I’m on the Chantix bandwagon as well. I’m a 35 year smoker, and every time I’ve tried to quit, I turn into a screaming bitch in high heels.
I’m going on the third week of Chantix, and it does block the nicotine craving, but what it doesn’t block is the habit of reaching for a cigarette. When I get the urge to reach, I head for the stairstepper, so I’m losing weight and quitting at the same time.
My co-workers are tickled that I haven’t threatened anyone with severe physical damage as I have in the past. Great stuff this Chantix.
Good luck with your quitting, cold turkey is tough, but rewarding. Rooting for you here as well.
My experience is nearly identical (minus the Zyban - I’m epileptic, so it was out of the question). After 30 years of smoking I was up to 2-3 packs a day. I quit in a week. No screaming, crying, or homicidal rampages. I just quit. Chantix (Wiki) made the physical cravings almost nonexistent, and Allen Carr’s book (and threads like this one) helped me stay in the right frame of mind.
Psychologically, I’ve had a little trouble adapting to life as a non-smoker. Yeah, I kept reaching for my smokes for a few days. I found myself heading for the door at ‘smoke times’. I’m eating healthier, and gaining weight (a good thing, in my case, but still unusual). I’m still not quite used to ‘just sitting’ or ‘just standing’. There’s an almost constant sense that I’m forgetting something. But these are all negligible annoyances. I can learn how to deal with these things. Lung cancer and heart attacks, not so much.
What I’ve had no trouble adapting to is being able to breathe. And taste. And smell. Or having my children snuggle up with me on the sofa to watch cartoons, because I smell like soap instead of an ashtray. I could go on, but you get the idea. As much as I rationalized for all those years to convince myself otherwise, my life really is better without cigarettes.
Cold turkey makes great Pit material, but I’ve been there, and it does suck donkey balls. See your doctor, erie. Ask about Chantix. (Hell, just call your doctor. It may not require a visit.) In the meantime, go back and reread Hal’s post. It’s Allen Carr’s method in a nutshell. And as simplistic as it seems, this really does bear repeating: You are not quitting. You have already quit. Take a deep breath, admit that not paying a small fortune to poison yourself and smell like ass is a Good Thing, and don’t go back. Just don’t.
Many good suggestions. One other to *assist *with some of the treatments is Wrigleys DoubleMint gum. Exactly that flavour. Apparently it helps with the habit of reaching for a ciggie (MizTina note) and also with the oral cravings.
Just a quick update to everyone who gave me encouragement. It has now been 2 weeks without smokes and the cravings are (almost) gone. I got the doc to switch me to Wellbutrin and it seems to have helped. I’m no longer a rat bastard with my family and co-workers (at least no more so than usual).
The suckiest thing is I am more aware of time passing and locations in regards to smoking. “It’s 9 AM, I’d usually take a smoke break now.” “Here’s my exit, I usually would have lit up by now.” My day seems to take longer because I no longer take smoke breaks.
Screw it. I can make it. I have the will power to keep going. I am strong. I am invincible. I am a non-smoker!
I envy the people who quit easily and forever. I smoked for fewer than ten years, and stopped over thirty years ago, and I find myself occassionally wondering if I’m old enough to start again, because something else will surely kill me before the cigarettes could. If there was a planet killer meteor screaming towards Earth to end all life as we know it, I’d stop on the way home for a carton. It was twenty years before I stopped dreaming of smoking. I guess I’m trying to say I’m still a smoker, it’s just been a long time since my last cigarette.
Ironically, one of the most unpleasant experiences of my life was attempting to actually smoke a cigarette once a few years ago. It was even worse than I imagined it would be.
erie774, you have my best wishes for a successful quitting with minimized irritation. This thread has ample advice, and I will only add that you may want to try meditation or yoga in an attempt to increase relaxation and mental descipline.
I’m from the “I thought I loved it” club myself. After nearly two years smoke-free, I realize that was the Nicotine talking.
Now that you are out of the chemical addiction phase but are still noticing the physical triggers, I suggest you try initiating some new activity as a substitute. Even if it doesn’t quite fill the bill like a smoke did, you will be creating new mental pathways that will eventually take the place of the ciggie ones. Good luck.
When you’re a bit frazzled, it can get a little hard to keep a firm grip on what is and is not a normal and healthy negative reaction to an external stressor. Let me help you out here: this reaction to TV is just normal intelligent adult human behaviour.
I did, however, make the common mistake of substituting food for my cigarette craving so now I’m a bajillion pounds overweight. I’ve heard people use the excuse that they don’t want to quit smoking because they’ll gain weight. It’s a choice. I chose poorly. Don’t do what I did.
The actual “quitting” was easy for me. I don’t know what the trigger was but I finally came to the realization that I didn’t need to smoke anymore and quit cold turkey. Even now, there are rare times that I still crave a cigarette, but the desire goes away quickly and I go on with life.
My dad died from emphysema after a lifetime of pack-plus-a-day smoking. Death was a blessing for him. I wouldn’t wish that on my worst enemy. But, I also know that no one could have told me what smoking would eventually do to me when I was a smoker.
Good luck to the both of you. Life will be better!
Iowa just raised the tax by $1 a pack, so I’ll be quitting again as soon as I get started on the Chantix.
A friend of my daughter’s says her husband is doing great with it. He’s gone from two packs a day (for 36 years) to 3 smokes a day, after just a week. He’s not compensating with food and he’s not cranky.
Another motivation for me is remembering how much I accomplished when I spend so much time smoking.
I am finding the oppisite reaction with the Chantix. (By the way I am almost through week two on it and haven’t smoked in 5 days now.)
When I first started taking it and was still smoking, I would look up at the clock and discover it was an hour or more past my usual smoke time, and I never even knew until I checked the time. Same with my commute. I would be 15 miles past my usual light up places before I realized I hadn’t lit up. It’s like this stuff makes you “forget” to smoke.
My husband started it last week and is down from two packs a day to one. His journey will be a little tougher than mine because he is a heavier smoker.
For anyone considering the Chantix, get it now, you won’t be sorry.
My current stats from my Quitkeeper are below:
I have been quit for 5 Days, 16 hours, 14 minutes and 30 seconds (5 days). I have saved $19.78 by not smoking 141 cigarettes. I have saved 11 hours and 45 minutes of my life. My Quit Date: 3/12/2007 12:00 AM
Day 2, using the patch. Eating starburst like candy. Smokes are calling but they can go fuck themselves. 23 years in their grasp was long enough.
Already noticed a difference in how much easier it was to breathe when I woke up. And no annoying cough.
Found going to the driving range and smacking the shit out of those little white balls very helpful. Too much to think about when your trying to hit that perfect drive.
If I can make it one day, I can make it 10, 000.
Fuck em.
My doctor gave me a script for Chantix last week. I filled it yesterday, but haven’t started taking it yet. I’m a little worried about reactions to it, but I still plan to take it. Just need to pick a quit date and then start taking it a week before.
Have any of the Chantix users experienced any odd side effects?
About day 3, I had very, very mild queasiness, could have been something else causing it, but it went away after a couple of days. When I say mild, I really do mean mild.
For me, the benefits have been well worth the two days of mild ickiness.
I’ve only been smoking for four years but I can’t get myself to quit. I don’t like spending all my money on it. But it’s so hard. If I make it 3 days it’s all psychological/habit after that? That’s the hard part though, I am so used to lighting up in the car, between classes, with a beer, after meals, etc. Argh.
The doctor who prescribed it for my friend said some of her patients have complained about sleep disturbances, insomnia and bad dreams. She said an OTC sleep-aid should help that.
