NoTears

I loved to smoke (3+ packs/day) and when I finally started trying to quit it took me a few years - I grieved for the loss and couldn't bear to think of all of those long years ahead with no cigarette ever again... that was 15 years ago and it gave me some insight when I was trying to quit drinking.

I started smoking hookah earlier this year and like it - doesn't bother my asthma and I don't crave it when I don't do it. I'm watching how I use it though...addicts...meh.

Ranger

DD - I quit a 12yr dipping habit about three years before booze. The first addiction my wife knew about, the second...well...not so much.

I used "Bacc Off" to kick the habit. Basically, it's fake snuff. The official program involves a partner who mixes bacc off with the real stuff according to a specific step-down schedule and becomes your tobacco pimp for the better part of three months (i.e. you are instructed to get your "tobacco" only from your partner and your partner is instructed to never deny you the mixture no matter how much you go through).

Of course the fake stuff is quite different than real. But, the step-down process is so gradual you don't notice it much. By the end of the program, the containers are 100% bacc off and your tastes have adjusted.

Once my wife was no longer mixing (i.e. I was completely off tobacco), I continued to "feed" the physical addiction by chewing straight bacc off for another several months. Eventually, however, I naturally weaned off the fake stuff because there was no longer a chemical addiction driving my behavior.

DryScotsman

I still smoke but a pack of 10 can last me up to a month. I use it as my safety valve for when I am mega stressed. I plan to stop once I am 6 months sober but am keeping going in moderation just now.

Db1105

I gave up cigarettes 10 years after I stopped drinking. That was back when they went up to $1 a pack. I abstained from tobacco for a few years when I started smoking cigars I was only smoking the really high end stuff and those smuggled in from the forbidden island of cigars. I've cut way back in the past few years. It's strange, but I do have control over smoking cigars.

In reality, cigarettes are not real tobacco, but more of a chemically treated nicotine delivery system.

Toronto68

I quit drinking Nov 2009, then tried to quit smoking cigarettes in April 2010. I made it for a week, then gave up. I tried quitting (cigarettes) again in May 2011 and haven't given up since then.

I could have used the excuse that you shouldn't try to outdo yourself in early sobriety when I quit in 2010. I don't minimise the importance in focusing on the sobriety from alcohol first, but I might have exercised a little more bravery that first time. (I didn't go back to drinking at any point, by the way.) The extra year that I smoked was a rather heavy one, both in terms of tobacco use and caffeine use. Once I quit smoking, the desire for caffeine plummeted like crazy. So I tossed that too. Then, to my delight, that was gone too.

I don't know if it would be taking on too many challenges for you to try to quit both. And of course, I can't know that, just as I can't determine that one method of quitting alcohol addiction is going to work for you while others do not; I can only provide my experience as an example and the rest is commentary and conjecture - very subjective things. Just understand that you might be looking at an extended period of time smoking more than you would like. No matter what you do, I think you should have an outlook that associates a great deal of pride with each day that you make it through, and just keep building on that. If you don't manage to stick with quitting the smoking, don't beat yourself up; look upon the quitting of alcohol as the main priority and gain security in that department first. I am happy with what I've done, but if I could correct the past a little, I would have gone further with my quitting of cigarettes in 2010 and not given in to fear (and probably used an excuse).

Good luck with how you proceed.

sobern2003

I quit smoking 10 days shy of my 7th sobriety anniversary.July6 2010

Becky
One year, nine months, one week, one day, 10 hours, 12 minutes and 45 seconds. 32421 cigarettes not smoked, saving $4,636.24. Life saved: 16 weeks, 13 hours, 45 minutes.

BHF

I've smoked for about 17 years. Never really heavy... no more than a pack a day at the worse. I used Chantix while still drinking and was able to quit smokes for about 6 months. Started back. I took my last drink approx. 18 months ago and put the smokes down March 1st, 2012. So, I'd been sober for about 16 months when I tried to quit smoking this time. For some reason, it seems easier this time? I am using nicotine gum for when I get an urge, but it hasn't been bad. I think it's in large part to the fact that I can physically feel the difference that not smoking makes in my everyday life. When I was drinking I couldn't tell the difference. With just a month and half smoke-free, my lungs feel better when jogging, my hacking cough has left, the nauseous feeling that I used to get after a smoke every so often is gone. It's also much less expensive.

SnowDaisy

I quit smoking four years ago with the patch and gum. It was hard for a few weeks, but then it was fine. Now I can smoke occasionally and not have a problem. Alcohol has been much harder for me.

mirage

I smoked whenever I wanted when I quit drinking. I allowed myself to lean on it. I quit smoking 6 months after I quit drinking. WAY easier to quit when not drinking. They went hand in hand for me. Good luck!!

TheRandomPotato

Well they say its not the alcohol that kills alcoholics its the cigarette smoking.

Leemzer

14 years, 11 months before quitting drinking....and I was soooo much more addicted to nicotine. Or was I??

onlythetruth

I quit smoking way before I quit drinking. Strangely enough, I didn't find it particularly difficult to quit smoking...I never really enjoyed it that much.

Elphaba

I quit smoking five years ago. At that time I was primarily a weekend binge drinker with occasional sessions in between, but when I quit smoking I became a daily binge drinker. I took one habit and piled it onto another. I started smoking when I was twelve, and started to partake in binge drinking shortly thereafter. I am for the first time in my adult life learning how to appropriately handle stress. Anyways, heading out for a dozen doughnuts and some chocolate milk.

TinaCthruU

I quit smoking first. I associated smoking and drinking together. If I had a ciggy, I was was usually drinking...(when was I not drinking) I was on Wellbutrin for depression, but it was first prescribed for smoking cessation. I believe that's why it wasn't that hard for me to quit...the cigarettes tasted nasty. I have friends who have quit on Chantex. Good luck to you!

DayTrader

I dipped for 25 years.... old-school Cope or Kodiak were my two brands.

I've smoked for periods as well up to a pack and a half a day.

Stopping smoking was tough but it PALED in comparison to dipping. I could stop smoking, pick it up again...stop again....it wasn't TOO big of a problem. Don't get me wrong, stopping smoking was tough. The desire to smoke would come but it went away before too long - I could cope with it even though it was a pain in the butt. With dipping.....it was similar only 100x worse. FOR ME, I'd rather quit smoking every year than EVER go through the "trying to stop dipping" nightmare.

I went to an all-male military college in the sough. EVERYone there dipped (it seemed....lol) and very few smoked. The administration knew it was a problem and they had Surgeon General stuff all over the place. One was a graph of nicotine intake into the blood. It compared smoking vs dipping. The "hit" of nicotine from smoking looked like a rocket launch that went to a big # then stayed there for hours vs smoking which was a nice gentle hill then gentle decline.....the "kick" from smoking was long gone before it even began to drop when dipping.

Aaaaaanyway, I'm an AA guy. For me, the only thing that worked on my dipping habit/addiction was the same darn program that worked on my drinking. IN sobriety I tried......oh......probably a half dozen times to "quit" chewing. Just like drinking.....I don't think I ever made it more than a couple days.

When I quit drinking I was NOT willing to give up dipping. Defiant to the end - LOL.

I'll tell ya, AA's steps work just as well on dipping as they do on drinking - which is to say 100% IF I'm willing to work/apply them. For years, I wasn't willing. I tried to quit MY way. Once again, MY way didn't work....imagine that! LOL