To taper, vape, or quit cold turkey. I have a question.
Hello!
My brother used to have a few cigarettes on the weekends when he was drinking, and would sometimes only smoke a couple times a month. Over the years this social smoking turned into a daily habit. He would still go the occasional day or two without one but he was definitely hooked. I was too but being more responsible than he, I always had ciggies on me and rarely went a day without. Last Christmas he decided he was done with it. He has a landscaping business to run and neither did he have the time nor the money to waste on something with such little benefit. After hearing him say that, my girlfriend and I decided we would quit as well. I wanted to smell nice, recover my endurance, and plan a future around others that wanted satisfaction through accomplishments, not nicotine or gravy. I have found it very hard to move up in my field being a smoker. She had quit for extended periods in the past but immediately started smoking again when we met 9 months ago. Drinking, stress, and new relationship stresses were all triggers.
Her aspirations inspired me. Anthony Bourdain's picture on the fireplace inspired me. She was thinking about having a child, and was planning on hiking Machu Picchu. Really she wants to travel the world. Seemed like good enough reasons to quit. (She eventually booked a trip to Peru mid August. Have Fun!)
How were we going to do this? We both had our own views. She was going to taper off by vaping and continuously lowering the nicotine level per juice bottle. I was going to taper off by using zipper baggies full of cigarettes. Here are how events unfolded.
Her solution was to vape. She had done it before and this is how she explained it. She would start off at a high nicotine level and each empty bottle would be followed by a 2mg drop in nicotine, starting at 18mg. I was supportive the first few days with the vape but soon things got out of hand. The flavor of juice she had smelled like burnt metal and vanilla. At first she kept it outside but soon something was wrong. She was carrying it around in her hand all day and puffing on it everywhere, even the car with the windows up. Though she would deny it, I think she became more addicted to vaping than smoking white sticks by far. Once she got down to a 4mg bottle (which was about two months) she started smoking regular cigs when drinking and eventually the vape broke. I had been cutting back to half a pack a day but with wild mood swings I would backslide anytime I was proud of myself for doing something. Anything!! I kept trying to pick a quit date, but am not a good future planner so that scared the *translation needed* out of me.
After about five months of "cutting back" and "vaping" and addictively gaming each other I decided that I would not use Amy as a crutch. Excuses became weak, and even something as simple as throwing a party or attending a gathering would become an excuse used in the past, but no more.
Now we move to into June. My brother had brought it up a few times but I hate talking about quitting smoking. It really bothered me but he was proud of himself and wanted to help me quit by talking about what he had researched. He kept saying cold turkey was the way to do it, and for him that may have been true. He had to quit drinking before he could quit smoking. He no longer drinks because, according to him, it is not as fun without the stimulant effect of nicotine. Anyways, he comes to me and says "Liam, I quit smoking six months ago." Holy cow was I stunned. I was super proud of him for his accomplishment, especially since he had the resolve to do it cold turkey. I quickly realized I had been on this cracker jack roller coaster of quitting for six months! Time to put all of my lip service into action I told myself. It embarrassed me that others had found out I was quitting, but would see me smoking daily. This procrastination train had to get shut down.
My method for tapering down is simple, but let me give you a little background on why my personality needed me to do it this way.
I smoked all the time. After something funny, after something sad, after a TV show, before work, after work, after dinner, on the way to the store, before bed, before or after anything really. I also did it when I was bored, or when someone else did it, and omg if the phone rang it was so much easier to have a conversation in 105 degree heat with the satisfying feeling of hot smoke on my throat and lungs. If I was about to see my parents I would smoke about 5 in a row before getting in the shower. I would show up feeling sick and then want to leave an hour later when the craving kicked in again. What a way to live.
I had to taper down because I had no idea what to do with myself during all that free time! If I quit cold turkey there is no way my day would stay full of things to do. Idle hands are the devil's playthings and he likes fire, especially smoldering on the end of a rolled up tobacco lollipop.
Now for the meat of my method.
I bought eight packs of cigarettes, a permanent marker, and some zipper baggies. This made me feel like I had a huge supply of nicotine and kept me from feeling nervous about the process. Now I have 160 little ciggies and 22 baggies all sitting on the counter. I labeled each bag with the numbers below, then put that many cigs in each bag:
15
14
13
12
11
10
9
9
8
8
7
7
6
6
5
5
4 - This is when I started lighting and putting them out for later. At this point a whole one can make you feel sick.
4
3
2
1
1
Each day I would smoke the number of cigs in each bag, and as I tapered down I started writing down my goals and thinking about my future. A few of the days I borrowed from future baggies and my girlfriend would take them randomly but I made sure to shuffle things around and they were replaced with great speed. I never smoked less than I was allowed, naturally. Next post I will go a little deeper into the aftermath of this adventure, as well as some of the pitfalls and activities I was able to fill my time with as I approached less than ten a day.
Regards,
Liam
My brother used to have a few cigarettes on the weekends when he was drinking, and would sometimes only smoke a couple times a month. Over the years this social smoking turned into a daily habit. He would still go the occasional day or two without one but he was definitely hooked. I was too but being more responsible than he, I always had ciggies on me and rarely went a day without. Last Christmas he decided he was done with it. He has a landscaping business to run and neither did he have the time nor the money to waste on something with such little benefit. After hearing him say that, my girlfriend and I decided we would quit as well. I wanted to smell nice, recover my endurance, and plan a future around others that wanted satisfaction through accomplishments, not nicotine or gravy. I have found it very hard to move up in my field being a smoker. She had quit for extended periods in the past but immediately started smoking again when we met 9 months ago. Drinking, stress, and new relationship stresses were all triggers.
Her aspirations inspired me. Anthony Bourdain's picture on the fireplace inspired me. She was thinking about having a child, and was planning on hiking Machu Picchu. Really she wants to travel the world. Seemed like good enough reasons to quit. (She eventually booked a trip to Peru mid August. Have Fun!)
How were we going to do this? We both had our own views. She was going to taper off by vaping and continuously lowering the nicotine level per juice bottle. I was going to taper off by using zipper baggies full of cigarettes. Here are how events unfolded.
Her solution was to vape. She had done it before and this is how she explained it. She would start off at a high nicotine level and each empty bottle would be followed by a 2mg drop in nicotine, starting at 18mg. I was supportive the first few days with the vape but soon things got out of hand. The flavor of juice she had smelled like burnt metal and vanilla. At first she kept it outside but soon something was wrong. She was carrying it around in her hand all day and puffing on it everywhere, even the car with the windows up. Though she would deny it, I think she became more addicted to vaping than smoking white sticks by far. Once she got down to a 4mg bottle (which was about two months) she started smoking regular cigs when drinking and eventually the vape broke. I had been cutting back to half a pack a day but with wild mood swings I would backslide anytime I was proud of myself for doing something. Anything!! I kept trying to pick a quit date, but am not a good future planner so that scared the *translation needed* out of me.
After about five months of "cutting back" and "vaping" and addictively gaming each other I decided that I would not use Amy as a crutch. Excuses became weak, and even something as simple as throwing a party or attending a gathering would become an excuse used in the past, but no more.
Now we move to into June. My brother had brought it up a few times but I hate talking about quitting smoking. It really bothered me but he was proud of himself and wanted to help me quit by talking about what he had researched. He kept saying cold turkey was the way to do it, and for him that may have been true. He had to quit drinking before he could quit smoking. He no longer drinks because, according to him, it is not as fun without the stimulant effect of nicotine. Anyways, he comes to me and says "Liam, I quit smoking six months ago." Holy cow was I stunned. I was super proud of him for his accomplishment, especially since he had the resolve to do it cold turkey. I quickly realized I had been on this cracker jack roller coaster of quitting for six months! Time to put all of my lip service into action I told myself. It embarrassed me that others had found out I was quitting, but would see me smoking daily. This procrastination train had to get shut down.
My method for tapering down is simple, but let me give you a little background on why my personality needed me to do it this way.
I smoked all the time. After something funny, after something sad, after a TV show, before work, after work, after dinner, on the way to the store, before bed, before or after anything really. I also did it when I was bored, or when someone else did it, and omg if the phone rang it was so much easier to have a conversation in 105 degree heat with the satisfying feeling of hot smoke on my throat and lungs. If I was about to see my parents I would smoke about 5 in a row before getting in the shower. I would show up feeling sick and then want to leave an hour later when the craving kicked in again. What a way to live.
I had to taper down because I had no idea what to do with myself during all that free time! If I quit cold turkey there is no way my day would stay full of things to do. Idle hands are the devil's playthings and he likes fire, especially smoldering on the end of a rolled up tobacco lollipop.
Now for the meat of my method.
I bought eight packs of cigarettes, a permanent marker, and some zipper baggies. This made me feel like I had a huge supply of nicotine and kept me from feeling nervous about the process. Now I have 160 little ciggies and 22 baggies all sitting on the counter. I labeled each bag with the numbers below, then put that many cigs in each bag:
15
14
13
12
11
10
9
9
8
8
7
7
6
6
5
5
4 - This is when I started lighting and putting them out for later. At this point a whole one can make you feel sick.
4
3
2
1
1
Each day I would smoke the number of cigs in each bag, and as I tapered down I started writing down my goals and thinking about my future. A few of the days I borrowed from future baggies and my girlfriend would take them randomly but I made sure to shuffle things around and they were replaced with great speed. I never smoked less than I was allowed, naturally. Next post I will go a little deeper into the aftermath of this adventure, as well as some of the pitfalls and activities I was able to fill my time with as I approached less than ten a day.
Regards,
Liam
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