular chewing gum to ween myself off the nicotine.

It feels great to no longer be a victim. I'm quite health concious now and spend far more time in the gym than ever before.

I have been using copenhagen for about 20 years. My wife quit smoking cold turkey when we had the kids and has not gone back.
I enjoy my copenhagen and would like to quit but think I don't want to.
They say nicotine is one of the hardest chemical to get off of. Between the mental and physical addiction I think the person has to want to quit.

Both of my parent smoked for 40-50 years and both succumbed to lung cancer this past spring. Even with nasal O2 on my dad wanted me to sneak a smoke to him when I took him out. I could not bring myself to do that.

I think it has allot to do with personality as well. Hopefully I will quit soon.
But it has to be when I really want to. For most people when that time comes it is too late.

Good luck with the struggle

Quitting smoking is the easiest thing in the world to do, I've done it a thousand times. Mark Twain

Jimmy, I just started the e-cig, its working, it satisfies, its not the same as quitting, but at least I am not getting all the crap in my lungs. Kind of like a methadone treatment for nicotine addicts. Shoot me a PM if you wish.

Specky, sorry to hear about your parents, that is what I am trying to avoid.

My father smoked from the age of 9 until the surgeon generals report came out in '68, he says he still gets the urge at times.

I too have gone through the tobacco progression. Started with cigs as a teen. Decided to quit cigs in college. To quit the cigs I took up dipping skoal. To quit the skoal I started cigars. To quit the cigars I took up smoking and collecting pipes. It has now been 5 years smoke free. I still have a lovely little pipe collection though!

Jimmy, I'm betting a lot of the AA stuff could be well-applied to the smoking. A key is knowing if you have the self control to limit yourself or not-- You may be able to simply cut back to a bowl a day (or every few days) and still enjoy a pipe now and then.

Of course by the time you smoke 15-20 bowls a day you are in a league all your own, and probably don't do it just for the enjoyment of the pipe. My hope for you is that it doesn't take emphysema, or needing to give up your bike, that finally makes you want to quit.

If it helps, when I found out you smoked 12+ a day a few months back it made me worry about you. You're a great guy-- you have wisdom and the kind of humility that makes the greatest leaders-- and I would hate to have you suffer for a vice. Maybe the key to wanting to quit is to start to replace the pipe with the things it could take from you-- start cutting back bowls in a day, and when you get a craving hop on your bike for the 30 minutes the pipe would normally take. Schedule the times--precisely-- when you will smoke. If you promise that you won't skip any and take them later, and stay true to the schedule you won't be able to regress and have more than you allow... eventually you can be biking 60-100 miles a day and smoking one bowl every Sunday morning or something... if you want to.

Jimmy, you are a fighter, and we need you around, bro! Have you tried those nicotine patches? You might say, well, that's just replacing one nicotine delivery system with another, but it can work!! You start with the "lots-o-nic" patch, then step down to the "medium-nic" and then "just-a-bit-o-nic" patch, and then you're ready for being officially patch free. Do you seriously think that anyone can do this using a pipe?! Just try it -- can't hurt, and even if it sucks, at least you can say you gave those stupid patches a try. Your friend, Jeff

It's no way to go, mate.

A guy I know recently quit, he used to smoke a lot, pretty much everything he did he did it smoking. A couple of weeks a go he quit, he was prescribed tablets that, I guess, are nicotine inhibitors (I think that's the word) effectively they stopped the body absorbing it, so even if he does lapse, he won't get anything from it.

It's worked for him, and he was one of those people who I thought were in for the long haul so to speak.

The things that stop me smoking regularly are emphysema and the fact that you actually gain VERY little, if anything, from smoking. You enjoy it a bit, but if you kicked the habit you wouldn't live a more miserable existence, it's costs money, it limits what you can do physically your whole life and then it kills you before you get a chance to kick back and relax in retirement. Where's the fun in that?

The e-cigs aren't quite the same, but they are the most helpful thing I have come across. They do make pipe tobacco flavored juice for them, though it's probably not nearly the same taste as you're used to with your pipes.
The smoke is a lot less dense than it would be with a pipe, and it's definitely a different feel. As a chewer, I find that even the high nicotine juice still isn't as much nicotine as I would like, but it helps. I have been able to cut down substantially on the amount that I dip. I do spend a lot of time "vaping" but, if I can get myself totally off the dip, then I can start cutting down to the lower nicotine juices.

Oh... don't rule out the other flavors... I ordered a bunch of menthol cartridges and juice because that's what I was used to smoking. Then I tried a few other flavors and was surprised to find that it was still satisfying as a smoke and tasted much much better.

I don't want to sound like I'm glowing about the e-cigs either. To summarize my experience: they are the closest thing to actually smoking that I have ever come across, but it's still not the same. You'll still have to really want to stop.

You're a great guy-- you have wisdom and the kind of humility that makes the greatest leaders-- and I would hate to have you suffer for a vice.

+1 on this,Jimmy. I love reading your posts and would love to meet you, as I feel you are a good guy with the best intentions.

BUT, make no mistake, if you don't QUIT, you'll meet an untimely and very uncomfortable end. I watched my father gurgle out his last days with COPD(emphysema) and it was heart-wrenching. He said he felt just like he was underwater. PLEASE give up smoking in all forms and extend your life on the back end.