Any Advice on Quitting Cigarettes?

[Lumbridge]

Title edited for caps and brevity. Please read rule 9,

I love or loved smoking cigarettes but I kinda thing I start to grow out of it.

I already smoke self rolled VA tobacco and smoke the half of it while I roll the next one in the evening with beer.

I think I want to kick the addiction at some point and just enjoy 3-4 bowls of pipe.yeah another addiction but still better :D

Any of you transitioned to it and give me some advice?

Pipe tobacco is so much more interesting in flavour and it is really like a meditation for me.

I know at work I will sometimes will kick back to the fast nik hit and I accept that but it in the end I would rather enjoy good quality tobacco and a focused enjoyment.

I kicked cigarettes easy peasy after high school, but here's some things some friends of mine have had success with when trying to quit or reduce cigarette use.

Instead of buying prerolled cigarettes, try hand rolling a cigarette each time you get a craving. It's a limiting factor, and the inconvenience is the point. Downside is that hand rolled cigarettes with good tobacco taste better than factory rolls.

Consider CBD to help with the cravings if that is possible and legal in your area, though I would suggest educating yourself on it first. It is non-intoxicating. I have been told that it effectively takes the edge off of cravings.

Good luck!

 

[Lumbridge]

I kicked cigarettes easy peasy after high school, but here's some things some friends of mine have had success with when trying to quit or reduce cigarette use.

Instead of buying prerolled cigarettes, try hand rolling a cigarette each time you get a craving. It's a limiting factor, and the inconvenience is the point. Downside is that hand rolled cigarettes with good tobacco taste better than factory rolls.

Consider CBD to help with the cravings if that is possible and legal in your area, though I would suggest educating yourself on it first. It is non-intoxicating. I have been told that it effectively takes the edge off of cravings.

Good luck!

Apparently I can't read, because now I see that you've already tried hand rolling. Derp.

 

[UB 40]

Apparently I can't read, because now I see that you've already tried hand rolling. Derp.

Hand rolling doesn’t help a lot giving up cigarettes. I could roll my own even while driving my car.

 

[warren99]

I quit cigarettes cold turkey in the 80’s then started up again. Finally, quit for the last time in the early 2000’s but continued smoking pipes and cigars without inhaling, of course. They helped. I haven't touched a cig in over 20 years.

 

[Lumbridge]

Hand rolling doesn’t help a lot giving up cigarettes. I could roll my own even while driving my car.

One of my buddies started hand rolling to save money and smoke less. The inconvenience was enough to make him quit altogether. Worked for him, I guess.

 

[UB 40]

One of my buddies started hand rolling to save money and smoke less. The inconvenience was enough to make him quit altogether. Worked for him, I guess.

Different people, different approaches. You know, I started smoking at the age of 14 with a fairly limited budget. So I started with hand rolled cigarettes with halfzware shags at first, because the tobacco was a lot of cheaper than a packet of camel or whatever.

It never turned out as inconvenient to me. Later I could handle even to put a filter in, while walking. In fact as I quitted cigarettes I missed the rolling part of that habit almost the same as smoking itself. Kind of a live style.

 

[Lumbridge]

Different people, different approaches. You know, I started smoking at the age of 14 with a fairly limited budget. So I started with hand rolled cigarettes with halfzware shags at first, because the tobacco was a lot of cheaper than a packet of camel or whatever.

It never turned out as inconvenient to me. Later I could handle even to put a filter in, while walking. In fact as I quitted cigarettes I missed the rolling part of that habit almost the same as smoking itself. Kind of a live style.

I get that. The ritual is a part of it as well. I do enjoy picking out a pipe and blend and loading it up.

 

[newbroom]

I remember when cigarettes tasted good. Luckies, Camels, primarily. Short and sweet. I remember that cigs cost $0.25 a pack. Everybody smoked cigarettes everywhere. A kid stood no chance of avoiding the habit if his parents smoked em.
What I get from a pipe is solace. You have to develop patience to get the best results, which in turn may lower blood pressure, and when smoked conventionally, not inhaling, your lungs will not be contaminated by nicotine tars.
To that end, hold your smoke a little bit while you're transitioning to allow more nicotine to be absorbed. Use a burley with high nicotine content. A codger burley blend will work, like Carter Hall or Prince Albert, but you gotta be patient about the nicotine when you're transitioning and have faith that the 'Lady N' will effectively soothe your nerves in time. Enjoy the journey and live long and puff a pipe!

 

[Smoking Pipe402]

I get where you're coming from, transitioning from cigs to pipes can feel like a whole new world. But, you know what, I'd actually suggest you take a look at a vaping device. You can use it as a substitution for your pipe sometimes. I see some guys mentioning it in the thread and totally agree. It might seem unusual but vaping is just like meditation, just like a pipe, but without the mess. And the flavor variety, man, it's off the charts! You can experiment till you find your fave. I ordered my vape online and I was surprised that you could also choose your nicotine strength. This way, you don't have to go cold turkey on the nic hit if you don't want to.

Vaping is how I quit over 10 years ago. After you notice the positive changes it’s motivating to stay off the cigarettes. With in a week I was breathing better wasn’t congested in the morning and my circulation was noticeably better. Not to mention vaping is a hell of a lot cheaper too.

 

[eswar786]

Tôi hiểu bạn đến từ đâu, việc chuyển đổi từ điếu xì gà sang tẩu có thể giống như một thế giới hoàn toàn mới. Nhưng, bạn biết không, tôi thực sự khuyên bạn nên xem xét một thiết bị vaping. Đôi khi, bạn có thể sử dụng nó để thay thế cho đường ống của mình. Tôi thấy một số người đề cập đến nó trong chủ đề và hoàn toàn đồng ý. Nghe có vẻ khác thường nhưng vaping cũng giống như thiền, giống như một cái tẩu, nhưng không có sự lộn xộn. Và sự đa dạng về hương vị, anh bạn, nó nằm ngoài bảng xếp hạng! vlxx Bạn có thể thử nghiệm cho đến khi bạn tìm thấy sở thích của mình. Tôi đã đặt mua vape của mình trực tuyến và tôi rất ngạc nhiên khi bạn cũng có thể chọn độ mạnh nicotine của mình. Bằng cách này, bạn không cần phải quá liều lĩnh với cú đánh nic nếu không muốn.

 

[sparker69]

I haven't transitioned from cigarettes, but one time a guy came up to me and thanked me for this comment that I had made to him when he was trying to quit, so I thought it might be helpful for you: after 11 days there is no more physical addiction. So if you can make it past those 11 days, you're doing good.
Hope this helps.

 

[TheIronMonkey]

A very dear friend of mine was a heavy smoker. He read a book about quitting smoking by a guy named Allen Carr that encouraged him to keep smoking as he read the book. Much to my surprise, my friend actually quit after reading the book, which he said covered reasons why people smoke. I have not read it, don’t know the specifics of its content, but it seemed to work, at least for my friend—I never imagined him without a cigarette, but he stopped.

 

[David D. Davidson]

Never been a cigarette man myself, but I did have far too much of a fondness for drink, and struggled for years trying to abstain or drink responsibly.

What helped me more than anything was a lecture I listened to by someone I can't remember for the life of me, who described the mind as a house full of people, each pulling in their own self-serving direction. In a healthy mind, you are the master of that house - you listen to the people inside it, but you make the decisions, and they can only advise.

When you're facing addiction, you're no longer the master of the house - the tenant who's advocating for your indulgence of choice is. You can't negotiate with that person or debate them, because they'll argue in bad faith and try to trick you into letting them keep their position by any means possible. Instead, you have to ignore the mental gymnastics you go through to justify continuing the addiction, not engage with it, and retake your place as the master of the house.

The advice is more than a little bit woo-woo compared to a lot of the practical stuff, but when I internalized that idea, it completely changed my relationship with alcohol. No more debating if I should have another beer or pop out to the liquor store, etc. Zero internal conflict.

 

[crashthegrey]

Everyone is different. I think you really need to want to quit first, then you will find your own method.

 

[Seeleybc1]

I smoked cigarettes out of high school, like many, with what started as fun or screwing around. Unfortunately in a year or so I was a real smoker. It lasted a few years, along with a dip every now and again, and became a problem when the reality hit me that I couldn’t quit.
I tried a few times, weening off slowly, but didn’t succeed until I finally decided mentally that I was done, and that the negative effects on my health and ability to enjoy the outdoors the way I wanted was unacceptable.
That was 15 years ago now, and until my recent foray into the pipe and tobacco world, hadn’t had any exposure to tobacco at all.
Needless to say I’m cautious about relighting the fire, pun intended!
So far I’ve been able to enjoy pipes on the occasion, in moderation, but am aware of how strong the nicotine addiction can be.
Anyways, regarding quitting cigs, the only way for me was cold turkey. But that was just my experience.

 

[RookieGuy80]

What I've found is its not the nicotine. Even when I tried to quit before finding fine tobacco, gums and patches, it wasn't the nicotine. It was all the other crap they add to cigarette tobacco. Someone earlier this thread compared cigarettes to crack of tobacco. He's not far off at all.

So pipes will help. But you're still going to have bad withdrawal symptoms from the other crap..

 

[krizzose]

Keep trying. I quit in 98, after trying several times. For the first and last time in my life, I got strep throat. It was pretty bad and I didn’t want to smoke anything for 2 weeks. I decided to use that a leg up to go cold turkey, and it worked. While the 2 week bump certainly helped with the physical cravings, the mental/social aspects of it remained. Eventually I started to think of it as a friend dying, and “grieving” the loss of that after dinner smoke, the long drive smoke, the smokes with beers, etc. really helped me. I didn’t smoke anything for a few years, then eventually started smoking cigars occasionally (one or two a month). That did not hit me anything by like cigarettes, so I felt confident that type of nicotine consumption wouldn’t push me back to cigarettes. The pipe followed many years later. I smoke about 3-4 times a week, and that’s just not enough nicotine for me to even notice it, let alone get rebooked. Every 6 months or so I’ll just get bored with smoking, and will take 3 or 4 weeks off with no cravings at all.

 

[didimauw]

I recently quit smoking cigs and tried vaping. That went well for about 2 weeks, before I couldn't breathe. Then I quit vaping and switched to only chew/dip and pipe. I love my nicotine.

 

[cshubhra]

I don’t know if I have quit yet, but I smoked my last cigarette on July 4th. This is my experience

1. You should be determined to quit. It is a mental thing. This is my first serious attempt

2. I gave up alcohol earlier during the year. That kind of boosts confidence

3. I set the date about 3 weeks back. Actively tried to reduce the first two weeks. Third week was a vacation and I smoked normally but noticed that I am smoking less. Last day of vacation I smoked my last cigarette

4. Don’t know if the pipes / cigars helping. I used to smoke 2 pipes / cigars before. Now it is 3

5. I try to believe that I am in control of my mind, and any medicines or other aids mean that I am not in control - So obviously did not use any

Should re-visit this post in another year

 

[AJL67]

@wernerat did you ever quit ?