Tobacco Advice

[yimyammer]

Not a chance I start smoking, hate it. It is dangerous for others too, dipping harms no one else. I never heard of second hand spit

Anyways, approaching 36 hours and I have smashed gummy worms between the lip and gum!

Myself and many of my friends have used beer bottles to spit in, several times people (including myself) have drunk the wrong "beer" (if you catch my drift)

not deadly but gross as hell

 

[Tabascocat]

Myself and many of my friends have used beer bottles to spit in, several times people (including myself) have drunk the wrong "beer" (if you catch my drift)

not deadly but gross as hell

Oh yea, good times. About 15 years ago, a good friend (who was a smoker), decided to grab my Shiner Boch while playing pool and guzzle it down. He was three sheets to the wind at this point.

Needless to say, he was sick for two days (that bottle was more than a 1/3 full). The good news---that made him stop smoking, he was that sick

 

[trickblue]

Are these even close in taste to Cope? If so, which one is closest?

what is that stuff anyway?

Smokey Mountain Classic is the closet to Copenhagen of any of the non-tobacco snuffs...

 

[jnday]

Myself and many of my friends have used beer bottles to spit in, several times people (including myself) have drunk the wrong "beer" (if you catch my drift)

not deadly but gross as hell

I had the same thing happen when I picked up the wrong Coke. Second hand spit is much worse than second hand smoke. I puked for half an hour.

 

[Tabascocat]

Smokey Mountain Classic is the closet to Copenhagen of any of the non-tobacco snuffs...

I will be going to Wally world tomorrow to pick up some.

 

[yimyammer]

Smokey Mountain Classic is the closet to Copenhagen of any of the non-tobacco snuffs...

thx, what makes it better? lack of nicotine? They're both some type of leaf right?

 

[trickblue]

thx, what makes it better? lack of nicotine? They're both some type of leaf right?

It's the closest to the same taste...

It is a little sweet but closest to Copenhagen...

I haven't had a dip of Copenhagen in almost 5 years now... the Smokey Mountain suffices...

Give it a shot. It's not exact... but close...

No patch... no nicotine...

Randy White wouldn't steer you wrong...

 

[yimyammer]

It's the closest to the same taste...

It is a little sweet but closest to Copenhagen...

I haven't had a dip of Copenhagen in almost 5 years now... the Smokey Mountain suffices...

Give it a shot. It's not exact... but close...

No patch... no nicotine...

Randy White wouldn't steer you wrong...

hard to argue with that, thx for the heads up

 

[1fisher]

All i can say is good luck the only addicting thing I had and gave up was Diet Coke. I am now over two years without a soda after quitting cold turkey.

That's great!!

January will be 4 years for me without any carbonated beverage.

 

[Wimbo]

When I quit smoking (1.5 packs per day for about 12 years), I went cold turkey. I just decided one day that it was gross & I was done with it. 6 weeks later I was in Las Vegas and smoked after having a few beers. I was so pissed at myself the next day! That was 1999. I have't smoked since. I went through a lot of sunflower seeds in the first week. The first 3 days were the toughest. I downloaded a counter that ran on my computer, giving me up to the second updates on how much money I had saved & how many cigs I had not smoked... it helped me to set short term goal such as, "ok, just get through 2pm", "Just get to $20", "Just get to Thursday". etc.

I also found a table like this, which I used as goals along the way:

Within ...
You can expect ...
20 minutes
... your blood pressure and pulse rate to return to normal. The temperature of your hands and feet will also have returned to normal.

8 hours
... your blood oxygen levels to have increased to normal limits and carbon monoxide levels to have dropped to normal.

24 hours
...your risk of sudden heart attack to have substantially decreased.

48 hours
... nerve ending to start healing and your sense of smell and taste to begin returning to normal.

72 hours
... your entire body to test 100% nicotine-free with over 90% of all nicotine metabolites to have now passed through your urine. You can also expect the symptoms of chemical withdrawal to have peaked in intensity.

10 days to 2 weeks
... your body to have adjusted to the physical functioning without nicotine and the 3,500 particles and more than 500 toxins present in each chew.

1 to 9 months
... your circulation to have improved substantially, any sinus congestion, fatigue, and shortness of breath to have decreased. Your body's overall energy will have increased.

1 year
... your excess risk of coronary heart disease to drop to less than half that of a Chewer.

5 years
... your risk of stroke is reduced to that of a non-Chewer at 5-15 years after quitting.

10 years
... your risk of death from cancer to have decreased by almost half if you were an average Chewer (one can a day). Your risk of cancer of the mouth, throat and esophagus is now half that of a Chewer's.

15 years
... your risk of coronary heart disease to now be that of a person who has never chewed. Your overall risk of death has returned to nearly that of a person who has never chewed.

 

[Hoofbite]

If you can, just do it by yourself.

Chantix comes with it's risks and if people aren't made more aware of it, it might get taken off the market.

As little drugs as possible is always the way to go.

 

[Phoenix]

If you can, just do it by yourself.

Chantix comes with it's risks and if people aren't made more aware of it, it might get taken off the market.

As little drugs as possible is always the way to go.

Is that a reference to the FDA warning of increased suicide rates among those who take Chantix? I was worried about that for a few years and used that as an excuse to keep smoking.

After 8 days of cold turkey quitting, I went to my doctor and begged him for a prescription for this, and it helped me. Very vivid dreams, trouble sleeping, but other than that I was fine.

 

[BrAinPaiNt]

I decided to quit smoking this summer. I decided to try it the week my wife and her mother was in Texas visiting relatives. A few days after she got back we were heading on vacation down to the USVI.

This was at the very end of June and our vacation was the week of the 4th of July.

I originally shared this story with a few people so some of it may seen oddly worded as it was written at the time I started trying to quit versus now.

===

I went and got some patches. Figured I have smoked for 20-25 years so I would really need some help to ween myself off.

Well I got the patches and read the instructions. It says you have to shave where you are going to put the patch(sticker) on and that you can not use the same place to put another sticker on for at least a week.

So I shave a place on my upper thigh. Put the patch on and the patch is just irritating me because it moves around and I can tell this is not going to work. Nor am I going to continue shaving different patches off of both legs, arms, back and so on. Plus I realized that if the patches won't stay on when I am dry, how will this work if I am in and out of the water throughout the day while on vacation. So a no go on the patches and a loss of money as I know they store will not take them back after I tried a couple.

So I decide that will go for the gum. Buy the package. Try it and man alive that stuff is nasty. And it is a pain in the butt to use. You can't just put the stuff in and chew away...well you can but it will give you the hiccups (yes I tried it). So you have to chew it until you get a peppery taste in your mouth...actually tastes as if you took a pepper shaker and poured some in the back of your throat.

Once you get the pepper flavor, you have to stop chewing the gum and park it between your cheek and gums. Once the pepper flavor goes away you have to chew some more until the pepper flavor comes back...then you have to repeat that process until you get to the point where you quit getting the pepper flavor.

Needless to say I said screw that.

However I did keep both the patches and gum for two reasons. One I can't take it back and get my money and the other reason is in case I could not quit on my own.

The whole idea of taking these things is to ween yourself off nicotine if you have major withdraw symptoms. Not just cravings. So far I have had no withdraw symptoms. Only a limited amount of cravings. I have found that most of the time when I think about wanting a cigarette it is more of something I want to do to pass a little bit of time.

So all I have been doing now is chewing some wintergreen gum and sometimes lifesavers...just to distract.

Hopefully I will continue and not have any major withdraw symptoms and relapses.

====

Ok now to update some.

I have not smoked a cigarette since I quit. I do not even bother with the regular chewing gum or life savers as I no longer feel the need for distraction.

The first week I quit...I would not go where I knew people were smoking. So at work I would not go outside to the smoking area. Now I go out on breaks just to walk around or talk with other employees. It does not bother me in the least to be around it as far as cravings go.

I have also noticed that some people who have quit say that they can not be around it because they find the smell disgusting. I really don't have that. Someone would have to have some heavily smoke saturated clothing for me to think it reeks. I think I am lucky in many respects as I never had the physical withdrawal symptoms...just some cravings and more of the breaking out of routines types of things.

I still have the patches and the gum. Not because I am afraid I might need it...because I have proven that I do not. But just in case someone at work might want it down the road. I figure it is probably still good for around a year so if someone wants to really try and quit I would give it to them free to help.

Funny thing is...I think if I really wanted to I could smoke on occasion and just quit when I wanted but honestly don't see the need to do it. The costs of it alone is not worth going back to it even if it is on occasion. Plus it is nice to lay down at night and not listen to the wheezing.

I wish it was as easy for all others to quit as it was for me. When I decided to quit I really went into it with the honest intent to give it an honest try but also expecting I would not keep up with it. 20-25 years is a long time smoking so I figured I would not be able to quit. I was shocked at how easy it was for me. I know that is not the case for all others and can only imagine how much of a let down it would be to really want to try but just not able to do it by themselves. I have read stories of some people who have not smoked in years but are still hooked on the gum or the electronic cigarettes. Just remember that if you do have to use those things to help and quit that they are there to help ween you off...not a long term substitute because even if they are healthier for you...part of the reason to quit (actually the #1 reason for me) is to quit paying so much money out for something. Well keeping on with the gum, electronic cigarettes and other products is that it is a substitute that is still costing you money and many times you will find they will be similar in a weekly, monthly, yearly cost as the product that you tried to quit using and pay for so much.

Just something to think about with the substitute products. Good short term things, not for long term.

 

[justbob]

I want to repeat this one warning ---If you are addicted, most people always will be. One day,one month or 5 years if you try one for the fun of it (smoke or dip) you will try two ,then a can and your gone again. At least thats the way it was for me and others I know. And dip is more addicting then smokes (so they say) because of the high levels of nicotine it puts in your system..

 

[Doc50]

There are many more addictive chemical compounds in cigarette smoke than nicotine. Therefore, nicotine supplementation is usually unsuccessful as a method of preventing withdrawals.

Chantix is the only withrawal-mediating medication we have, but as much as 30% of the population can't tolerate it due nausea and/or night terrors.

Even with the use of Chantix, the solutuion to the problem of addiction involves slow tapering of the addictive agent. One can successfully taper off of tobacco without assistance over a 4-8 month period. With Chantix, it's more like 4-8 weeks.

The acetylcholine receptors in the brain where Chantix works are involved with virtually all types of addiction; this type of medication is currently in clinical trials for efficacy and safety in treating various forms of drug addiction.

 

[Duane]

Congrats on quitting BrainPaint. It's been 16 years and 6 months for me and I'm still going strong.

 

[WV Cowboy]

For all in this thread, .. do you think some people have more or less of an addictive personality?

I mean do some get hooked easier than others, ... and can some quit easier than others?

The reason I ask is, .. I am pretty normal, and no different than most.

But the only thing that I ever felt addicted to was coffee, and once I realized I didn't want to drink it anymore, .. I quit.

Odd that I quit September 10, 2001. Yep, the day before 9/11.

Maybe I don't have an addictive gene or something. I have tried a bunch of stuff, (good and bad) but have not became addicted.

What is your opinion of my original questions?

 

[Tabascocat]

For all in this thread, .. do you think some people have more or less of an addictive personality?

I mean do some get hooked easier than others, ... and can some quit easier than others?

The reason I ask is, .. I am pretty normal, and no different than most.

But the only thing that I ever felt addicted to was coffee, and once I realized I didn't want to drink it anymore, .. I quit.

Odd that I quit September 10, 2001. Yep, the day before 9/11.

Maybe I don't have an addictive gene or something. I have tried a bunch of stuff, (good and bad) but have not became addicted.

What is your opinion of my original questions?

Yes, all people are different in addictive ways. I love wine and beer but I could stop cold turkey, and have done so, easily. Some can stop a lot easier than others.

I am normal myself and could kick anything, but...this dip stuff is killing me. The craving are going strong ATM and am now headed 40 miles to the nearest WalMart for some smokey mountain herbal snuff. Last night, I put ground up beef jerkey in my lip, no help at all and just dried up my gums.

 

[WV Cowboy]

Yes, all people are different in addictive ways. I love wine and beer but I could stop cold turkey, and have done so, easily. Some can stop a lot easier than others.

I thought of something else.

After I had my open heart surgery, I took pain-killer every four hours. Counted the minutes.

Did that for quite a while.

Over time I went five hours, six hours, seven then 10 in between doses. I finally was only taking it prior to bed-time.

So one night I decided I wouldn't take it at all. My body said, "oh yes you will," as I laid awake until 4:00 am.

So I took 1/2 a dose at 4:00 am that night to sleep.

Tried to do the same the next night, no medicine.

My body says, "yes, .. you will take the medicine."

Laid awake all night, .. but that was the last time I took that medicine.

I understand pain-killers can be addictive. But you just have to put it down.