I'm a Alcholic and I admit it

[USVirgin]

Hehehe, never stopped my dad.

 

He's dying of colon cancer, spread everywhere. During one of his recent hospitalizations, my brother and I snuck him outside the hospital so he could have a smoke. He was being held for pneumonia, and it was pretty cold out. And a really long walk for the old guy to get to the designated smoking area, so he stopped short and I fired one up for him.

 

He was sitting on a little wall, and no sooner did he have the cigarette in his mouth that the doctor in charge of him climbed over that wall, excusing himself (climbing over the wall was a shortcut to an ATM).

 

My dad had just been verbally abusing this doctor in his hospital room ten minutes before, and we were clearly busted, but the Dr. just laughed and said "Don't worry about it."

[BelgianBoy]

My Dad was diagnosed with cancer in his mouth about 7 years ago. Doc told him "Either you stop smoking or smoking will stop you in 6-12 months". My Dad walked out of the office, threw his cigarettes in the bin and hasn't touched a cigarette since.

On the other hand, if a doc would diagnose me with 2-3 months left to live, I would start smoking again in a second. I stopped 8 yaers ago, and miss it daily....

 

BB

 

[samak]

i also miss them daily, my good Havanna Cigars! for me it is a stop and start again thing, several times per year! to stop is never a problem, but to keep moderate smoking (2-4 cigars a week) is a big challenge! if i start to smoke it is soon a daily cigar and soon after that 2-3 per day and that definitely affects my health!

as for alcohol: i had some alcoholics in my family and my mother was always worried that i also would get one... however as i am just a social drinker and don't drink during the day, it was never too much of a problem for me

[Faustian]

Oddly alcohol has never had a strong hold on me. I can drink and then not do so again for a long time, or I can drink everyday for a few weeks, then stop. Don't feel any pull, don't want it, don't need it.

 

But smoking is the bane of my existence.

 

I gave up for a year, but fell back into it so easily.

 

I really want to give up again.

 

It's just so easy to continue.

 

I wish I could flick a switch and stop. If I stop for even half a day the cravings are insane. I get rushes/hot flushes, my head feels slightly askew/off kilter, my vision goes weird, my concentration lapses...on the plus side I have a lot of energy and breathing feels clean again.

 

How to do it though? My willpower doesn't seem to want to work.

[playtheblues]

Smoking will kill you and you will need to stop.

 

Obviously you have made up your mind about this and that's the most important first step. Most smokers are delusional about the dangers of smoking until their doctor tells them that their emphysema or cancer is already progressing.

 

Then they will understand.

 

Serious - and I mean really serious - aerobic exercise might help in two ways. First, it raises your endorphine levels creating a feeling of wellbeing bordering in some cases (myself form instance) on euphoria. This feeling kicks in after about an hour of, say, long-slow distance running or fast walking and will last for the rest of the day. Numerous reports indicate that exercise is a stronger mood enhancer than serotonin uptake inhibitor drugs like Prozac.

 

Secondly, aerobics works wonder for the breathing, a process which you mightnot want to reverse by smoking.

 

But you are probably aware of all this.

 

Don't give up!

 

The benefits of non-smoking are ENORMOUS.

[Faustian]

Thanks for your reply. I had started doing 2 hour workouts at the local gym, which meant I wasn't smoking until the late afternoon, but I've reduced that now, as I've no time. I do enjoy my workouts and I see it as my route to giving up.

 

I will crack it soon....I hope.

[playtheblues]

I am aware that you know this kind of stuff much better than me, but maybe some other readers might not be quite up-to-date about the powerful role of exercise in combating cravings.

 

More generally speaking: Smoking and alcohol abuse are like terrorists who have hijacked the reward system in the brain. Smoking creates new receptors in the brain and when you smoke, these receptors emit dopamin type chemicals that make you feel good and create withdrawal anguish when the craving isn't satisfied. The more smoking the more nicotine receptors are created. This reward system is, after years of smoking, so well established in the older part of the brain that the brain has great difficulties understanding why you cannot have another cig.

 

I don't know, but I guess than that exercise creates its own reward mechanisms in the brain that can compete with the nicotin receptors?

 

The trick is anyhow - I took this from a newspaper article - to teach the brain that smoking is not allowed, namely by switching on the part of the brain called the cortex which (hopefully) understands the consequences of ones actions; and thus teach the cortex that by smoking you will slowly die by slow, extraordinarily horrible suffocation.

 

So by a combination of exercise and clear thinking, time will gradually combat the smoking habit.

 

Again, not particularily, directed towards you, who certainly know much more than me about this.

[Faustian]

Indeed, good stuff. Exercise tends to promote endorphin release, the same chemical family released by heroin and other opiates, but you need to do it enough to get the high. Epinephrine (adrenaline) is also released by exercise, but I'm not sure of the reward effects other than you feel focused. Curiously speed and cocaine release this neurotransmitter. It has a relationship with Dopamine and may act as a diversionary release. I need to do more reading...it's been a while.

[Flashermac]

I haven't touched a cigarette in 27 years, nor do I want to. Harder for me was giving up my pipe. As to booze, I got drunk as a skunk one night in Vietnam. I felt so bad the next day that I would have thanked the VC if they'd shot me dead. Since then, I stop when I start to feel it.