xvaper....

I admire your persistence and willpower.  I am using 6-7 lozenges a day once again, after 9 weeks of being lozenge free.  I just have a lot of changes going on in my life, and sucking on the lozenges is my way of coping.  My bipolar disorder has been active, and if I don't suck on lozenges I find that I snack and gain weight, and that stresses me out.

I have talked about my situation ad nauseum.  I want to look forward to quitting the lozenges again, but this time, like you did... For good.  Cold turkey.  No cutting down... Just nip it in the bud.  If I managed 9 weeks, I should be able to do the real quit.  Oh, the pain of relapse... Which is why sometimes I think I should just have a  supply of the lozenges and use them only in desperate situations.

I am worried about weight gain and I am worried about my mental health amidst the changes both in my professional life and my personal life.  If either one of these gets out of hand, I am afraid I will be headed towards difficulty.  But God provides!

I pray the rosary almost daily.  I also pray to various saints for help with my mental condition, and my work and my personal life.  I just may find a new saint to pray to about quitting the lozenges!  It gives me hope to think I can do it!  It gives me great hope and comfort to hop on this forum and read both words of encouragement and similar struggles others are going through!

If we encourage one another it gives us the drive to quit or at least cut down or to try again!  I, for one, am feeling once again hopeful!  I start my new job tomorrow.  I am excited!  I will keep you all posted on my plan of resolve to quit!  I want to ask for advice, but know that it all just starts with... Me and me changing the way I think.  Good night all.

Hi Jerthie,

Sorry for the delay in replying.

I have struggled with depression my whole life and thankfully now there are medications for that, and I have found the best combination with my Psychiatrist. But as you know it's not always smooth sailing. I will tell you what though, I know now that nicotine had zero positive effect on my depression, in fact it makes it worse. It's a myth that we believe because our junkie brains tell us so, and because society validates it. If your none-smoking friend would experience a loss, or trauma, would you offer them a cigarette because it would help them to cope?

Nicotine does nothing except replenish the previous nicotine hit that your brain is starting to run out of. I stopped smoking right after I had a rough patch during the covid lockdown, as many people have experienced. I was smoking through he whole thing and it did not stop the fall, nor pulled me out of it. There are none smokers who also suffer from depression and other mental issues who do not smoke and they are no worse for it.

I am not a religious person but I am not discarding your believe. However, I think praying for a change to come is not necessary in this case because the power is within you. You can do this if you want to. We will always be addicted to Nicotine, and though time will lessen it considerably, even after a long time there still may be occasional triggers, but it is nothing but a conditioned reaction. As long as we never take another puff, there is no danger of relapse. If you have a trigger, you just wait until the feeling is over, whether it take 5, 10, 20 minutes or an hour, but what is one hour compared to your health? We don't always get what we want in life, I want to eat cream cakes all day long, but I don't because it is not healthy for me.

Like all the rest of its health effects, nicotine addiction is detrimental to mental health. It has the added stress of being  a slave to a substance that makes you jittery and lethargic at the same time, quickens your heart pace, hardens the plaque in your arteries and stiffens them. 

My mood and energy have increased since I stopped smoking and I have gained a lot from it. I recommend it whole heartedly.

Hope this helps in some way.

Xvaper....

I am responding to one of your messages from another thread I can no longer find!  In it you spoke of using will power more so than prayer to help me quit the lozenges.  I do agree with you.  It's just that I am low in will power... Perhaps one might say I am praying for willpower lol.  My problem lies in not believing that I can quit, and in not wanting to quit completely, but rather, cut down.  I love the love and encouragement on this forum, and as I am struggling emotionally with a lot of things, I turn to it for companionship more than anything else right now.  When I hop on here, I feel like I am in the midst of people who know the certain same feeling of pain that I feel.  I sound dramatic and romantically sorrowful, and yes part of me is.  And it is that part of me that seeks the comfort here.  I am coming into all types of newness in my life, and although I know that the newness is positive for my growth, I have been mourning the letting go of familiar and warm places... Places that I had built and lived in for many years... Places that at one time brought me not only JOY but IDENTITY.  I know I am becoming a new person... A better person... But I am not only sad, but nervous and scared of stepping into the unknown.  With two major changes in my life, I cannot bring myself to add the change of leaving lozenges behind as well!  So I will just keep trudging along with my 6 lozenges a day.  And continue to read and post here, not at the moment to proclaim that I have quit... But just for warmth and comfort during a difficult and challenging time.  The support here really helps me to get through my days!  Thank you!!

Hey xvaper, 

Celebrating ten amazing smoke free months! BIG CONGRATULATIONS TO YOU!  The celebrations will keep rolling in and what a terrific milestone! I'm so happy for you! 10 months is great! Plus a birthday celebration and then following up May is your one year celebration in June. You have a lot of reasons to celebrate and so much to be proud of! We're all proud of you too and I look forward to celebrating all of these wonderful moments with you. I hope you have a day as wonderful as you are and do something extra special for yourself. Have a great and fun weekend! 

"YOU ROCK!" 

Have a great day.  

Well done - you have built a solid foundation for your smoke free lifestyle.  I hope you are feeling the price of making it this far and now realize that this could be for life for you.  Breaking free that the smoking addiction is a HUGMUNGOUS ACHIEVEMENT!

I am so happy for you.  Its like regaining your freedom from the restrictive would of an addict.  You can walk past a smoke shop and not even blink.  You can  see other people smoking and feel sorry for them because your remember how that feels.  You have more pocket money than you've had in a long, long time.

I hope you celebrate on the inside because you have really done something great for you.  I just love celebrating  fellow quitters because it makes me feel proud of my own quit.

Well done - Three Cheers for you!!!      

Oh no I forgot to add your name to the thanks section :)

You have been a great influence. I still have dreams that I picked up smoking again, and even dreams where i only smoke when I want and don't become an addict again. It is quite scary to see how the subconscious addict brain is still trying to convince me that i could casually smoke ..Still, I came over a lot of hurdles to get to where I am, so I have no illusions, which is one reason why I have been strong! I know what would happen if I so much as take a drag.

An interesting things happened recently. Even though culturally smoking is welded into brain as something that bad boys and girls did, that my favorite musicians did, that  there is something inevitably cool about it, this has slightly changed. I recently saw a beautiful Close up B&W shot of Billy Eilish with a cigarette between her lips, and normally I would not have thought anything of it, but this time I thought, what a con. They conned us into this ridiculous act with their onslaught of social and cultural campaigns to sell us this highly addictive and dangerous drug. We were all conned. It also made me think of an interview with Lauren Bacall, when she described the suffering and death of her beloved husband Humphrey Bogart from throat cancer. Bogart was one of the actors to whom Lucky Strike sent endless packs of free cigarets, so they end up on the screen, which they did, and it lead to his tragic early demise.

You are so right.  When I watch the old movies or even old series, the amount of smoking is phenomenal.  Everybody has a cigarette in the mouth, the hand, the ashtray - it is everywhere, constantly.  It is no wonder so many people picked it up.  I notice it so much now that I can almost taste the cigarettes when I watch these programs.  I used to think smoking was something beautiful sophisticated women did and that it was a sexy turn on for the men.  I used to practice how I held the cigarette in my hand and how I held my hand, how I inhale and, most importantly, how I exhaled.  All to make the impressions I saw on the movie screens.   There were precious few programs and movies that didn't have constant smoking.  Certainly not enough. 

Speaking of dreams, I had a smoking dream just last week.  2 and half years later and I still have a smoking dream every once in awhile.  This time though, I did not panic when I woke up.  In fact, I barely noticed the smoking in the dream.  Maybe my dreams have finally caught on and are quitting smoking too.

Cheers to that.    

Its great to hear your experiences on the same subjects..and Yes it is ingrained. You can't these lines out of my physiological makeup:"

"Anybody Got A Match?" Lauren Baccal 'To have and have not'

"Time takes a cigarette, puts it in your mouth, You pull on your finger, then another finger, then your cigarette" - 'Bowie, You're not alone'

 And others...

I read that smoking was still prominent in streaming platforms as there were less restrictions than in broadcast & cable.  

Way back in the 60s, Winston sponsored The Flintstones. 

Xvaper

Huge congratulations on 10 months!  You are doing this, just keep moving forward.  You mention the dreams and yes, I have also had a lot of dreams in the last month.  Hoping they will pass soon