Did smoking cigarettes have a mental toll on you? If so what benefits did you see after quitting?

8 comments

1. Nicotine won’t rule your life so there’s that lmao.

2. The only benefit I had was not wanting to smoke anymore. Or not having the urge, because I still want to.

3. First things first I did not QUIT!! I escaped.

   I used to use cigarettes as an escape into the ‘good old times’ vs whtever pain I was in at the moment, or a way to punish myself for this or that. Now I work through my issues instead of running from them.

   Also I am now enjoying things more, there is rush to finish my meal of do this or that, jsut so I can go out and smoke. I am now able to stay and take in the experience of a meal (for example) properly. It is no longer the thing I need just to survive, and that makes my cigarette better.

4. I didn’t smell all the time anymore and neither did my apartment.

   Lung capacity went up.

   Lost weight because I could breathe normally again after a while and start moving around.

   Stopped coughing all the time.

   Saved a lot of money.

5. I saved $250 per fortnight. I don’t have a smokers cough.

   The mental toll was 2 days of withdrawal. Vomitting and sweating. It was hell but worth it.

6. For me, it became associated with de-stressing and taking regular short breaks from work/screen time.

   The first month after giving up was pretty awful as I didn’t have that crutch anymore, so would just stew in my stress/annoyance. It got easier though.

   As for the work/screen time, it’s a weird one because everyone seemed fine with smoke breaks but I found I got weird looks when I would just go outside for air and/or to get away from my monitors without smoking. I stopped doing that and now just stand up, stretch and look away for a few minutes instead.

   Can’t speak for others but I’m ~9 months into quitting and I’ve found the cravings have never fully gone away, they just get increasingly more rare and less intense. I’d say I think about having a smoke maybe once every week or two for all of about 10 seconds then it goes away again.

7. Not really. Quitting didn’t really do much for me other than save a few bucks on cigarettes.

8. I was addicted at some point, which is not such a heavy burden if you’re properly supplied. The +/- 10 times I tried to quit and failed weren’t that hard either, I just didn’t try hard enough, or didn’t actually want to stop.

   After quitting properly, the only bad thing I noticed is how I suddenly hated being around smokers.