My father was a heavy drinker and smoker and when he quit the cigarettes due to the "you're going to have a heart attack any moment" warning from his doctor he said his desire to drink diminished with the death of his nicotine addiction. I've heard this before from other ex-smokers and I know from own experience that for me the two addictions are so linked that when I have stopped smoking drinking alcohol lost much of its appeal. Even when stopping drinking wasn't my intention. My mental association with drinking isn't crazy partying, it's relaxation and an unwinding, escapism feeling. In my mind I see myself with a drink and a cigarette and letting out that first sip-sigh of relief. Take away the cig and I wouldn't have that. I know it's a bullshit image I've created and that drinking causes far more stress and tension in my life than it ever alleviates. I was just curious to hear some of your thoughts on the connection of smoking and drinking. Or if you think theres one at all.
Oh boy, now you've done it. You have my addict brain imagining smoming, drinking and having sex at the same time. Now if I relapse I'm sure to ge arrested for lewd behavior next time I'm out on a bender :)
I drank and smoked BF...I don't know many people that drink....That don't smoke. And I don't know many people that smoke...That don't drink. So there must be something to that. When I went into rehab to stop drinking and was introduced to AA...I asked the doctor about quitting smoking at the same time...He didn't recommend it...He said I had enough on my plate with alcohol. So I waited till I was a year and a half sober before I quit smoking. I got myself one of those vaping systems and stopped for 5 months...Then at a family get together...My brothers all having a cig outside...I decided to join them for one...The next day I was at a pack and a half a day.....So I have a pretty good idea what a drink will do to me.....My problem with alcohol is once I have one....I can't always control how many I'll have after that...Sounds pretty similiar to my tobacco problem. I know they could both kill me....But I also know which one will kill me faster. I guess I should probably try and quit again....
It's funny...The same thing happened to my sponsor...He quit ciggs for 2 years...Picked up one and was at 2 packs a day the next day....Curious if others have run into that.
I vaped for months. Then a social setting lured me into just one cigarette. Just one. Once. Three years later... The part I've been thinking of since BF posted this topic is that there was a time when smoking was what cool people did. I know a lot of non smoking drinkers now because smoking is no longer cool, so they naver got the nicotine addiction to begin with. I imagine if we looked at age groups, that would tell us a lot. But I have some "heavy drinking" friends that gag around cigarette smoke. I associate smoking with coffee more than anything else, but that could be years of conditioning, too. This is making me think about getting out my smoke stik and cartridges again. It's an interesting thought, though, how people in different age groups connect things, now that smoking in public places is prohibited in so many states. Research time.
I posted a few days ago that my sponsor and my mom said to just focus on staying off of alcohol. I was able to get off of the cigs for awhile, using a vapor one, and eventually didn't need that. That was when I had quit drinking a few years ago. Started drinking, then started smoking same time.
Do plan to get off the cigs and cut back on my coffee intake, which increased when I stopped drinking and started AA. I drink a ridiculous number of cups everyday, but most of it is half caff/half decaf. Don't wanta talk about the sex part, as don't want to start crying :)
Good point Wren...They're making it a lot harder for people to smoke now...I remember booking a smoking seat when I flew. Coffee and a cigarette??...Forget it...Like PB and J.
I agree with Wren on the 'conditioning' thingy ... ... ... for me?, ... coffee just ain't good without a cigarette, same as having a beer ... after years and years of that combo, it just seemed it had to be that way ... and when I quit drink'n, I smoked more ... and cause of AA meetings, I drank a ton more coffee too ...
On a lighter note, I had stopped smoking 4 months prior to my last 'treatment center' ... and during my stay there, this guy who buddied up with me kept agging me on to have a smoke ... (he notice how I got within 'smelling distance' everytime he lite up ...) ... I finally broke down and had one ... then I called the wife to get me a carton on her next visit ...
Let's please not go to the 'caffeine' issue here ... I think all these are mentally addicting AND physically addicting to some degree ... (Ha! ... I just got a memory of when we got up one morning with no coffee in the house ... LOL, ... I said NOW you get a little bit of a feel for what it's like to quit smoking and/or drink'n ... --- thought I was go'n to have to put her in a 'straight jacket' ... she was NOT amused ...)(and yes, she sent my butt immediately to go get coffee + some from Micky D's to hold us over till the pot could brew)
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'Those who leave everything in God's hand will eventually see God's hand in everything.'
I have nothing but very bad memories about smoking and being addicted to nicotine and stopping and relapsing over and over. I was a nicotine junkie and would process a gutter butt into a smokable hit when I needed to. I stopped smoking cigarettes and went on to cigars so that I could get more nicotine as I inhaled every drag right up to the lip burn. On one insane attempt to quit I left a smoking group of friends, threw my cigarette into the street ran over and into my car and drove down to the store where I got another pack and lit up right in front of the cashier and the sign "no smoking in the store". I ran out of the front doors and threw that cigarette into the ground and crushed the new pack and threw that also and then I found myself on the way to the liquor store and then pulled over to the side of the street in tears. I hated being owned by my addictions and still relapse showed me the disease wasn't finished until I was compeletly one day at a a time. My last relapse was also with a program buddy that wanted to do it with me and ended up offering me a cigar that fell out of his pocket. Hell yah I'll take it!! and in 30 minutes I was picking the slobbered up nub out of the dirt to put it back in my mouth at the same place it last burned me. I went to the doctor because I thought I had done myself worse than I ever had. I was worried about my lungs hurting and the fact that my original father died of tuberculosis and I got the disease from him...I'm positive. I found out that my lungs had held up and that tuberculosis is very often connected to alcoholism because the lungs don't develope well in fetal alcoholic children...My Dad's father was also alcoholic and died from it...my father was fetal alcoholic. I won't smoke any more; too deep and too dark a bottom in my experiences. Just for today I haven't smoked.
I waited until I was sober for 3 years to quit smoking, I couldn't comprehend letting go of the cigs too. I clung to those disgusting things like a life preserver, giving me something to do when I felt uncomfortable, or when I was in a situation where people were drinking. I went the Chantix route, and I think for me personally it was more difficult to quit smoking then getting into recovery for my alcoholism. It's been over 4 years and I still think about smoking every once in a while, I never think about drinking.
I quit everything when I got preggo - coffee, drinking, smoking.
After a couple years I picked up the drinking again - then the coffee after I quit drinking...
Just before coming to AA I started smoking 2 drags of a cig in morning. I smoked about 3 cigs and then the whole thing just fell apart...
Coffee intake is still a go - I get a venti pike place at least 4 mornings per week :) Aint gonna kill me. Might even keep me from getting Alzheimers I guess they found out too! You know.... 'they'....
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Thanks for everything. Peace and Love on your journey.
