/christian/ - Christian Discussion and Fellowship

I was a smoker for 20 years or so, but quit via vaping.. which still isn't good, but much better. You'll get away from the 1000+ chemicals in commercial tobacco and the tar buildup, but you'll still be hooked on nicotine. But the good thing is, you can adjust the nic levels as time goes by.. until it's zilch.

wean

Cold turkey

And when you feel weak and want to smoke, pray to God that he give you the strength to resist and blesses you by making you forget you need the nicotine.

>>768174

Maybe vid related could be of help for research. You also need a good reason to want to quit; my father used to be a chain smoker until my mother told him that she was pregnant with me. He finished the pack he had left and quit cold turkey, never relapsing back.

Quitters never win, anon, and winners never quit.

How much do you smoke?

>>768298

I buy a 12-pack every 3 days or so.

>>768174

By recognising that every time you smoke, you are hurting not only yourself but everyone near you. Kids caught lung cancer and developed respiratory illness all the time because their dad or some asses surrounding their life could not be bothered and just want to get their high anytime anywhere.

>>768174

http://prdupl02.ynet.co.il/ForumFiles_2/15119301.pdf

>>768370

This reads like the ramblings of an arrogant snake oil salesman

Go back in time and listen to your mother telling you not to start

>>768454

Agreed.

Read the book linked here myself >>768370 only rewritten for pornography/masturbation addiction. I'll save you a lot of time and disappointment: it's basically a variation of the "If you understand the psychological underpinnings of your addiction, you'll just magically stop!" theory.

As for stopping smoking, it depends. I smoked about 3 cigs a day for years, and just decided to quite cold turkey after getting a cold, and thinking about the possible future consequences of continued smoking, and decided to cash in my chips and go home while I was still ahead without any difficulty. Meanwhile, pornography and masturbation continues to be the bane of my existence.

In other words, if you can cold turkey; great. If not, wean gradually as others have suggested. It all depends on how addicted you are, or if you're even really addicted.

>>768332

But that's literally the part that is bad. The addiction is the vice.

>>768332

Absolutely not.

>>768174

Medical studies have shown that people who stop outright are around 30% more likely to remain smoke free long term, compared to people who cut down gradually. The study was over a 5 year period.

If you don't want to do something, don't do it. It isn't easy, but consciously and continuously remind yourself that you don't want to smoke, state your reasons, make it clear, say it out loud.

It often helps to replace a bad habit with a good one, aversion therapy. Redirect your focus and interest to something else, every time you feel the urge to smoke. Perhaps start picking up a pen and writing a sentence about your thoughts every time the urge for smoking comes into your head. That will occupy your hand, as well as your head, and can be done almost anywhere.

The main part of the habit will be broken after 3-4 weeks, the chemical addiction will have left your system, and the habit will have faded in your brain, the only idea left might be an idea of 'comfort', which you can choose to ignore as you know it is not rational.

Staying away from people who smoke also helps a great deal.

>>768494

For porn/masturbation, have a look at the website "your brain on porn", it should help.

The first couple of weeks are the hardest, after that it will occupy your thoughts less as time goes on. After a few months your brain will feel a lot cleaner, less constant flashes of porn-type ideas in your head. Stopping porn is the most important part, once you have done that, and beaten it, masturbation won't feel like such a strong urge anymore. It is the porn that formed the habit and made it so incessant, the hunting for porn.

For the first two or three weeks, stay very busy, stay around other people as much as possible, and reduce your privacy by leaving your curtains and door open. Going on a camping trip or somewhere with no internet will help a lot too.

If you slip up, don't make a big deal out of it, just think that you've managed to be porn-free for a few days and that's positive. Then start again. Even if it takes 20 attempts, it is worth it, and you will become more in control over it the more you try.

First step for me was deleting all my saved porn. Some people use a porn filter, but I didn't. It can help to limit which websites you go on though, even if you are doing it just consciously. Don't go on imageboards apart from perhaps this one. Some people use an image blocker so the browser doesn't display any images at all no matter what.

Also, redirecting your energy towards exercise helps a lot. It is a simple activity where you don't have to think too much, makes you feel good from the chemicals it releases, and is a positive alternative. Read how to do good quality pushups and start there. Going for a walk away from the computer helps a lot too.

Hey guys.

Just wanted to thank you all for the suggestions, I really appreciate it. It's really nice to see real concern from anons.

I found the PDFs specially helpful. Surprisingly, the first one, although loony sounding, is helping me quite a bit. I just internalized the fact that smoking does not actually help me relax and relieve my stress/anxiety/anger so it's actually pretty useless. Hopefully I can keep this up.

>>768494

That book actually hampered my chastity efforts, in hindsight.

>>769732

Good to hear, fren.

Hopefully I’ll kick my addictions too.