i smoke a little... the few cigarettes i have each day are to build joints with ....i want to Quit ...help!?

Question

i know im self medicating ...that doesn,t make it any easier to quit ..its a 20 year habit ...i did smoke throughout the day at one point now i smoke between 4 -6 joints each night ..i have diffilculty sleeping if dont ... i plan to use the evening for other activities therefrore avoiding temptation ..i know i have two habits to kick pot and nicotine ...i want to break free it determines my life style and i want the rest of my life to be determined by my choices as opposed to an emotional crutch which ive built for myself

Answer 1

been there exactly the same as you... i know how reliant you become on it to sleep, but its phscyological...

give up the puff first and when you over that quit the ciggies..

i never looked back on giving it all up, i had one joint in four years and it made me sick and never understood how i became so addicted to it..

good luck.

Answer 2

I gave up smoking ciggies, and had a little pipe for the pot to smoke which I used only in the evening as a way to limit it, without the tobacco, i used the NHS quit smoking scheme, patches then gum, all worked well until I'd had enough of feeling too out of it on the pipe, so cut it down even more to hardly anything, then of course the other half & friends coming round smoking it, i felt isolated from our 'normal lifestyle' of 20+ years so started having the odd 'toke'
which has lead to the odd few tokes, which has lead to about 2 ciggies a day and a couple of goes on a joint in the evening so i still haven't battled it out!

I know what i need to do, make our house a no smoking environment completely, but 20 yrs is a long time for friends to be popping round every now & then for a catch up and a toke.

So if you have a partner get them to smoke outside, make your home a no smoking zone and you could well win this battle. Good Luck!

Answer 3

I know how your're feeling. I have kicked my skunk smoking habit after nearly 20 years. The biggest draw back was not being able tosleep. Wide awake for hours on end. I used sleep balm which sometimes worked and sometimes did'nt. Someone told me cannabis stays in your system for about 6 months.
Well its now just turned 6 months since I had a smoke (I never smoked nic only pure skunk/cannabis - pipe smoker!) I am sleeping a lot better and feel totally relieved that I have got rid of such a hang up. Last night I actually went out at 10pm to watch the eclipse. I would have been fast asleep on the chair stoned six months ago.!
The biggest thing was not being able to sleep, but that wears off.
As far as missing anything else about not smoking, I dont miss the paranoia, the cost and the anxiety of not having it when the dealer ran out.
It was a forced on me to stop smoking as our cannabis farm was discovered by an eagle-nosed pc calling about something unrelated. What a favour he did us. It was a bit stressful, the court proceedings, but luckily the punishment was fair.
So pleased I dont smoke anymore. Give it a try if you can. Good Luck

Answer 4

Been here myself, am cured of the skunk demon but not the ciggies. Its easier to give up the weed, so you have to do that first, it seems like a big thing but it isnt you only miss it for a while. Make sure you have plenty to do and just dont buy any. For a couple of weeks you may smoke more ciggies and have bizzarre dreams, they dont last long. When you have stopped the pot get The Easy Way To Stop Smoking by Alan Carr. Ive started this and it is already working by putting me off cigs. You really do have to stop the pot first, my fella has tried to do this the other way round and it hasnt worked. I have been much more successful. Above all this is mind over matter and you have to tell yourself that this is what you want and its for the best. Every time you feel weak say this to yourself as a mantra.... Good luck!

Answer 5

Smoking cigarettes and pot dramatically increases your risk of lung cancer and emphysema. I'd get some medical help.. It's a habit. Your dependent on the pot.. I'd try walking or getting some exercise daily. Find a church group or an N/A group that has meetings in your area and join. Get some advice from your medical doctor too. Good luck. ps. .Look at all the money you would save if you didn't smoke anything. You could Probably go on a nice vacation with the money.

Answer 6

The thing with giving up smoking is that it DOESN'T guarantee you a longer life, because you could just as easily get hit by a bus tomorrow. Smoking 4 - 6 joints a night won't be good for you though. I smoke joints occasionally but not that many, and if I haven't got one I don't get one. I'm not reliant on it for any reason. Rather than give up smoking have you thought about cutting down on the contents of the joints? Maybe smoke less or put smaller amounts of you-know-what into them?

Answer 7

Um, I don't think I would quit the pot before the cigs. At least when you are working through the early days of nicotine withdrawal and you are totally jonesing for a smoke, you can have a joint to help relax a little bit. Quit them both at the same time if you are willing to do it. The cigs will be a physical and somewhat psychological addicition to fight, but the marijuana will be mostly a psychological fight.

One thing about losing/giving up a habit is the fact that you actually need to REPLACE the habit. You can't stop smoking very well, if instead of lighting up, you just fixate for a half hour on the idea of how great it would be to smoke (as opposed to finding something else physical to do).

A couple thoughts - find a conflicting behavior to put in its place while reprogramming yourself with this new habit. **Note :: it takes approximately 21 days of consistency to form a new habit.** For instance, my uncle would eat a candy bar every time he wanted to (and would normally have) lit up. Granted, this led to a 40 pound weight gain in little to no time, but he stopped smoking and eventually regained control of his life and got back to a healthy weight.

The hardest part of not smoking for me (after getting through withdrawals) was breaking my habits. It was a given that when I got in the car I would light up, when I finished a meal, I would light up, when I finished sex, I would light up....you get the point. A couple times a friend would toss me the pack or offer me a smoke, and I would not even realize what I was doing until it was already lit - suddenly it would hit me, and I would be in shock, but in time these stupidity incidents lessened.

Um, okay, I have probably digressed again. One of my stupid contradicting behaviors that I used was to brush my teeth every time I intended to smoke. It is quite difficult to smoke a cig while you're brushing your teeth. Ever tried it?

If it is needed to ween yourself off the nicotine instead of just cold turkey, try some of the nicorette gum if necessary. This too can help because it is giving your mouth something to do; however, it can become addictive - And that would not solve the problem!

Okay, so have I even addressed anything yet? I know all about self medication - I won't even go into detail of what's going on with me currently. So, anyway, I understand the desire to kick pot along with the smokes, and I expect to get some thumbs downs for this, but I don't necessarily think that the weed has to go.

Unless you are smoking total dirt weed, you should not need 4-6 joints a night - even for long time users, a hit or 2 of stuff I'm around will take you out for a bit. What I am trying to say is that if you want to continue to smoke A (ONE) joint at night to aid in sleeping, I think this is okay. In time, you can replace the joint with a sleep aid or relaxation techniques (other than smoking mj).

Okay, yeah, I think I said enough. And it's nice to see that you can recognize your smoking habits as emotional crutches - be sure to utilize the new crutches/ lifestyle uses to help you live the fullest life you can.

Have a great day!

Answer 8

I can't give any advice on the pot, but I recently quit smoking cigarettes by going cold turkey- I tried several other methods, and it's honestly the only thing that worked for me. Set a date and make sure you have your last cigarette just before going the bed on the eve of your quit date. Try setting the date for a day off, when you'll be less tempted to smoke and more inclined to stay in the house all day.

The first two days cold turkey were hellish for me, but it gets much better around the one week milestone. Trust me, it's worth it.

Answer 9

Like some of the others, i know excatly how your feeling, pretty much in the same place myself right now. For me ive been smoking almost every day for 10 years... im at the age and time in my life where im thinking about starting a family and there is no way i want to smoke while im pregnant or to have to suffer giving up while pregnant, so the only solution is to give up before....trouble is i do still enjoy it. If you want someone to chat to please feel free to contact me through my profile...i find its always useful to get other peoples opinions or ideas. All the best : )

Answer 10

Have you talked to ur doc bout ur smoking habits? They can usually help with both the nicotine cravings and put u in touch with a drug councillor. I went to an addiction clinic but it didnt help as i dont wana really quit! You have to be in totally the right frame of mind to start this. Good luck.

Answer 11

stopping weed isn't that hard if you smoke more ciggies. this will get you out more, doing other things. hopefully in time the ciggies will start to decrease too.

I'm only half way there though, i quite the weed but still smoking quite a bit X