BreaknBrix
Power Member
- Mar 25, 2014
- 778
- 4,523
I can give you an example OP. Although it's still not a "success" story it's something that's helped quite a bit.
I use to smoke 1 pack a day of Marlboro Menthols. Like I'd go to the gym everyday, run, eat healthy but I'd smoke like an idiot. Which never made sense and still doesn't make sense to any of my family. Like I'll go push myself at the gym, run 3-4 miles, get in my car then light up a cigarette. It's one of the weirdest things in the world.
Anyway, it got to the point where I was waking up in the morning with an awful pain in my throat. It got so bad I could feel my throat swelling and just bending my neck forward would hurt.
Then obviously the teeth problems. Was eating a salad one day, chewed on a nut and cracked my front tooth. 6 months later I was doing the same exact thing, bit on a hard soybean and cracked a molar that had a filling in it. I was in incredible pain and thinking, "wtf... I'm 31 and my teeth are already falling out"?
The dentist never said anything except I just needed the teeth fixed obviously.
But I started noticing that my gums and teeth were becoming incredibly sensitive. Whether it was cold air, just breathing, it didn't matter. I'd be rubbing my teeth all day. And even though the dentist never diagnosed me with anything, I started telling myself, "this is the onset of gum disease or something worse". So between the teeth chipping, sensitivity in my gums and mouth, the pain in my throat... I decided SOMETHING needed to change.
So I stopped smoking. I figured, "if anything, I'm just gonna give my throat and lungs a break". And ironically, it wasn't that hard to not smoke. But on day 3, for some odd reason I didn't sleep at all. Day 4, again, I couldn't sleep at all. I thought since nicotine was a stimulant, I'd be sleeping BETTER at night. But it was the total opposite... I could not sleep well no matter what. And the worst part was it showed NO SIGNS of getting better. So then I started taking nicotine lozenges... and guess what? I STILL COULD NOT FUCKING SLEEP!!!
I know a lot about chemistry / drug addiction but I simply couldn't figure this out. Cause the 1st thing I thought was "this has gotta be nicotine withdrawals" but AFTER I supplemented oral nicotine and nothing changed, I still couldn't sleep... it slowly began to break me down.
Then I wound up calling my uncle who smoked for 40+ years but quit 3 years ago.
I asked him, "when you quit smoking did you get really bad insomnia"? And he said "yes I did". So then I asked, "how long did it last"? And he said, "around 6 months". I was like, "WHAT THE FUCK... you're you couldn't sleep for 6 fucking months" and he just said "to be honest, even now, 3 years later I still don't sleep like I use to".
HE was able to quit cause his daughter had a daughter and his daughter told him (keep in mind they have a close relationship)... "I can't have you around my baby if you're smoking". She was really stern about it. Like she said, "I'm not talking about going outside to have a cigarette, I mean if you're smoking PERIOD, I can't have you anywhere around my kid". Which I thought was rude as fucking hell. This bitch (my cousin) was so uptight she didn't want the RESIDUE of smoke from hours ago to be anywhere near her baby. And I wanted to tell that bitch "your baby is being exposed to more pollution from the air you idiot" but it was my uncles business and ultimately he made the decision to quit.
BACK ON TOPIC.
That made me crack. I thought "noooo fucking way in hell am I going 6 months or longer not sleeping like I normally do". So I went home that day and bought a pack of Marlboro Menthols.
Then that night I slept like a baby.
But here is where shit gets really weird, cause I'm a logical minded person.
People say "nicotine causes withdrawals" which it does. No doubt about that. But what I derived from this experience were 3 key points:
1) Nicotine does cause withdrawals. I was having the worst insomnia possible. Almost as bad as when I stopped using opiates.
2) HOWEVER, nicotine supplementation DURING withdrawals does >>NOT stop the insomnia which for me was the worst part of the withdrawals.
3) So the ONLY logic that is left to assume is 1 thing: It's NOT actually the nicotine causing these severe withdrawals... it's the THOUSANDS OF ADDITIVES + byproducts of the combustion of all these additives that build up in your system overtime.... in which the body has such a difficult time withdrawing from.
And I stand by this very firmly.
I would bet my bank on this. I truly believe the ADDITIVES in tobacco are HUNDREDS OF TIMES more addictive than nicotine itself.
So THIS is what I did. There was only 1 way to further test this theory.
I first cut back my smoking to the minimum amount I would smoke while still sleeping, which was 10 Marlboros a day. And I stayed there for about 3 months.
But THEN I went out and did something that till this day I really think was smart. I sampled a bunch of different types of non additives cigarettes to find the closest tasting cigarette to the type I was smoking.
Which turned out to be American Spirit Menthols, the dark green pack. Those tasted the closest to Marlboro Menthol.
So THEN this is what I did. I started smoking 7 marlboros and 3 american spirits a day. And I won't lie, I veered from this formula a lot the first few months. Cause I did NOT like the American Spirits. But crazy enough, after another 3 months or so I was able to do this very consistently.
So then I did 5/5.
I started smoking 5 Marlboro Menthols a day and 5 American Spirit Menthols.
For every additive cigarette I was smoking now I had to match it with a non additive cigarette.
And again, I wanna say it took another 2-3 months to actually enjoy doing this.
But then something really fucking weird started to happen. Something that till this day I still can't really explain. The American Spirit Menthols which I HATED at first, after around 9 months of smoking them the Marlboro Menthols became the cigarette I no longer liked. I can't pinpoint exactly when or why this happened. All I know is I at some point when I'd smoke the Marlboro Menthols, which I'd been smoking forever and were always my preferred cigarette.... now I was smoking them and thinking, "these taste REALLY DRY... there's just something about them I don't like anymore". And then American Spirits became my preferred cigarette.
It's almost like a magic trick that your brain does all on its own. It just takes TIME.
Your brain is so use to smoking a specific type of cigarette so any other cigarette you smoke... tastes like shit.
But after VERY SLOWLY weaning in the "healthier" non-additive cigarettes, it's almost like my brain tripped itself. Like it slowly began to understand that there were less toxins in these cigarettes and SOMEHOW, it literally changed my taste buds. To the point where NOW if I smoke Marlboro Menthols, they taste exactly like the first day I tried American Spirits Menthols.... like pure and utter shit.
Then it just happened naturally. I figured, "hell, if I can't smoke Marlboro Menthols anymore, if I don't like them then why am I even buying them anymore"? And just like that I stopped buying these shitty, toxic, mainstream cigarettes.
I also noticed something else that was really cool. I suddenly lost that compulsive, crack like mindset to always wanna smoke more and more cigarettes. Like when I was smoking Marlboros I always wanted MORE than 1 pack a day. I always felt like I was struggling just to smoke 1 pack. With American Spirits I now find myself "forgetting" to smoke a cigarette. Like I can smoke 1, get into work or whatever I'm doing and I'm not obsessing about smoking another one like I was with Marlboro's.
And now, as crazy as it may sound, I feel like I've unraveled a conspiracy.
I feel like these mainstream tobacco companies have done some SERIOUS AND EXTENSIVE research trying to figure out how to make the most addictive cigarette possible. Like all these additives that they claim they put in for flavor, to stop your lungs from bleeding, etc..... even though they may be true the REAL goal is to make these cigs as addictive as crack.
Especially when your in a position where society is becoming enlightened about the true dangers of smoking... you NEED some serious leverage to stop your profits from plummeting. I can see these assholes injecting mice with low doses of formaldehyde, arsenic, and all the other shit they put in tobacco just to measure how severe the withdrawals are when a specific additive is removed from the equation. Then they sort out all the most physically addictive additives and put those in the tobacco.
I haven't completely quit again but I'm getting very close to that point.
The way I look at it, I'm not 100% on a non-additive cigarette. So all I'm smoking is nicotine, tar and just the basic shit that comes from natural tobacco.
Certain days I find myself smoking just 4. Some days I smoke 8. But it's real easy to never pass half a pack.
I'm gonna give my body a bit longer to adjust. Maybe another month or 2 to make sure all the toxins are gone, then I'm gonna try again. And I don't know if I'll be successful but 1 thing I know for a fact is it's gonna be much easier than the last time I tried.
I really want all smokers to be aware of this.
Because right now the message seems to be, "nicotine is extremely addictive". Some scientists say its more addictive than heroin. But I don't actually believe they're talking about nicotine. I think they're talking about the sum cumulative effect of all the chemicals that are put in mainstream tobacco.
Cause lets face it. If nicotine REALLY WAS as addictive as heroin .... people would be chowing down nicotine lozenges like they're crack. But I have NEVER in my life met a person who did that.
There's so much politics, propaganda and bullshit a smart person has to sort through.
Nicotine is NOT as addictive as heroin. I've done opiates. I know how addictive that shit is. If you gave 2 groups 2 different pills, 1 group received heroin or oxycodone in a lozenge.... then the other group received nicotine... I guarantee at least 8/10 of the opiate group wouldn't be able to stop taking the opiate lozenges. But the nicotine lozenge group wouldn't have a problem stopping.
Just really think about it. If nicotine was so addictive WHERE are all the nicotine gum addicts? I've never seen one in my life. All the people chewing nicotine gum are thinking about cigarettes.... not gum.... not lozenges... but the cigarettes with all the additives.
Thats why I believe if a person can taper in natural cigarettes SLOWLY over the course of a year, stabilize on additive free tobacco THEN stop... I feel it'll be 100xs easier for that person to quit smoking.
I figure it should take 6 months for most the heavy metals and other poisons to get fully out of my body then around June I'm gonna try stopping again and see if I get insomnia. If I don't, then I'm not going back. Cause psychological addictions are easy to beat. All it takes is a tiny bit of will power. But biological addictions are the real problem. If your body is craving fucking arsenic and you don't know you're gonna tell yourself "this is a serious psychological addiction". Same thing with foods. If your body is craving a quick burst of glucose you're gonna seek out sweet foods and tell yourself, "I have a bad psychological addiction to food". But I personally think that's all horseshit. I think it's 90+% chemistry. And when you get the chemistry right, when you truly get that stabilized everything else is cake. Just look at pedophiles. A lot of people think they're psychologically addicted to raping children. But the minute you castrate them (chemically or physically) they lose all their interest in kids over night.
That's the same basic theory I'm applying to cigs. Castrate all the additives, isolate the nicotine and find out FOR REAL how hard it is to stop that. Cause I personally believe it'll be as hard as not eating donuts anymore.
-BB
I use to smoke 1 pack a day of Marlboro Menthols. Like I'd go to the gym everyday, run, eat healthy but I'd smoke like an idiot. Which never made sense and still doesn't make sense to any of my family. Like I'll go push myself at the gym, run 3-4 miles, get in my car then light up a cigarette. It's one of the weirdest things in the world.
Anyway, it got to the point where I was waking up in the morning with an awful pain in my throat. It got so bad I could feel my throat swelling and just bending my neck forward would hurt.
Then obviously the teeth problems. Was eating a salad one day, chewed on a nut and cracked my front tooth. 6 months later I was doing the same exact thing, bit on a hard soybean and cracked a molar that had a filling in it. I was in incredible pain and thinking, "wtf... I'm 31 and my teeth are already falling out"?
The dentist never said anything except I just needed the teeth fixed obviously.
But I started noticing that my gums and teeth were becoming incredibly sensitive. Whether it was cold air, just breathing, it didn't matter. I'd be rubbing my teeth all day. And even though the dentist never diagnosed me with anything, I started telling myself, "this is the onset of gum disease or something worse". So between the teeth chipping, sensitivity in my gums and mouth, the pain in my throat... I decided SOMETHING needed to change.
So I stopped smoking. I figured, "if anything, I'm just gonna give my throat and lungs a break". And ironically, it wasn't that hard to not smoke. But on day 3, for some odd reason I didn't sleep at all. Day 4, again, I couldn't sleep at all. I thought since nicotine was a stimulant, I'd be sleeping BETTER at night. But it was the total opposite... I could not sleep well no matter what. And the worst part was it showed NO SIGNS of getting better. So then I started taking nicotine lozenges... and guess what? I STILL COULD NOT FUCKING SLEEP!!!
I know a lot about chemistry / drug addiction but I simply couldn't figure this out. Cause the 1st thing I thought was "this has gotta be nicotine withdrawals" but AFTER I supplemented oral nicotine and nothing changed, I still couldn't sleep... it slowly began to break me down.
Then I wound up calling my uncle who smoked for 40+ years but quit 3 years ago.
I asked him, "when you quit smoking did you get really bad insomnia"? And he said "yes I did". So then I asked, "how long did it last"? And he said, "around 6 months". I was like, "WHAT THE FUCK... you're you couldn't sleep for 6 fucking months" and he just said "to be honest, even now, 3 years later I still don't sleep like I use to".
HE was able to quit cause his daughter had a daughter and his daughter told him (keep in mind they have a close relationship)... "I can't have you around my baby if you're smoking". She was really stern about it. Like she said, "I'm not talking about going outside to have a cigarette, I mean if you're smoking PERIOD, I can't have you anywhere around my kid". Which I thought was rude as fucking hell. This bitch (my cousin) was so uptight she didn't want the RESIDUE of smoke from hours ago to be anywhere near her baby. And I wanted to tell that bitch "your baby is being exposed to more pollution from the air you idiot" but it was my uncles business and ultimately he made the decision to quit.
BACK ON TOPIC.
That made me crack. I thought "noooo fucking way in hell am I going 6 months or longer not sleeping like I normally do". So I went home that day and bought a pack of Marlboro Menthols.
Then that night I slept like a baby.
But here is where shit gets really weird, cause I'm a logical minded person.
People say "nicotine causes withdrawals" which it does. No doubt about that. But what I derived from this experience were 3 key points:
1) Nicotine does cause withdrawals. I was having the worst insomnia possible. Almost as bad as when I stopped using opiates.
2) HOWEVER, nicotine supplementation DURING withdrawals does >>NOT stop the insomnia which for me was the worst part of the withdrawals.
3) So the ONLY logic that is left to assume is 1 thing: It's NOT actually the nicotine causing these severe withdrawals... it's the THOUSANDS OF ADDITIVES + byproducts of the combustion of all these additives that build up in your system overtime.... in which the body has such a difficult time withdrawing from.
And I stand by this very firmly.
I would bet my bank on this. I truly believe the ADDITIVES in tobacco are HUNDREDS OF TIMES more addictive than nicotine itself.
So THIS is what I did. There was only 1 way to further test this theory.
I first cut back my smoking to the minimum amount I would smoke while still sleeping, which was 10 Marlboros a day. And I stayed there for about 3 months.
But THEN I went out and did something that till this day I really think was smart. I sampled a bunch of different types of non additives cigarettes to find the closest tasting cigarette to the type I was smoking.
Which turned out to be American Spirit Menthols, the dark green pack. Those tasted the closest to Marlboro Menthol.
So THEN this is what I did. I started smoking 7 marlboros and 3 american spirits a day. And I won't lie, I veered from this formula a lot the first few months. Cause I did NOT like the American Spirits. But crazy enough, after another 3 months or so I was able to do this very consistently.
So then I did 5/5.
I started smoking 5 Marlboro Menthols a day and 5 American Spirit Menthols.
For every additive cigarette I was smoking now I had to match it with a non additive cigarette.
And again, I wanna say it took another 2-3 months to actually enjoy doing this.
But then something really fucking weird started to happen. Something that till this day I still can't really explain. The American Spirit Menthols which I HATED at first, after around 9 months of smoking them the Marlboro Menthols became the cigarette I no longer liked. I can't pinpoint exactly when or why this happened. All I know is I at some point when I'd smoke the Marlboro Menthols, which I'd been smoking forever and were always my preferred cigarette.... now I was smoking them and thinking, "these taste REALLY DRY... there's just something about them I don't like anymore". And then American Spirits became my preferred cigarette.
It's almost like a magic trick that your brain does all on its own. It just takes TIME.
Your brain is so use to smoking a specific type of cigarette so any other cigarette you smoke... tastes like shit.
But after VERY SLOWLY weaning in the "healthier" non-additive cigarettes, it's almost like my brain tripped itself. Like it slowly began to understand that there were less toxins in these cigarettes and SOMEHOW, it literally changed my taste buds. To the point where NOW if I smoke Marlboro Menthols, they taste exactly like the first day I tried American Spirits Menthols.... like pure and utter shit.
Then it just happened naturally. I figured, "hell, if I can't smoke Marlboro Menthols anymore, if I don't like them then why am I even buying them anymore"? And just like that I stopped buying these shitty, toxic, mainstream cigarettes.
I also noticed something else that was really cool. I suddenly lost that compulsive, crack like mindset to always wanna smoke more and more cigarettes. Like when I was smoking Marlboros I always wanted MORE than 1 pack a day. I always felt like I was struggling just to smoke 1 pack. With American Spirits I now find myself "forgetting" to smoke a cigarette. Like I can smoke 1, get into work or whatever I'm doing and I'm not obsessing about smoking another one like I was with Marlboro's.
And now, as crazy as it may sound, I feel like I've unraveled a conspiracy.
I feel like these mainstream tobacco companies have done some SERIOUS AND EXTENSIVE research trying to figure out how to make the most addictive cigarette possible. Like all these additives that they claim they put in for flavor, to stop your lungs from bleeding, etc..... even though they may be true the REAL goal is to make these cigs as addictive as crack.
Especially when your in a position where society is becoming enlightened about the true dangers of smoking... you NEED some serious leverage to stop your profits from plummeting. I can see these assholes injecting mice with low doses of formaldehyde, arsenic, and all the other shit they put in tobacco just to measure how severe the withdrawals are when a specific additive is removed from the equation. Then they sort out all the most physically addictive additives and put those in the tobacco.
I haven't completely quit again but I'm getting very close to that point.
The way I look at it, I'm not 100% on a non-additive cigarette. So all I'm smoking is nicotine, tar and just the basic shit that comes from natural tobacco.
Certain days I find myself smoking just 4. Some days I smoke 8. But it's real easy to never pass half a pack.
I'm gonna give my body a bit longer to adjust. Maybe another month or 2 to make sure all the toxins are gone, then I'm gonna try again. And I don't know if I'll be successful but 1 thing I know for a fact is it's gonna be much easier than the last time I tried.
I really want all smokers to be aware of this.
Because right now the message seems to be, "nicotine is extremely addictive". Some scientists say its more addictive than heroin. But I don't actually believe they're talking about nicotine. I think they're talking about the sum cumulative effect of all the chemicals that are put in mainstream tobacco.
Cause lets face it. If nicotine REALLY WAS as addictive as heroin .... people would be chowing down nicotine lozenges like they're crack. But I have NEVER in my life met a person who did that.
There's so much politics, propaganda and bullshit a smart person has to sort through.
Nicotine is NOT as addictive as heroin. I've done opiates. I know how addictive that shit is. If you gave 2 groups 2 different pills, 1 group received heroin or oxycodone in a lozenge.... then the other group received nicotine... I guarantee at least 8/10 of the opiate group wouldn't be able to stop taking the opiate lozenges. But the nicotine lozenge group wouldn't have a problem stopping.
Just really think about it. If nicotine was so addictive WHERE are all the nicotine gum addicts? I've never seen one in my life. All the people chewing nicotine gum are thinking about cigarettes.... not gum.... not lozenges... but the cigarettes with all the additives.
Thats why I believe if a person can taper in natural cigarettes SLOWLY over the course of a year, stabilize on additive free tobacco THEN stop... I feel it'll be 100xs easier for that person to quit smoking.
I figure it should take 6 months for most the heavy metals and other poisons to get fully out of my body then around June I'm gonna try stopping again and see if I get insomnia. If I don't, then I'm not going back. Cause psychological addictions are easy to beat. All it takes is a tiny bit of will power. But biological addictions are the real problem. If your body is craving fucking arsenic and you don't know you're gonna tell yourself "this is a serious psychological addiction". Same thing with foods. If your body is craving a quick burst of glucose you're gonna seek out sweet foods and tell yourself, "I have a bad psychological addiction to food". But I personally think that's all horseshit. I think it's 90+% chemistry. And when you get the chemistry right, when you truly get that stabilized everything else is cake. Just look at pedophiles. A lot of people think they're psychologically addicted to raping children. But the minute you castrate them (chemically or physically) they lose all their interest in kids over night.
That's the same basic theory I'm applying to cigs. Castrate all the additives, isolate the nicotine and find out FOR REAL how hard it is to stop that. Cause I personally believe it'll be as hard as not eating donuts anymore.
-BB
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