Cigarettes vs. alcohol?
 

Question: For those who smoked, what was harder for you to quit, the booze or the cigs? I quit smoking almost 20 years ago and remember it sucked really bad, but after a couple months it was much better.

How does that compare to the alcohol withdrawls?

They're both a tough nut to crack but I've seen more people quit the booze.

Had I not quit drinking, I'd of never been able to quit smoking.

Thats how it was for me.

booze was far far far worse to quit then smokes and I had quit smokes a fwe times before. the lessons I learned quiting booze have enabled me to be smoke free for the longest ever too.

similar here, many failed quit attempts (smoking) have taught me that I definitely need to quit the booze as well, if I want to stand a chance at a long term quit. so this time I'm tag-teaming the two... it's only day 04, I'll keep you posted.

Alcohol

nicotine...terrible affliction. I always got a chuckle out of all the people at meetings fixin up. theres obviously a similar receptor situation going on. dopamine I think. I quit drinking and using polypharm 6 months ago. figured dropping the smokes was just too much to ask, in my raw state.

here I am. six months. solid. scared to death of dealing with nicotine withdrawl. MEANESS, IRRITABILITY. I get angry just thinking about it. I will have to face it. preferably before it ruins my lungs. it really would suck to put in all the effort to get sober, just to have to carry an o2 tank because I couldn't face up to one last addiction.

I quit smoking 36 years ago, and it was the hardest thing I have ever done. Quitting drinking was a struggle at times, but nothing like nicotine. I think everyone is different.

Two of my closest friends died from lung cancer - one smoked daily starting at age 13 (she died at 41), and the other had quit 15 years before she died. I am glad I gave it up. One vice is plenty for me to deal with.

Leviathan what helped me was I started running. I figured I couldn't smoke and run, so it really helped. The first two weeks were killer, but then it slowly got better, to the point now where I can't stand it.

I hope that's how I'll feel down the road about alcohol.

I smoked 20 Marlboro, or more, per day for 20 years.
I quit smoking 9 years before I quit drinking.
I was able to do this at my wife's request (insistence).
I used nicotine chewing gum to get over the cravings.
I had a few brief relapses when I worked with smokers, but was able to put it down again, quickly.

When it came to alcohol, there didn't seem to be a way that I could stop drinking without help.
To be honest, I didn't really want to stop.
Our marriage very nearly ended before I decided to go to AA and get some help.
Thankfully, I haven't had a relapse, yet.

After a 28-year habit I quit smoking three weeks ago today and feel GREAT.
What worked for me was the book Easy Way to Stop Smoking by Allan Carr. This book changed my life. Quitting cigarettes is, with this book, effortless. I'm not even kidding you. It I brainwashes you from both the actual nicotine addiction (the withdrawals of which aren't that bad AT ALL) and from cultural and media brainwashing.
I don't know how many failed attempts I had at quitting the cigarettes, and it got to the point where I didn't even TRY to quit when I was pregnant.
This book? Buy it.

Smoking was a joke for me compared to alcohol. Smoking doesn't provide the "euphoria" that alcohol does, so it was much easier for me to quit. Smoking is terrible, terrible for your blood vessels. I hope to feel just as disgusted about alcohol as I do about smoking, some day.

They were both awful, and quitting weed isn't really a day at the park either. For me, alcohol was the worst, cigs second, and weed a distant third. I don't know why but watching my friends kill themselves with cigs is the hardest on me right now. It seems like such a stupid habit to maintain with the health concerns of course but now also being a social pariah and the heinous expense. Where I live, a pack of smokes costs about the same as an hour of minimum wage so poor folks work the first hour of the day to kill themselves. I just want to shake them by the collar and scream WTF are you doing? Knock it off! There is no good excuse to keep doing this to yourself! People love you!

On top of all this, after years of being a cool guy 2 pack a day smoker (age 17-29) I am now not only a bitchy anti smoker, I am fully allergic to second hand smoke. It makes me sick.

I have found cigarettes in my 16 yo's backpack. It really bummed me out. (I also caught him smoking weed a couple times too, which also was a huge disappointment.) I started smoking both when I was about 14 or 15, so I shouldn't have been too terribly surprised. I was honest with him about my experience with both, and I also stressed the fact that I quit and it was a HUGE effort and took TONS of willpower. I told him it's so much easier if you never even pick up a cigarette in the first place.

Just dawned on me that advice applies to the drink as well.

I use to smoke like 4 cigs a day ..... now that im trying to ditch it all ....im up to pack a day, go figure......I guess I gave up one drug for another.

Never picked up a single cigarette in my life thankfully (and don't plan to ever :biggrin:)....... my dad started smoking in his teens and he looks like hell not even 50 years later, nasty nasty habit. It really seems to be catching up to him, he is constantly coughing nowadays so obviously all those years of smoking have done a number on his lungs.

I will say this: at least with cigarettes there is at least some public awareness about the dangers, lung cancer, etc. I mean, my god...... cigarettes have been basically villainized and demonized into the ground. The government's attitude also seems to reflect this negative societal view (i.e. the deliberately high taxes on cigar sales). There is also still a pretty commonly held "stigma" against smokers as well, people in general still view smoking as a "dirty" habit.

...... alcohol on the other hand is portrayed as "safe" or "fun" by society at large, so in that regard i can see how it is in a way "easier" to get hooked on booze since this country and culture is a very pro-alcohol environment. I'm a little past 6 months into being sober, but i still feel very much "scammed" by the whole thing.......... a little angry too. Often i think to myself

"if only i had known more about this it never would've gotten out of control in the first place".

Hindsight really is 20/20.

Quitting nicotine was a lot easier for me.

Nicotine was 10x harder. Worse that alcohol and benzos.

In my opinion and from what I've seen of others, smoking is harder to quit I n the short term (first 30-90 days) but booze is harder to stay off in the long term (6 months +).