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"People may not be smoking to obtain a pleasurable drug state. They may be smoking in order to regulate their mood ... "
That rings true for me, I don't miss nicotine when I don't have it except that I get fed up. I use a low, steady dose as self medication to stop depression. Physically I can take it or leave it, no problem.
The 'pleasurable drug state' is a bit of a rush but is not the consciousness expanding experience of some other recreational drugs. I haven't tried amyl nitrate (poppers) but I guess that might be a similar yet more intense feeling.
I find the habit of 'smoking' more compelling than the physical desire for nicotine. I've managed to cut down on nic and am considering cutting it out but I don't want to experience an unbalanced psychological state suddenly. I might be able to do it gradually.
That rings true for me, I don't miss nicotine when I don't have it except that I get fed up. I use a low, steady dose as self medication to stop depression. Physically I can take it or leave it, no problem.
The 'pleasurable drug state' is a bit of a rush but is not the consciousness expanding experience of some other recreational drugs. I haven't tried amyl nitrate (poppers) but I guess that might be a similar yet more intense feeling.
I find the habit of 'smoking' more compelling than the physical desire for nicotine. I've managed to cut down on nic and am considering cutting it out but I don't want to experience an unbalanced psychological state suddenly. I might be able to do it gradually.
im the same way, when i get home home for work, it hits me the most. i really need a cigartette, because its such the routine, it acts as a full-stop. im off, im home, its time to relax. if i only have a crappy device at the time, i will usually end up bumming a realer.
I, too, have discovered that the "habit' part of smoking is more difficult to shake than the "addiction" part. Nicotine is history three days after we quit. Your "cravings" beyond Day 3 are for the act of smoking, not the drug. And anyone can do without nicotine, if necessary, with minimal consequences beyond three days. Lots of scientific studies show this to be true.
But smoking was so much a part of my daily life's ritual that I missed the act after I quit. I kept dosing with nicotine in plentiful amounts; I still missed smoking. I have yet to find an adequate substitute for the "reward" a cigarette gave me. When I finished a task, I'd light up. When I was stumped with a problem, I'd light up. Excited? Light up. Bored? Light up.
The article is a good one and a reminder that just dosing ourselves with nicotine might not suffice to replace the smoking habit for the uncommitted. I still stay away from cigarettes because of proven health consequences, I still dose with nicotine despite studies that suggest caution, but I miss the 30 times a day I "gifted" myself with the powerful hit of a tobacco cigarette.
I've talked to many quitters who still miss smoking 30 years after they quit (even John McCain said he still craves a cigarette after almost three decades of abstinence -- but he's very anti-Big tobacco now).
But smoking was so much a part of my daily life's ritual that I missed the act after I quit. I kept dosing with nicotine in plentiful amounts; I still missed smoking. I have yet to find an adequate substitute for the "reward" a cigarette gave me. When I finished a task, I'd light up. When I was stumped with a problem, I'd light up. Excited? Light up. Bored? Light up.
The article is a good one and a reminder that just dosing ourselves with nicotine might not suffice to replace the smoking habit for the uncommitted. I still stay away from cigarettes because of proven health consequences, I still dose with nicotine despite studies that suggest caution, but I miss the 30 times a day I "gifted" myself with the powerful hit of a tobacco cigarette.
I've talked to many quitters who still miss smoking 30 years after they quit (even John McCain said he still craves a cigarette after almost three decades of abstinence -- but he's very anti-Big tobacco now).
I gotta dispute that. In my one aborted attempt at quitting before the discovery of e-cigs, I had horrible insomnia for over a week before I gave in.
I too had this when I kicked the habit last September. Insomnia lasted for at least 3-4 weeks, and I would just lay there sweating! Even with the AC on full blast! After that period of time, It completely reversed roles, and I fell asleep like a baby...
Hell yeah I had the same experience the past month since I stopped cigs.
I couldn't hold out that long. I have insomnia problems anyway, often leading to migraine attacks, and was working two jobs at the time, so the added trouble sleeping wasn't bearable.
BUt then I discovered e-cigs, and voila!
The insomnia is one of my big issues and why i'm (about) to try the e-cigs route. although the "reward" is very true too. It's the morning cig and the one after a meal i've struggled with most. Hopefully electric is the way to sort that.
Insomnia o yea big time when attempting to quit real cigs. Im usually a very heavy sleeper and when quitting every tiny little noise and boom i was up the rest of the day. Couldnt go without sleep for very long. Oh and the constipation too lol
I had a call today, with someone asking me did I think that buying 36 mg. liquid would help re-create the "real smoking effect" that he missed...or was it over-kill. I'm no chemist, and I, as a 40 cig a day smoker, am also chasing "ciggy nirvana". Buy I think the "real smoking effect" is as much the tar and carcinogins, we chose to leave behind, as it was the Nicotine. I have "Hoof in Mouth", I love the act of smoking, which I all too readily replaced with pizza, and it's friends, burgers and hot dogs. But I think if we turn our attention from massive nicotine doses... which we weren't getting with real cigarettes anyway, and find a way, to recreate what the other carcinogins added to smoking, only in a healthier venue... we might quit OD'ing... and find the Holy Grail...Just a thought.
We're gonna put you on the board of directors, shesmokem. Absolutely, something is missing -- and it's not quantity of nicotine. You want that, just go use a powerful snus product. You'll fall over drunk and still want a cigarette. If e-cig companies can find a way to truly replicate the feel and taste of cigarette smoking, they can capture a huge market share among quitters.
There are an incredibly bright people on this forum... things that are way over my head.Surely, someone in this braintrust could figure out, what might work. It's not just the "hit in the back of your throat", I have liquids that do that... but something's always missing. Even I'm guilty of taking 140 hits off my e-cig, where 12 on a cigarette sets me up for a while. Maybe add a little Valium and cut with.St. John's Wort (Just Kidding). I'm willing to donate the liquid to anyone in the US willing to try(within reason).
your willing to donate st johns wort?? its funny, in my country they banned the over the counter sale of this natural herb based on advice by the board of medicines for "possible side-effect including fatigue and photosensitivity, and the possibility of the herb interacting with prescribed medicines"..what bollix. i never hear of my government being concerned about the contents of the food i eat until there is another outbreak of CSJ or foot n' mouth. what about the cancer causing junk they put in junk food. how is this legal? now it is only available by prescription. it is a useful herb and was used to self medicate for depression by many.
that said, i was incensed when i lived in the states and could not purchase cold sore ointment without first paying a doctor to allow me to. it worked out for me though as it led me to discover an entirely simple and natural remedy that works better than anything on the market...a slice of lemon.
that said, i was incensed when i lived in the states and could not purchase cold sore ointment without first paying a doctor to allow me to. it worked out for me though as it led me to discover an entirely simple and natural remedy that works better than anything on the market...a slice of lemon.
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Focusing on nicotine only is reductionistic "science" at its best/worst. Tobacco contains harmala alkaloids that work synergystically with and balance nicotine and other constituents.
Any native shaman worth his salt can tell you more about tobacco than some Ph.D who is trying to analyze and separate a whole living organism into individual "drugs". You can't improve on nature, and until whole tobacco is refined and made safe to smoke/vaporize overindulgently then people will only get the unbalanced effects of the one alkaloid that the experts have told us is the "active" ingredient.
Tobacco smoke, beta-carboline alkaloids, and reversible MAO inhibition
I'm the best quitter there is
Seriously though, I've never been a heavy heavy smoker, maybe 12 a day or 30 on a drunken night out (it always scared me how much I could smoke on a night out!). Anyway, after smoking for about 5 years I quit for 6 months, then started again (no need for nicotine there!). I've done this a few times, my most recent attempt was around 14 months of not smoking at all, then started again because I ended up working with a colleague that smokes and I used to smoke with him all the time. Old habits, die hard. So that was it, pulled back in and smoking again. Then I stumbled across the e-cig and haven't smoked a real cig since (barring a music festival where I didn't want to lose my brand new toy so resorted to real smokes, which tasted aweful until I got over the first few).
Anyway, not sure I have a point in there, but I think it's along the lines of "I really like the act of smoking, have quit for extended periods of time but repeatedly slip back into my olds ways because I like the experience". Or something.
Oh - and the reason I got into e-cigs? I hated the thought of what real smokes were doing to me, despite enjoying them so much.
Seriously though, I've never been a heavy heavy smoker, maybe 12 a day or 30 on a drunken night out (it always scared me how much I could smoke on a night out!). Anyway, after smoking for about 5 years I quit for 6 months, then started again (no need for nicotine there!). I've done this a few times, my most recent attempt was around 14 months of not smoking at all, then started again because I ended up working with a colleague that smokes and I used to smoke with him all the time. Old habits, die hard. So that was it, pulled back in and smoking again. Then I stumbled across the e-cig and haven't smoked a real cig since (barring a music festival where I didn't want to lose my brand new toy so resorted to real smokes, which tasted aweful until I got over the first few).
Anyway, not sure I have a point in there, but I think it's along the lines of "I really like the act of smoking, have quit for extended periods of time but repeatedly slip back into my olds ways because I like the experience". Or something.
Oh - and the reason I got into e-cigs? I hated the thought of what real smokes were doing to me, despite enjoying them so much.
I knew it, I knew it - that's the thing that's missing for me! - that little buzz I'd get with my first cigarette of the day. I want that back. Wish they'd sell some kind of special herbal essence or flavoring for that
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