tobacco bug
Posted By: how long until I feel better? on 2009-03-17
In Reply to: 108 hours without a cigarette -- going nuts - XanaX
You are re-wiring your brain to learn to do things without a cigarette. Unless you are a very busy person and can be sick the first time without a cigarette, go to a funeral the first time without a cigarette, and go on a cross country road trip without a cigarette the first time, I am thinking about five years to feel "normal" all the time.
The half life of nicotine will take about 45 days or so to completely flush out.
Take up hiking. This really will make you feel better than anything else, but fruit can help if you can't get off of the couch.
I have never stopped dreaming about smoking, and it has been 10 years.
Just remember you can still "want one" and not "have one", one minute at a time.
Get out your calculator and figure out how many cigarettes you would have smoked in 108 hours. That is how many cigarettes you have NOT smoked, then add up how much money you have not spent on cigarettes.
I smoked 45 cigarettes a day. I have not smoked in 10 years. That is 164,250 cigarettes I have NOT smoked and around $50,000 I have not given to phillip morris to keep me addicted to cigarettes.
Good Luck!
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smokeless tobacco
I have been through this with my 20 yo son also. It's a little worse for me because my ex-husband still chews tobacco, so he has set the example for my son. It does give them a "buzz" and that is why they do it.
My son is an athlete so I was really surprised he decided to start this. I asked various people to talk to him (coaches, physician, etc.) and also showed him pictures online of what people look like who have had mouth cancer. He stopped for awhile, then started again, and now he has stopped thank goodness. I think what scared him the most was the picture of a man who had the cancer. It was really sad. Maybe you could print off some pictures of what he could look like if he keeps on chewing and gets cancer. Kids never seem to think they are invincible. Good luck, I hope you get through to him.
My DH has used smokeless tobacco...
for about 4 years. He's finally in the process of quitting and is doing really great. He's using one of the OTC nicotine gums and is only chewing 1-2 pieces a day and supplementing it with just sugar-free gum. We got a great article in the mail from Tricare (he's in the Navy) and it really scared him into finally quitting. I can't seem to find the article, but found this one below that has a lot of great information.
From www.medicalnewstoday.com:
Tobacco: Smokeless Does Not Equal Harmless
Main Category: Smoking / Quit Smoking News
Article Date: 30 Aug 2006 - 0:00am (PST
You don't smoke it. You don't sniff it. You don't even have to swallow it, but its effects can harm your body nevertheless. It's smokeless tobacco.
The Pennsylvania Dental Association (PDA) would like to remind teens and adults of the serious and often-underestimated risks associated with smokeless tobacco.
"Young adults and adolescents are the ones most likely to erroneously believe that smokeless tobacco is less dangerous," said Dr. David Tecosky, a PDA member dentist from Philadelphia. "Basically due to their lack of education on the topic."
Smokeless tobacco, also known as chew or dip, is produced in the forms of chewing tobacco and snuff. Snuff is a fine-grain tobacco held in teabag-like pouches that users "pinch" or "dip" between their lower lip and gum. Chewing tobacco comes in shredded, twisted or "bricked" tobacco leaves. Bricked leaves are pressed into small, soft blocks flavored with licorice and sugar.
A user sucks on the tobacco juices, often spitting from saliva buildup. By sucking and chewing, nicotine becomes absorbed into the bloodstream through the tissues in one's mouth.
Smokeless tobacco leads to dependence similar to the way cigarettes will get you hooked, by continued intake of the addictive drug nicotine. However, surprisingly, the amount of nicotine absorbed from smokeless tobacco is three to four times higher than the amount delivered by a cigarette. Once a person becomes addicted, quitting becomes very difficult. Just as with smoking, withdrawal from chewing tobacco causes symptoms such as depressed and irritable moods, increased appetite and intense cravings.
Less severe, more immediate effects of this habit can be bad breath, yellowish-brown stains on your teeth and mouth sores. However over time, side effects can include cracked, bleeding and receding gums, and eroded tooth enamel due to the coarse particles in tobacco also making your teeth more vulnerable to cavities. Since chewing tobacco contains high amounts of sugar, prolonged use can cause tooth decay and loss.
Additionally, 28 carcinogens have been identified in chewing tobacco and snuff. Users are two to six times more likely to develop oral cancer than non-users. Furthermore, smokeless tobacco consumers actually have a higher risk of developing oral cancer than cigarette smokers.
"Tobacco smoke doesn't linger on soft tissue in the oral cavity whereas smokeless tobacco remains in the mouth in contact with the mucous membranes," said Dr. Tecosky.
Oral cancer can occur in the lips, tongue, floor of the mouth, roof of the mouth, cheeks or gums, leaving permanent disfigurement and physical impairment when amputation is necessary. Cancer from chewing tobacco doesn't just occur in the mouth. Cancer-causing agents in tobacco can enter the lining of the esophagus, stomach and bladder.
If you are already a user there are over-the-counter solutions for quitting. A person can in some measure stave off cravings by using substitutes such as tobacco-free, mint leaf snuff or even something as simple as sugarless gum.
There are prescription drugs that aid in quitting any tobacco products, however these also have the potential to become addictive. These drugs can be given orally, by patch or by spray. They are all prescribed by dentists and physicians.
For more information on other oral health topics, visit PDA's website at http://www.padental.org.
Pennsylvania Dental Association
Tobacco and alcohol should be illegal.
who make poor decisions.
The 2 drugs that cause more death and damage are legal but shouldn't be.
I have a right NOT to pay for others' poor decision-making and to not worry about the impact hurled onto society from their actions.
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