u/Global_Butterfly_147

I've been trying to quit vaping, smoking, and every other form of nicotine for about 5 years now. The closest I had ever gotten in the first couple years was being thrown in the psych ward for 2 days... but I smoked the second I got out. I threw so many vapes, packs, and zyns away that it has probably cost me over 1,000 in trying to quit at this point...

The closest I got in 4 years was having surgery, believe it or not. I found out that, if they pump you full of opioids, the smoking urges quiet down significantly. Normally, when I have any sort of psychoactive drug in me, my first instinct is to want MORE nicotine. I usually turn into even more of a fiend, especially with alcohol or weed, but when opiates are introduced into my system? Smoking doesn't feel nearly as rewarding, and I don't crave it as much. I made it about 4 days that time (I smoked immediately upon being discharged), and it didn't even give me any rush or light headedness whatsoever, just shame.

Now, I know the method. I just got my wisdom teeth taken out, and I quit the day before. I'm on day 3, and I did steal a hit from a vape the same day I had them extracted, but it didn't feel like anything I had imagined, and that disincentivizes me to smoke at all now. I'm using the Vicodin they prescribed me to help me get through the early cravings, the knowledge that if I smoke the consequences are more than just shame, and the peace of not having to be anywhere or do anything to help me through this. I genuinely think I will make it much farther this time as I have an immediate consequence to failing, no incentive to smoke (reward removed), have a cessation tool, and don't have the means to procure any nicotine currently. Having opioids is definitely the move in this situation, and honestly the only way I think I can quit aside from being chained to a pole for a week.

I think the reason smoking is not as rewarding and is not craved so much when under the influence of opioids is that the opioids boost dopamine (alleviating some of the irritability and lack of focus), and binds to the mu-opioid receptor stronger than nicotine does, creating more of a calmness than you'd have access to otherwise. Let me know if this sort of timing helped anyone else, as I'm curious if anyone else has tried timing their quitting with either a hospital stay or surgery in order to have access to opioids to help with withdrawal!

Hello! I am starting community college in a few months, and while the tuition won't be bad at all ($14,500 total approximately), I can't afford it, and can't do fafsa because my dumbass never filed my taxes (ever)... at age 22... (I don't owe as I've only ever had income from jobs where its reported, and if I did I would have received multiple letters by this point... so I'm just missing out on my return money) and my credit is absolutely shot from losing my job when I was 19 and defaulting on a $1200 loan, and again losing my job and defaulting on another loan at age 21. I am going to college to get a stable career with higher income that will enable me to live frugally and support my aspirations and goals.

I'm confident I can pay the loans back at this price and with the field I will be going in to (radiology, typical starting pay where I live is approximately $55-65k a year, and this job has been in high demand for years, and there has been less than 10 people in the last year enrolled in the program in my city). I don't have rent and won't have it for the foreseeable future, and my bills are extremely low due to realizing I can live with far less than I thought a few years ago (<$600 monthly for all expenses).

What loan provider would you recommend? I know the shit credit is a huge deal and the fact that I was a moron earlier in my life screwed me for many scholarships, but I really want to turn my life around and figure out how to pay for this in a way that won't absolutely destroy me financially come time to pay for it.