soopy99

When I quit smoking the short-term withdrawal symptoms were pretty significant. It was really difficult to get through day 1 without nicotine. But within a week or so, it was over. Cravings disappeared and I didn't think about smoking. It was tough to stop but easy to stay stopped.

Every time I quit alcohol, I have the exact opposite experience; day one is easy, particularly if I taper a bit, and aside from a bit of trouble getting to sleep for the first week, the physical withdrawal symptoms are negligible. But, while the cravings diminish a bit over time, they still seem to stick around long term.

I assume this is a pretty common experience. If it wasn't, there'd be 12 step groups for tobacco. My question is why the difference? Is it because alcohol affects the pleasure center of the brain and tobacco does not? Any other thoughts?

JeffreyAK

I don't know what explains the difference from a brain chemistry point of view, but drugs are all different and also affect people differently. I do know that my experience with acute withdrawal from alcohol was quite different - at the end it was a barely-living demon world of confusion, nausea, uncontrollable shaking, dizziness, and hallucinations that took days to finally dissipate, and during that time I was basically incapacitated and shuffling from bed to bathroom. When I've quit smoking in the past, I got strong periods of cravings but there weren't really any other physical withdrawal symptoms, and like you within days to a week the cravings mostly disappeared.

fini

yes, my experiences were much as you describe.
i don't see that there's a chemical explanation; my own "opinion" of my experience is that alcohol and drinking touched me in a whole different place and way than tobacco ever did, or ever could.

Nevertheless

I have heard it said that alcohol is just as,or even more addicting than heroin. As was said above,all addicting things act differently.
One thing is for sure. Booze alters the thought process,where nicotine really does not.. I mostly drank in the evening,but I drank EVERY day. During the day when I was sober,alcohol was still effecting the way I thought. And when we quit completely all kinds of things change in our minds and bodies both,and it goes on for months. Nicotine doesn't really do any of that.
But yea, The last time when I quit smoking. I knew I had it whipped after a few days. I was done with it. Booze had me on the fence for a long long time.
I'm glad to be rid of both of them

Fly N Buy

Many struggle as much or more with this!

https://nicotine-anonymous.org/

Nicotine Anonymous is a non-profit 12-step fellowship of men and women helping each other live nicotine-free lives. Nicotine Anonymous welcomes all those seeking freedom from nicotine addiction, including those using cessation programs and nicotine withdrawal aids. The primary purpose of Nicotine Anonymous is to help all those who would like to cease using tobacco and nicotine products in any form. The Fellowship offers group support and recovery using the 12 Steps as adapted from Alcoholics Anonymous to achieve abstinence from nicotine.

Soberwolf

The difference is alcohol nearly killed me

Fly N Buy

Tobacco kills more people than AIDS, alcohol, car accidents, illegal drugs, murders and suicides combined.

After a short period of withdrawal from both alcohol and tobacco the "cravings" were mental obsessions for me. It the brain once again wanting the pleasure receptors to be jacked up! I found tobacco more difficult to remove from my life than alcohol.

My opinion is once we learn how to flood the brain with pleasure, we have broken the switch. It can be turned off - but recovery is the price.

Redmayne

Not sure if, as a life long pipe smoker with a wide knowledge of the subject, if I'm allowed to comment on this?

The difference being, p;ipe tobacco is natural, free from all the harmful chemicals and additives found in cigarette tobacco.

Whilst some do, in the main you tend to 'nose' i.e. savour the flavor of ipe tobacco rather than inhale it.

Making vastly different than either cigarettes or alcohol.

Neither does it, like alcohol, consumed in my drinking days, kill you whilst at the same telling you, you don't suffer from alcoholism...

zjw

Nevertheless you got a good point there. I think thats something many forget or dont realize. Even in our sober moments while active drinkers I know for me I was not thinking clearly even then.

Quiting booze helped me to finally quit cigarettes. I tried doing cigarettes alone only to always come back to them.

But quiting booze was incredibly more difficult for me.

I think idealy its best to be free of any kind of chemical utilized to cope. Or for example the emotional eating etc.. there are a lot of really unhealthy ways to cope with life. I had to weed them all out one by one it was a painful and difficult process. But well worth it.

using anything to help cope easily turns into an addiction of sorts too. I used to get ticked off and go smoke a cigarette or 5 lol. something about asphyxiation was calming i guess? lol.

I have not had a cigarette in about 4 years and sometimes i smell them and i'm like YUK and sometimes I smell them and i'm like Oh man wouldnt that be nice lol. I just keep saying no tho.

Lucky for me I didnt have emotional eating issues or something. I think i probably could have easily developed a valium habit or something tho however i was never able to get my hands on them so thats probably a good thing.

ScottFromWI

I'd tend to agree with the OP on the difference beetween the 2. I didn't smoke but i used smokeless tobacco for years, and I used it literally all day long from the time I woke up until right before I went to bed.

The initial withdrawals were really bad but literally within a few days the physical part was gone. Of course I was still drinking so that probably had something to do with it, but I quit alcohol about 3 years after nicotine and it was exponentially harder both physically and mentally.

fishface

I agree they are both poisons. Both can and likely will kill you if abused for a long period of time. But although smoking related deaths are much more prevalent, I do think alcohol is much more dangerous in the short term.

Basically your chance of dying today if abusing both is greater due to alcohol because it you are more likely to have an accident when drunk (driving, falling, overdosing) than from tobacco use which kills over a protracted period of time.

Generally speaking I think if someone suffers from both addictions it's smarter to handle the alcohol issue first as its more threatening in the current timeframe.

The other thing is alcohol withdrawals are potentially deadly while tobacco is not. Therefore it requires a much more serious approach.

Alcohol withdrawals seem much more protracted as well. It can take months or even years for the body to heal itself whereas the body can recover from tobacco use much quicker (though true long term damage may be irreversible).

I think the psychology is different as well. When you drink you get drunk. Your whole mind and body is in a different state whereas with tobacco it has a quick pleasurable effect but it doesn't drastically alter your state of mind. So you likely feel more normal off tobacco than you would being sober all the time.

Just my rambling thoughts.

Elphaba

If memory serves, Alan Carr touched on this in his book 'The Easy Way to Control Drinking'. I think it was along the lines that firstly, smoking is culturally on its way out, while alcohol consumption is very much on trend. And secondly, smoking is completely foreign to the human body, and not tied to any survival mechanism, unlike the act of drinking. Having 'a drink' doesn't quite seem so unnatural, or so obviously feeding an addiction. I'm not sure if I've articulated the point well, but hopefully you get the jist.

seljamark1315

if you want to recover from alcohol addiction and its necessary to have confidence on your self.
after some times you will automatically left this habit....

patientwriter

Hi, for what I know both alcohol and nicotine damages one's health. But, according to the information that I gathered, smoking add the urge to drink more alcohol. And we all know that alcohol has negative effects to liver and brain. We may not see the interactions and their differences right away especially when one is withdrawing from those. Well, I want to share this : Positive and Negative effects of Alcohol and Nicotine . This will help us understand clearly.

Ambuler

Alcohol and nicotine both have habitual ties. You wake up and have a smoke with your coffee, for example. You come home from a stressful day at work and need a glass of wine or a beer to relax. I think the difference is that alcohol changes your perception of reality, whereas nicotine doesn't. In my experience, a cigarette is more of a time waster, where alcohol makes that time easier to deal with. That, to me, is more addictive. Take that as you will.

LexieCat

I found quitting drinking to be easier than quitting smoking. I use e-cigarettes now, because from a health standpoint, nicotine itself is far less dangerous than the products of tobacco combustion inhaled while smoking.

I drink a lot of coffee too, which also has risks. I'm pretty well addicted to both caffeine and nicotine (though I've cut down on the caffeine by making half-caf coffee and tea).

Right now I'm fine with those decisions. I don't have the healthiest diet and I'm way too sedentary. Frankly, I feel like those pose a more serious threat to my health than caffeine and nicotine.

But booze? That was killing me--physically, emotionally, and spiritually.

Parker0065

Both are deadly in so many ways! I don't think it's fair to even make a comparison. It's like saying which would be worse, drowning or burning to death? Either way your dead, and both would be a horrible way to go!!!

I guess you could argue you can't get a "Driving While Nicotined" so in that respect alcohol is more dangerous to yours and others health since at least here in NY you can't really smoke anywhere but in your car and home anymore(second hand smoke laws).

For myself, and I will wager it is likely different for each individual, nicotine physically is a nightmare of all nightmares to quit. The physical effects linger for days and days and when they subside the mental desire kicks in.

There's no doubt quitting alcohol has been both physically and mentally tough on me but when I quit tobacco it was 1000x more difficult physically. Perhaps because I chewed snuff and I've been told it's a more steady constant flow of nicotine to the blood stream over smoking.

I will say from a mental stand point I have the same reaction to both alcohol and nicotine. When something really bad in life my first intuition is to either drink, or chew, or both. Time to start praying and phoning friends!

Bottom line is there's drinkers that don't smoke that outlive smokers that don't drink and vice versa so I just think it's ridiculous to even justify one over the other.
They are both extremely powerful and deadly so don't do either!!!!