Do you smoke cigarettes?

[Pants]

Originally Posted by Lumpy

More power to all of you that are wanting/trying to quit! I went 3 weeks on the patch, (w/ the e-cig, and an occasional cig to help along the way). But, alas, I'm smoking again. Yeah, I know.

It never ****ing fails that whenever I try to do something to better myself, someone or something annoys the shit out of me. I just have way too much stress right now. And, sadly, smoking is the only thing that calms my nerves.

I'm not going to give up and never try to quit again. I will try again. I just need things to calm down, people to do their ****ing jobs, a puppy to quit pissing and shitting on the floor, and the annoying idiots in my life to jump off of an aids bridge.

/sigh

I'm not 100% sure, but I think that nicotine does not really calm you down in a strictly physical sense. I think it's a placebo effect type thing with smokers. A lot of the time we just associate stress relief with smoking a cigarette.

Having said that, placebo effects can certainly have a high efficacy so cigarettes can certainly relieve stress in people. But what I'm trying to say here is that maybe you can learn to associate a different activity with stress relief? I know it's way easier said than done, but you really have to arm yourself with a bunch of mental weapons when it comes to dealing with that shitty ****ing addiction.

[Lumpy]

Originally Posted by Pants

I'm not 100% sure, but I think that nicotine does not really calm you down in a strictly physical sense. I think it's a placebo effect type thing with smokers. A lot of the time we just associate stress relief with smoking a cigarette.

Having said that, placebo effects can certainly have a high efficacy so cigarettes can certainly relieve stress in people. But what I'm trying to say here is that maybe you can learn to associate a different activity with stress relief? I know it's way easier said than done, but you really have to arm yourself with a bunch of mental weapons when it comes to dealing with that shitty ****ing addiction.

It's a mental thing. I agree. I've been smoking for so long that my body craves the nicotine in one form or another. Even more so when I'm extremely stressed out. When I don't get enough nicotine, I get the shakes and have anxiety attacks. It can get scary at times.

On top of all of that, I just found out that my LDL cholesterol level is extremely high. I'm suppose to cut-out all fried foods, exercise more, and quit drinking. In other words, I'm in for a complete lifestyle change. If I can just get through the next week or so, I'm going to pick a day and do all of that and try to stop smoking again.