I don’t know if this is my own thought, I think it’s Allen Carr’s but as I haven’t read that book in about eight years I’m not entirely sure but… I am a subscriber of the idea that you are a non-smoker immediately after deciding and following through on giving up. So once you’ve put the box away and intend to smoke no more, you are an ex/non-smoker. It may be mental trickery or even bad wordplay, but I’m not too sure I’d have made it to the end of day 4 if I hadn’t told myself I am an ex-smoker now. It’s the idea that cigarettes hold no control over me, and cravings pass, so I’m not a smoker as I don’t give into them. And I don’t need to pass some test of waiting six months, because then I’d almost certainly go back to them. I am an ex-smoker now.
As for boozing it up last night, it went well. I had no problems with it, and the beer tasted lovely. (Baltika Cooler is the beer, if you’re wondering.) Even a hungover bus ride home this morning didn’t aggrevate me, and I had barely thought about a cigarette until my family asked if I held out.
I consider a smoker someone who enjoys smoking. My biggest fear when quitting smoking was that I’d always enjoy it, even after the addiction and cravings passed.
I was really happy to find that once the addiction was gone, once I’d experienced the freedom from them, I no longer enjoyed it in the slightest.
Much the same as any drug, a single hit won’t make you an addict. You have to build up levels of persistance in your blood before you become physically addicted i.e. it has to become normal to you. Cigars aren’t smoked often enough (generally) to build up the levels of nicotine in your system. And most people don’t inhale cigars so you’re not absorbing nicotine through your lungs (some will be absorbed by the mouth though.) So there’s little chance of physical addiction, plus the fact that cigars are just a different buzz entirely. Cigarettes are all about the hit, cigars are all about the flavour.
I consider a [cigarette] smoker someone who gets pleasure out of smoking [cigarettes].
Cigars do contain nicotine, but if you’re not smoking them every day it’s safe to say you’re not addicted.
I don’t consider the pleasure that can be extracted from a 5 minute smoke of tobacco floor shavings to be good enough to justify the health risks. The pleasure from 30 minutes with a cigar, once every now and again, totally fine in my book.
I quit three years ago and I still crave cigarettes. When someone around me is smoking, I inhale deeply. I’ve smoked maybe 10-15 cigarettes total over the three years since I quit, and I enjoyed the hell out of each and every one. Shrug. Everybody’s different.
That sucks. A month after quitting, I didn’t have a single craving, and while I still find the smell wafting from someone’s lit smoke occasionally good, most of the time it does nothing for me.
I can imagine it’d be a lot tougher if you still enjoy it.
The smell of someone else’s cigarette still smells good to me. Fortunately, I really have no desire to ever smoke again, and I haven’t had a real craving (besides an idle passing moment) in 2 years.
Trying to inhale a puff of cigarette smoke hurts now anyway. It wouldn’t be a pleasurable experience.
This was the thing that boggled me most, because I had a really easy time picking up smoking. But the few times I’ve tried since I quit, it took concerted effort to soldier my way through a few puffs. This from a habit of pack and a half most days.
Stusser, I have no idea how you do it. I came back to smoking 3x before I actually defined myself as a non-smoker and since then it’s been easy as hell, even hanging out in Germany with a buncha drunken Euros ;)
Buceph, you got it! If you can convince yourself that you don’t smoke any more, you’re fine. And congratulations, because freeing yourself from the nicotine is the best shit ever.
Seriously I had such an awesome post typed up. I hate this fucking hotel sometimes.
It turns out it’s Russian. It was the one I linked to up this thread. I’m a big fan of light, refreshing beers. I tried a couple when I was in Singapore, and they were genius at brewing them. Although the only one I can remember (because it’s actually available here) is Tiger, which I think is the best drink to have in a night club, at a bbq in the heat, or with spicey food. The Russian one isn’t as light, but it is slightly sweet, which is different and makes for a somewhat interesting beer.
All that being said though, I did look up some beer sites and they all call it a crap beer. So I’m certainly no beer aficionado. Most of the time I’m happy to drink Heineken. But I do like that beer, so the rest can eff off.
There’s loads of different kinds, but basically you need a license to sell booze in Ireland. There’s two main kinds, an off and on license. On license is for a pub and allows you to sell alcohol to be consumed on the premises, an off license allows you to sell alcohol to be consumed off the premises. Then there’s dance club licenses, restaurant licenses, theater licenses, festival licenses, etc…
Oddly, I had the oposite experience. I used to drive people crazy when I was smoking because it didn’t seem to affect my cardio. I could jog, bike, etc just as well as non-smokers. After I quit, my cardio went to shit and is still not back where it was, despite the fact that I’m a pretty active person.
Maybe it’s just my age :(
Regarding cravings, I still get them five years later. (I do find the smell of a smoker to be disgusting though.)
