Kickin' the cigs!

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Well, New Years is bearing down and it’s time to make my annual resolution to quit smoking. I need help. I need advice. (Some positive support would be nice to.)

Problem: I am by nature a highly emotional person. I cried when Frosty melted every year when I was a kid. I still cry at movies. When I get frustrated, I just want to get a big stick and beat the shit out of something (never someone) (yet). The slightest comment can embarass me to the point where I can’t speak or even think of what to say if I could. Stepping outside on a beautiful day makes me awestruck and forgetful of what I was going to do.

Here is where the smoking comes in. Smoking calms my emotional state and helps me function at a laid-back and intelligent level. (Truth is, that’s why I started in the first place.) Everytime I try to quit, the flood of emotions sends me running for the nearest convenience store for a pack of Camels.

I can deal with the cravings. No problem. I can go for a day or two without them before I feel compelled to start again so I can function effectively at work or among friends and family. I hate needing that crutch. I keep hoping that I’ve matured enough emotionally to get to where I don’t need them.

Frankly, I’d rather have a short life that I can control than a longer one of uselessness. Still, it would be nice to feel good physically.

So, what’s your advice?

Mr. K’s Link of the Month:

The Enchanted World of Rankin-Bass

2

State tax (NY) is slated to double on cigarettes in March of 2000 (cigs only, not cigars or chew), pushing the purchase price up over $3.00 per pack. There’s my incentive to quit. Then again, I said the same thing when they jumped to $2.80. Smoking is, for me, so deeply meshed into my being (20 years of behavior molded and driven by the addiction of nicotine) that a complete and total rehabilitation would have to take place, most important being the way I THINK. I agree with your short happy life as opposed to a long (seemingly) unfulfilled one. But I think that is the addiction talking. My longest cessation was eight days and it was pure hell.

3

You just have to really want to quit. It’s mostly mind over matter I think. I find that the only time I really want a cigarette is when I start thinking about it. Like now! I’m at work and we can’t smoke anywhere on the property!! Now that I’m thinking about it I really want one! And I still have 1 hour till lunch!

My advice is to try to cut back a little each day until your cravings aren’t quite as strong. Once you’re only smoking 5-6 cigarettes a day you could try chewing gum or just quitting cold turkey. Good Luck!

4

Go with the nicotine patch. With all the horror stories of people dropping dead after smoking while wearing patches, you’ll be too afraid to smoke. Of course then you have to get off the patch but if you keep cutting them smaller every week eventually you’re over it. My wife is hooked on the nicotine gum at 40 bucks a week but at least she can breathe better.

“Hope is not a method”

5

The most positive thing I can say is “Do you really want to quit?” You wont quit a bad habit until you have the desire and you truly understand the reasoning.

You know why you smoke, but from what I can tell you have very little control over your emotions.

Don’t laugh here, I am not a big Oprah fan, but last week she had a topic just about this. The basis, according to this guy on the show, behind any addiction is learning to understand the signs of “needing” that thing. The cigs don’t control you, it’s the behavior that preceeds it.

If you can learn to work through that behavior AT THAT MOMENT, you are a step closer to working through getting over your addiction. It’s a painful process but the people that were on the show that over came some of their addictions seemed to be happier and more content with their lives than they had ever felt.

This is a show I would love to see again as I am a smoker and a drinker. I also am depressive. In addition, a friend of mine was recently diagnosed with lung cancer, stage 3 so she’s very treatable, but dang if that didn’t wake me up a little. BTW, she also recently quit drinking, we are similar in stature and body type although she is 15 years older than me…there is hope for me if I wake up now and work through my problems which create my addictions.

Not sure if that helped any, but if you can find out the topic of the program (I think Oprah has a web site) and look more into what was said, you might be a step closer to understanding and working through your emotions.

6

My how time flies! The show aired on 12/06, not last week, sheesh.

Anyhow if you are interested, here’s the link, it might contain some helpful information for you.
http://www.oprah.com/show/archives/days/1999/19991206.html

7

You have to be determined to quit, but maybe another crutch is needed. See your doctor about Zyban - it’s an antidepressant. You start taking it a week before you quit to give it time to get into your system. I get depressed too after about the second day without the cigs. I use the nicotine gum during the work day and go all day without a cig. Habit and routine are important. I’m trying to get into that routine on the weekends, but I don’t really want to quit and I smoke a lot more on weekends. I quit cold turkey in '87 without too much trouble and stayed off 'em til '95, but when I tried a few months ago, got depressed, teary, moody, nervous,etc., and started up again. now I think I’d try Rachelle’s advice – since I’m down to about half a pack, sometimes less, a day (except for weekends), I think using the gum and gradually cutting back would be the way for me to go. You may have to try different methods to see which works best for you. Start with seeing your doctor. Good luck & let us know how you do.

8

http://www.quitnet.org
This is a good site with tons of info and chat rooms to talk with other smokers. My target date is 1/15/2000 and I plan on using this tool.

I also picked up a book called, “The Stop Smoking Workbook” by Lori Stevic-Rust and Anita Maximin.

I’m also using the patch and have made lists out the wazzo about what triggers me, what I can do instead and my top reasons for quitting.

One of the biggest and most motivating reasons is, yes, cost. The second is all the health aspects. I am afraid but I am also excited. On my quit day I plan on cleaning the house from top to bottom so I can get rid of the smell and yuck of the smoke. I’m also going to the dentist to get my teeth cleaned.

Good luck to you!

Best!
Byz

9

[QOTE]Here is where the smoking comes in. Smoking calms my emotional state and helps me function at a laid-back and intelligent level. (Truth is, that’s why I started in the first place.) Everytime I try to quit, the flood of emotions sends me running for the nearest convenience store for a pack of Camels.
[/QUOTE]

Actually, you smoke not because it makes you feel good, but because without the nicotine you feel bad. Think back to your childhood. Even in the most well adjusted home life, a kid goes through a myriad of emotional upheavals. Yet, he got by without nicotine.

As a former heavy smoker, I feel that I’m qualified to say something here.
First, do not pay any attention to the former smoker who claims quitting is easy once you make up your mind. Bullshit. It’s hard. The hardest thing you’ll ever do. Recognize that and be prepared for it. Second, don’t be hard on yourself when you fail. And the odds are that you will. Very few are successful on the first attempt. Think of your failure as a learning experience. Analyze your failure. And when you’re ready, try again. It took me five tries, and I’m now in my tenth year as a non-smoker.

As Byz said, there are compelling resons to give up smoking. Cost and health are two of the considerations. But there is a third reason. Smoking is NOT a habit. It is an addiction. Probably the most insidious of them all. If you can get yourself to resent the fact that you’re an addict, it will help you to strengthen your resolve.

Finally, remember that the craving comes in waves. Steel yourself for that moment when you have an overwhelming desire for a cigarette. After a few minutes, the desire will subside. Think of quitting not as a huge war, but as a series of small battles.

And be good to yourself. Set milestones and reward yourself.

And don’t give up trying.

Good Luck.

10

Everyone’s giving you good advice, but Rachelle hit it right on the head. No matter how badly you wish you didn’t smoke, or how much your friends and family bother you to quit, it won’t happen (or at least, it will take manny, manny tries) unless you’re just thoroughly fed up and disgusted with cigarettes and everything they are and represent. From your post, I don’t get this impression. You like what smoking does for your emotional state, so (I’m sorry to say), I think you’re going really struggle desperately if you try to quit now.

I started smoking when I was in high school. By the time I was about 22, I’d just gotten disgusted with the whole thing. Quit cold turkey and it was NOT hard (and I have a VERY addictive personality).

<font size=2>'Course I started up again years later, but that’s another story!</font size=2>

I know folks who have managed to quit even though they’d rather keep smoking, so it CAN happen, but it’s not pretty…

Good luck to you, regardless!

StoryTyler
“Not everybody does it, but everybody should.”
I Spy Ty.

11

I quite smoking successfully, twice, and plan to do it again very soon. Okay, I understand the chuckles.

The first time I quit for almost 10 years and it was really easy. A friend asked me if I wanted to go to a hypnotist with her – I wasn’t feeling the urge to quit, but I thought what the heck, and my boss paid for it. We went for hour-long sessions during our lunch breaks for 5 days straight. I didn’t want a cigarette after the first session. No withdrawal symptoms, except for a bit of skittishness and occasional lapses in concentration – that was over in about a week.

I started up again about 10 years later, about a year after my husband died, and I was hanging out in bars and partying. Smoked for about 5 years, was diagnosed with mild COPD, so started a Zyban prescription. I really didn’t want to quit, just knew I should.

Well, the Zyban worked too – maybe even better than the hypnosis – my quit date was on the last day of a two-week visit with my mom – always a stressful time – and coincided with flying – when I’d be rushing in and out of airports looking for a place to smoke. No problem. No urges. Just calm.

My Zyban prescription ran out after a week of no smoking – and I gradually started up again. I should have gotten a refill, and I’m sure if I felt the need, the doc would let me have it for the rest of my life.

So I’m gonna do the Zyban again in January, and I’ll do it right this time.

And I will remember that I am NOT a recreational smoker, that I can’t have just one or two to be sociable – that I’m addicted and have to deal with it.

But those two treatments DID work – maybe if it would have been harder to quit, I would have taken it more seriously. This time, I will.

Good luck to everyone who’s dealing with this. My husband smoked 5-packs a day and quit cold turkey 5 years ago, when he was going through a divorce. (Talk about stress.)

I know people who have quit using the patches. Don’t know anyone who’s quit using the gum. A friend at work is in her sixth month, cold turkey, and says she’s never felt better.

Whatever it takes.

12

Lots of good advice here.
Most accurate thing said (several times) is that you have to want to quit more than you want to smoke. This is essential. You can come up with all kinds of good reasons for quitting, but so what? Smoking (like any addiction) does not respond well to reasoning.
It sounds to me like you need to do whatever it takes to level out your emotional roller-coaster before attempting this. Nicotine withdrawal will only make your emotions more unstable, so if the underlying triggers aren’t dealt with, you set yourself up for failure.
Quitting is not for sissies. Use every tool you can-- it will still be tough.
Good luck!

13

Thanks for all the advice. It’s great that so many people care. The truth of the matter is that I don’t want to quit. If it wasn’t for the bad effects on my health, I wouldn’t. Logically I know I should. Emotionally, though, it’s the last thing I want to do.

I quit for a three month period several years ago. I know I can do it. I just don’t want to.

Byzantine: Thanks for the website. I think I may try it out.

I hate to think that I may have to resort to something like Zyban, but I may end up trying it anyway. I think I’ll try without it first. I’m going to try journaling as a means of an emotional outlet.

Mr. K’s Link of the Month:

The Enchanted World of Rankin-Bass

14

Good comments from all above.

Myself I quit several times, this last time its been just over a year (I quit December 15th of last year). The first time I went cold turkey and smoked after 3 days (though I held it down to 2-3 a day for a couple weeks before I went full blown). The second time I used gum and that worked pretty well - I made it 2 months and then I started smoking about two weeks after I quit the gum after a big fight with my parents.

This last time I used the patch. It works better than the gum in terms of steady nicotine delivery (no high, no low) and also its easier in that I don’t have to time it around my eating/drinking schedule (you can’t eat or drink while chewing the gum or for like 15 minutes before). I think I used the patch for six weeks - they sell an eight week program but I didn’t feel I really needed it. The first stage of quiting, while on the patch, is about getting used to losing the physical aspects of the cig - the hand prop, the hot smoke in your lungs, the reason to take five and go outside and talk with your friends at work.

The second stage of quiting, after you stop the patch, is about nicotine withdrawl. I found this more difficult - even though I had stepped down the dosage as the plan suggested it was not a great deal better than cold turkey (though it was better). By no means was it easy. It was hard, and sometimes, it is still hard. A couple nights ago I had a dream in which I started smoking again - and woke up pissed off at myself. It was a good experience - I realized I was glad I was not smoking again, glad that I didn’t have to be a slave to that bastard that still creeps around in my head.

Whatever you do, find something that helps you. Whether it is wrigley’s spearmint or nicoderm, or a high-bounce ball you squeeze in your hand or whatever - you will have to have some kind of release that works for you personally. I know you want to do this, now you’ve got 3 days to get psyched up and make it happen. The emotional aspect that you mentioned at first - I think you’ll find that is something that will get better with time, and not a lot of time either. A few months and you will be right as rain and feeling better than in a long time, but you’ve got to get through a few weeks of hell first.

You can do it.

15

First of all, I wish you complete success. My father died of smoking almost exactly two years ago now. Neither my brother nor I had had children, so he never got to hold his own grandchild.

The Zyban is not a crutch (what is it about our psyche that thinks doing something the hard way is somehow holy?) Recent research has shown that nicotine withdrawal actually causes physiological depression. So the Zyban is actually correcting a problem caused by the cigarettes. Then think about this: every cigarette you put in your mouth is setting you up for depression.

I quit caffeine a couple of years back & I used several techniques. The first was to make a list of problems I had that the caffeine might be causing (frankly, I lied to myself on a couple of them) The important thing is that the reasons be immediate and emotional. Future health problems and possible death are too abstract. Possible reasons are: cigarettes make you more susceptible to colds & the flue (are you sick right now?), cigarettes cause kidney stones(IIRC), premature aging. They make you stink. :stuck_out_tongue: Talk to your doctor and people who have quit smoking about other problems that you may be experiencing. Then, for a couple of weeks before you quit: hate the cigarettes whenever one of these problems come up!

After you quit, actively enjoy the lack of the problems that were on your list. Also, enjoy the freedom from that ball&chain. No longer worrying about where to get cigarettes in a strange town. No more midnight runs to the 7-11 'cause you ran out. No more freezing in the rain just to get a nic fix.

I would also recommend therapy for help on dealing with your emotionality. A good therapist should be able to provide you with ways of dealing with your problems constructively.

The best definition of addiction that I have ever heard is something that appears to make things better and actually makes them worse.

Good luck
Zyada

…in a state so nonintuitive it can only be called weird…

16

For the first couple weeks, I recommend nicotine patches and copious amounts of weed.
(if you already smoke pot, that is. I’m not encouraging anyone to take up pot smoking to quit cigs)

Essentially what you’re doing here is splitting your addiction down into its two seperate components :

Your physical addiction is managed by the patch and your psychological addiction is managed by inhaling the pot smoke.

After a week or two, quit smoking the pot. Then a week later quit using the patch.

And, of course, the pot is gonna make you a helluva lot less irritable in those first, horrible days.

And for the last couple weeks before you quit, force yourself to smoke no more than one cigarette an hour.

Beware of your thoughts. They are your worst enemy in this fight. They’ll twist you and break you. Every day they will invent cleaver new reasons why you should start smoking again. Resist them and you’ll win. Easier said than done.

17

I know a woman who quit smoking recently. The doctor told her she has Lung Cancer & can’t smoke anymore.

BTW: Cigs cost $4.00+ after tax in Calif.

18

Well it’s been nine days for me now…how? I got sick…back upper respiratory infection. I still tried to smoke…after all I’ve smoked for 27 years…minus three that I quit. The smoke burned my lungs so bad…I couldn’t take it. So it wasn’t a matter of choice…cause I tried…now that’s addiction…hurting yourself more when you are already hurting. I stopped. I’m trying hard…now that I’m feeling better…I can feel the cravings. Back in March…went into the hospital for a series of tests (heart related). It pissed the doctor off because he couldn’t find anything at all…nothing…even after the tread mill…to attribute to cigarette smoking…so he tells me when I get older I’ll pay for it with things like blood clots in my legs and all. He’s probably right. You said you would like a shorter life with some control than a longer life without any…well I’m not so sure if you would make that same choice…if your shorter days were filled with uncontrolable pain. I’m not knocking it…I’m there too…and I’m not sure that I can make it…but it won’t be because I didn’t try…hey…no…I’m gonna make it…I quit smoking.
I tried the Welbutran…and the Zyban…but…they both made me feel funny…and I don’t like that… don’t like taking medicine anyway…and…if your insurance won’t cover Zyban (which most won’t) it will cover Welbutran (same as Zyban).

19

I know everybody is different, but I have to disagree with the “cutting down” method.
IMHO, it actually strengthens your nicotine addiction. Here’s how: if you are smoking less than usual, your body is craving the drug a little more than usual. When you do smoke, it feels oh-so-good to your nicotine-starved receptors. The reward is stronger, because the craving is stronger. Make sense? Keep in mind that my addiction was strongly nicotine-related. Some people are just addicted to going through the motions, in which case you could substitute ordinary gum or toothpicks or whistling or a Rubik’s Cube or whatever. Not me! I gotta have that drug. I used Skoal Bandits (nic gum was still prescription) for about a month just to get out of the smoking habit(the psychological part)…then I quit the tobacco cold turkey. It was still hard as hell, but my craving was for nicotine in general, not smoking. That made it slightly easier for me.

20

P.S. With the Bandits, you don’t have to spit(eww). You just kinda suck on one like a mint. Nobody will be the wiser. But if you can afford the gum, do that.