Math Is Fun Forum

Alg Num Theory

Member

Registered: 2017-11-24

Posts: 693

Website

Giving up smoking/drinking

Mark Twain is thought to have said something like the following:

Giving up smoking is the easiest thing in the world. I know because I’ve done it thousands of times.

Or words to that effect. Quote Investigator raises doubts about Twain’s authorship of the quote – but whoever actually first said it was right. I myself have found quitting tobacco/alcohol such an easy thing to do that I’ve been doing it for practically my whole life.

But this time I will stop for the last time. I finished smoking my last cigarette at exactly 01:00 BST (UTC midnight) and so, at the time of this post, it is 12 hours that I have quit tobacco-smoking.

As for quitting alcohol-drinking, I’ve had much more of a success with it. I last drank anything containing C₂H₅OH on New Year’s Eve – finishing it on the stroke of midnight GMT (UTC midnight): therefore, at the time of this post, I have been on the wagon continuously for 3 324 hours (138 days 12 hours, or 19 weeks 5 days 12 hours).

---

Me, or the ugly man, whatever (3,3,6)

Bob

Administrator

Registered: 2010-06-20

Posts: 10,619

Re: Giving up smoking/drinking

hi Alg Num Theory

Best of luck with both resolutions!  I don't smoke and never have done so but I have noticed one thing amongst friends who have tried to give up.  They manage so many days and then give in to the urge and have a smoke.  Then they feel they have failed and so go back to smoking as before.  I'd say that's the wrong attitude to the 'failure'.  If you've gone let's say a week, then in exam terms that's a score of 90+%.  Terrific achievement and definitely worth celebrating, not feeling a failure.  So if you do have the odd sly ciggy don't despair … look on it as a success that you've got so far …. and set a new target to go at least as long before the next one.  By gradually making the 'non-smoking periods' longer and longer, you will still be improving your health and saving money … it may just take longer before the "n-s p" becomes infinitely long.

Keep us posted.

Bob

---

Children are not defined by school ...........The Fonz
You cannot teach a man anything;  you can only help him find it within himself..........Galileo Galilei
Sometimes I deliberately make mistakes, just to test you!  …………….Bob

Alg Num Theory

Member

Registered: 2017-11-24

Posts: 693

Website

Re: Giving up smoking/drinking

Hello Bob!

Thanks for your words of positive encouragement. Personally, what I find is this. When you’re just starting on quitting something, the urge to go back to it will be very strong in the initial stages, but as time goes on this urge will decrease in intensity. I’ve read somewhere that this is possibly due to the varying amounts of a chemical called dopamine in the brain. When you’ve been used to a stimulus for a long time, withdrawing the stimulus suddenly leads to a build-up of dopamine in the brain, which causes withdrawal symptoms; as time goes on, the dopamine levels subside and so you feel less of the need for the stimulus.

So the testing time is the initial stages of quitting: this is the time you feel the strongest temptation to go back to your old habit. Once you’ve got over this initial hurdle, it will be much easier to get on with your new life without the old habit. As the character Lord Darlington in Oscar Wilde’s play Lady Windermere’s Fan says:

I couldn’t help it.  I can resist everything except temptation.

So, I will keep us all posted on my progress on this resolution of mine. At the time of this post, I have not smoked for 35 hours (1 day 11 hours) continuously. For drink, it is 3 347 hours (139 days 11 hours, or 19 weeks 6 days 11 hours).

Last edited by Alg Num Theory (2019-05-20 00:01:07)

---

Me, or the ugly man, whatever (3,3,6)