Oddbean new post about login | logout Can someone please tell me the secret to quitting nicotine, no way it's willpower?? Is there like a special dance or??
Just stop buying it. Suffer for a week or two and be done
this is the hard truth
Zap me 100k sats every time you use a nicotine product.
Ok I quit
🤣
When I quit in my twenties it was by realizing I was paying the fuckers who were getting insanely wealthy while I was damaging myself .. don’t know if that’ll work for you, but it worked for me.
Hypnosis. I think there are some audio files here and there online. Or maybe hire a hypnotist. For me I got disgusted by cigarettes gradually and then all of the sudden. Might have been because I prefer MJ. 🌲 Idk. And I used to smoke a decent amount.
Edibles are also great to quit smoking all together.
Roll your own cigs Then start to sowly replace the tobacco with weed Then just roll joints Forget you ever smoked tobacco
I smoke both already heavily and it's getting bad
Allen Carr’s Easy Way to Quit Smoking Worked for my x gf
I smoked a pack a day for a decade until I read The Easy Way To Quit Smoking eleven years ago and have been nicotine free ever since. My wife read it 14 years ago and it worked for her too.
Put a dip in, preferably it pouches. Don’t spit. Swallow your saliva until you get sick and puke. Do this until you no longer crave nicotine. You’re welcome.
*not pouches
I've never had difficulty quitting but I come back to it every few years. I've taken up the 2mg on! pouches recently. Ive heard that the most effective method is hypnosis
not a secret but an option bet against a rival-fren that is also a smoker whiling to quit logic behind: the frienship/rivalry makes it particularly attachable to make it through the angle: it has a morbid tone, but it could be taken ironically or with a laugh the theory: as long as you get outta the habit doesn't matter if later the bet is paid or not
Are you eating a lot of fatty meat yet?
math out how many Sats you are wasting over a 12 month period
Honestly a good strategy
1 Corinthians 6:12 “All things are lawful for me, but not all things are helpful. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be dominated by anything.” Understand you are a sinner but God loves us so much that he sacrificed his only Son to pay for our sins. This Grace, Mercy and Love can break every chain!
Option 1) Suffer for a couple weeks and thank yourself years from now. Option 2) Punch yourself in the junk with brass knuckles every time you pick up a cigarette. Then schedule an appointment with @AtlasUrology after doing this a couple times. Option 3) NRT (eg gum, patches) are the lesser evil to get through the hellride. I don’t fangirl over chantix unless you’re really, really into fighting an army of flying demonic zombie sharks while you sleep. There are other options but these were the first three that popped in my head. Obligatory NMA.
I'm guessing vaping isn't an acceptable NRT eh?? 🙏🙏😅
vaping nukes your testosterone
Do it for the people you love.
The desire to quit has to be greater than the desire to continue. Whatever means necessary. Make a bet with someone, burn yourself every time you do it, set a goal that you want that the nicotine is blocking you from. Create stronger desire for something else, use an aggregate of self knowledge to implement something that aligns with your incentives.
Try a carnivore diet for 90 days, then go cold turkey on cigarettes. You'll still probably feel like shit but there's plenty of anecdotes of people being able to get off addictions easier once their body is properly nurtured. Exercise helps too, try sprinting every time the anxiety gets too much. Who knows, maybe you'll come out a beast after all this.
The only way I've ever quit was using the Walmart nicotine gum, it helps the cravings and gradually it makes u sick so u don't want the gum, next thing you know its been like 8 hrs and u didn't even think about it
I think you must find a replacement. You can replace it with fruits, if you want to smoke, eat an apple instead, or a banana, start an sport activity, go to the gym, or start running, if you think it’s not easy it won’t be. Just try to forget about it, that’s rubbish for your body. Believe in yourself, take care of yourself, to live as much as possible. Be strong 💪
I think you need to find your Reason to stop (the kind that has a capital R). Something that's worth more to you than the next cigarette. Mine was my son being born. My last* cigarette was outside the hospital a few hours after my wife was admitted. (*I've had a handful over the last 20 years, usually out drinking with friends)
Are you chemical hooked or habit hooked?
Chemical for sure. 20 years+
Have you formed habits around when or do you feel something then react?
I just vape all day everyday in every situation is sad
If you're feeling like a victim of the addiction - summon your inner Bitcoiner and snap out of it - rip the band aid off and suffer hard for the first part of the roller coaster then understand the rest of the ride is the rest of your life. If you're scarred of the pain of the withdrawal - start seeing a therapist BC its something deeper than a chemical hook.
It is almost almost impossible to get habit hooked when it takes no time to get chemical hooked. the habit part is wanting nicotine with your coffee because you’ve done it every day, but your body definitely wants it. I went to the gum and then slowly went into plain gum without nicotine only took me like a year.
Move to a new town and identify as a non smoker. Replace the habit with another hobby. Like rolling a coin and going to gym or doing push-ups. A large part of it is association with the feelings. Takes self brainwashing.
I smoked for 13 years. Quit cold turkey when I started coughing up blood and black phlegm. Was 24 years ago. You can do it. Just get hard.
Like everything, a little at the time. Decrease some per week. If it takes 8 weeks it's OK if it takes 40 weeks that's OK too. You just need to make sure to be doing the regressive download weekly.
Chew gum. Lots of it
Just wait until some black stuff comes up from your lungs. This makes stop smoking from one day to another very easy. Nobody likes the idea of dying from stupid self inflicted cancer. The first three days without smoke you will feel bad (very), but then its getting better all the time :) You only can stop smoking for sure when you are convinced it's a retarded habit and that there are better things in life than ruin your health and burning loads of money. If you like weed from time to time, vape it. (With a Dynavap for example.)
replace it with something else, less harmful
getting rid of nicotine adiction is arguably not that hard, it would take at most a couple of weeks. What is *really* hard is getting rid of the habit, and above all getting rid of the associations between smoking and some activities (stress reduction, alcohol, post-eating, concentration,...). I managed to get rid of it several decades ago, never went back. I used a combination of matches and water. Chewing matches helped me to slowly getting rid of the habit of having a cigarette in my mouth. Then, whenever I feeling a strong urge to smoke, I would force myself to drink 75cl of water quickly. It would fill my belly and and therefore alleviate the urge. The most dangerous moment is after 6 weeks and after 1 year. That's when you feel confident that you're in control and risk relapsing.
It’s easy, I’ve done it hundreds of times
It’s not that easy I’ve done it a few times
There is something called the habit loop that explains addiction well. It’s not only about willpower. There is a cue or trigger which makes you crave the cigarettes. You need to figure out what that is. For example, your trigger could be anxiety. The routine or behavior would be smoking. The reward is a relief from that anxiety. It’s not necessarily that you want cigarettes but that you want the reward (relief from anxiety) when the trigger happens. So to quit smoking you must identify the trigger and reward. A journal helps with this. Every time you crave cigarettes, note the time, your emotional state, and what you are doing. Often times you will find an obvious pattern and breaking that pattern becomes easier when you recognize it. The next step is to find a new routine/behavior to provide you the same reward as the cigarettes. Everyone is different so you have to figure out what will give you the same reward as the cigarettes. A lot of porn addicts tend to feel lonely and anxious so they masturbate to get relief. You might be able to substitute smoking for masturbating which may be less harmful than cigarettes but still not ideal. It will give you relief from the anxiety but you open the door to a new addiction. Ideally you want a new healthy behavior or at least a neutral one. You could go for a walk, have a snack, do some pushups, play video games, go for a drive. It really depends on you and what can relieve that trigger. You have to experiment and try different things to see what works best for you. Note that this explains why a lot of people who quit smoking get fat. They start using food to relieve their anxiety so make sure to choose your replacement behavior wisely. https://image.nostr.build/44a47ede7ad2cc0e5cc846cfd0d839d138178d889bf2f0614ae62aecbdf03a0a.jpg
Here’s how I quit. I did not quit. With a fresh pack, I threw one out and finished the pack like normal. Next fresh pack I threw out 2, smoked the rest. Did 3 and decided fuck that. I’m not wasting money and cigarettes. Second, didn’t smoke for 72hrs. This was hard af. After that it was easier day by day. I allowed myself 1 cigarette a year. And proceeded to have only 1 for the next 3 years. I’d look forward to it every year. After that I didn’t want any. I will still allow myself 1 but don’t think I’d enjoy it. It’s been 10 yrs since my last 1.
@utxo the webmaster 🧑💻 That’s an interesting way to do it. Another way that could work is delaying the cigarettes slowly over time. For example, if you usually smoke one first thing in the morning, try to delay it for 15 minutes. Then progressively increase the delay. 30 minutes, 1 hour, 2 hours. It’s easier to tell yourself I’ll smoke one later than to say I’m never going to smoke again for the rest of my life. But eventually when you can delay a cigarette for a few days, you won’t need it anymore. This provides another benefit in that you normalize dopamine sensitivity too!
Yeah exactly.
Here's what worked for me: Peter told me "smoke and don't feel guilty." Followed this path for another year, year and a half. Peter again said this quip, "I noticed that when I wanted a smoke, if I lit up, the desire to smoke went away. But the I discovered that when I wanted a smoke and didn't light up, the desire to smoke went away." Finally, one Memorial Day weekend, many years ago a friend claimed he was quitting so I chimed in, "OK. I'm in." My mind tried to tell me, "If you don't smoke, you're gonna die." Ok, I thought, I'll die then. Phase I, physical addiction, lasted about 3-7 days. Phase II, behavioral addiction, lasted around 6 months to a year. Phase III continues 35+ years later. It's not easy, but it is possible.
It’s all habit cues. The body has a very short memory of what nicotine is. But finishing a meal, smelling smoke lingering in your clothing, feeling the lighter in your pocket—all powerful signals that tell your brain it’s time to smoke. You’ve programmed your basal ganglia that you’re a smoker; fortunately, you can change your programming. You’ve got this!
its def will power. I know, the weakness of the flesh and emotions, am I right?
Each person should find a trick that helps. In my case, I carried a pack of cigarettes in my pocket just to remind me that I was not smoking because I didn't want to, not because I couldn't. For me, the anxiety of not having tobacco nearby was worse than the temptation of having it close to me. My rule doesn't mean it will work for others, but you get the idea.
hypnosis.
it sucks. start your willpower journey by just cutting down and linking it to another specific habit. I only have zyn when I work late. I look forward to it and use it to help me power through from 5-7
