Giving up alcohol vs giving up smoking

[allankay]

Giving up alcohol vs giving up smoking

It?s been well documented that smokers usually drink and drinkers often smoke. But if you had to choose which do you say good bye to?

The fact is that the legal age for a person to buy tobacco and alcohol is the same and it?s adding to our culture of binge drinking and smoking. Why? Because you often pick up both habits at the same time. This makes it so much more difficult to quit one or the other. I have tried to quit smoking so many more times than I have tried to give up alcohol. Once I even managed to remain smoke and alcohol free for 6 months but it is only because I quit both habits at the same time.

I have mentioned in my previous post that due to my drinking relapse I started smoking again. Even though I feel that at least for me, giving alcohol is a hundred times more difficult than smoking I feel that I can?t do one without the other. Every time I smell tobacco I get a strong craving for alcohol. On the other hand giving up smoking without quitting alcohol is nearly impossible. Why? Because giving up cigarettes requires tremendous amount of self control and will power. Alcohol, however, breaks both of these defences down. From my experience and from what I read on the internet it is necessary for a person to give up the drink to quit smoking. And in any case would you really like to have a habit that kills a lot more people than alcohol does?

So I think if you are considering giving up smoking or drinking you got to do it at the same time.

I am interested to hear your opinions.

ALLAN K.

[199days]

Giving up alcohol vs giving up smoking

I gave up smoking 8 years ago after many attempts, Alan Carr book got me off them.

Drinking, a few days away from 8 months sober.

Both absurd ridiculous drugs.

But AlcoHELL is the worse of the two by about a million miles. Nicotine yeh may cause some harm to the users insides but thats about it.

AlocHELL is the worst drug ever, behind everything, Violence DUIs Death and carnage the list is endless.

Accident and emergency units in the UK are sinking under the pressure of alcoHELL.

The Uk is becoming Devils island, towns up and down the country after dark are nothing but a mass of seething zombie drunks everywhere.

scary.

[patrice]

Giving up alcohol vs giving up smoking

I have tried many times at giving up both alcohol and nicotine. I've also tried giving up nicotine but still drinking. that didn't work... Now I've recently stopped drinking but still smoking.. So far that IS working..

I really would have loved to have quit both simultaneously but I just couldn't so I've chosen to attack the deadier addiction first...

Patrice

[allankay]

Giving up alcohol vs giving up smoking

199 i like your aloHELL frasing. it seems like its an epidemic, everyone is aware of it but everyone accepts or ignores it. Alcoholism is such a scary/embarassing word but how many people are in denial. So many of close friends co workers... drink 3-4 times a week with a single purpose - to get drunk! However, they would never ever label themselves as alcoholics. So how much is too much??? When you you cross that line?

I have posted another thread where I talk about how personal people take it when you tell them you dont drink... This has been a big problem for me in the past and led to a relapse after 6 months sober...

ALLAN K.

[allankay]

Giving up alcohol vs giving up smoking

patrice;1373152 wrote: I have tried many times at giving up both alcohol and nicotine. I've also tried giving up nicotine but still drinking. that didn't work... Now I've recently stopped drinking but still smoking.. So far that IS working..

I really would have loved to have quit both simultaneously but I just couldn't so I've chosen to attack the deadier addiction first...

Patrice

That has been my experience as well. I have yet to seee a person who has been a heavy smoker and drinker and has managed to give up the booze...

Congratulations on giving up. How long have you been AF?

[199days]

Giving up alcohol vs giving up smoking

Lets the sheep like masses drink and drug, fck em.

Its cool and rebellious to be sober.

[Lavande]

Giving up alcohol vs giving up smoking

Hi Allan,

Welcome to MWO, this is a great place

I wanted to give up both, chose to stop drinking first, which was actually easir for me. We are all different, I know.

I think making a good plan is essential, no matter what you are attempting to do.
I found the MWO Hypno CDs to be very helpful in changing my thinking about AL - glad I got them. Think about incorporating the CDs into your plan

Wishing you the best!
Lav

[DriftyAlison0]

Giving up alcohol vs giving up smoking

I smoked and drank at different times so by the time I quit drinking, I had 3 years smoke free (yes I smoked off and on for a week and still was addicted) and my opinion is if you can, do both, but if not quit the drink first then when your ready quit smoking.

[LillyE]

Giving up alcohol vs giving up smoking

As Lav says we are all different but here's my experience: I finally quit smoking after an entire year of trying. I think I finally just got completely sick and tired of the whole misery of it and of trying, and failing, to quit. I did continue to drink, however. In fact, my drinking, already heavy, increased, and I don't think this was coincidental. As my therapist put it: You take away one coping mechanism and another rushes in to take its place. I think I drank more to help alleviate my increased anxiety about quitting smoking, which of course massively increased my anxiety ultimately. In a way, this was a good thing though, as that's what brought things to a head and led me to address my drinking - an ongoing process.

I have found that a LOT of the lessons I learned from quitting smoking translate to quitting drinking, which has been very helpful, particularly the Alan Carr/Jason Vale type thinking about focusing on what you are gaining from quitting, not what you think you're losing. Feeling gratitude, not deprivation.

I do know a lot of people who feel they couldn't possibly quit both at the same time. I say if you can do it - go for it! Neither is ever going to be easy so why not take the bull by the horns and rid yourself of all those nasty addictions at once and get healthy. If you can't face that, perhaps tackle whichever one seems more surmountable for you to do first. But watch that the remaining addiction doesn't just increase in response to quitting the other. (I can equally imagine if I'd quit booze while I was still smoking that I would have smoked a whole lot more!)

Good luck! Quitting smoking was one of the hardest, but best, things I have ever done. I hope to be able to say that about drinking one day too though on only Day 65 it feels a bit too soon.

[Turnagain]

Giving up alcohol vs giving up smoking

Hi Allan...

Welcome to the site and more importantly...welcome to your new life! I had to quit BOTH smokes and drink at the same time....I even threw caffeine into the NO INGEST list at the same time. Had to. I later learned that all those substances basically operate in similar ways in the part of the brain where addiction occurs. I am elated to be free....of all these addictions.

Here's an interesting link about doubling down on cold-turkey quits.

Co-quitting nicotine & alcohol: myth vs. fact in Smoking & Tobacco News - Forum

You're on the right track!

[hadit]

Giving up alcohol vs giving up smoking

This is a really interesting Post. I gave up cigarettes 20 yrs ago. I found it really difiicult to say the least!! Tried lots of times, and failed time and time again. Then one day, I thought back HOW I got hooked on nicotene. It started 1 cig a day then 2 then 3 and before I new it, I was a pkt a day user and well and truely hooked!!! SO, I figured, IF I started slowly, then just maybe I could go off cigs SLOWLY. It was difficult and not for everyone but it did work. I am just hoping the same can work for AL. Can it, I wonder?? I would much sooner be smoking cigs than drinking. Drinking can destroy your life. For everyone trying to give up the cigs, just keep trying,it is sooooooo good without them!!

[allankay]

Giving up alcohol vs giving up smoking

LillyE;1373246 wrote: As Lav says we are all different but here's my experience: I finally quit smoking after an entire year of trying. I think I finally just got completely sick and tired of the whole misery of it and of trying, and failing, to quit. I did continue to drink, however. In fact, my drinking, already heavy, increased, and I don't think this was coincidental. As my therapist put it: You take away one coping mechanism and another rushes in to take its place. I think I drank more to help alleviate my increased anxiety about quitting smoking, which of course massively increased my anxiety ultimately. In a way, this was a good thing though, as that's what brought things to a head and led me to address my drinking - an ongoing process.

I have found that a LOT of the lessons I learned from quitting smoking translate to quitting drinking, which has been very helpful, particularly the Alan Carr/Jason Vale type thinking about focusing on what you are gaining from quitting, not what you think you're losing. Feeling gratitude, not deprivation.

I do know a lot of people who feel they couldn't possibly quit both at the same time. I say if you can do it - go for it! Neither is ever going to be easy so why not take the bull by the horns and rid yourself of all those nasty addictions at once and get healthy. If you can't face that, perhaps tackle whichever one seems more surmountable for you to do first. But watch that the remaining addiction doesn't just increase in response to quitting the other. (I can equally imagine if I'd quit booze while I was still smoking that I would have smoked a whole lot more!)

Good luck! Quitting smoking was one of the hardest, but best, things I have ever done. I hope to be able to say that about drinking one day too though on only Day 65 it feels a bit too soon.

Lilly, thank you for sharing. Well done and keep at it. You are the first person i know who quit nicotine before alcohol. I just wander how did you not relapse during heavy drinking sessions. For me, at least, it was a 100% hit rate. Everytime i got drunk i went back to chain smoking. One of the main reasons i am quitting alcohol is because i lose control of myself and do things that are completely unlike me. From what i read on this site it seems to be a common thing. At least when you stop drinking you can control your nicotine cravings unlike the reverse scenario.

ALLAN K.

[LillyE]

Giving up alcohol vs giving up smoking

allankay;1373335 wrote: Lilly, thank you for sharing. Well done and keep at it. You are the first person i know who quit nicotine before alcohol. I just wander how did you not relapse during heavy drinking sessions.

I have to be honest I was kind of amazed by that myself. For a long time I thought I could never conceivably drink heavily and not smoke. But I think something inside me had snapped completely and totally so that I was just determined not to smoke - ever. I also realised I'd really, truly successfully quit smoking one day when I was on holiday, by a pool, surrounded by smokers, drinking copious amounts of cocktails, and didn't have even the remotest urge to smoke, not a twinge. It was just minorly annoying because it stunk! But mind you, that was over a year in. But even early on oddly it wasn't as hard as you'd think once I'd really made the decision completely to quit.

But, as I said, my drinking seemed to spin more out of control starting around that time. When I quit smoking I wasn't even vaguely contemplating quitting drinking - maybe vague thoughts I should drink a bit less but that was about it. It was the increased drinking post quitting that led me to some scary places that led me to start to see I had a problem, for which I am now really grateful but I wouldn't recommend it as a route to sobriety of course!

In your case, it sounds like perhaps you need to tackle the booze first, which clearly you are - so yay you! So cut yourself some slack. But set yourself a time-frame too and make sure it doesn't become an excuse to keep smoking. My prediction is that if you get some good AF time under your belt, you will start to feel healthier and to focus more on health and quitting smoking will seem like a natural extension of that.

Good luck!!!

[allankay]

Giving up alcohol vs giving up smoking

LillyE;1373349 wrote: I have to be honest I was kind of amazed by that myself. For a long time I thought I could never conceivably drink heavily and not smoke. But I think something inside me had snapped completely and totally so that I was just determined not to smoke - ever. I also realised I'd really, truly successfully quit smoking one day when I was on holiday, by a pool, surrounded by smokers, drinking copious amounts of cocktails, and didn't have even the remotest urge to smoke, not a twinge. It was just minorly annoying because it stunk! But mind you, that was over a year in. But even early on oddly it wasn't as hard as you'd think once I'd really made the decision completely to quit.


In your case, it sounds like perhaps you need to tackle the booze first, which clearly you are - so yay you! So cut yourself some slack. But set yourself a time-frame too and make sure it doesn't become an excuse to keep smoking. My prediction is that if you get some good AF time under your belt, you will start to feel healthier and to focus more on health and quitting smoking will seem like a natural extension of that.

Good luck!!!

Lilly I have actually stopped AL and smoking at the same time. As I clearly can't have one without the other. It's only been 4 days but i have gone a whole 6 months before but this time i am not just doing it to see how long i can last but for GOOD. So looking forward to the first milestone of 1 WEEK. Will be staying away from social places and avoiding after work drinks for at leat 30 days. thats my plan!

[bicyclesurfer]

Giving up alcohol vs giving up smoking

Im with 199days.
Read Alan Carrs books.