List of smoking triggers

I quit March 3 of this year; that makes it -- what? -- five months plus now w/o a cig. I had been a two packs a day man for many, many years (I'm 70 yrs old fakrissake). Triggers? As so many others have already pointed out, nearly anything and everything can be a trigger. The physical craving, the true addiction, that's easy to take care of. I went on the patch regimen immediately and tapered off gently. Haven't worn a patch now for a couple of months. No great physical need for the nicotine any more. What's hard is the psychological habit. As Robert said, driving a car and not being able to light up is tricky. After every meal the desire is there because the system is used to considering a cigarette as the last part of any meal. And so on.

I gave up alcohol almost 14 years ago so the beer-and-a-cigarette thing isn't there. I'm not at all sure I could drink anything alcoholic without a smoke to accompany it. Not about to try. Never was that much of a grass-head and haven't had a joint almost as long as I haven't had a drink. I think that if I took even one toke I'd be right back with Smirnoff and Pall Malls (the non-filter kind). All those things connect one with another in my warped mind. It's so much easier to just say no. For me, anyway.

Heh! I wondered about that when I saw this thread earlier.

For me it's stress and proximity. I only buy cigarettes when I'm stressed. Just one or two does the trick. Then I have one or two per day until the pack is gone because they're there. Then I can go without until the next time I'm stressed.

I was a regular smoker for years (started at age 12 to stunt my growth) but never more than a pack a day and never at school or work. I'd light up my first cigarette of the day when I got home at night. I have two sisters who are still heavy smokers. The only clean breath they draw is the first one of the morning. Both of them sound like they belong in a pulmonary ward. Both insist it's just allergies.

Nothing will make me start smoking again but, watching old movies, Bette Davis movies in particular, just make my mouth water sometimes. My God could that woman smoke!!

Used ciggies like a conductor's baton!

It's the activities you/we associate cigarettes with. Those associations become fixed habits:

...Like a cigarette with your morning cup of coffee.
A glass of wine with a cigarette.
A reflex cigarette when one feels anxious or worried.
Smoking as an "aid" to concentration, when you're working on some demanding task. Then a cigarette to congratulate yourself on a job well done!

The hard thing, when trying to give up, is de-programming yourself from those associations. Coffee doesn't taste quite the same without a cigarette. That wine you liked so much tastes rather strange now. How do you stop yourself from reaching for a cigarette when working on that demanding task? And how do you celebrate completing it now?

It's difficult.

Successfully quitting might require quite a few changes in how you structure your day, changing your "normal" activities to completely different ones in which there are no entrenched smoking associations.

If you put out, always smoke.

Have you tried giving up, Msolga?

I know one of the other really hard bits people often report is the bit where all the little cilia start regenerating, and working again, and one begins to cough up some of the muck that has been lining one's lungs......ewwwwwwwwww!

and the insomnia that generally hits at around the two-week point. All those clogged up nerve endings coming back to life makes for restless sleep for a bit.

I read this thread title and thought it said "List of smoking tigers."



"They're grrrr*cough*rreat!"


Imagine what sort of giantess you'd be if you hadn't started smoking.

See? It worked!!!

But the way she'd light one and take that first drag and have the smoke swirling in and around her face and she'd pull it in through her mouth and her nostrils and looked like her ears and eyeballs too. Unbelievable. She made it look so damned good. Her best smoking movie, IMO, was "Dead Ringer" with Karl Malden and Peter Lawford. Even better than "All About Eve" and the one with Paul Henreid and the infamous one match, 2-ciggie scene.

Now, Voyager.

Really? I thought (and so far it seems true) that quitting would help my insomnia. After smoking I can never go to sleep right away.

I hardly ever remember my dreams (usually every 6 months or so) but last night I dreamed I bought a pack of reds and was smoking (and worrying about whether it would make me go back to regular smoking).

Everything makes me want a smoke.

Dyslexia is a wonderful thing. Every time i see the title of this thread, i read: "List of smoking tigers."

Oh, I still get those - I'll get drunk the night before, go to sleep, dream that I got drunk and smoked a cig, and wake up wondering whether I actually did or not.

Not remembering your dreams has a lot to do with the copious marijuana usage - it will tamp that down for sure. I'd be surprised if your dreams didn't increase in complexity and frequency. Actually now that I think about it, I used the patch to quit smoking (which worked), and that thing gave me crazy, lucid dreams. Really cool ones.

Cycloptichorn

It might have been, looking at it scientifically, that the crazy, lucid dreams were caused by the brain cells being starved of something in tobacco which is not in the patch.

I've heard of people coming off marijuana having wierd dreams.

The specification was needed. I would have started to worry, if it was otherwise.

Any dream you can describe is a tame and rather bourgeois affair.

Yeah, now I just smoke tobacco in pipes, cigars (inhaling!) and cigarillos instead!

Just kiddin', but I did quit weed as well. It just wasn't over two weeks ago and isn't intended to be a permanent thing.