DreamingDog

I'm assuming a lot of folks used tobacco in one form or another while they were drinking heavily. The statistics have pointed to the majority of alcoholics being tobacco users, as well. Not sure of the exact percentage. I've always been a dipper. Copenhagen Long Cut is my poison.

When did you guys kick the habit?

Are you still on the tobaccy?

Did you quit before getting off the sauce?

Same time?

A few days after cleaning up?

A few months, years, etc. later?

I'm curious because I'm only three weeks in and I'd really like to be done with this junk but I'm nervous about going back to drinking or something to cope. I'm wondering if I'm trying to temporarily justify my nicotine addiction due to "sobering up." I've read some good stuff about Chantix and may give that a shot.

I'd appreciate y'alls insight.

Purplecatlover

If you want to quit, there's no harm in trying. If you feel it's endangering your sobriety(which is most important) then you can try again later. No need to stress yourself.
I read the Easy Way To Quit Smoking by Allan Carr. Good book.
It's much easier than you think. Good luck.

hypochondriac

I quit both at the same time. It really wasn't an option for me to carry on smoking too, I know that because I tried before.

I like Allen Carr's theory that a drinking problem is actually a smoking problem because you're looking for a greater buzz (or something like that). I'd recommend his book. But saying that I used nicotine supplements for a few weeks because I thought it would make it easier on me giving up booze at the same time. I've heard good things about Chantix too.

If I was you I'd go for it. If you can quit booze you can do anything x

LoftyIdeals

I have quit both simultaneously as well, but when it got too bad, caved on the smokes. My last quit date for drinking is 8/7/11, and for smoking is 1/1/12. Incidentally, not a NY resolution. I just happened to wake up with only one cig on 1/1, and said WTH. It seems to be working thus far. Thank God.

Gavinandnikki

Hi,
I quit the day I checked into rehab and am still nicotine free 107 days later.

I figured inpatient detox was the only place where someone would give me Valium for nicotine withdrawal (in addition to that nasty alcohol withdrawal I was also experiencing lol).

For me, it is more difficult to stay off the cigs than the booze. I have more cigarette cravings than alcohol cravings, but these are getting very short-lived and very manageable.

Good luck. It IS hard, but I think it is worth it.

Chantix made me psychotic. I think nicotine replacement prolongs the withdrawal symptoms, so I went cold turkey.

PJ

stevie88

Quit both at the same time....Only on day 6 but so far so good....

dpatrol

quit smoking 4 years ago....drinking 1 yr 4 months......enjoyed dipping too! i recommend the nicotine lozenge........get a craving.....pop of lozenge.....put it in your lip if you wanna treat it like a dip! best wishes!

Cephas

I quit smoking first. After just over thirty years of smoking I haven't had one in five years now. I didn't know it at the time but the reason it was easy for me is because I acquired atrial fribulation, a heart condition. Every time I tried to smoke I would get heart palps, a tight chest, heart arrhythmia, etc. The only time I could smoke was if I was drinking because then my heart was sedated.

I finally quit for good when they put me in jail for six months and you can't smoke in there.

Like alcohol it only gets worse. Focus on recovery and the "Cravings" or "White knuckling" go away as you find inner peace and cease fighting. You become at peace with the real reason you smoke and drink and stop running from yourself. Acceptance is the key.

12skiptomylue

I started again, 10 days after getting sober. I hate it. I hate the smell, taste, the way it makes my clothes and breath smell....But I like the effect. Classic addictive thinking, I know!

I do plan on quitting soon-ish, but I'm not ready to let go of EVERYTHING yet. I'm a freaking raw nerve right now, and I'm just trying to get through stuff without drinking right now.

GirlFromCO

I quit a couple of weeks after I stopped drinking. Compared to getting sober, it was a piece of cake. The desire to smoke didn't stand a chance against my urge surfing kung fu skills.

m1k3

I was a dipper too. I liked Copenhagen also except back in the day there wasn't a long cut version. Looked like a tar ball when you spit it out. I haven't dipped for 15 years now. I quit drinking last month because I found that living alone it was real easy to get into the habit of drinking every day. I wasn't getting wasted but I didn't like the direction it was going. To me it was easier to quit than spend time fussing how when it was ok to drink or how many days should I go between drinks and I'm bored let's have a drink. If I don't drink I don't have to screw around with all that. It was a waste of energy. Just shy of a month now since I quit.
I also found the dip much harder to quit that the booze.

MemphisBlues

I listened to my shrink and AA friends not to quit smoking during my first year...being the alcoholic/addict I am, I bought an electronic cigarette at 10 months to give it a shot...Haven't had an "analogue'' cig in 8 months now, and been sober for 18 months.

I'm digital kinda guy...

I do vape constantly, however. I know several people who have relapsed on alcohol after trying to quit cigarettes and failing and figuring, WTF...might just as well go all out.

Itchy

Well I also quit both at once while doing an in hospital detox for alcohol and smoking at the local VA hospital. I smoked three packs a day for decades and was drinking 30 plus units a day mostly beer with wine and scotch daily. I knew if I smoked I would drink, and if I drank I would smoke. So for me, it was easier to just do both as I was not trying, I had decided to quit and no craving or desire was going to ever let me get hooked on either again. I stayed on the patches a bit differently too. I wasn't taking any chances and neither was my doc who wrote scrips for them. Instead of doing the 21mg, and the 14 mg, and then the 7 mg in one month and be done with it, I did each step for four months, so was off nicotine for good a year later. Then my oral cravings took over when I stopped the patches, weird huh? I started eating starlite mints, a pound a day for months and gained 50 pounds. I stopped those and started to lose the weight and then relapsed and ate the mints for another month and just quit again last week.

The mints were strange for me because I never ate candy, detested sugary cakes and pies except for apple pie, and that once a year with a big slice of cheddar cheese melted on top. That wasn't the alcohol it was the smokes because I wasn't trying to eat everything in sight until I stopped the patches.

At no point was my sobriety or no smoking in danger. Tobacco was easy too the way I did it. See I went at it from the perspective of how can I do this easiest as well as permanently. That was never in question and I had the PAWS from hell for six months.

I am getting better by the month and will never smoke or drink alcohol again. This coming September 21 will be two years for me for both, and right now it is 19 months.

I never thought I could, and once I volunteered for that in hospital detox it was never in doubt. I have talked to several folks that had the same switch they were able to flip like me. Lots of physical PAWS for six months, some few longer, and still not over it all. But I am a different man today. My confidence and serenity have made me again comfortable in my own skin. I missed that more than anything. Nothing can make me go back and give them up again.

Good luck folks, it can be done.

One more thing. My wife still smokes and drinks her one or maybe two scotches in the evenings. NO one could make me quit either drinking or smoking and all of you know that until you decide nothing, no scare tactics, nor hassle, will ever get us there. It was against my religion to detox without drugs, and my religion keeps me safe from harm in most instances. You see I am a devout practicing coward!

I don't hassle any smokers, don't hate the smell or crave it. I can stand with one while they have a smoke break, and no craving. It is so over!

Fandy

it took me about 2 years to quit smoking completely. I smoked heavily for about 18 years. (2.5 packs a day). I quit nearly 20 years ago, before the patch was around. i really quit because it got to the point where i couldn't stand the smell...in my mouth and my hair.

i still pick one up evey now and then and cough for 2 days after....then leave it alone for years

quitting drink was 10X harder even when i made myself sick

SomethingBetter

I quit smoking 10+ years ago, I was around 33 years old, I had wanted to quit for a long time and had numerous failed attempts.

I was asked one day by someone who had quit years before me, they said ‘I really wish you would put them cigarettes down’, I don’t know it really stuck with me and one night I was watching TV about what smokes will do to our innards.

After that night I quit for good…

Ghostly

Me too. I was a dipper. Quit it about 7 months before the alcohol. I used Chantix to stop, and I don't know if it woulda worked without.

For some people tobacco and alcohol go hand in hand, so it's beneficial to quit both at the same time. For others, it is too much to do them at the same time, and may be better till you get a handle on one to stop the other.

Either way, obviously tobacco is bad, and it's better to quit sooner than later. Good luck.

eJoshua

No medical advice here, but I would urge anyone to be very careful with Chantix. Talk to your doctor carefully about your mental health history before using it.

My personal experience with it was that it led me to be very suicidal and have lucid nightmares. I took it for about 1 month until I finally couldn't take it any more.

Having said that, the best way for me to quit smoking was kind of the opposite from how I quit drinking: I just stopped buying cigarettes and tried not to think about them. Cravings were really bad for a couple days and then no problem. The physical symptoms of nicotine withdrawal are truthfully not that bad, but the psychosomatic symptoms are what gets ya. Once I convinced myself that quitting wasn't as big of a deal as I was making it in my head and I just decided to stop and not think about cigarettes it was a couple of days of feeling a little dopey and smooth sailing from there.

warrens

I too quit the day I checked into inpatient for depression and alcohol. My sobriety date is March 18. I have zero alcohol cravings thus far, but am about to smoke my shirt! I must quit, I choose to quit. But it is really, really hard for this addict.

warren

FLA

I feel that cigarettes help me stay sober I wouldn't want to have two intense cravings at once, sone people can do it and some can't. It also helps me in drinking situations, I can light up a cig and socialize without drinking.

Fallow

Quit both at once. Truth is I wanted to quit smoking more than I did drinkin. Damn smokes make it so I cant breathe. But I got to the point where one went with the other so...done and done.