6 days Sober....epic fail on no smoking

[Oneredshoe]

Good Morning All...

:upset: with myself on the no smoking goal. I caved this morning and went and bought a pack of cigarettes rather than riding the craving out. Why is this so FLIPING difficult?! Baby steps I suppose...perhaps setting a goal of only a few each day until Monday would be wiser. On a brighter note I am 6 days alcohol free. I didn't sleep well last night but from all the posts that I have read that will get better with time. I hope that all of you are having a wonderful weekend!

[Kradle123]

6 days Sober....epic fail on no smoking

GOOD MORNING ORS:

IMO you should not tackle both problems at once. I know it looks good but I believe in the end it will just make it worse.

On step at a time as One Step At A Time says

You'll get there soon enough. :h
:l

[bouchard01]

6 days Sober....epic fail on no smoking

Awe oh well it's a tough one to break. I had too taper off my pack a day habit before I went cold turkey. First things first. Good job on the not drinking! Have you tried Melatonin for sleep? It helped for me. You will do this!

[kdog]

6 days Sober....epic fail on no smoking

Red, good job on even trying, I don't think I could tackle 2 beasts at once right now! Don't blame you on that one. Good job on your AF days, hope everyone has a great AF weekend!
Kdong

[paulywogg]

6 days Sober....epic fail on no smoking

smoking

one red, 6 days off booze is good,it does more harm to us than smoking,im right with you on both,just try to set aside a few smokes a day,and try to stick with it,sometimes if i tell myself i wont smoke any cigs today,i freak and smoke more than i usually do! your doing good,dont be hard on yourself,keep going.

[patrice]

6 days Sober....epic fail on no smoking

Onered,

For the last year... whenever I have tried to stop drinking, I tried to stop smoking too. Like you, I thought why not get rid of both at the same time!!! Each time I failed.
This time I have been AF for 25 days but put no pressure on myself to give up smoking (yet).. and this time its working!!
For me anyway, it's just too much much to give both up at the same time... and the drinking is the priority right now
Take Care and great on 6 days!!
Patrice

[FlyAway]

6 days Sober....epic fail on no smoking

I agree with Kradle. Focus on one thing at a time. These are two very hard addictions to break. Smoking was harder for me to quit than drinking. Fortunately I wasn't addicted to both at the same time! If you are able to just cut down now I'd say that's an accomplishment. Get several months sobriety under your belt before trying to tackle smoking.

[Oneredshoe]

6 days Sober....epic fail on no smoking

Thanks All for the support.....

I honestly thought that quiting smoking would be easy so long as I wasn't drinking.....one day at a time.

[allankay]

6 days Sober....epic fail on no smoking

Red, I would like to offer a slightly different opinion on this issue. I too quit smoking and drinking on the 1st of September. I wasn’t sure that giving up both would be a smart choice. However, after doing my homework on Google I found a wealth of research into this and most experts agree that many bad habits go together. Alcohol and tobacco is a very good example. Giving up both at the same time should improve your chances of success and will be easier for you down the road, as you would not have to quit another addiction and go through withdrawal symptoms again. Those cravings could trigger a relapse.

It sure wasn’t easy, however, I do think that it would have been harder to quit AL have I still smoked.

ALLAN

[dixon]

6 days Sober....epic fail on no smoking

[QUOTE=allankay;1379049]Red, I would like to offer a slightly different opinion on this issue. I too quit smoking and drinking on the 1st of September. I wasn’t sure that giving up both would be a smart choice. However, after doing my homework on Google I found a wealth of research into this and most experts agree that many bad habits go together. Alcohol and tobacco is a very good example. Giving up both at the same time should improve your chances of success and will be easier for you down the road, as you would not have to quit another addiction and go through withdrawal symptoms again. Those cravings could trigger a relapse.

It sure wasn’t easy, however, I do think that it would have been harder to quit AL have I still smoked.



Allan,

Good Job !
I have also found many articles in this regards and agree with your opinion that there will be a higher possibility of success to quit both of them at a time. But I do not have any link and information about it at the moment.
But if you give up one at the cost of other means simply you have to pay back,at that time you might regain your habit !!

I am in favor of quieting both at a time.That will save your energy,time,health, money and will be much proud of you .I am sure other friends will come up here with different thoughts.
Dix

[Oneredshoe]

6 days Sober....epic fail on no smoking

Thanks allankay....I had originally set tomorrow Sep. 17 as my official quit smoking date and still plan on following through with it. I have also purchased a smokers cleanse kit.....to help remove the nasty cig toxins from my body. I couldn't agree with the better to quit 2 addictions at once way of thinking to avoid a relapse. I have a plan and intend on sticking to it....thanks for the advice.

[K9Lover]

6 days Sober....epic fail on no smoking

OneRed,

It's damn HARD to quit both at the same time. Personally, I focused on quitting alcohol first, because I didn't smoke as much when I am sober. So....244 days into being sober I finally tackled quitting (for about the 4th time). Now I'm 266 days sober and 22 days smoke free. Give it TIME...you'll know when you're ready. If you're not really and truly ready, it won't stick anyway. Don't put too much pressure on yourself....you'll know when it's time!

K9

[akaMonique]

6 days Sober....epic fail on no smoking

At 4+ months AF, I have been wanting to quit smoking too. I only smoked about 5 cigarettes a day but wanted to get rid of it entirely. I recently read an article in the WSJ about the content of cigarettes, which is only 75% tobacco! And that some of those additives are more addictive than the tobacco itself. So I switched to American Spirit, the only U.S. brand I'm aware of that is pure tobacco with no additives. 1) these burn twice as long as the Camels I was smoking before, so I could only smoke 1/2 of one at a time, 2) I noticed the nicotine "buzz" more, 3) I started not feeling the urge to smoke as much. I was able to cut down from my 5 a day to 3 then 2 and finally quit altogether over the weekend. Yesterday there were a few times I would have loved to smoke but it didn't overwhelm me and I just took deep breaths and told myself that This Too Shall Pass. My rationale for quitting is that I really need to be exercising and changing my eating habits (indulging too much in sugar/desserts of late - I'm the only person I know who put on weight after I quit drinking; how can that be when I was only drinking empty calories before? Anyhoo...) I was concerned that I would start smoking more if I went on my nutrition/exercise plan first. Plus, who's with me that there's nothing like a cigarette after you've cleared out your lungs with aerobic exercise, right? So I needed to get that out of the equation. Oh, the twisted logic of the alcoholic mind.

I agree with both camps, I think quitting both at once makes sense, but if it causes you too much aggravation, keep the focus on not drinking, and quit smoking when you feel more grounded being AF.

And OneRedShoe, it's not an epic fail! It's an earnest attempt to be highly commended. Give yourself a break.

[Oneredshoe]

6 days Sober....epic fail on no smoking

Thanks akaMonique.....

American spirits are all I have smoked for the past several years.....I love them! Not enough to keep smoking though. I made it through day one of no smoking and day 8 of no drinking.

[FlyAway]

6 days Sober....epic fail on no smoking

akaMonique;1379318 wrote: At 4+ months AF, I have been wanting to quit smoking too. I only smoked about 5 cigarettes a day but wanted to get rid of it entirely. I recently read an article in the WSJ about the content of cigarettes, which is only 75% tobacco! And that some of those additives are more addictive than the tobacco itself. So I switched to American Spirit, the only U.S. brand I'm aware of that is pure tobacco with no additives. 1) these burn twice as long as the Camels I was smoking before, so I could only smoke 1/2 of one at a time, 2) I noticed the nicotine "buzz" more, 3) I started not feeling the urge to smoke as much. I was able to cut down from my 5 a day to 3 then 2 and finally quit altogether over the weekend. Yesterday there were a few times I would have loved to smoke but it didn't overwhelm me and I just took deep breaths and told myself that This Too Shall Pass. My rationale for quitting is that I really need to be exercising and changing my eating habits (indulging too much in sugar/desserts of late - I'm the only person I know who put on weight after I quit drinking; how can that be when I was only drinking empty calories before? Anyhoo...) I was concerned that I would start smoking more if I went on my nutrition/exercise plan first. Plus, who's with me that there's nothing like a cigarette after you've cleared out your lungs with aerobic exercise, right? So I needed to get that out of the equation. Oh, the twisted logic of the alcoholic mind.

I agree with both camps, I think quitting both at once makes sense, but if it causes you too much aggravation, keep the focus on not drinking, and quit smoking when you feel more grounded being AF.

And OneRedShoe, it's not an epic fail! It's an earnest attempt to be highly commended. Give yourself a break.

That is really interesting info about the additives in cigarettes Monique. Thankfully it's been a long, long time since I quit smoking, but I remember quite distinctly how difficult it was to quit.