rusty443

i have been thinking for quite a few months about giving up smoking, friends are saying that i should be carefull, i feel the time is right and feel strong enough, how come people are saying be carefull? i have been sober for quite a while now and can't see it affecting my sobriety. does anyone agree with my friends?

Tazman53

rusty I still smoke, right now I feel rock solid in my sobreity, I myself am waiting to come up with a date to quit smoking, unlike the drinking, I am not suffering any problems at the present from smoking so I am procastinating.

If I recall you have been sober about 2 1/2 years now. Just an old drunks opinion, but I say go for it keeping in mind that if you suddenly get an urge to drink it would be a good idea to buy a pack of smokes! LOL

If you decide to do it please keep in touch, I want to hear how you did it, or why you didn't. Please keep that sobriety as your number one priority.

rusty443

thanx tazman, you're right two and a half years sober. i have this nagging thought in my head which stems from my father's sobriety, five plus years sober then he goes and dies from lung cancer.

the advice you give is good, i can always try, i'll keeep in mind to buy a pack of fags if it gets too much. i lol to that by the way

Rowan

I was a smoker up until I entered rehab 3+ years ago - I was told that the facility had recently been legislated as smoke-free (I know - a rehab, can you believe it??) - so I took that as the incentive to quit cold turkey. And I was withdrawing from benzos as well - eek!!
After a couple of days there, I realized that the 'patients' were sneaking into the forest to light up. Further investigation revealed a nice set-up of lawn chairs where they could smoke and chat. Turns out the facilitators knew about the arrangement but turned a blind eye to it - they knew it was hard enough being there without being able to smoke.
But - I'd gone a couple of days and figured I'd go with the original plan - so I began going for daily walks during our daily breaks, and the air helped clear my head.
Haven't had a cigarette since.
I say GO FOR IT!

Rowan

Peter

I have been a smoker longer than I have been a drinker and know first hand how hard it is to quit, but I assume the suggestions made by your friends to be careful stems from the belief that quitting the tobacco too quickly on the heels of alcohol may be subjecting your self to more than you can reasonably handle at small notice and may just find yourself back to square one again. Based on my own observations there seems to be some element of truth to the notion but only you can decide for yourself if you are ready to quit. Good hunting.

Nuudawn

lol..I think I've quit 4 times in my 4 months of sobriety. I've decided to put that off a great while. For me, my addictive voice kept getting me with "c'mon now! you've quit drinking...don't be unreasonable..can't do everything at same time"...argh! I didn't find that quitting jeopardized my sobriety..that may be the worry of friends. I just know that I need to have more sober time under my belt to defeat the nicobeast's rationale. 2 1/2 years would be long enough for me. Go for it.

slacker

I know I am strong enough to face my demons one at a time, but why battle them all at once and increase my odds of failure? One day at a time, one battle at a time. YMMV

LeftBehind

I stopped smoking cigs twenty years ago. But has anyone tried the patch? Someone was telling me it worked for them.

GlassPrisoner

I think after 2.5 years you won't be putting your sobriety in jeopardy.

If you had , say, 60 days, I'd feel otherwise.

just1coke

When I quit smoking, it was easier on me physically than when I quit drinking. The biggest problem I had w/ quitting smoking was I had trouble sleeping for a few days, and I was irritable.. It was cake compared to when I quit drinking.

But as others have said, if you get a hankering for a drink, smoke a cig instead.

Speaking off, a friend of mine who quit intentionally left about a half a pack of cigarettes ontop of the fridge, and whenever he got a craving for a smoke that he couldnt avoid he would pull out one of those super stale dry as the desert make you gag cigarettes and try to smoke it. I dont know if I reccomend that, but it worked for him. I just quit cold turkey.