Trying to Quit Smoking

[Periwinkle]

Have any of you successfully quit smoking while living in Indonesia? If so, did you use anything like gums or patches which helped you? I'm not sure if those are even available in Indonesia, to be honest. Right now, my husband is trying to quit smoking after many years and he's finding it extremely difficult to just go cold turkey. He's probably stopped and started three times that way. Does anyone have any useful advice or experiences with gums or patches here?

 

[dafluff]

Have any of you successfully quit smoking while living in Indonesia? If so, did you use anything like gums or patches which helped you? I'm not sure if those are even available in Indonesia, to be honest. Right now, my husband is trying to quit smoking after many years and he's finding it extremely difficult to just go cold turkey. He's probably stopped and started three times that way. Does anyone have any useful advice or experiences with gums or patches here?

I believe the tobacco industry has successfully lobbied to ban all nicotine replacement products in Indonesia. At least through regular retail channels. If you want them you'll have to buy them elsewhere or over the net.

 

[Periwinkle]

I believe the tobacco industry has successfully lobbied to ban all nicotine replacement products in Indonesia. At least through regular retail channels. If you want them you'll have to buy them elsewhere or over the net.

Yeah, that's kinda what I figured since I've never seen any product like that here. It's a shame, but he'll keep working on it. Thanks.

 

[waarmstrong]

I did it cold turkey over 20 years ago in North Jakarta. (It was a promise to my bride.) After a couple of weeks of very deliberate, constant effort, the urge gradually diminished as the drugs slowly washed out of my body. The physical craving was largely gone after 4 months; psychological and lifestyle changes were in place, for the most part, after a year or so. Not easy by any measure, but doable. As I am sure you understand, it's a group effort. Keep trying & best of luck.

 

[Puspawarna]

I did it cold turkey over 20 years ago in North Jakarta. (It was a promise to my bride.) After a couple of weeks of very deliberate, constant effort, the urge gradually diminished as the drugs slowly washed out of my body. The physical craving was largely gone after 4 months; psychological and lifestyle changes were in place, for the most part, after a year or so. Not easy by any measure, but doable. As I am sure you understand, it's a group effort. Keep trying & best of luck.

You've mentioned this before so it shouldn't amaze me, but I still find this awesome. I'm lucky enough not to know from personal experience, but I believe what the scientists say - that nicotine is one of the most addictive substances around.

Both my parents were smokers when young; my mother managed to kick the habit successfully but my father never did. He managed to reduce his intake dramatically by pretending that he had quit - so he only smoked when he could escape to the basement or take a walk away from the family. But we'd all laugh at him because we'd accuse him of smoking, and he'd lie and strenuously deny it. It was a running joke in our family for years.

 

[waarmstrong]

My dad died a painful lingering death, largely due to smoking. I did not realize what was coming when I started, but his experience at the end of his life was a tremendous incentive for me to take a different path in middle age.

 

[gemima]

Might be a little controversial - but I've heard that vaping is an effective way of stopping smoking. BBC Horizon had a look at it in a recent episode: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07c6ll4
There may be unknown consequences of vaping, but the general consensus is that in comparison to smoking its the lesser of two evils.
I neither smoke nor vape though so can't offer any personal experience on this but have seen plenty of vaping shops around Jakarta

 

[BAJakarta]

Not in Idonesia, but in a similar "everyone smokes you're an outsider if you don't" environment- I quit cold turkey on Jan 1st 2006 while living in Russia. Have not smoked even 1 cigarette since then - and I was a 2-3 pack a day smoker (minimum 2, but more if out partying late) of strong cigarettes (Dunhill Reds or Marlboro Reds).

I suppose everyone is different, but I somewhat disagree with waarmstrong about it being a group effort - I think it has to be a personal effort and strong personal commitment - of course you need those around you to support your decision, but you have to really really strongly want it personally to be able to have the discipline to get through the rough spots at the beginning. For me, I just decided (due to health concerns - "fear of cancer") that I didn't want to smoke anymore. Picked a day (I made the decision in December, and 1 Jan seemed a good day for obvious reasons), and I stuck to it. I did not use any substitutes. The first few weeks were the worst, then it gradually got better. I think the studies show that the physical addiction part goes away after a relatively short period. For me, breaking the psychological "patterns" were harder to deal with than the physical addiction to nicotine. What I mean by that, is the habits formed through years of smoking - having that cigarette with your coffee, after a meal, with drinks at the bar, etc etc. Triggers where it had become second nature to just reach for a cig. That is what you need the strong willpower and desire to succeed to avoid relapsing....and remember, you can't "have just one" in a difficult time or you are back to square 1.....

 

[Periwinkle]

I did it cold turkey over 20 years ago in North Jakarta. (It was a promise to my bride.) After a couple of weeks of very deliberate, constant effort, the urge gradually diminished as the drugs slowly washed out of my body. The physical craving was largely gone after 4 months; psychological and lifestyle changes were in place, for the most part, after a year or so. Not easy by any measure, but doable. As I am sure you understand, it's a group effort. Keep trying & best of luck.

Thanks for the encouragement, it's been quite difficult to motivate my husband. Very sorry to hear about your experiences with your father, can't imagine how difficult that must have been. I try to help my husband understand the side effects of smoking, especially as he gets older. He's 37 now (still young) and in pretty great physical shape (was a surfer for 15 years, still exercises most days and naturally has a lot of lean muscle and a seemingly perfect metabolism, the lucky bastard) but I imagine as he goes into his 40s he's going to start realizing how smoking affects him. He's doing ok. He's gone down from about 20 a day to now smoking 10 a day (he tells me 5, but I always double it in my head because I know he's probably either fibbing or trying to make it sound better for my sake). I hope he can have the same will power you did. I told him that since I'm not eating junk food anymore, he can try to quit smoking, but I know it's not nearly as difficult for me. Anyway, thank you for your thoughts on it.

 

[Periwinkle]

You've mentioned this before so it shouldn't amaze me, but I still find this awesome. I'm lucky enough not to know from personal experience, but I believe what the scientists say - that nicotine is one of the most addictive substances around.

Both my parents were smokers when young; my mother managed to kick the habit successfully but my father never did. He managed to reduce his intake dramatically by pretending that he had quit - so he only smoked when he could escape to the basement or take a walk away from the family. But we'd all laugh at him because we'd accuse him of smoking, and he'd lie and strenuously deny it. It was a running joke in our family for years.

Haha, yeah. I mentioned below that whenever I ask my husband how many he smoked, I always double the number in my head because he usually drastically reduces the number to make it sound better. I don't know why...I never get upset with him about it because I know he has an addiction but he still lies about it.

 

[Periwinkle]

Might be a little controversial - but I've heard that vaping is an effective way of stopping smoking. BBC Horizon had a look at it in a recent episode: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07c6ll4
There may be unknown consequences of vaping, but the general consensus is that in comparison to smoking its the lesser of two evils.
I neither smoke nor vape though so can't offer any personal experience on this but have seen plenty of vaping shops around Jakarta

Yes, I actually got my husband one of those electronic cigarettes. He was doing very well with it at first. It was especially useful because we knew exactly how many mg of nicotine or tar he as ingesting and you can reduce the amount as you wean yourself off of it. But, frustratingly enough, my husband does this thing where anytime one of his friends tells him some theory they have, he automatically believes them. (Meanwhile, I could tell him something completely true, and he won't believe me until one of his friends says it, SO FRUSTRATING!) So, his friends told him that e-cigarettes are actually really terrible for you and then stopped using it. I'm probably going to try and find him another one anyway and make him use it. I don't know why he won't listen to my advice but will listen to the same advice when his friends say it. Ever see that episode of Modern Family where Phil talks about how much he loves a wedge salad because his friend recommended it even though his wife had been telling him about it forever? It's kinda like that.

 

[Periwinkle]

Not in Idonesia, but in a similar "everyone smokes you're an outsider if you don't" environment- I quit cold turkey on Jan 1st 2006 while living in Russia. Have not smoked even 1 cigarette since then - and I was a 2-3 pack a day smoker (minimum 2, but more if out partying late) of strong cigarettes (Dunhill Reds or Marlboro Reds).

I suppose everyone is different, but I somewhat disagree with waarmstrong about it being a group effort - I think it has to be a personal effort and strong personal commitment - of course you need those around you to support your decision, but you have to really really strongly want it personally to be able to have the discipline to get through the rough spots at the beginning. For me, I just decided (due to health concerns - "fear of cancer") that I didn't want to smoke anymore. Picked a day (I made the decision in December, and 1 Jan seemed a good day for obvious reasons), and I stuck to it. I did not use any substitutes. The first few weeks were the worst, then it gradually got better. I think the studies show that the physical addiction part goes away after a relatively short period. For me, breaking the psychological "patterns" were harder to deal with than the physical addiction to nicotine. What I mean by that, is the habits formed through years of smoking - having that cigarette with your coffee, after a meal, with drinks at the bar, etc etc. Triggers where it had become second nature to just reach for a cig. That is what you need the strong willpower and desire to succeed to avoid relapsing....and remember, you can't "have just one" in a difficult time or you are back to square 1.....

I can see your point about that. It's been really difficult for him, but yes, he has to really want it in order for it to work. I hope he can find the motivation.

 

[waarmstrong]

Might be a little controversial - but I've heard that vaping is an effective way of stopping smoking. BBC Horizon had a look at it in a recent episode: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07c6ll4
There may be unknown consequences of vaping, but the general consensus is that in comparison to smoking its the lesser of two evils.
I neither smoke nor vape though so can't offer any personal experience on this but have seen plenty of vaping shops around Jakarta

May be the lesser evil, but vaping is still evil.

.... I suppose everyone is different, but I somewhat disagree with waarmstrong about it being a group effort - I think it has to be a personal effort and strong personal commitment - of course you need those around you to support your decision, but you have to really really strongly want it personally to be able to have the discipline to get through the rough spots at the beginning. For me, I just decided (due to health concerns - "fear of cancer") that I didn't want to smoke anymore. Picked a day (I made the decision in December, and 1 Jan seemed a good day for obvious reasons), and I stuck to it. I did not use any substitutes. The first few weeks were the worst, then it gradually got better. I think the studies show that the physical addiction part goes away after a relatively short period. For me, breaking the psychological "patterns" were harder to deal with than the physical addiction to nicotine. What I mean by that, is the habits formed through years of smoking - having that cigarette with your coffee, after a meal, with drinks at the bar, etc etc. Triggers where it had become second nature to just reach for a cig. That is what you need the strong willpower and desire to succeed to avoid relapsing....and remember, you can't "have just one" in a difficult time or you are back to square 1.....

I don't see anything that I disagree with. If the goal is realized, the path take is not all that important.

 

[Jull]

My dad tried to quit it for a month, it seemed all fine until he smoked back and then nothing changes..