Quitting Smoking and SI

Hey everybody, brand new Nerdfighter. Like literally I made my account yesterday. Anyway I've been trying to quit smoking for quite sometime now. Even though I've only been doing it for a few months, which is relatively short, I really do't want to do it anymore. Anyone have any advice ?
Also I suffered with Self-injury for 5 years up to now. I've been clean for 21 months, however the urges have come back with increased size and intensity. I'm not sure if its general college stress or SAD or what, but if anyone has anythign to offer on that to I would really appreciate it.

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Permalink Reply by Jeff Konecki on November 5, 2012 at 4:28am

As another brand new nerdfighter who is also in the process of quitting smoking, I would advise against going cold turkey. I've tried it several times and I haven't managed to last even a single day. I have, however, successfully decreased my intake to just 8/day, and am on a pace to quit by Christmas. If you have a smartphone, there should be a number of quit smoking apps which you can give your current daily intake and your desired quit day and it will automatically draw up a schedule and daily budget. If you don't, you can draw one up yourself: one fewer cigarette a week is a doable pace.

If you do go cold turkey, my friend who has successfully quit smoking recommended finding three days where you have nothing better to do and spending a lot of time sleeping, and drinking a glass of water whenever you have a craving (personally, I find that the water method just results in me being well-hydrated when I go out for my cigarette).

Another thing you might try is herbal cigarettes. I recommend catnip, but if you're on meds (which it sounds like you might be) be sure to talk to your psychiatrist before consuming anything. St. John's Wart, for example, can be lethal when combined with certain antidepressants.

John Cheese over at Cracked has two articles on quitting smoking that I highly recommend.

http://www.cracked.com/article_19030_quitting-smoking-6-things-you-...

http://www.cracked.com/blog/5-life-lessons-you-only-learn-through-q...

Hank also has a video on reasons not to smoke that I recommend:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLcFVau5wvk

As evidenced by the fact that I'm about to have a cigarette right now, I've never successfully quit smoking, so my advice may not be the best.

I have successfully quit self-injury, however. I have less advice to offer on that, though, since it just sorta happened when my depression finally lifted, I never really made a concerted effort to stop doing it. I suppose the only thing I really have to offer is empathy, since I've been clean since August and I still have urges whenever my mood dips down into the dumps.

Stay strong and good luck!

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Permalink Reply by Jarod Vautrot on November 7, 2012 at 4:04pm

I'm finally down to 2 cigarettes a day. I've had some close calls with SI but nothing yet.

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Permalink Reply by Samantha Nicola on November 18, 2012 at 6:29pm

That's great! Don't undervalue that, this shit be hard. And stuff. And I started smoking again unfortunately, but back on the quitting track. Smoking is now actually my SI ;>_>

Talked for a bit about this with friends and they actually said that made a lot of sense, a lot of people with SI-issues smoke for the same reasons: to surpress stuff, or..whatever is a trigger. So it's not weird you yearn to that, especially since smoking is more addictive than 'regular'.