for me, it feels like video games are just an escape from the lack of a real hobby or the drive to do something meaningful. find something to do.

when i say "for me", i actually mean "for me".

I know this isn't going to be a popular opinion on a video game forum, but in general your mood will be better the less you use electronics, including video games. Don't use games as a form of escapism. I don't know if you exercise but that will help.

Try talking walks outside, and DON'T pull out your phone to check it, don't listen to music, etc.

Try meditating ~15 minutes a day (I'd recommend this to anyone, not just you, but it's more long term).

All that will help a lot with mood swings, and attention. I've used these to help me get over addictions, but I've never smoked, so take it with a grain of salt I suppose.

My friend said exercising helped him keep his mind off it. Good luck though.

Get a punching bag. Try practicing some kick boxing on it.

Sorry everyone, I should have said that I do exercise every other day. While I love doing it, I was involved in a bad car accident that fucked up my back and anything more than every other day is pure pain right now

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&list=PLE439E111B9EE701E&v=GlKL_EpnSp8#t=28s

I quit last Valentine's day, and haven't had any nicotine since.

Man up, and deal with it. Just DO NOT FUCKING SMOKE. Don't drink for the next few weeks, and try to replace your habit with something healthy like some form of exercise when you get a craving. I know my house was fucking spotless for the following 2 weeks or so after quitting. If you have a to do list around the house, then start checking shit off. Keeping busy, and breaking your normal routine helped me for sure.

The thing that made me go back to smoking in the past was bumming a drag or a smoke off of a friend. If you're having nicotine fits so bad you shake, then obviously you can't kid yourself into thinking you're in control of it, so don't play that game. NEVER have another drag.

I felt high as fuck for nearly a week after going cold turkey, but it's ok. That dissipates soon enough.

Good luck, and stay muthafuckin' strong!

Pick up an artistic skill?

Gmod images or just start drawing.

take up a different drug

drug addiction is no joke.

Walks and meditation work better for some than others. Not everyone enjoys or gets much out of them. If you want to do something alone or private, walks or meditation or exercise or really anything other than electronics will help. If you want to interact with people, try getting out, doing something with your wife, take up errands, anything.

dont get fat

Tell people you're quitting. That way people will ask "Hey, so how's quitting going?" and the next time you want a smoke you'll think of how much it'll suck to tell those people you had a relapse.

Msg me. I work in the medical field and am familiar with the medications used to help people quit smoking.

Cold turkey is definitely the hardest way to quit anything.

Here are some tips and tricks.

Avoid thinking about it if at all possible.

The fact that you can't play video games well makes sense - because your brain is likely used to doing those things while on nicotine, so a lot of your muscle memory and general utility memory is tied into nicotine. That will pass in time, but it may feel a bit like you're relearning things.

Find other shit to do, cravings should pass after 15 minutes or so.

Don't drink, you are most likely to give in when your inhibitions are lower.

For the first week or two avoid doing things that you would usually smoke during or before if at all possible.

If you do break and smoke, don't give up trying - a lot of people will try to quit, get a few days or weeks in, and then relapse completely and not try again - be sure and get back on track.

Try to avoid caffeine I would assume your shaking is probably more due to that if anything (since people tend to mix the two).

The chemical addiction breaks really quickly - the physical and habitual part of addiction lasts much longer and is just something you have to break by changing your lifestyle up a bit.

This sounds really really dumb, but if you can swing it, take a vacation for 2-3 days. Even if you just stay in the same town but go to somebody else's place. Particularly if that somebody else doesn't smoke and would be a dick to you if you did. Literally the best thing for me when I quit, was I just suggested to my then girlfriend that we roadtrip out to her parent's house (several hours away) and stay the weekend. Not only did I not have any cravings while I was there, it was mostly impossible for me to break down and it was much easier going after I did that.

What Oafmeal said about keep busy really helped me too. I found, and still find that I break into bad habits when I'm bored. If I'm sitting at home doing nothing other than browsing the internet with no objective, that's when bad habits tends to arise. If you've been meaning to learn something, do it. If you have stuff that needs done, do it. I think being bored is often the final wall before breaking down.

@killemdeader, I don't see any reason meditation wouldn't benefit anyone. There is a lot of science behind meditation recently, not just religious background. We are all humans, if it benefits one person, it should help everyone the same way.

As far as enjoying them, I've been meditating for over a year and can't exactly say I enjoy doing it very often, it's the benefits afterwards that are great.

Again though, it's just an option he can try, not trying to press it on anyone.

you've been smoking the wrong drug man =(

First off, don't waste your precious willpower trying to quit videogames or start meditating. Just do whatever you want, whatever distracts you from smoking. You can work on deeper meaning later, when you're not addicted to a deadly, poisonous drug.

Second, you're far enough into the cold turkey at this point that you should just grind it out. The physical addiction only lasts a week from what I've heard and experienced and you're finishing off the worst of it right now. I suggest getting a substitute activity though, like regular gum or tictacs that you can take/do while getting the craving. A former 30-year smoker I knew handled cravings by popping a tictac and chewing on a cinammon stick. I personally learned to juggle though as a college student I was often in/near my apartment. Marxist has some good advice on these lines.

Good luck quitting. You can do it, tough it out.

If you're not so sold on meditating you can pick up compulsively eating celery

And yeah get an accountability buddy or a few so you can feel shame if you relapse.

smoke heroine inject pcp praise buddah

just came off of my high, thanks for reminding me :-DDDDDDD

a drug isn't always what the common perception of a drug is, for example narcotics. a drug can be anything from playing videogames to eating more food than is good for you. so as you might imagine, some drugs are worse for your health than others; what i meant to say in my other post was, try finding a drug that you like as much (or as close as possible to) as smoking, but without as many undesirable effects. it may take awhile to find something to replace something as intrinsically enjoyable as smoking cigarettes, but i truly believe the best way to get rid of an addiction is to replace it with another, less harmful one.

No, video games aren't drugs. You're an idiot. You can form addictions to many different things, but there's no way a video game or normal food a drug (though some foods contain drugs).

It's a habit, don't try to redefine the English language.

I quit pills, weed, coke, hallucinogens and opium. I'm working on quitting smoking and drinking and they are by far the hardest psychologically. Physically, they're not shit compared to pain killers and coke, but good god, i hate it. I've dropped from a 2 pack a day smoker to maybe a pack every 4 days in about a month. I've been chewing gum, building models and getting angry at snow to pass the time. It's definitely not easy at all. Good luck bro.

Saying to not use videos games as an escape is kind of dumb. Sorry, Reilly. I understand your point, and there are clearly a lot of other things you can do, but playing video games here and there can definitely ease stress and other issues.

It's more about breaking your routine, kirby.

Every time I got in my car I craved a smoke because I always lit one up then. Morning coffee. Lunch break. After work. Almost every map change in scrims I used to step outside and light up a smoke, so I felt the habit calling every time I played games.

Games are a great escape for sure, but if a habit involved with your gaming routine is the problem then they're not really an escape, are they?

Furious masturbation. If you're already shaking, you've got a good start.

Seriously though, stay the fuck away from meds to quit unless you want to start hallucinating, get really super depressed and hurt yourself or those around you. That shit is fucked up dude. Thought you were getting an e-cig? That helped me kick 12 years of smoking overnight. Stepped the nicquid down to 0mg in about a month, now I just fuck w/ the cool flavors because I like them.

you are right, i should have used the word habit. colloquially, certain people tend to say that "this and this is my drug" (at least in my experience), even if its not what the dictionary definition of a drug is. its all anesthetization in the end anyways, and to me, anesthetization rings a bell very close to drugs.

PS. the same way i used the word "drug" in a not so literal term, i'm using the term "anesthetization". if you want me to be more grammatically correct, you can call it a "distraction" from everyday life.

this explanation of my misuse of a word brought away from my original point, which was that you should find a different HABIT to replace your current ADDICTION.

Thanks for all the responses. Starting from the end of thread and heads up for the wall of text

Ignore this paragraph, it somehow turned into a shitty Livejournal

Kirby and Oafmeal- While Video games and smoking often do go hand in hand since my wife doesn't smoke, I go outside and smoke and smoke anyways. While most would assume this would make things easier, she is going through far worse things with her family like grandfather having cancer, divorcing parents that put her in the middle, and her father's failing family business. It puts me in a very awkward spot, I would need her to help me get passed it, but I will get mad too easily. I can't help to think that parents getting a divorce when you're almost 30 should have a huge impact, since I've seen 2 with my Mom and 3, so far, with my Dad. It doesn't help that I can't stand my Mother in law. I mean who divorces someone the moment a 40 year business goes under, and then expects 5K a month in alimony?

So while I understand those two can be linked, I feel it has to be better than blowing up on my wife. It's just the shaking that is driving me crazy.

DrPloxo- Thanks, and goodluck with your own addictions.

Drmtc- While I understand that you're trying to help, there is a huge difference between a habit and something you're chemically, psychologically, and physically addicted to. If someone were to do that they would likely be chemically attached to both things.

Those talking about meditation, I don't think I really can. I tried that when I was younger, I think around High School to help with former anger issues, and I could never get into any state. Many it's because I never had any imagination, or when I tried I could never focus on one thing. I mean I am willing to try again, but does anyone know of some guides that work and better than the others? I mean if you google that you're going to get a 100K different "best" ways.

Sonn Thanks, I will. I always wondering about some of the side effects of different drugs.

Maxist Couple things here. I'm worried about this weekend, since we are going out for our bosses birthday and he will mock the shit out of you for not drinking. You are completely correct about drinking and smoking, it's going to be rough. Vacation is not going to happen right now. We have a sick dog that we have to watch closely and he cannot be boarded because of it. Have you ever tried the gum?

Again, thanks for all the comments and suggestions everyone.