Trying to stop smoking.

[Riverkilt]

Good for you Dragon!

Don't quit quitting. Took me a number of times before it took. I used to smoke up to four packs a day...then switched to cigars but would inhale them and chain smoke them. Got what I thought was food poisoning and went to the doc. He smelled my cigar stink, asked me how much I smoked, drew blood, and found out I had nicotine poisoning!

I used to assist at autopsys so have seen many smokers lungs...they look like large charcoal briquettes.

Not sure where in California you are but the American Cancer Society or American Lung Association may have, or be able to refer you to a free support group. Or there may be some Nicotine Anonymous or Smokers Anonymous meetings...forget which they call themselves now.

It won't be easy since chew tobacco has about 3X the nicotine delivery of cigarettes. But, it can be done. And, its worth it!

When I volunteered with the Phoenix Fire Deptartment they had posters in every fire house of the guys with no jaws from chew tobacco.

Ron

[Jimmy the Celt]

Thanks Ron. Looking at those nasty pictures helps motivate me a lot, and my family and friends are very supportive. When I quit drinking last year I got involved in Alcoholics Anonymous--when I first gave up the bottle I used a lot more chew and smokeless tobacco than I ever had before, and like last year, I'm dreaming about smoking [rather than drinking] quite frequently. I feel like I have the mental preparation to be successful now, and get past the obsession that addicts develop that make it so hard to quit.

[Kiltedfirepiper]

I guess I went the wuss way about it....I used the patch AND gum....
heres how I did it

first 3 days
14mg patch....and 2 mg gum when cravings got bad( I know what your gonna say ......"but youre using TWO diffrent methods at the SAME TIME!?!?!? THATS BAD!!!!")

concidering I was chewing a can of cope every one/ two days ( 3 finger dips for those who chew) so even if I did 2 patches it would barely touch what I got before!!


after those 3 days I got off the patch ....and did just 2 2mg gums...big drop.....big mood change....no dip

5 days after that 1 2mg gum alternating regular gum in between

and now I am doing 1 2mg after gum every TWO regular gums

I should be on JUST regular gum by X-mas day .....timed it just right too


Scott......

[Caradoc]

concidering I was chewing a can of cope every one/ two days ( 3 finger dips for those who chew) so even if I did 2 patches it would barely touch what I got before!!

Yeah. Chew seems to be harder to quit than smoking. That's likely because the amount of nicotine is a LOT higher than just smoking.

For a time, I was chewing one full pouch of Red Man every day.

I quit by switching to Skoal Bandits, and limiting myself daily on the number of the little packets I'd use.

When I was down to four packets a day, I quit cold turkey. I still chew an awful lot of sugarfree gum, now.