Quitters Support.

I thought it would be a great Idea for us to have a thread to support quitting smokers. I am quitting today and I have picked up 5 cans of snus and some strong snuffs. I will be fighting my cravings 1 minute at a time.

I’ve attempted it, but to no avail.  I hope to give it another shot in a month or two.  It seems funny that even chocked full of other forms of tobacco, nothing replaces a cigarette.  I’ve had a nose full of snuff, a mouth full of snus, and a pipe in my teeth, and STILL been craving a cigarette.

As much as I enjoy snuff, I just don’t seem to get the nicotine I really need.  I think the only thing that will do it for me long-term will be SNUS.  It doesn’t mean I’ll give up snuff…I just don’t seem to get out of it quite what I need to be a total replacement.

you can do it, brandasaur … i gave up my remaining 5 cigs a day on January 1 this year … and it gets easier each passing hour and day.  Pop in as many snus as you have to in order to keep your cravings down … and snuff as much as you need as well.  The combination of the two really do wonders … it really is the habit you will be fighting … the smoke after dinner, drinking, driving … have your snus and snuff always ready.

i had smoked since i was 17 … up to a pack and half a day … quit many times, but never for more than a week or two … this time i have done it … and yes, it is one day, one hour, one minute at a time.

I found giving up the cigs dead easy. Just snuff instead of smoking. What could be simpler? Here’s how to give up cigs. DON’T BUY THEM!

i agree with snuffbrant its the actual art of smoking that you will miss . i still smoke but noticed if i have a few pinches i find myself saying mmmm i havent had a smoke in about 3 hours then i go for one . 

 

Yes it is the habit. There are so many activities I do that ‘require’ a cigarette after. Snus has been giving me the nicotine I need after these but I still crave the feeling of smoke filling my lungs. That is something that only cigarettes can satisfy…for me. Anybody else notice this? How long did it take for these cravings to slow down?

Just one thing if you are going to blog a stop smoking attempt: It is your life!! If and when you fall off the bandwagon - and most of us that have been there have done - remember you don’t owe any of us any explanations. I’ve seen people set up with a big fanafare and almost apologise that they had a cigarette. Screw that.

Something from my own experience that I am convinced got me through; when I made my big effort to get off cigarettes, I said to myself that if my sanity was in danger and I just couldn’t stand it I would have a cigarette and get straight back on the attempt. No guilt, no issues, just start again with stopping. Actually I did not have that cigarette for months and it was down to putting that safety net in place. Ive used it ever since, if I have a smoke I just get straight back on with the snuff. Maybe I’m weird but I can have a cigarette now and have no desire to smoke again. There is such a thing as modifying behaviour as well as altering it completely. The last cigarette I had was at Christmas. I will probably have a few when I go to a large 50th birthday bash in a couple of weeks. It goes on like that and I am in a very good place with it. Snuff can help you stop completely or help you change your tobacco use so that snuff is your main intake. But no guilt, ever.

No Guilt … +1 … it will take some time.

hmm. I feel bad for you guys. Once I learned how to snuff correctly, I didn’t even think about cigs. I totally get the nicotine out of snuff that I stopped getting out of cigarettes when I was 14. 

The one time I was able to quit I just told myself “I dont smoke”. Repeat that a few times in your head and you start to believe it :wink:

As others have said it is the ACT or OCCASSION of smoking a cig that is the hardest to break. You smoke first thing in the morning, after meals, with a drink, driving, etc. That is the hardest to break. Your brain tells you “You’re doing/did (insert given activity here), you need a cigarette!”, so you smoke and that smoking is more strongly related to certain activities than to a physical dependency on nicotine. Nicotine, when not resupplied, will be removed from the body in about 72 hours. The association between cigarettes and a given activity take MUCH longer to break. Your body and brain, on a purely physical level, don’t care where the nicotine comes from, and I assure you there are many moist snuffs (dip), some pipe tobaccos (try some SG 1792 or GH Brown Bogie), and some dry snuffs (Viking Dark comes to mind) that are MUCH stronger and deliver MUCH more nicotine than MULTIPLE cigarettes. I smoked 2 packs of cigs a day for almost 15 years (smoked my last one at 2am 9/1/98) and never got a nic buzz.  All of the aforementioned tobaccos have put me on my arse more times than one if not taken with caution and patience and I have a pretty high tolerance for vitamin N. I did get the urge for a cig a few months ago after WAAAY more than a few too many beers and just couldn’t do it. It tasted nasty, hurt my lungs, and just didn’t “feel right” in my hand. Once you break the psychological habit of smoking cigs you’re home free.

I wish you luck with your efforts. It’s the best thing I ever did. If you do fall off the wagon you don’t owe anyone but yourself any explainations, no guilt, no shame. Just get right back on as soon as possible. Eventually you’ll make it through. Once you do you’ll wonder why you didn’t do it sooner.

Think at how much better snuff will smell after 2 days without a smoke!

Swedish snus got me off the cigs overnight.

I tell you what half an hour ago was the first time I’ve had a craving since I replaced cigarettes with snuff 2-3 weeks ago. I was actually thinking about going out quickly and getting a pack, then I realized that I hadn’t had a pinch in about 5-6 hours, so I took some Quit and all was good. Then I sat next to the window and had a few different snuffs with the fresh cold air coming in. No desire at all for a cigarette after that.

I think not only is using snuff or whatever you use to curb the nicotine cravings is important, but also the ritual being transferred to snuff. When I have a stronger desire for a cigarette, sometimes a bigger pinch of snuff is enough, but the stronger the craving the more I include the handwork and take several small pinches. With cigarettes, you don’t just take one puff, you take quite a few over a couple of minutes, so with snuff I take smaller pinches over a couple of minutes, and I use different ones for variety. Works pretty well for me so far.

I’ve been doing pretty much the same as you theatre. Been keeping the nic levels up with Viking dark during the day at work and alternating in the evening. I try to keep myself dosed up by routinely taking a pinch and have had no desire to smoke for the past few days. I know the next pub session will hit hardest but I’ve told myself I’ll take a couple nice cigars with me and if it gets the better of me then I’ll smoke those. That way I won’t wake up with the urge to light up and a few marly reds left in my jeans

Even though I am still new to this hobby, I went from a pack a day to none in about a week and a half.  I have been using a combo of E-cigarette (low dose nicotine) and W.E. Garrett Scotch Sweet.  Now I find that I reach for the snuff more often than the E-cig!  I hope I can keep it up but as @Bloodnativ said, “If you fall off the wagon…just get back on…”

There are a few occasions that I’m just not willing to give up a cig. After sex, after a particularly great meal, and when I get hurt. Nothing makes me want a cigarette more than getting hit in the crotch. It keeps me from hurting whoever did it if it was accidental.

I don’t go along with the idea that you can never have another smoke, you just need to learn to get such a large part of your tobacco habit in the form of snuff, then the remaining cigarettes are a pleasure not pure habit. Looking back on being a smoker and I can see that I actually enjoyed about three cigarettes a day. Three cigarettes a day are more than I choose to smoke nowadays, but letting myself out of jail at infrequent intervals has kept me off full time smoking. We have all been taught to look at this in black and white terms and that is too simple a way of reckoning it. In my opinion and what have you. The real trick is working out that snuff really can be a big - or even complete - way of getting the fix, but it does take a good couple of weeks of getting used to it, as a staple. You have to get the nicotine and alkaloids in sufficient quantity to feel how much it can help, and that means big pinches regularly, all day every day until the brain re-wires. I think a lot of people dabble but don’t see what it can do because of the simple fact of not taking enough. Cover the triggers (possibly exempting sex unless your partner doesn’t mind), don’t run out and don’t feel any guilt if you fail.

I couldn’t agree more with Snuffster.  I tried to quit smoking cigs for good over and over again and always broke down.  Once I had had one, there was no stopping me from smoking full time again.  Since I have taken up snuff I rarely crave a cigarette.  I do still have a cigarette or two every now and then and I find them to be more worlds more enjoyable than I did when I was a regular smoker.  But the next day I just get back to my snuffs which I enjoy even more than cigarettes and which I find I crave far more than I ever crave a cigarette anymore.  Don’t beat yourself up over having a cigarette, just don’t lose sight of the goal.

Harlequin snuff is better after sex then a cig especialy if there was heavy foreplay.