OT: how to quit smoking

[Zarati]

How to make my girl quit smoking? It bothers me ... She can't. She was an alcoholic for 15 years, sober for over 2 years but smokes now

 

[Creation]

maybe switch to vaping / nicotine mints?

 

[USMuscle9403]

If she's an alcoholic, smoking may be good for her. In many rehab centers, they let you smoke because it keeps you off the drugs. I quit more or less cold turkey (then started dip a few years ago, which I've since quit), my girlfriend at the time had good luck quitting with vaping. Second time, I had good luck with lozenges. Try to go as long as you can between cravings. Most people who try to quit with vaping seem to pick up vaping as the new hobby.

 

[slesh]

I was never a hardcore cigarette smoker. But when I quit I went from cigarettes to a vape pen and then a few months was completely done.

 

[BALDNAZI]

Kick her to curb bro, don’t hesitate. A woman with no self control will ruin your life. You will remember this post if you keep her around, you’ve been warned

 

[Type-IIx]

@Zarati I notice a proclivity towards trying to exert control over your significant other in a frankly pathological manner. I recall you trying to force her to train less (you believed she was overtraining). This seemed perhaps rooted in some personal insecurity of yours (frankly). Now you're asking how to make her quit smoking.

People need to be internally motivated to cease using powerful addictive substances like nicotine.

People don't respond to their partners "making" them change. If her lifestyle is incompatible with yours, leave before it's too late. But don't expect women to bend to your will.

 

[11sh11]

How to make my girl quit smoking? It bothers me ... She can't. She was an alcoholic for 15 years, sober for over 2 years but smokes now

I'm aware of great results in overcoming addictions and that mindset with ketamine treatments.
But also, you say you want it to stop. Does she? And if she doesn't, and it bothers you, you may need to make a choice for yourself

 

[Bio]

Here's a couple of threads on it already...

https://www.professionalmuscle.com/forums/index.php?threads/stop-smoking-aids.137362/

https://www.professionalmuscle.com/forums/index.php?threads/smoking-nicotine.140868/

 

[Zarati]

@Zarati I notice a proclivity towards trying to exert control over your significant other in a frankly pathological manner. I recall you trying to force her to train less (you believed she was overtraining). This seemed perhaps rooted in some personal insecurity of yours (frankly). Now you're asking how to make her quit smoking.

People need to be internally motivated to cease using powerful addictive substances like nicotine.

People don't respond to their partners "making" them change. If her lifestyle is incompatible with yours, leave before it's too late. But don't expect women to bend to your will.

I'm not insecure, I'm just trying to help her out.

 

[Zarati]

I'm aware of great results in overcoming addictions and that mindset with ketamine treatments.
But also, you say you want it to stop. Does she? And if she doesn't, and it bothers you, you may need to make a choice for yourself

She wants to also, that's what she says at least

 

[cage99]

If she’s serious, then visit your PCP for a prescription such as Chantix. If she’s not, then you’ll either have to enjoy the ashtray smell or bounce.

Cage

 

[btails]

You quit smoking when you want to quit. Until then you aren't going to quit.

For me it was a phone call. I remember I was smoking when talking on the phone. I stomped it out and threw my pack in the garbage and never looked back.

All these patches and lozenges and hypnotherapy shit is a joke. I tried it all. You just need a real reason to quit and some fucking balls.

Also anyone I knew who took that Chantix shit- it fucked them up. Made them into emotional weirdos. May as well take clomid.

 

[alfresco]

You quit smoking when you want to quit. Until then you aren't going to quit.

For me it was a phone call. I remember I was smoking when talking on the phone. I stomped it out and threw my pack in the garbage and never looked back.

All these patches and lozenges and hypnotherapy shit is a joke. I tried it all. You just need a real reason to quit and some fucking to balls

Also anyone I knew who took that Chantix shit- it fucked them up. Made them into emotional weirdos. May as well take clomid.

Yes, you need a real reason to quit. If you don’t have that you will never quit. And you have to do it for you. Others come and go put if you remain present, in the moment, when you absolutely have no other choice, no other option, as soon as you reach that point, it becomes easy.

I have been there; when I had literally no other option than to quit something, I quit in that moment and have never given it a thought since because it is not an option, is not even a choice that had to be made.

It was quite liberating actually, a huge sense of lightness and relief.

Get it?

 

[FK86]

She needs to make the connection that smoking is a drug addiction to nicotine. Switching to vaping or other ROA's is awful advice. I smoked for 13 years and I quit by reading Allen Carr's book: The Easy Way To Stop Smoking. You can easily find a PDF online. I know how ridiculous it sounds that a book could make someone stop smoking. I thought so too because I'm very skeptical. Well, I've been nicotine free for 8 years. And I always say "nicotine free" if asked because I know people who smugly say they quit smoking, but compulsively vape or drop half a tin of dip. That's not quitting. They're still addicts and their behaviour and decisions revolve around their addiction.

At my last job I worked with a woman who used the same book to kick her 30+ year habit. We actually bonded and laughed about how well it worked.

 

[Dog-Slime]

I've tried various methods like slowly reducing , switching to vape, etc. They all have some merit IMO. What worked for me was when I decided I wasn't doing it no more and quit buying any

 

[old timer]

If she’s serious, then visit your PCP for a prescription such as Chantix. If she’s not, then you’ll either have to enjoy the ashtray smell or bounce.

Cage

My wife kicked it once with Chantix but she started back after many years. She just got another prescription that hasn't been delivered yet. Be advised, doctors won't prescribe it if there's any history of depression.

I'm somewhat surprised that she had the will power to quit drinking but not the will power to quit smoking.

 

[USMuscle9403]

Damn, I'm reading all this and feeling lucky. I was forced to quit both alcohol and tobacco at once because some real life shit happened and I could no longer afford any vices and needed to face habits head on. Hang on, you glorious fucks, it DOES get better. It can take years of normalizing, I still haven't, but it's still better than where you've been before.

 

[FK86]

My wife kicked it once with Chantix but she started back after many years. She just got another prescription that hasn't been delivered yet. Be advised, doctors won't prescribe it if there's any history of depression.

I'm somewhat surprised that she had the will power to quit drinking but not the will power to quit smoking.

Nicotine is far more addictive. It isn't just the feeling of euphoria, there's a physical compulsion even if mentally you don't feel like a cigarette. That happened to me plenty of times. I didn't want a smoke, but my mood and behaviour suggested I should have had one.

In Canada, our cigarette packs display the brand on one half of the package while the other half has a picture and a fact deterring people from smoking. It's more graphic than the Surgeon General's Warning on packs in the US. For example, on some of them there would be a picture of a toilet with blood in it and then a caption stating smoking can cause renal failure. Another was that nicotine has been proven to be more difficult to quit than heroin or cocaine. As a teenager/young adult my friends and I doubted that and thought it was bullshit fear mongering. It's not. I looked online and it's even discussed in that book I referred to that withdrawal symptoms from nicotine occurs in as little as 15-20 minutes. That means for a smoker to be "even" they would need to smoke at that frequency whether they want to or not. If you add in that tobacco is legal and easily accessible, it makes it even more difficult.

I think it's bad to let addicts quitting harder drugs in rehab to smoke, but I understand it's to mitigate the difficulty of the experience. The priority is to get them off of stuff that is rapidly deteriorating their health or may kill them instantly. But it also highlights how incredibly addictive nicotine is in that removing it can make everything fall apart.

 

[UsmcOldSchoolMuscle]

Damn, I'm reading all this and feeling lucky. I was forced to quit both alcohol and tobacco at once because some real life shit happened and I could no longer afford any vices and needed to face habits head on. Hang on, you glorious fucks, it DOES get better. It can take years of normalizing, I still haven't, but it's still better than where you've been before.

That's what's up U.S muscle!
Keep up the Sobriety.

At times I even listen in on A.A meetings because refraining from alcohol is very important to me.

 

[UsmcOldSchoolMuscle]

Find coping mechanisms that work.

For e.g implementation of behavioral activation techniques. Take a short break when having a cigarette is habit and perform 20 standing squats and then do some breathing techniques. A simple example of a coping breath is to breath in for 4 seconds with an elongated exhale of 6 seconds. A metronome can be used to make this process easy.

Learn urge surfing and over time one realizes craving and thoughts of despair are much shorter than one predicted.


Implement grounding techniques which help to break the current train of thought, simply I need a cigarette, or emotional turmoil.
An example is to hold an ice cube in one palm and hold another ice cube against the forehead for a few seconds and then move it to the back of the neck for a period.
Antihero easy example is to have those rubber bands on the wrist and snap it against the skin everytime you point out something that is a specific color in the room or surrounding area.

Learn diaphragmatic breathing which stimulates the vagus nerve which allows the body and mind to transition from the sympathetic nervous system (SNS) which the fight-or-flight to the parasympathetic nervous system (PNS) which is the rest/digest bodily function.
SNS is the stress function and the PNS is the calming function.

Try apps on the phone/tablet or laptop (even better) that allow you to perform Biofeedback in order to work toward reaching heart coherence which is the steady rise and fall of the heart pattern. This helps prevents or break tightness of the chest/ chest pain and the shallow breathing pattern associated with stress.
Heart Math is one example of such an app.

Enroll and attend a form of substance abuse therapy seperate from traditional 12 Step such as AA/NA which don't emphasize the cessation of smoking. S.A.R.T (Substance Abuse Resistance Therapy) is one such example.
From personal experience these groups take quitting smoking more seriously.

Consider Cognitive Behavioral Therapy such as Mind Over Mood of which will help cope with the emotional Rollercoaster some experience when quitting tobacco. Many of the coping techniques previously mentioned will be covered in such a course of therapy.

Consider a prescription medication which help with smoking cessation such as Wellbutrin which I've personally have had good results with and negligent to even non percievable neg side effects. Wellbutrin is a selective dopamine reuptake inhibitor (which are much safer than SSRI's) being primarily prescribed for mood enhancement, not to mention a healthy increase in sex drive is not uncommon. Somw have good results with Chantix, though I am not one of them as it gave me sleeping issues. Both can be inquired about with a licensed physician.

Most importantly take part in her efforts to quit smoking/ tobacco use. Offer to help research and try many of the coping techniques. Make a promise to try and be as understanding as possible the struggle she will experience. A similar promise to not take offense to mood swings or outbursts that may occur, that you understand it likely is all part of the process. Be a source of affirmation being sure to congratulate her on every small step taken.