Tips from people who have quit drinking and smoking?

[Jumpback]

I’m under a tremendous amount of financial stress and I keep trying to quit drinking and smoking, but they are my go to ways to deal with stress and anxiety

I have got really good long term advice and some short term tips about dealing with anxiety, but was just wondering if there was anything else. Like since I am isolated at home, someone who had quit drinking suggested that I go outside and go for a 5 minute walk until the urge to drink passes. So I have went on a whole bunch of 5 minute walks today. But I eventually gave up and went and bought alcohol

I have quit smoking twice before, and quit drinking once. But every time, the way I quit was by laying down and not doing anything except reading or watching movies. It would be easy for me to quit if I could take 2 months off from life. I don’t really even need rehab or anything, I just need to avoid stress.

I was keeping drinking under control until the virus outbreak by buying individual cans of beer, every time I wanted to drink, I had to drive to the store and buy another beer. But I got in a car accident and my car is hardly drivable and I started being afraid to touch individual cans. So I go to the store and buy a 30 pack and try to make it last 5 days, but this never works, if it’s here, I drink all of it. I have had multiple times where a 30 pack lasts a day. A 15 pack might last 6 hours.

It’s almost not like these are normal addictions in that I can quit really easily if I can just avoid stress. Like I have zero doubt that if I could have two months where my life consisted of watching movies and reading, I would quit. It’s about how to quit with out being able to take a time out from life’s stresses

I feel like I am grasping for straws and being an annoyance, but I am starting to get pretty desperate. Like I throw up sometimes and feel like I can’t breathe and am grasping for air I don’t want this.

I very much identify with executive function issues with autism. It’s like what I have to do involves lots of organizing and finding things and structuring my day, which is very hard for me, so I go outside and smoke and buy alcohol to keep calming down. But then executive function issues and addiction issues also go together

Like, I don’t know. I was thinking of buying straws and chewing on them all day, but I trust input from people who are more like me than I trust my own ideas about what to try

 

[Canismajoris]

I quit smoking 17 years ago. And indeed, every time I felt the urge to smoke I went jogging. Pretty soon I was in a good shape. Lost 10 kg’s during that time. Also started to date a girl who didnt like smoking. That helped ofc a lot. I.e. I wanted to have some intimacy with her and smoking would have prevented that. So I was motivated so to say.

I also quit drinking almost 9 years ago, like totally. Have not taken a sip since. The trick took quite long though: I meditated for a two years daily and then felt the peace inside was big enough. Also it ”helped” that my father’s alcoholism got so bad that I did not want to take the same path. Eventually he died to booze (stroke) in 2016.

I’m quite sure that these were nothing new for you, but atleast I spent a few minutes trying to help.

Stay strong!

 

[menander]

You are strong to try during a pandemic! My health has taken a big hit with all the lockdowns, etc.

 

[Jumpback]

I quit smoking 17 years ago. And indeed, every time I felt the urge to smoke I went jogging. Pretty soon I was in a good shape. Lost 10 kg’s during that time. Also started to date a girl who didnt like smoking. That helped ofc a lot. I.e. I wanted to have some intimacy with her and smoking would have prevented that. So I was motivated so to say.

I also quit drinking almost 9 years ago, like totally. Have not taken a sip since. The trick took quite long though: I meditated for a two years daily and then felt the peace inside was big enough. Also it ”helped” that my father’s alcoholism got so bad that I did not want to take the same path. Eventually he died to booze (stroke) in 2016.

I’m quite sure that these were nothing new for you, but atleast I spent a few minutes trying to help.

Stay strong!

Thank you, any success stories might help me see that there is hope.

I really have gotten some fantastic input on here about real long term strategies to develop healthier habits and the meditation and the looking for positive/negative reinforcement things might give me ideas.

I’m just so damn completely isolated and just now discovering autism spectrum, that things have gotten out of control, because I just have not known what was going on, much less what else to do except try short term solutions to stress which end up becoming severe long term addictions

 

[Tom]

I had no real attachment to drinking so quitting came early and naturally. But I was heavily addicted to smoking/nicotine all thru life. I have finally managed to quit the smoking part but not the nicotine and use E-cigerettes instead. But the addiction and cost isn't much different. It's just an inprovement in reducing the toxins input.

 

[PinkPenguin29]

This does not work for everyone, for my sister it didn't really work, but for me it helped. I find having a substitute to put in my mouth, like gum, or a mint, hard candy, helps a little. my husband with a combination of a prescription and the patches really helped. as well as switching to a reduced nicotine vape instead of cigarettes helped. mind you vapes are not the healthiest thing but are tons better than cigarettes and help with his cravings. My understanding cold turkey is the hardest way to go.

 

[Fino]

I replaced it with medications!

 

[unperson]

Look up ' dealing with cravings' on quitting blogs. For booze, I substitute a nice non alcoholic drink, snack - your brain wants a treat so give it one, but not booze. A lot of people get sugar cravings cos alcohol IS sugar, so lollies/candy/choc/sweets can appeal. You're gonna lose weight from less drinking so don't worry about calories yet.

Pushing start time back can be good - if you normally drink at 5, push it back to 5:30, 6, 6:30, 7....then if you still want one at 7 (usually not) have one. Tell yourself it'll still be there tomorrow. It will! They tell ya all this stuff on blogs

I don't try to do both (booze & cigs) I just focus on booze reduction, that way I can still have a cig. Cigs reduction can wait, for me.

 

[Jumpback]

Look up ' dealing with cravings' on quitting blogs. For booze, I substitute a nice non alcoholic drink, snack - your brain wants a treat so give it one, but not booze. A lot of people get sugar cravings cos alcohol IS sugar, so lollies/candy/choc/sweets can appeal. You're gonna lose weight from less drinking so don't worry about calories yet.

Pushing start time back can be good - if you normally drink at 5, push it back to 5:30, 6, 6:30, 7....then if you still want one at 7 (usually not) have one. Tell yourself it'll still be there tomorrow. It will! They tell ya all this stuff on blogs

I don't try to do both (booze & cigs) I just focus on booze reduction, that way I can still have a cig. Cigs reduction can wait, for me.

Thank you. What’s really driving everything right now is anxiety and worry from money issues. I’ve been trying things people have suggested, but this is still my go to coping method if I have to work. If I can manage to get it down enough to drink but still keep working, then I can get it down further or quit with other suggestions once the constant pressure is lifted. At least that’s my hope.

 

[Jumpback]

I had no real attachment to drinking so quitting came early and naturally. But I was heavily addicted to smoking/nicotine all thru life. I have finally managed to quit the smoking part but not the nicotine and use E-cigerettes instead. But the addiction and cost isn't much different. It's just an inprovement in reducing the toxins input.

I used e-cigs for awhile, but I prefer smoking and when I lost the vape I started smoking again. I found the vape, but it seems like it takes maybe 3 days of not smoking to switch back because I cough badly when I try to use it...I guess the vapor irritates your system if you smoke

 

[Magna]

With my experience with addictions (multiple) is that with each time I quit, including cigarettes, it's like I had to turn some sort of switch off in my brain. That switch was the "I'm done. No more." switch.

Not the "I want to quit", "I think I should", "I really do want to quit", "If I don't quit I know this will kill me", switches. Those aren't enough to stop using.

It's hard to explain, I guess, but that "I'm done. No more" switch is a decision the addict has to make in order to start the recovery process.

With cigarettes, they started to taste like crap to me. I would smoke over a pack a day, but toward the end, halfway through a cig and I'd snuff it out because they didn't satisfy like they used to. Tasted like crap. I was in my thirties and after smoking off and on for twenty years (yes, I started smoking occasionally when I was around ten), I had to sit on the side of the bed in the morning for a bit before getting up. At thirty something I started to feel like 50 something. I knew I should quit. I had just bought a carton of Marlboro Reds (I smoked those or Camel filters) and was only a pack or two into the carton. I was showering before work and decided finally...."I'm done. No more."

I gave the rest of the carton to a friend and quit cold turkey and have never smoked since.

If/when you get to that point when you actually make a conscious decision to quit and you stop smoking, try to break it up. Set a goal to go the first day without smoking. Excellent accomplishment. Set the same goal for the next day and then the next and then the next, etc. Get up to a week with no smoking. Good job! Then repeat each day having that no smoking that day goal for another week. Now you've gone TWO WEEKS with no smoking. Focus on that. Keep the streak going. After a month, why break the streak at that point? Focus how long you've gone by beating the habit. You'll finally get to a point with cigarettes where it would really make no sense to start smoking again.

 

[Progster]

I don't speak from personal experience here as I have never smoked, but my partner, after many failed attempts, finally gave up smoking with a drug, Champix. Champix isn't cheap: it costs about 40 euros per two week packet, and you need to take it for a couple of months at least, but much, much cheaper than the long term smoking itself. It works by stopping the cravings.

 

[Bro'Freak]

Quitting smoking is on my to do list once this pandemic has dissipated & burned out (hopefully without a consumerist-communist-NWO amalgam of a Gov. in charge, bloody stress levels).

There's some great tips mentioned above, ones about delaying the time of your first cig or drink of the day are the ones to start with. Cut that intake down. I read an interesting bunch of words ('scuse me 1st coffee of the day) on the delay tactic. Basically that craving in the morning is a mixture of mental & physical demands for a fix. If you think about it say in the alcohol realm, then what's happening in the morning is that when you give into a fix in the morning before food or anything constructive, you are reinforcing that the 'Fix' is what your body needs & should have... it should be food if it's a drink issue. So if you wean yourself away slowly over a week or two you will hopefully guide yourself away from a major part of the addiction cycle. A friend did well with quitting smoking by weight lifting & mountain biking when ever he had the urge to smoke, he did get a bit insufferable but fair do's to him he did well.

I still smoke & still have the occasional toke / drink, but the only thing I have difficulty with at the moment is tobacco.

 

[Els]

I think it's difficult to quit both at once.
I don't drink but I was a 10+ years smoker (and I used to smoke a lot).
I stopped smoking when all the reasons I was smoking felt down. Like "I need it" or "it helps" or "I'm stress" etc. ALL the reasons I was smoking for just crashed like a building would.
So, no reasons to smoke anymore even through I was still thinking those things I didn't believe they were true. The main issue was something like "OK I want to smoke I can't keep like this", but knowing really strongly deep down that I DO NOT WANT TO SMOKE at all. The internal conflict lasts for a while until it stops. I still think that I want to smoke from time to time, until I remember than higher than my will to smoke there's my deep choice not to.

So then when my beliefs-reasons to smoke felt down, what was left was :
- breaking habits (something only time and not smoking anymore can help with)
- resisting the physical repercussions (feeling really unwell, angry and everything, not sleeping, mouth gums bleeding, lungs hurting, city smelling worse than ever, shortness of breath, I mean all the addiction stuffs + physical changes)

Breaking habits will happen - be confident about it even through it seems unbelievable when you stop - and the physical repercussions will get better too. Both are just a matter of time and not to smoke in the meantime.
Oh and breaking this myth helped me psychologically. People think you've got to be active and strong when you stop. I did all the opposite. I did NOTHING at all. I wasn't strong at all. I waited. But I didn't fight anything at all.
An other one : I didn't think "I quit smoking". I would've been hyper anxious about it. I just thought "I don't smoke/I'm not smoking". And little by little, I wasn't smoking. Then I wasn't smoking again. And again. And again, I wasn't smoking. And again in that other situation, I kept on not smoking and wait. Going this way, not thinking about the future, was really helpful because instead of looking at the HUGE MOUNTAIN I CANT DO THAT OMG, I was just looking at it step after step. After a while, things calmed down and I found balance again. Now I feel just as I did when I used to smoke - it was REALLY useless.

I quit smoking only once in my life, but I did.

 

[Jumpback]

With my experience with addictions (multiple) is that with each time I quit, including cigarettes, it's like I had to turn some sort of switch off in my brain. That switch was the "I'm done. No more." switch.

Not the "I want to quit", "I think I should", "I really do want to quit", "If I don't quit I know this will kill me", switches. Those aren't enough to stop using.

It's hard to explain, I guess, but that "I'm done. No more" switch is a decision the addict has to make in order to start the recovery process.

With cigarettes, they started to taste like crap to me. I would smoke over a pack a day, but toward the end, halfway through a cig and I'd snuff it out because they didn't satisfy like they used to. Tasted like crap. I was in my thirties and after smoking off and on for twenty years (yes, I started smoking occasionally when I was around ten), I had to sit on the side of the bed in the morning for a bit before getting up. At thirty something I started to feel like 50 something. I knew I should quit. I had just bought a carton of Marlboro Reds (I smoked those or Camel filters) and was only a pack or two into the carton. I was showering before work and decided finally...."I'm done. No more."

I gave the rest of the carton to a friend and quit cold turkey and have never smoked since.

If/when you get to that point when you actually make a conscious decision to quit and you stop smoking, try to break it up. Set a goal to go the first day without smoking. Excellent accomplishment. Set the same goal for the next day and then the next and then the next, etc. Get up to a week with no smoking. Good job! Then repeat each day having that no smoking that day goal for another week. Now you've gone TWO WEEKS with no smoking. Focus on that. Keep the streak going. After a month, why break the streak at that point? Focus how long you've gone by beating the habit. You'll finally get to a point with cigarettes where it would really make no sense to start smoking again.

What you are saying about "I'm done" instead of "I really want to quit" is how I have quit before, but the thing was that what I did to make this happen was take time off from work so I could lay around and quit without stress.

What's killing me is I only start these habits to deal with stress. The first time I started smoking was when I was having panic attacks and the act of smoking seemed to help with the panic attack. Like there was a repetitive motion of my hand, I was touching something real, I was taking in deeper breathes. Or something like that

But money stress isn't going to go away any time soon and I am compounding the the problem with spending money killing myself, I just am caught in this hamster wheel or something

But the "I'm done" thing is definitely right. I guess it's almost like I can't imagine being able to function without having these security blankets while under stress or something along these lines. I can picture myself ditching the security blanket without the stress though.

 

[Jumpback]

Quitting smoking is on my to do list once this pandemic has dissipated & burned out (hopefully without a consumerist-communist-NWO amalgam of a Gov. in charge, bloody stress levels).

There's some great tips mentioned above, ones about delaying the time of your first cig or drink of the day are the ones to start with. Cut that intake down. I read an interesting bunch of words ('scuse me 1st coffee of the day) on the delay tactic. Basically that craving in the morning is a mixture of mental & physical demands for a fix. If you think about it say in the alcohol realm, then what's happening in the morning is that when you give into a fix in the morning before food or anything constructive, you are reinforcing that the 'Fix' is what your body needs & should have... it should be food if it's a drink issue. So if you wean yourself away slowly over a week or two you will hopefully guide yourself away from a major part of the addiction cycle. A friend did well with quitting smoking by weight lifting & mountain biking when ever he had the urge to smoke, he did get a bit insufferable but fair do's to him he did well.

I still smoke & still have the occasional toke / drink, but the only thing I have difficulty with at the moment is tobacco.

Yeah, unpersons suggestions about delaying things was really good. My response to that post didn't make sense when I read it just now

It is a little like some people can't imagine starting their day without a cup of coffee. I can't imagine getting things accomplished while under stress without bad habits.

I mean there was a time when I was growing up where I didn't drink or drink pop or smoke and I functioned. I was kind of thinking about trying to remember what it was like back then or use that I have functioned when I was a kid without these things. But then when I was a kid I didn't have money stress and so on....

 

[WoodWorkingJoel]

Alan Carr method has books for both drinking and smoking. Worth a read in my opinion.

 

[Mary Terry]

This does not work for everyone, for my sister it didn't really work, but for me it helped. I find having a substitute to put in my mouth, like gum, or a mint, hard candy, helps a little. my husband with a combination of a prescription and the patches really helped. as well as switching to a reduced nicotine vape instead of cigarettes helped. mind you vapes are not the healthiest thing but are tons better than cigarettes and help with his cravings. My understanding cold turkey is the hardest way to go.

I quit smoking cold turkey by eating spicy barbequed potato chips instead of smoking a cigarette. I carried a small bag of chips in my purse for a long time as security against the nicotine cravings. I personally think cold turkey is the best way to quit but you have to have your mind in the right place. I had to mentally demonize cigarettes to quit.