Yep. It always surprises me. I rarely smell cigarette smoke any more so it’s always a shock to still smell it everywhere there.
On a personal note
- Thread starter TheOriginalHappyGoat
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Congratulations, Goat! I’ve been thinking about asking but didn’t want to make you feel bad if you back tracked. One bad habit I never picked up as I’m allergic to cigarette smoke. I’ve got pictures of me in college with multiple cigarettes in my mouth a few times. But I was nearly blackout at that point. It was a pain in the ass for me to go to sports bars to watch IU games. I ran out with tears streaming to get fresh air at every commercial. Good for you!
My first job was working at the Gawd awful Burger King on Wheeling Ave in Muncie. Everyone smoked at break time so I had to join in like a typical dumbass 16 year old. I smoked about 1/2 a pack and on the way home one night realized how much they sucked and threw the rest out the window (most egregious littering mistake). Other than a few drunken tokes in college I’ve never been interested
Good.
I've quit for over a year on two occasions. In both cases, the chronic clinical depression was a deal breaker for me. I discovered my problem by accident the first time; I picked up a cigar on a lark on a long drive I was taking and the undefined malaise I'd been experiencing was immediately lifted. The second time I knew exactly what was happening, and chose to take them back up rather than going on psychotropic drugs.
That's one of the insidious aspects, at some point your desire to smoke is not that it makes you feel good, but that it stops you from feeling super-bad. I learned this from a talk by my Pfizer buddy on discovering Chantix, which really treats the depression aspect.
In short, when smokers smoke they get a rush of dopamine, a "peak". Not nearly enough dopaminergic signaling to make you high, like cocaine does. But it sets of a cycle of peaks of dopamine when you smoke and troughs of dopamine (too low levels) when you abstain. These low levels are entirely analogous to clinical depression- chronically low dopamine. You will do anything to get from the trough back to the peak. You smoke to shake the bad feeling.
What Chantix does is that it activates dopamine signalling, but just by a tiny bit. So the dopamine trough is gone. You would get a little more dopamine if you smoked, but he don't necessarily feel the need to.
What nicotine patches do is somewhat similar. Raises the trough when you really need it.
For some, nicotine replacement works great. For others, Chantix does wonders. For still others some replacement addiction gives them a dopamine boost (e.g., overeating, alcohol, gambling).
A guy I worked with smoked more than a pack a day for 30 years. He got COPD and his doctor said you HAVE to quit. The poor guy just couldn’t do it. Every time he tried, he got shingles, for some reason.
Last I heard he was on long term disability and carries an oxygen tank around.
And still smokes.
Poor guy.
Serious question - have you tried Zyns? The kids are all doing them now.
I’ve
I’ve Rx’d a fair amount of Chantix. It works but can really f—- with people’s minds also.
Yeah, nightmares mostly, IIRC. Vivid, wild dreams. Sometimes suicidal thoughts. Sometimes nothing though
Nah, it just turns them into liberals. 😂
That’s sounds awesome. Like a blow job under water. Don’t ask, I’ve been at the pool since 2 and drinking beers.
I was gonna say the physics on that don’t add up but then I remembered that, in my case at least, she’d only need to be submerged for like 15 seconds.
Just got back from Iceland. You need to look again at what
You’re missing
Holla, Goat.
That's BIG news. Tough to do. Welcome back to the living.
48 years for me. But I only smoked for 8 years.
