Alastor
Well-known member
- Joined
- Jul 19, 2005
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So, I need to get some dental work done. It's going to be expensive. Very expensive.
In addition to the other reasons I might have for quitting, this one rates pretty high in and of itself, because the procedure is a 99% success rate among non-smokers, but drops to 86% for smokers - a significant difference. To make the math make sense, this means that a smoker is 1400% (fourteen times) more likely to have a procedure of this nature fail than a non-smoker.
I figure that for what this costs and that I won't be smoking after it's done anyway, if I can't quit now I really shouldn't be bothering to invest the money into this dental work to get a perfect smile.
So... Anyway, I'm quitting. I've smoked for 17 years now. Usually two packs a day, but sometimes three packs a day, and almost always either Marlboro reds, Camels or when I was in the military, Camel filterless. I'm a pretty serious smoker.
So yesterday at 1 PM I stopped smoking. By 6 PM the pain was so intense that I was either going to go to the store to buy one, or God willing, I'd mooch one from someone - just to end the pain of the physical withdrawls.
In hindsight, it was a smart move. I did manage to mooch two smokes off of someone. My brother who was nearby. I smoked one, and it seriously helped. I just needed to curb the pain (yes, withdrawls physically hurt - badly sometimes). So I had a cigarette at 6 PM last night and then was pretty much... not "good to go" but I could manage the cravings.
But as the body enters the first 24 hours without nicotine is when the nicotine is actually being expelled from the body, and the "genuine" withdrawls begin. This is worse than the first 24 hours, because now not only are we not getting new nicotine into the system, but the old nicotine is being flushed out, and that nicotine level is dropping at a very rapid pace, especially for someone whose daily intake just the day before was 40 MG of nicotine, and it's now zero.
So it frickin hurts!
Anyway, it wasn't easy, I was in agony. I still had one cigarette left from yesterday's mooch mission that I just kept here for emergencies. Somehow it helped me to know that if I desperately needed one, I had one - yet at the same time it was only one, so it wasn't the same as having an entire pack nearby.
Tonight at 6 PM - 24 hours after my last cigarette, and 30 hours into quitting, the pains were pretty bad. I decided to have one. It was either that or crack up. Seriously, I was dizzy, I couldn't breath, my head hurt, my jaw hurt, I couldn't focus. It was terrible!
So I held it off as long as I could until 7 PM giving me 25 hours between cigarettes... The pain was incredible. I just needed ten minutes to catch my breath; a few minutes of normality to go back to facing the psychological and physical combat taking place within me...
So I had it.
Oh my God, it was awesome. I caught a buzz - for the first time in a long time. My fingers tingled and so did my lips. I immediately and completely relaxed. All the cravings faded. I felt it in my entire body. All I wanted was a few moments of escape from the warfare going on inside me, and I got it.
A return to normality for about an hour; and I can feel it starting to fade again and the cravings are starting to come back. No problem, I can handle this... But Jesus I needed that one break. If I hadn't taken it, I think I'd have cracked all together.
I still have two cigarettes in the house. They're out of sight and I have no intention of using them, but they're here just in case and so I don't go buy a pack if I start to crack.
I think I'm going to make it. I'm not really worried about the cravings coming back now - even though they get worse on day two and three, then level off at four and then start to subside on day 5.
I honest to God, just needed that ten minutes of smoking to - pardon the pun - catch my breath, and the hour of no cravings afterwards, to get my second wind.
Has anyone here been a substantial and serious smoker and then tried to quit? I'm doing this cold turkey, and it is the opposite of fun.
I really want to hear about your stories even if you didn't manage to kick the habit, and I want to know if I'm alone feeling like this or not. This is... I mean I hate to sound like a wuss. I've done some hard things in my life. When I am completely free of nicotine though, this will easily rate as one of the top 5 most difficult things I have done in my life.
It's... A Hell of a lot harder than I thought it would be. Am I alone?
In addition to the other reasons I might have for quitting, this one rates pretty high in and of itself, because the procedure is a 99% success rate among non-smokers, but drops to 86% for smokers - a significant difference. To make the math make sense, this means that a smoker is 1400% (fourteen times) more likely to have a procedure of this nature fail than a non-smoker.
I figure that for what this costs and that I won't be smoking after it's done anyway, if I can't quit now I really shouldn't be bothering to invest the money into this dental work to get a perfect smile.
So... Anyway, I'm quitting. I've smoked for 17 years now. Usually two packs a day, but sometimes three packs a day, and almost always either Marlboro reds, Camels or when I was in the military, Camel filterless. I'm a pretty serious smoker.
So yesterday at 1 PM I stopped smoking. By 6 PM the pain was so intense that I was either going to go to the store to buy one, or God willing, I'd mooch one from someone - just to end the pain of the physical withdrawls.
In hindsight, it was a smart move. I did manage to mooch two smokes off of someone. My brother who was nearby. I smoked one, and it seriously helped. I just needed to curb the pain (yes, withdrawls physically hurt - badly sometimes). So I had a cigarette at 6 PM last night and then was pretty much... not "good to go" but I could manage the cravings.
But as the body enters the first 24 hours without nicotine is when the nicotine is actually being expelled from the body, and the "genuine" withdrawls begin. This is worse than the first 24 hours, because now not only are we not getting new nicotine into the system, but the old nicotine is being flushed out, and that nicotine level is dropping at a very rapid pace, especially for someone whose daily intake just the day before was 40 MG of nicotine, and it's now zero.
So it frickin hurts!
Anyway, it wasn't easy, I was in agony. I still had one cigarette left from yesterday's mooch mission that I just kept here for emergencies. Somehow it helped me to know that if I desperately needed one, I had one - yet at the same time it was only one, so it wasn't the same as having an entire pack nearby.
Tonight at 6 PM - 24 hours after my last cigarette, and 30 hours into quitting, the pains were pretty bad. I decided to have one. It was either that or crack up. Seriously, I was dizzy, I couldn't breath, my head hurt, my jaw hurt, I couldn't focus. It was terrible!
So I held it off as long as I could until 7 PM giving me 25 hours between cigarettes... The pain was incredible. I just needed ten minutes to catch my breath; a few minutes of normality to go back to facing the psychological and physical combat taking place within me...
So I had it.
Oh my God, it was awesome. I caught a buzz - for the first time in a long time. My fingers tingled and so did my lips. I immediately and completely relaxed. All the cravings faded. I felt it in my entire body. All I wanted was a few moments of escape from the warfare going on inside me, and I got it.
A return to normality for about an hour; and I can feel it starting to fade again and the cravings are starting to come back. No problem, I can handle this... But Jesus I needed that one break. If I hadn't taken it, I think I'd have cracked all together.
I still have two cigarettes in the house. They're out of sight and I have no intention of using them, but they're here just in case and so I don't go buy a pack if I start to crack.
I think I'm going to make it. I'm not really worried about the cravings coming back now - even though they get worse on day two and three, then level off at four and then start to subside on day 5.
I honest to God, just needed that ten minutes of smoking to - pardon the pun - catch my breath, and the hour of no cravings afterwards, to get my second wind.
Has anyone here been a substantial and serious smoker and then tried to quit? I'm doing this cold turkey, and it is the opposite of fun.
I really want to hear about your stories even if you didn't manage to kick the habit, and I want to know if I'm alone feeling like this or not. This is... I mean I hate to sound like a wuss. I've done some hard things in my life. When I am completely free of nicotine though, this will easily rate as one of the top 5 most difficult things I have done in my life.
It's... A Hell of a lot harder than I thought it would be. Am I alone?
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