November 01, 2004

• Two weeks ago a dear old friend died of cigarettes and alcohol. Primarily cigarettes. She was 66. She suffered brain damage from lack of oxygen. Her daughter, a lifelong friend of mine, asked me to help out with the inevitable sorting and organizing of her mother's house. As I took the train to Virginia and I realized that I absolutely could not smoke near my friend. That to do so would be the most vile thing I'd ever done. And so I didn't. I slapped on a patch and I stayed busy. We worked about 14 hours a day sorting through a lifetime of papers and... just stuff. I stayed for five days and then I came back home. It's been harder here in my routine life. I sit in front of this computer and I want to smoke. I work on my NaNoWriMo stuff and I want to smoke. I count off the firsts. First time I stopped into the corner bodega for coffee and didn't buy a pack of cigarettes. First time I didn't smoke after sex. First time I didn't smoke after a meal with wine. First time I didn't smoke between leaving the office and getting on the subway. I've reached the bored with not smoking stage now. Feeling proud and strong has worn off and I just feel tired of struggling with it. I'm waiting for that to pass. I'm sure it will. Every time I find myself pacing around (my body off looking for cigarettes before my mind catches up with it), or rubbing my face and longing to light up, I think about what my friend is going through. I think about how Clare was only 66. How humiliated she must have felt to have gotten lung cancer and how stupid she must have felt. And I think about my kids and my partner and my friends. And I just... don't. I don't go to the corner store. I wait it out.
• It helps to replace one habbit with another--hopefully something healthy. For example, if you want a cigarette drink a bottle of water instead. Sure you'll go through a lot of water, but you'll be well hydrated! Personally, I've found it useful to do things I would not have been able to do if I was still smoking. Go to the gym, go running, play some basketball. It feels wonderful (after a week or two) to have fresh air in your lungs. More importantly: good food! You'll taste flavors and textures you've forgotten exist.
• I just stopped. No aids, no patches. That said, if the craving for one was really strong, I just had one. I've maybe had a pack or two in the three years since I decided to quit. Most of those were at gaming conventions.
• i wrote a story about how there's no real data on the best method for quitting. cold turkey is more effective than you may think!
• I was a heavy smoker for many years, and then about 4 years ago quit cold-turkey. It sucked, but didn't suck as badly as I thought it was going to suck, which in this context only means that I actually did it. I mean it really, really sucked. I wish, in fact, that I had remembered how badly quitting sucked because after a few years of not smoking I somehow decided it would be a good idea to smoke a cigarette now and again. Idiot. Can you see where this story is going? Yes. As of last thursday, after roughly a year of smoking again (although not nearly as much as I smoked before. Then = 30 a day, now = 7 a day) I have quit again. It sucks, but not as bad as it sucked the first time. Idest has a very good point with the "bored with quitting smoking" thing. As hard as it was it was still relatively easy to get my shit together and grit my teeth and fight my way through the big battle of quitting smoking this time and last. But the frontal assault only lasts a week or so. The hard part is the unglorious and literally endless war of attrition against smoking that I must fight, on some level, until I die or go back to smoking. It's that plain. I will spend the rest of my life with a pack of Camels in a cartoon thought bubble hanging over my head. Three simple things that have helped me: 1) Know that a craving will pass. It seems sort of obvious but a craving is a temporary thing, usually only lasts a few minutes, and you CAN tuff it out. If you feel like you can't make it say "Ok, i'll smoke in 5 minutes" but, see, you are really LYING and when the 5 minutes are up you aren't having as horrible a craving anymore so you don't smoke. Maybe this only works if you are me. 2) during a brutal craving I occasionally will take a short hard deep breath and hold it, and somehow this triggers some smoking related brain thingy, and seems to help. Whether this is a hardware or software issue I don't know, but it really does help. 3) it gets easier.
• The first time I tried to quit, I just woke up one morning and decided it was time to stop. Of course, I was smoking 2 packs a day at the time, so within 36 hours I became violently ill from the nicotine withdrawal. I saw a whole range of brightly colored wild animals cavorting across my bedroom ceiling as I lay on (what I perceived to be) my deathbed. Needless to say, I started smoking again right quickly. Take two… After pumping myself up for about a month, I began a sort of Quitting Countdown last November. The first day of my countdown I allowed myself 20 cigarettes. The next day I had 19. The next day 18. Then 17. And so on, until I whittled it down to 1 cigarette on that last day. Amazingly, that worked. Yes, the mental part was still tough, but I didn’t have that physical withdrawal. From November through March, I didn’t have one damn cigarette and I was pretty proud of that. Plus, everyone else was proud of me for that as well, which helped. However, I got a little bit cocky. Once spring rolled around, I found myself in more Smoking Situations than I did in the winter (golfing once a week, playing softball, drinking on the proverbial veranda, etc.). I figured I could smoke in these situations and still consider myself a non-smoker. Wrong-o. By the end of the summer, I was back up to a half pack a day or more. Stupid dumb me. So now I’m back to the Quitting Countdown, since that seemed to work. Today is 2 Cigarette Day. Tomorrow is the last day. And I’m not going to get cocky and I’m going fight it every day. I’m stronger than that. I know it. (Plus, the future Mrs. Name That Itch said she won’t marry me if I’m still smoking. And since a ring has already been purchased......)
• Oh, and good luck to everyone who has quit or is trying. You surely aren't alone.
• my husband tried to quit a few times and turned into a gibbering wreck (usually within hours). when the big, final push came, he set up some rules. the most important thing is not to tell yourself you'll never smoke again. it seems weird, but by saying "this will be my last smoke *ever*", you put a huge psychological stress on what's already a tough situation. the important thing was to reassure himself that he's not smoking now, and take it bit by bit. it's been nearly two years now, and he's not returned to smoking (he's had a few, but always confesses to me afterwards). counting the firsts is a big deal, and can also be stressful. celebrate things like a better sense of taste and smell as it comes back. drinking OJ helps replenish the vitamin C in your body. staying hydrated by drinking lots of water helps too. get some small toys to keep the hands busy (we had 5-6 scattered everywhere). lots and lots of patience on your part, for about 2-3 months. follow the instructions for dropping down nicotine levels on the patch, but if the drop is too severe then stay at the higher level for an extra week. stay away from places that are filled with smokers and movies that feature lots of smoking (that jarmusch film "coffee and cigarettes" is right out!). hugs to you. it's a long road ahead but it is entirely worth it!
• dirtdirt and Name That Itch, I also stopped for a long time and got overconfident... then fell right back into it. This time I know not to ever claim I've quit... I only say I'm "not smoking." I know that I'll never be able to claim I've quit because I'll always be just an impulse away from giving in. Best of luck to you both. Check back in and leave an update now and then. I certainly will.
• Luckilly, I've never picked up the habit, but to change the habit, you need to change your behavior. Don't just stop smoking, try to do start to do something else at those times you would smoke. Stop going to places where there are smokers. I would also suggest, if possible, not carrying any monkey or credit cards on you because, if you can't buy cigarettes, then you will have to bum them and eventually people will get pissed you are bumming them.
• The only thing that will make it work is really wanting to quit. Knowing that the physical part is really minor and only lasts for something like 30 seconds helped me out too. Knowing it was a battle against my own head made it easier. I think cutting down helps to some degree, but after a while you are just prolonging the process. I did it completely cold turkey. That said, it did take me about 4 tries over 6-8 years before it finally stuck. It is extremely important to know that just one is not ok. After a year, I forgot that and was back to a pack a day within a week. A year later, I just stopped one day. It has now been about a year and a half and I am very committed to it. Oddly enough, I had a dream last night that I smoked. It gets really easy after a while. The 1st week is the hardest and then there are a few days after that that are hard. I remember the 1 month mark being difficult. Get toothpicks for the car. Chew gum if you're into that... Distract yourself. Don't think about it when you get cravings. It might sound funny, but I had a mantra that seemed to help when i got cravings: "nope. not never."
• An ex of mine quit successfully using the patch and behavior modification (he stopped going to bars for a little while, and scheduled events for after meals when he'd usually smoked. He also had to avoid road trips for a little while, since they were a trigger). It wasn't the first time he'd tried, so I think one important thing is not to beat someone up (or let them beat themselves up) too much when quitting doesn't work. It'll work eventually, as long as they keep trying. If your husband doesn't smoke very heavily, tho, the patch could be too much. My dad tried the patch and it actually gave him too much nicotine. (My dad also tried hypnosis to quit. That didn't work, but it did help with his general mood and fatigue (he had cancer surgery over the summer... non-smoking related, and he's fine now.))
• What Hectorinwa said.
• I would also suggest, if possible, not carrying any monkey or credit cards on you jccalhoun, that's an awesome slip. If it is a slip. Best of luck to anyone quitting, btw. Both my biological and adopted dads tried multiples times and still smoke. They both tried replacing smoking with chewing gum, or chewing toothpicks, but I don't think either of them was serious enough.
• One of my friends quit smoking because her father bribed her with lots of money if she went for a year without smoking. Not the best incentive in the world, but it worked for her. She used the money for liposuction.
• May I suggest Nicotrel?
• I joined a free stop-smoking class at SF General Hospital. It was great. I got to meet all kinds of people I probably wouldn't have met otherwise (most of the people in the class were on public assistance, and typically the people I run into at work or at play aren't), and I got a twice-a-week barrage of information on tobacco, why it's bad, and how to quit. Plus, there was homework, which I poo-poo'd at first but which was really valuable. Things like writing a "Dear John" letter to your habit, or listing the pros and cons of tobacco in your life, or keeping a daily diary of your tobacco usage. These exercises really kept me focused on the goal at hand -- and there's something so much stronger about actions backed up by well-thought-out reasoning. And having group support was awesome. It's a year for me on November 17. I recommend some program along these lines.
• I myself have been smoke-free (except the second hand smoke) for over a year, but I more or less just decided I didn't like it anymore. My husband's been using (in previous attempts) a reward system: he saves the money he would have spent on cigarettes (here in Canada, a carton a week is over $80/week), minus the cost of the patches, for whatever he wants to buy. That incentive worked really well, until he had to go to the dentist. The stress made him start again. Congrats to all you reformed smokers! Thanks for the advice (keep it coming!)
• My friend Andrea is a medical hypnotherapist, so she has all sorts of tricks to help people stop smoking. Smoking cessation and weight loss make up most of her business. If you email her at a@mentalleverage.com , and tell her that Courtney said you could have a free smoking cessation cd, there's about a 90% chance she will send you one. The cd's are recorded self-hypnosis sessions that are meant to minimize cravings and boost your confidence that you can quit. I don't smoke, so I haven't tried the cd, but the weight loss one works well. And if anyone in the San Francisco Bay Area is trying to quit, Andrea is having a free smoking cessation workshop on Nov. 17th for the All-American Smoke Out. http://mentalleverage.com/smokeout.html Also, when Andrea quit smoking several years ago, she waited until she was able to stay quit for a few weeks, and then got her teeth whitened. I guess the difference in her smile was impressive, and it was good incentive not to start again.
• Here's a good bit of advice on how to quit from k5. Personally, I used the Charles de Gaulles method -- tell people you're going to go cold turkey and make it a matter of personal pride not to go back on your word. Full disclosure: I'm one of those fortunate people who doesn't get physically addicted to nicotine, so it wasn't really hard for me.
• winners never quit & quitters never win.
• i quit this past saturday for the nth time. i've spent months free of cigarettes before but have drifted back through lack of resolve or simple boredom. i'm using nicotine gum, junk food, and exercise as substitutes. i'll phase out the junk food during the week and hopefully increase the exercise (if the weather picks up). i don't plan on using the gum for more than a few weeks - i really don't like it very much.
• I started at 12 (the peer pressure, it is a bitch, no?) and after my ex-mother-in-law called with the news that her husband had terminal lung cancer at 61 (he died a year later), my ex and I quit. It's been 14 years. I'll second something I saw in many of the comments: The single most important factor in my own success was to keep trying to quit. I must have made five or six serious attempts, some lasting a year, before it finally 'took.' I agree with patita that it is a huge stress to tell yourself "this is the last one" - cigarettes become such a reliable friend when one is bored, sad, happy, just done eating, etc. It's a hell of a beast to stare down for awhile. That said, I had to tell myself, "it's just not an option." I didn't feel securely "cured" until I'd been clean for two years. The first 72 hours are really em-effing miserable, but it gets better with time and pretty linearly, if gradually. A few random tips that helped or would have helped me: -A lot of smoking is ritual, involving the hands and mouth. Keeping both busy and happy helps. I bought a lifetime supply of these really satisfying cinnamon and mint toothpicks from some company in Nebraska, Harmon's I believe. (Harder to find than I thought). -Altoids would have been really helpful, but now I'm hooked on Caribou Coffee's Hoof Mints. A tin lasts me about a week and they're so strong, they make Altoids taste like sugar cubes. My breath is so fresh, it makes dogs bark a block away. -Bags of carrot sticks are very nice to have the first two weeks. I ate so many that I started to look like an Oompa Loompa. Nicotine suppresses the appetite, so have some kind of cold, crunchy, non-fattening snack at the ready. Lastly, take the money you save and do something nice for yourself. When I started, the darn things were $.45 a pack. I don't know how people afford 'em nowadays. Give the spendy little buggers up for a year and you can fund a Caribbean Cruise. Koko, I wish you and the hubby much success. Don't give up. If you fall off the wagon, get right back on.
• Arrrrgh my first comment and I b0rked the links. E-mail me if you'd like the URLs.
• The biggest thing for me was to remember that I had to keep trying until it took. Over ten years, I probably quit twelve times altogether, once for two whole years. Most of those were cold turkey (even the two year one), but this current one I used gum, and it worked for me. I got discouraged after several two week at a time tries, but when my husband went on a short TDY, I decided the change in routine would help me, and I haven't had a cigarette in over a year. Whenever I get the craving for a smoke, I just remember how my clothes smelled and how I was constantly burning my hands or something else I really liked. And a year later, I got almost my entire vocal range back, which was a very pleasant suprise. I still have cravings, but I go weeks at a time without even thinking about cigarettes. And seeing them being smoked doesn't bother me in the least. This happened last time I quit as well. The "smoking" me seems to be almost entirely seperate from the "non-smoking" me. To sum up: Keep trying, change as much of your routine as possible, focus on the positive.
• I'm surprised that no-one's mentioned Allen Carr's easy way to stop smoking book I only read half of it, but it was enough for me. It explained the psychological triggers for smoking, why they are so much more powerful than the physical triggers, and how to overcome them. Before I read it I'd planned for 6 months to give up. I used to smoke roll-ups and would buy 6 months worth (for about £25! so cost was never an issue) on holiday in Spain/Italy/France. So I went to Portugal, bought a whole load of tobacco and decided that when I'd smoked it, that would be that. I told everybody I knew that I was quitting so I would have a serious face losing crisis if it didn't work. The last packet of tobacco lasted a fortnight and then it ran out and I was a non-smoker. It wasn't easy, as dirtdirt said so eloquently above the difficult bit came a few weeks in when I'd got over the glamour of giving up. I've fallen off the wagon loads of times. I have phases where I bum a fag (haha) almost every day. As time goes by I have many more phases where I haven't had a tab for a couple of weeks and haven't really thought about it. I'm now in the glorious position where I can go to the pub, have a few pints, nick a smoke off someone and not start permanently again. Quite often I'll have a cigarette (as opposed to a roll-up) and think, 'fuck me this is DISGUSTING'. I think I've got used to the near permanent low-level desire for a smoke so it hardly bothers me at all. I never said 'I will never smoke again' I said 'I want to be in control of it, not it in control of me.' It helps that just after I quit I met the future Mrs Dotcom, a doctor, and she basically won't have sex with me if I've smoked. That concentrates the mind! Pity I've put on about a stone and a half though. Good luck to your husband Koko. It IS achievable and he'll feel way way way better once he's quit.
• I quit cold turkey several times. It was hard but doable. Still I always went back to them after about 4 months. 5 years ago I tried Zyban and quit after just 8 days. I lost all desire to smoke and no relapses. I generally don’t promote big pharma products but this worked well for me.
• fyi for those thinking about zyban: talk to your doc about potential adverse and allergic reactions. I know four people who quit smoking successfully with zyban, but two out of the four had to discontinue use because of painful deep-tissue hives and scary hallucinations. And good luck to you all!
• Also just to be clear you only take Zyban for 2 to 3 weeks after you quit smoking. As for side effects I had a couple of friends have trouble sleeping while on it so it is not for everyone.
• seek reinforcement for those things about NOT smoking that are rewarding to the quitter. for me, nice-smelling things (including myself!) were a big reward. I splurged on fresh flowers, custom scented body lotion etc., and tried to always be conscious of my enjoyment of smelling good & enjoying the nicely smelly things around me...
• Peppermints, lots of 'em (sugar-free, if need be), and take up walking. I was inspired by seeing a (now gone) parent breathing through a crusty hole in the neck and speaking like a robot, but deliberately arranging this is inadvisable.
• Dear Smoker: So you want to quit? This is what I can tell you. First of all, it is really, really hard. I quit cold turkey on December 31, 2001. Pumpkin seeds and Quitnet.org were what helped me. Watching my mother die, slowly, of lung cancer in February 2001 might also have had something to do with it. However, I still couldn’t quit right away. But at the back of my mind, all throughout 2001 was the idea: this is the last year you will smoke. I chainsmoked and drank on December 31st. My idea was that when I’m hungover, cigarettes are really repulsive, and that would aid in the effort. Unfortunately, I wasn’t that hungover, but I stuck through it. I made it through January 1st without smoking. It was awful. The first three days are the very hardest. Take it 10 minutes at a time. Five, if you have to. Just get through five or ten minutes at a time. Cry, scream, drink water, sleep a lot (you can’t smoke when you’re sleeping) long walks, long baths, eat all you want. Raw carrots and veggies. Some people swear by Skittles.
• Part II Ask your friends/spouse to support you. My husband put up with a lot of hysteria that first month, but he figured it was for a good cause. Look online for encouragement. Not just Quitnet but other sites, too. Just get through it 10 minutes at a time. Remember: the craving will go away in 5 minutes, whether you have a cigarette or not. So if you have one, the craving will go away. If you don’t have one—the craving will go away. Use one of those metres (downloadable) that tell you how much money you’re saving, and how much life. The patch, gum, or pill—whatever tool you choose to help, use it. If one method doesn’t work for you, try another one. Don’t expect success the first time you seriously try to quit. If you can go cold turkey, go for it—it gets the nicotine out of your system faster. Remember that once you are a smoker you have re-wired your brain to accept and crave nicotine. It is a drug. And no matter how long you’ve been quit for, smoking again will just re-wake all those receptors. Don’t take a chance. It’s not worth it. Don’t have ‘just one puff’. It’s not worth it.
• Part III (Last--really!) Plan to quit. And before you quit, keep all your cigarette butts and ashes. Dump them, each time you empty the ashtray, into a large glass jar with a lid. When you quit, add water to the jar. You will make an absolutely disgusting ‘soup’ of butts and ashes. When you want to have a cigarette, unscrew the lid. Smell it. Try not to throw up. If you need to smell that jar every ten minutes, then do it. Don’t be surprised if you quit cold turkey, and your body does some weird things. Don’t be surprised if you feel stoned for a week and a half. Don’t give up. Don’t give in. Do ANYTHING you can, instead of smoking that cigarette. Tell yourself that you do not want to make tobacco company executives even richer by your addiction and death. Sing. Before you quit, do not smoke in the house or the car. Get used to doing things without smoking. Start breaking those associations. (And if you have a lingering fascination with porches and balconies, and think: Oh, what a great smoking spot! for years later, so what? Get your teeth cleaned so you don’t want to mess up your clean smile by smoking. Buy yourself something every month with the money you would have spent on smoking. When I quit, in BC, cigarettes cost $5.60 a pack. Now it’s $8.00. That’s a lot of money to pay for the privilege of dying sooner and uglier than I’d to. Lastly, work in the same office as a heavy smoker. When you hear her phlegm, smell the smoke on her hair, skin and clothes, listen to her cough, and notice that she looks twenty years older than she really is, be reminded of the other, more superficial reasons why you quit: smoking does shitty things to your looks. Lastly, do not be surprised at how strong the cravings can be. When you least expect them, they will come back. Know this. Be aware. Be ready. Knowledge is power. You will count each minute you are smoke-free, and it will seem like an eternity. Then you will count hours. Then days. Weeks. Months. Years. Good luck. One last thing? The person who quits— You will have an accomplishment you can be proud of for the rest of your life.
• I had smoked 2 packs a day for over nine years. I quit by not making a big deal out of it. I just quit buying cigarettes, and kinda forgot about smoking. Someone brought it 2-4 months later, and I realized I had completely forgotten about smoking, so much that I wasn't even sure the month I quit, let alone the day. It should help to know that the physical symptoms of quitting only last 3 days. The rest of the withdrawal is purely psychological.
• To me, the most powerful help to quitting is a radical change in your daily routine. I'm lucky in that I quit just once (and it's still working after 20 years). Here's the luck - I decided to quit right when I was going to spend a month on a ship where cigarettes weren't available unless you brought your own - I didn't. I truly did not notice that I wasn't smoking, I think both because I was working 16 hours a day and because I wasn't in the same rhythm of when I usually lit up. I realize that this isn't a realistic approach for most, but try quitting when you are about to do something different - vacation, business trip, etc. Cigarette smoke in bars was a problem for some time afterwards, though...
• IANAS (I Am Not A Smoker), so I have no idea how useful this technique is... but I remember reading about somebody who tried it and found it really helped in breaking the ritual aspect of the addiction, so I pass it on to you: In whichever pocket or place in your purse you would normally keep your cigarettes, put a photo of the loved one(s) for whom you are quitting. Every time you reflexively reach for a cig, you'll see (or even just touch) that photo instead.
• God, I couldn't read any comments after idest's until I responded. You broke my heart with that one. I felt everything you said. I am so very sorry to hear of your friend. It is a terrible way to go. I can only say that I absolutely wish you all the best with your efforts and I know every bit of how it feels. I quit cold turkey. For me, there was no point in doing it any other way. I either smoked or I didn't. Tough doesn't begin to describe what had become an unconcious habit. Stick with it, idest. It is very much worth it. I am proud of anyone who can do it.
• Hearing my dentist use the words 'bone loss' last night was a pretty good incentive for me to look at giving up (again). I've been flirting with the idea for ages, but that and this synchronous (if that's areal word) post have certainly helped. May the variety of (nonexistent) gods we have created help me!
• yentruoc, that was really nice of you to do that!!! )))) I want to congratulate everyone who has successfully quit, it's fantastic. And I wish everyone trying all the strength and support to succeed with their efforts. Your waging a winnable battle!
• Hearing my dentist use the words 'bone loss' last night I'd already stopped, but my lower jaw is a fright.
• I just quit.... not a big deal (after 30 years of two packs a day).... No withdrawal to speak up, the hardest part is avoiding as much as possible those behaviors that, out of habit, went along with lighting up. http://www.quitmeter.com helped some.... good luck to him....and kick his ass if he lights up! :-)
• The only thing that will make it work is really wanting to quit. Amen. This is crucial. It's not enough to know that you need to quit. It's not enough to "have" to quit. You have to want it. You have to want it badly enough to suffer a little for it. I personally used and loved the patch. I chose that over inhalers/lozenges/gum because I think it's generally a bad idea to put a junkie in charge of his own dosage -- I've heard of people who've been addicted to the gum for years. The patch is regulated, constant, and if you follow the step-down schedule, your body will gradually adjust to lower doses while you get used to not smoking. But you have to want it. Two things have really helped me. First was realizing that the hopes of dozens of friends and family (most notably my wife) are riding on this. I'm not doing it for them, but the thought of crushing their hopes makes it easier for me to tell myself that I DO NOT have a choice here. I've quit, and that's all there is to it. Secondly, I have a bet going with my wife. After six smoke-free months, I get a new computer with the cash we saved on cigarettes. If I fail, she gets the cash. No way she's going to win.
• Oh, and be patient if he fails. Odds are he will, and it will take repeated attempts for him to quit. He needs your encouragement right now, not your anger or frustration -- this is a junkie beating an addiction, not the same thing as trying to quit biting your fingernails. Be as accommodating as you know how to be.
• Oh, and be patient if he fails. Oh yeah. I think that's really important. I remember some weight-loss guru once said, "Don't let a lapse become a relapse." There are bound tob be times when he'll slip. So long as he gets back on the 'wagon' again, it's fine. Good luck and much love to all smoke-quitting monkeys and monkey-spouses out there! *thumbs up*
• day 5 without smoking: and of course now i'm thinking that a pack of lucky strikes would be just the thing to help me get over my election results disappointment... aarrrgghhh. more gum.
• Update: I quit right after this FPP was posted, but then I started again. Now I'm trying to quit once more. With feeling. So how is everyone else doing in their Quest For Quitting? Koko, did your hubby make it?
• My fiancee and I are quitting in 3 weeks (the day after my birthday, which is on Chinese New Year this year). Wish us luck, I wish you the same.
• I'm on my second day and I'm miserable. There's not going to be a third, I'm afraid.
• I kinda meant to stop this new years and totally forgot, till i saw this George - I've bookmarked this page and will come back and carry on reading eveyone's comments in the days to come. A big big big thanks to Koko for starting this post - and for the rest of you monkeys, i have never seen so much help on a page before.
• An update: a few weeks ago, my husband picked up Easy Way to Stop Smoking by Allen Carr. It's written by a professional smoking cessation counselor who was himself a 3 pack a day chain smoker. It dispels common myths about smoking, such as reasons people give for smoking (stress relief, boredom, etc.) and shows that the only reason people smoke is to relieve the need to smoke (in other words, the stress you think is alleviated by smoking is the stress of not having a cigarette; non-smokers don't need to smoke after an argument with their spouse, why should smokers?). It's all in your head, and you can be free of it. Anyway, it seems to have changed my husband's attitude about smoking, and he's going to give it another shot this weekend. I'll let you know how it goes.
• Oh ... the book also says that smoking cessation products, like the patch or gum, are useless and actually prolong the addiction. Nicotine begins to leave your system as soon as you put out a cigarette, and is completely gone within a day. Also, the chemical addiction is not that strong; how is it smokers can sleep through the night without waking up every 20 minutes for a smoke? You basically quit smoking several times throughout the day; it's your own mind that perpetuates the habit.
• This Saturday will mark exactly nine months since my last cigarette.
• Wow. Think about how much money that saved you, MCT. We're glad for you. *HUGS*
• :)
• Congrats, MCT!
• Oh ... the book also says that smoking cessation products, like the patch or gum, are useless and actually prolong the addiction. Nicotine begins to leave your system as soon as you put out a cigarette, and is completely gone within a day. This is true, in a certain sense. As a former patch user I can testify that yes, the process is more drawn out if you use nicotine products to help you quit. And yes, nicotine does leave the system quickly, but the addiction lingers in its absence. For example, I'm finally to the point where I find the smell of cigarette smoke positively abhorrent. It's overpowering and nasty. I have to take a shower after I come home from a bar. Even so, I can still feel that little pleasure center light up whenever I walk through a cloud of it. Compulsion and repulsion still do battle in my brain, nine months later. Sort of like everytime I see Britney Spears. Seriously, though, it's a choice between spreading your physical withdrawal symptoms out over a long period of time, or dealing with more intense symptoms over a very short period. Each has its own advantages, and there's simply no "right" way to quit, other than to just want it badly enough. Cold turkey worked for my dad and several of my friends, but not for my mom. The patch did wonders for me, but not for others I've known.
• Patch worked like a charm for me.
• I eventually quit (over a year ago) because I got to the point where I found smoking repulsive (which I think I said upthread). It's true that when you want it badly enough, you will quit. congrats MCT!