[QUOTE=Mindfield]
Oh, I’m fully behind the 90% psychological thing. The sleep thing doesn’t really sell it for me, though – you’re unconscious, you’re not craving much of anything at that point. Rather, all you have to do is get involved in something that occupies your attention as fully as possible. While you are focused on whatever it is you’re doing, there are no cravings – or at least not nearly enough of one to disturb your concentration. I find this a lot when I get busy at work, or when I’m working on a song and I’m really heavily into it, laying down tracks and chords and stuff – I just don’t even think about smoking. Sometimes I find I’ll light one during a break in concentration, but then I completely forget about it when I return to working on it. By the time I take another break I light up another and it doesn’t feel like I’ve really missed anything having gone longer than usual without a smoke.
Therein lies the rub, though: Just what do you do to steer your mind away from smoking?
I also don’t expect miraculous life changes once I quit. I’ve heard about people tasting things differently – better, really – and being able to smell things better and such. Not that I disbelieve any of that – I’m sure it’s quite true to some degree – but I really can’t imagine how things might smell or taste different, or what it’s like to breathe more deeply. I’ve smoked since I was 17 – that’s 18 years, so really, I can’t remember what it was like. It’s not something I can look forward to exactly, so mostly I just expect quitting to feel more or less like getting a job done; satisfied that I have accomplished a goal, but not excited about being in a state of goal-completion.
[/QUOTE]
The whole reason I mentioned the sleep thing was in order to prove that it’s mainly psychological. If it were physiological, you’d expect it to be a problem even if you were unconscious. But anyway, buy the book, you’d be surprised. I read it out of curiosity and ended up quitting. I didn’t buy it thinking, “okay I’m going to quit forever” I just leafed through it and found it interesting because nobody talks about smoking, or quitting smoking like he does. It just makes sense, and nobody else seems to be on the same level. Well anyways, good luck if you try it.
[QUOTE=Merkwurdigliebe]
The whole reason I mentioned the sleep thing was in order to prove that it’s mainly psychological. If it were physiological, you’d expect it to be a problem even if you were unconscious.
[/quote]
Not as much as it would appear on the face of it though. Pretty much every smoker has one just before bed. Once asleep, most of the body’s functions slow down considerably, so whatever nicotine there is in the system metabolizes at a much slower rate, minimizing the physical aspects of nicotine withdrawal.
I’ll have to see if I can stop by a good book store this weekend and see if they stock it. I would like to quit, but I’d rather not have to use patches, gums or anything like that if I can help it. Pretty much all of these pharmacological cessation aids cost more than the cigarettes, taken over the same time period, which is a bit of a dis-incentive, frankly. I’d rather shell out for a book that might just have some useful information in it that will allow me to help myself.
Honestly, when it comes right down to it, quitting smoking just boils down to be willing to gut out the withdrawal for a couple of days. After the 3rd day, the hard part is over and the fear of the withdrawal tends to be worse than the withdrawal itself. Sooner or later you just have to nut it out for 72 hours. Nicotine replacement products only prolong that process. The only real way to kill that monkey is to starve it and it really isn’t as difficult as a lot of smokers are afraid it will be.
[QUOTE=Mindfield]
I’ll have to see if I can stop by a good book store this weekend and see if they stock it. [snip] I’d rather shell out for a book that might just have some useful information in it that will allow me to help myself.
[/QUOTE]
See if you can get it at the library first. Then you’ve shelled out nothing!
I’ve been taking Chantix because, frankly, I know the addiction’s done in 72 hours, but my work-life is a big cauldron of stress right now and I didn’t even want to deal with the most minor-ist of cravings. For me, Chantix costs right about as much as my smokes did for a month, so it was a wash. It definitely works, and when I’ve forgotten to take it for a couple of days and get a sorta craving I say the following to myself:
Hello, craving! I am going to feel you now, and not try to pretend you aren’t there. On the other hand, I’m not afraid of you! This is just a nicotine craving and it’s not gonna kill me. In five, ten minutes you’ll be gone and I’ll still be a non-smoker.
I smoked about a pack a day and was terrified that I’d have to deal with just how boring my life is without filling up the time with smoking. But you know what? It hasn’t been a problem. I was just realizing this morning that I haven’t thought about smoking for a long time, and magically my work days fly by and my nights are filled with my own thoughts and crossword puzzles and just gazing out the window daydreaming and et cetera. I’m kinda nervous about stopping the Chantix in 6 weeks, but that’s the same psychological spiral/fears that kept me smoking. Once you detox and then understand the nature of cravings, it’ really no big deal. Read the book, and if it’s not time for you, it’s not time for you. However, focus you attention on your intention. If you’re thinking about it, then begin imagining your life without smoking (ie - being able to breathe, being able to taste food, spending that money on something else, not having COPD when you’re old, whatever is the upside to not smoking for you).
[QUOTE=Merkwurdigliebe]
The whole reason I mentioned the sleep thing was in order to prove that it’s mainly psychological. If it were physiological, you’d expect it to be a problem even if you were unconscious. But anyway, buy the book, you’d be surprised. I read it out of curiosity and ended up quitting. I didn’t buy it thinking, “okay I’m going to quit forever” I just leafed through it and found it interesting because nobody talks about smoking, or quitting smoking like he does. It just makes sense, and nobody else seems to be on the same level. Well anyways, good luck if you try it.
[/QUOTE]
Sounds like a good book, what is it called and who is the author, I need to read it , if you said so previously sorry but could you tell me again, I am too sleepy to read everything right now thanx
I’ll say thought that this book kind of takes willpower out of the equation. He only urges you to quit if you are certain that it is the right thing to do. If you agree with what he has to say it won’t take a whole lot of willpower.
And fine, you can’t be convinced that sleeping makes a difference. I disagree. Think about alcohol. Does being asleep actually keep you from getting a hangover? Do you wake up drunk and then get a hangover? Of course not. Your metabolic proceses slow but not that much. The desire to smoke another cigarette comes much faster than that. Could you go for 2 hours without another one in the middle of the day? Sure, but it wouldn’t be easy. The body doesn’t slow down by 4 times either. I never woke up craving a smoke and I wouldn’t do it until maybe 2 hours after I had woken up. Of course after that I’d smoke many more.
The withdrawal symptoms are pretty weak once you realize what’s going on. It doesn’t last days upon days…It’s pretty harmless. All I had was bowel problems for a few days.
Is this the book where the guy says that if you finish reading it, you’ll just give up smoking? (but not as a grandiose claim of efficacy for his methods - he just sees it as a completely logical and natural next step)
Yeah that’s the one. The book is about clearing your knowledge of smoking that you’ve inherited from society as a whole (that it’s impossible to quit, it’s relaxing, etc.) and after you see smoking for what it is, the only thing left to do is quit.
I saw an interview with him and I was impressed - he came across as quite nerdy - not your typical “I can make you quit smoking, guaranteed!” kind of shyster at all - he really did seem to be an ordinary but intelligent person who had discovered something that actually works and just wanted to share it (of course that could all be a cynical act to sell books, but I don’t think so).
Good luck with keeping off the smokes - I don’t think there’s any advice I can give that is going to be better than anything in your book.
[QUOTE=Diogenes the Cynic]
Honestly, when it comes right down to it, quitting smoking just boils down to be willing to gut out the withdrawal for a couple of days. After the 3rd day, the hard part is over and the fear of the withdrawal tends to be worse than the withdrawal itself. Sooner or later you just have to nut it out for 72 hours. Nicotine replacement products only prolong that process. The only real way to kill that monkey is to starve it and it really isn’t as difficult as a lot of smokers are afraid it will be.
[/QUOTE]
I couldn’t disagree more. Of course whatever works for each individual is fine and there is no one answer. I used the patch and it worked great for me. I stopped smoking but didn’t have any withdrawal symptoms since the patch provided the nicotine. It gave me the oppurtunity to work on the psychological factors without dealing with the withdrawal. I decreased the dosage as suggested and within a month I was smoke and nicotine free without having any withdrawal.
[QUOTE=Loach]
I couldn’t disagree more. Of course whatever works for each individual is fine and there is no one answer. I used the patch and it worked great for me. I stopped smoking but didn’t have any withdrawal symptoms since the patch provided the nicotine. It gave me the oppurtunity to work on the psychological factors without dealing with the withdrawal. I decreased the dosage as suggested and within a month I was smoke and nicotine free without having any withdrawal.
[/QUOTE]
There are no absolutes, of course, but statistically the success rates for NRT’s are much lower than for going cold turkey.
Did you really not have any withdrawal after you went off the patch? How is that possible?
[QUOTE=Diogenes the Cynic]
There are no absolutes, of course, but statistically the success rates for NRT’s are much lower than for going cold turkey.
Did you really not have any withdrawal after you went off the patch? How is that possible?
[/QUOTE]
Just like I didn’t feel it when I changed from the high dose patch to the medium and the medium to the low. By the end my body was weened off it to such an extent that I didn’t feel it when the last of the nicotine was gone. The last step is a very low dose of nicotine. It’s been five years and I haven’t smoked again.
i did the smoking cessation class through work, and it proved to be the turning point. that was three years ago and i haven’t smoked since. i was among the few attending that truly did quit cigarettes.
the acid test for that quitting has been the last month of my life: i split with my SO of five years on a saturday, and on the following tuesday, i had to put to sleep my feline companion of the last** 20 ** years.
if all that ain’t a freaking trigger to start smoking again, i don’t know what the hell is.
luckily enough, i never truly wanted a cigarette during all the stress and misery i had to go through. thank you Lord, i am truly a non-smoker now after 30 years of it!
[QUOTE=Merkwurdigliebe]
Otherwise, why wouldn’t a cigarette be good from the first second you tasted it? Alcohol obviously is. Not saying beer, but Alcohol certainly has it’s perceived effects on the first time you try it. I am also generally very questioning, but I let down my guard for this one as a sort of “ends justify the means” kind of thing, so I didn’t scrutinize it, but nothing really set off my BS detector either. It’s hard to imagine, but the truth is that he speaks to smokers in ways that you really need to hear it. Your life will be better after you quit, it’s not as hard as you think to quit, etc…Hell, he went from smoking 100 a day to nothing. I was impressed.
[/QUOTE]
This doesn’t jibe with my experience. I enjoyed the first cigarette I ever smoked, and pretty much every one since then. I don’t think I’ve ever felt a nicotene jones, either, but I smoke at a very low volume, just a few cigarettes a week on average.