Posted on 11/16/2001 1:06:30 PM PST by MississippiMan
I haven't had a cigarette since January 23rd. Unfortunately, I still crave cigarettes constantly. Some of that is due to the fact that I've remained addicted to nicotene gum or patches or inhalers or whatever my nicotene du jour is. Another part of it is that a small majority of the time, smoking was actually a very pleasurable thing. Only a few cigarettes a day really felt good; the others were sheer, utter habit.
Contrary to all the assurances, I don't feel wondrously better. My breathing has not improved much at all. My sense of taste is the one big difference and that difference is indeed dramatic.
When all is said and done, however, the only factor that keeps me from starting back at this point is the smell. I had no idea I stank like that for 20+ years. Good grief! How rank! It's not so much the smell of the smoke itself, but the smell it leaves on you and anything it touches in an enclosed area.
With that in mind, I've smelled some WONDERFUL smelling pipe tobacco over the years and am wondering if maybe I oughta take up a pipe smoking session maybe once per night to take care of my craving. Any pipe smokers out there? What are those tobaccos that smell so wonderful?
Thanks...
MM
Nice sensitive advice for a guy who is sincerely looking for good advice. Maybe you could add what kind of casket he should order to your comments.
My husband smokes nothing but pipe, he likes Amphora regular, but I am not sure you can get it in the US.
If you stick to rigid copper it might be ok.
Guess you're right, my husband and I are smokers, and at 67 & 70, we really should get our will in order.
By the way, we are both healthy.
If you can maintain the discipline...you should stay off all tobacco products. None are terribly good for you but some are historically less harmful than others.
I quit ciggies at age 30 after 14 years of a pack a day. I unfortunately took up cigars at a poker game one night at age 36....now 8 years later...I smoke a couple of double coronas a day (La Gloria Cubanas as a rule). I of course don't inhale them but I have seen many ciggie smokers inhale cigars because just puffing on them doesn't do the trick. I admit that I love a good cigar...having one right now actually but when I'm busy or traveling I don't smoke. I can go all day without craving yet I love them when I can relax at my desk or at home. My only consolation is that there are a lot of very old cigar smokers. But they also killed US Grant and Mark Twain among quite a few other folks of reknown. It's a devil's bargain to be sure. Some folks can only smoke a cigar a week....If I had that discipline then I would just abstain.
The key to tobacco use other than abstaining is only to smoke at certain times and not on impulse which is impossible when addicted to ciggies.
Just my 2 cents...
Unfortunately, a fishing partner got me started on cigars and I started inhaling them eventually. So I went back to cigarettes.
When I was off smoking, I ballooned to 200 lbs. Pick your poison junior!
No! It will get easier, but it will take time.
I quit cold turkey, no patches no nothing, many years ago, it took time and I was irritable, but it was one of the best things I ever did.
Keep fighting, it's worth it.
I can speak from the experience of smoking a pipe for 15 years after smoking cigarettes for the thirty years prior to my pipe experience.
For me I enjoyed a pipe after my teeth got over being sore from gripping the pipe stem.
It was cheaper but nastier due to the juices that came from the tobacco and saliva mixture.
I used pipes with a throw away filter which helps if you do not allow filter to become saturated.
The pipes I used were fairly inexpensive, and I used the less costly pipes because I found no advantage in paying more for something that had no better taste nor burned any cooler.
I did no use any fancy mixture since after setting the tobacco on fire it still burned my tongue which was less of a problem as I added the years to my pipe smoking experience and only smelled good to the public around me, I regularly used Sir Walter Raleigh tobacco for that fifteen years.
I quit smoking completely in 1984(17 years ago)when it got to where when I breathed deeply I would cough and almost choke, literally.
So in conclusion(mine)a pipe is just as bad as cigarettes as also are cigars.
I've been told you are not supposed to inhale pipe or cigar smoke and my response to that assinine statement is, shouldn't that also include cigarettes, if you're not supposed to inhale, then why smoke?
By the way the best and least expensive way to stop smoking is JUST QUIT!!
Don't let anyone tell you that quitting "cold turkey" is not the best way.
Try this if you are really sincere ask God to give you a greater desire to quit than to continue, it really is that important and it works, but you cannot expect to not suffer some strong withdrawal problems.
Allow yourself time to resist the onslaught of doubt that will come through the urge to just take one puff!
!!!!"DON'T GIVE IN"!!!!
and
!!!!"DON'T GIVE UP"!!!!
Listen to Orblivion he's been there and done that!
That was the easy part, the hard part is breaking the routine. Whenever you're normally used to a cigarette such as after a meal, when drinking etc. It's like pavlov's dog. To this day I still get cravings at specific times although over time some of them have gone completely.
I also switched to chewing and smokeless (dip) tobacco a couple of month's after quitting. This was a mistake because I had it beat and now I crave that instead of cigarettes. My advice is to substitute those cravings with something else other than a pipe. It's like getting rid of one bad habit and substituting it with another. Take it from someone who made the same mistake.
That is unless you don't mind being addicted to a substance but personally, once the cigarettes were kicked I couldn't believe how I was so paralyzed by something the way I was with tobacco.
Yup, same thing with me, its bad isn't it? I smoked for 20 years and quit cold-turkey about 12 years ago. Don't miss it a bit and I am so glad that i don't have to pay 3.50 a pack to kill myself!
You need to get away from nicotine all together whatever the form. The first three days are the worst after that its not so bad. Heavy praying and the help of my Lord Jesus freed me from my twenty year, pack and a half a day addiction. Good luck to you.
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