Poe and cigarettes

Nicotine gum did it for me, after many times stopping and taking up smoking again. It's 10 months now and I have no desire to smoke again. The gum gave me a nicotine fix, hiccups, and tastes disgusting, a winning combo. I used to go outside to smoke, so I didn't have the computer/gaming and smoking associated. You do, and good one for recognizing it. Associations are so powerful. I'd suggest working on that association. Is it possible to move your desk around? Change the scenery somehow?

You can beat the addiction. Your thoughts can win over your neurons that have been reprogrammed by nicotine.

yeah,read this book "Easy way to stop smoking" by Allen Carr.

I definitely have the "smoking while gaming" association.

Nicotine as a mild stimulant and an appetite suppressor go hand in hand with "hardcore" gaming. Past that, there's probably a decent psychological overlap between smokers and people that play games for escapism.

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I switched to using only an e-cig less than 3 years ago, and had dabbled with it for a few years before then until I was comfortable enough to switch. Still haven't kicked nicotine and still find myself vaping a lot while I game, but it's immensely better on my body, my surroundings, and my wallet. I can't even stand the smell or taste of real cigarettes any more.

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Good luck, OP. Try a few different techniques (medication, gum/patch/ecig, habit transference, cold turkey) and something is bound to work for you.

Best of luck, OP. I quit smoking two months ago because of blood pressure problems.

I never got a replacement habit but then again quitting smoking did not seem like a choice at the time; it was either that or more health complications. I know I used to drink a lot of water in the beginning and some friends have told me chewing regular gum helps; Imo vaping/nicotine gums don't really break the habit at all, most people I know that have tried to quit smoking by taking up vaping just went back to cigarettes after a while.

And another thing, literally every person I know that has quit smoking, myself included, has simply done it at once, that is, the "I'll smoke 5 cigs today, 4 tomorrow, 3 the day after and so on" attitude really doesn't do shit.

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samaelxl wrote:

yeah,read this book "Easy way to stop smoking" by Allen Carr.

This.

If you read that book thoroughly and adopt the mindsets described in it, you'll have a realistic chance of quitting for good.

My worst triggers used to be those smoking breaks after a couple of maps, and while browsing PoE xyz and trading.

Smoked for about 15 years. Many of those years were 2+ packs a day... My heart started feeling fucked up a few years back and I decided it was time to quit smoking cigarettes. I just straight up went cold turkey and haven't smoked a cigarette since 2012. I've played a lot of games over the past 15 years and always with a cigarette in my hand, so I can understand the 'trigger' part. Get some candy or some nuts next to you at the PC. I'm glad I quit smoking cigarettes, I look at it as a disgusting filthy habit. It smells like shit, it tastes like shit. After you quit for a while, you'll understand. All you're doing is making someone rich by slowly killing yourself from heart disease, lung cancer, COPD, emphysema etc. the list goes on.

Off Topic:

WTF Alea, 8/8 already? Goddamn it. Gz.

I have my beer periods drinking one glass of fine belgium bier a day, but always after gaining some weight (190cm/78kg) I mostly quit for a few weeks or go back to the one glass a weekend habbit.

Smoking has never been a problem. I did not have friends that smoke.

Gaming and especially POE is my bad habbit. Every day some POE.
Luckely I am married or otherwise it would turn into a real problem.

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So, I have played poe since open beta. I have also had my good friend the cigarette at my side during my entire gaming experience. I am a cancer survivor and decided I needed to part ways with smoking once and for all. Today is day 1 without smokes. Does anyone else find gami.g a trigger for smoking? How did you cope with this? Anyone else in the community trying to quit right now?

Most people fail because they only look at the surface of things, i.e. 'I have to stop doing it'. Let's call this 'right action' - or, in this case, inaction.

They quit, and they start obsessing about the thing all day long. They think how hard it is, how badly they want it, they talk with others about quitting, they post threads about it in forums. So, they try to achieve right action but they have the wrong thoughts.

This means almost guaranteed failure.

Everything starts in the head. You need, first and foremost, right thoughts.

Which is to say, you need to stop thinking about cigarettes. Problem is, most people are completely unused to mental discipline and hygiene. How it's done? You need to be aware of your thoughts and mental processes and to have some control over them. At the first sign of a thought about cigarettes and smoking, you cut the thought off. You just stop. That's it.

It will get easier with some practice. It's also an amazingly usefull skill to have in general. I am amazed that people teach children all kinds of useless crap at school and they never even speak about mental discipline.

p.s. when I say stop thinking, I don't mean "think in negative terms", for example "cigarettes are bad, I don't want to think about cigarettes, etc."

The subconscious does not process negatives, so this will play a bad joke on you. To illustrate my point, what happens when you read the text "don't think about a pink tiger"? That's right, a pink tiger immediately appears in your head. So, when I say "don't think about cigarettes", I mean intentionally cutting off any thought process related to cigarettes and smoking.

p.p.s. everything I'm writing is based on practical experience from successfully overcoming both pot and cigarette addiction

Heya myusernamestillnotknown,

I have similar problems as you. I'm 24, I have smoked since I was 18. There was never an association, for me, to videogames until I starting playing MMO's (Massivly Multiplayer Online games IE: WoW/Rift) or MOBA's (League of Legends/Heroes of the Storm). Whence I started playing those years ago, I couldn't go more than 15/20 minutes without a cig.

I have never had a problem stepping away from a game though. Take a break for a few, chat to roomates or family members, grab some water, use the restroom. Never bothered me. Those two genre's of games demand from me sleep (as in lack there of) and my lungs. Another trigger I have found is watching shows on netflix or TV in general. Sure I have the generally accepted triggers of smoking whilst I drink coffee or alcohol.

There is one thing that slows me down at least; Path of Exile. This game requires both hands. Sure my main build surrounds my two mouse buttons but there is always a little help once can receive from a skill on the bar and playing on the higher difficulties demand both of my hands to push out spells, abilities, and combos. This makes it much more likely for me to stop and smoke. Even when I back to town to sell, I sell quick and I get right back into the action.

Whence the craving gets strong, thats when I get overwhelmed and take my hand for the task, which in turn, causes me deaths and exp loss. I not only risk every second of my life smoking another cig, I then waste hours (if not days) of my life on lost exp from deaths caused by smoking.

If your own death is not worth quitting, are the hours one has blown worth it? In the end, these factors and the factors of money have built up on me as well and I am also on the verge of quitting. One of the major things holding my back is that I live with my Grandfather, who also smokes a great deal. So far the smell of his cigs as I try to quit keep pushing me back. I will find my way as should you. If you feel that Videogames are a trigger, im sure you can find a way to dissuade yourself from that.

Either way, I don't check my PM's almost ever nor am I really on this forum often but, if you ever need anything, I will try to be here to help.

Goodluck to you sir, I hope you accomplish something I wish I could.