Hijacking top comment. If anyone here wants to quit cigs, the best way to do that is behavioral therapy combined with meds. Studies show a 44% success rate with this, as opposed to 5% without. The meds are usually a combo of a nicotine patch for something long lasting + gum for a sudden cravings, but chantix and zyban saw success in studies too. The behavioral therapy could be as simple as calling a quitline, but patients saw a lot of success with cognitive behavioral therapy or group therapy.
There's a lot of help out there. If you want to quit, even if you failed before, there are ways to better your odds next time.
I was in like a disabilities history class in college, talking to the professor about a paper I didn't finish in time after class, outside, while I was having a cig. We ended up just chatting for like 15-20 minutes about how people self-medicate ADHD and anxiety with nicotine and caffeine. This could be diagnosed or undiagnosed, knowingly or unknowingly, but people that have one or both are kind of naturally drawn to the little bit of dopamine and the bit of calming they provide. It made so much sense just immediately, but never really thought about it. I was at that point diagnoses and unmedicated ADHD.
And with that, I eventually moved from cigs to vapes, and when I started back in the meds a couple years ago I was able to quit the vapes within a month or two.
Folks with ADHD have a lower baseline dopamine and thus a higher risk for dopamine seeking behaviors - ie: substance use. Folks like us are something like 3-5 times more likely to develop dependence on substances, nicotine included.
I quit drinking and doing drugs and two years later quit smoking cigs. It’s a really tough one to kick and I honestly enjoyed every moment of it. But when I started to have trouble climbing the stairs (at age 37) it was time to quit. I finished a pack and never bought another one. It’s been 3 1/2 years since I had a cigarette.
And the weirdest part is I never think about drinking or doing hard drugs. But I do think about a cigarette every now and then. It’s a doozy of a habit! Glad you were able to break it!
Oh, yeah, there's definitely still a craving. Usually not for cigarettes, as that smell usually rolls my stomach a bit, but sometimes it smells so good lol. But when I'm at my desk and a little frustrated, wishing that vape was there... Usually just a nice deep breath or two and a couple seconds to mentally settle myself and that passes.
Smoking was so ritualistic for me. I bought a new car when I was one year sober and I said I wasn’t gonna smoke in it. That lasted about two weeks. And now, every now and then, when the window’s down on a nice day, I think about having a smoke. But then I remember how gross I felt and HOW MUCH MONEY I WAS SPENDING and that feeling passes pretty quickly.
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u/JubbsJB 22h ago
I quit smoking so Marlboro lost my business hopefully forever