Kicking the Habit: Day One

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

I’ve been considering quitting for some time now. I can’t remember how many times I’ve bought my “last” pack of cigarettes, but I’m pretty sure the last one I bought is my last one.

As stupid as it sounds, the inevitable threat to my health that cigarettes represent is not my motivation for quitting. Rather, I’ve just become bored by the routine of buying them, making sure I have enough of them, panicking when I run out of them, having to separate myself from everyone else in order to enjoy them. Actually, I don’t enjoy them anymore. It’s become something I have to do instead of something I choose to do.

A friend of mine that I work with mentioned that she was going to quit. I told her I was considering it, and she offered to give me a few patches. I took her up on that offer, and today before I walked out of the house, I stuck one on my arm.

As soon as I got to work and began feeling the effects of the patch, I pretty much knew that I probably need the lower dosage version. See, my friend is a pack-a-day smoker whereas I smoke about half that many. There are days when I don’t realize I haven’t had a cigarette until three in the afternoon or later (why I don’t just not smoke then, I don’t know). I felt like I was going to throw up, but I also hadn’t eaten yet. That feeling faded away, and I munched on a croissant. After I’d sat at my desk for a bit, I got up and the dizziness hit me like a brick so I sat back down.

I called my friend to ask her if she experienced the same feeling during her first few days, and she said that she did. She also said that while the patches carry a 24-hour continuous dose, she took hers off at night citing weird dreams and sleeplessness. I agreed that I would probably do the same since I don’t smoke when I sleep, although the weird dream aspect sort of intrigued me. :smiley:

Now I feel a little jittery, but otherwise I’m fine. I’ll try another patch tomorrow, and if it feels as strong as this one did, I’ll go buy the lower dose pack. No sense upping my tolerance to nicotine, right?

2

Best of luck to you! I understand it’s a pretty difficult addiction to break.

3

Yeah, I’m thinking that the actual addiction to the nicotine may end up being the easier part for me. The psychological addiction on the other hand…it’s gonna be a doozy.

I’ve isolated almost all of my “triggers.” The complicated part of that is that smoking has infiltrated almost every normal-everyday activity for me. Finishing a meal, driving, talking on the phone, socializing in general, drinking, boredom…

I’m going to buy a folding card table and lay out a 1000-piece puzzle so that I can go concentrate on that whenever I have a craving. It’ll keep me inside (I don’t smoke in the house), and it’ll probably occupy enough time at each interval to allow those angry nicotine critters in my brain to give up until the next time. Who knows? Maybe I’ll actually finish a puzzle.

4

Hey man, you should have told me about this earlier! We could have quit together.

5

Ok, I am not one to plug self help books, but no joke pick up a copy of Allan Carr’s The Easyway to Stop Smoking.

I quit a pack and a half a day habbit cold turkey in the middle of January and haven’t looked back.

ETA: :smack: Also, congradulations and stick with it. Honestly if I can do it so can you, it’s fantastic to not be a smoker. Seriously I had forgotten what it was like to really breathe.

6

Congratulations and good luck!

7

Have you quit already or are you thinking about it?

8

Best of luck,cruel butterfly . You will be so glad you quit in a few weeks!

9

That’s it exactly. It’ll likely take months, if not years, to overcome that. And be aware of your eating habits – satisfying the oral fixation can lead to a huge eating increase.

I’m a pack a day smoker, and I have no plan (nor desire) to quit. But I know how difficult it is and wish you every success in breaking your addiction.

10

Another possible side effect: my wife tried the patch, and once she had begun stepping down in dosage, her immune system basically crashed and she had a massive allergic reaction involving hives, itching, and swelling. She was bedridden for days.

11

Oh, I’m still thinking about it. However, I doubt I could do it on my own. The spirit of competition would compel me more than anything. Ah well, I’m sure someone else on this board is on the verge of quitting. I’ll just have to track them down and go mano-a-mano with them.

12

I can attest to the weird dreams. They weren’t particularly good dreams either. You might try it for one night just to see what happens, but it doesn’t sound like you’ll need it. For me it was necessary because it helped curb that need for a smoke as soon as I woke up.

You can also cut the patch in half to lower the dosage. I did this when I quit the second time.

13

After feeling like crap all day, I spent the majority of the evening on the couch under a blanket watching X-Men: The Last Stand with my boys.

Around 8:30 or so, I took the patch off. When my husband came home, he fixed me a sandwich because I hadn’t had much to eat all day. Boy, was that sandwich good!

This morning, I didn’t put a patch on because I was afraid of feeling like I did yesterday. My husband bought me a box of the 14mg patches, and they are so much better. As a matter of fact, my quit-smoking-partner-friend downgraded hers. The initial/sustained rush was just too much for her to handle as well.

So far I’m not missing the action of smoking, but I have yet to be put to the test. For example, at the restaurant where I work, the vast majority of my coworkers are smokers. Company policy prohibits employees from smoking until after 8:00pm to prevent newbies and numbskulls from taking a smoke break while they have tables to attend to. The 8:00 hour is a tremendous trigger for me. Our restaurant is smoke-free (local ordinance), so I usually don’t even think about a cigarette unless I happen to glance at the clock and see that it’s past 8. I anticipate a load of temptation in a couple days when I go back, particularly when it comes to sitting down and having a cocktail after work: yet another biggie. I’m thinking I’ll just lay off the drinking for a couple weeks except for maybe a glass of wine here and there with my husband.

I really appreciate the feedback and the well wishes. Oh, and Hi, Neighbor!, you could join me. I’m only on my second day.

14

Keep at it, you are going to be fine. You already don’t want to smoke anymore, and that’s really the hardest part. The anticipation of how hard it’s going to be is far worse than it ends up being.