Hi, I'm New
Sun, 2008-09-28 06:46
#1
Hi, I'm New
Sun, 2008-09-28 06:46
#2
Have read babble from time to time. Don't have much to say. I'm undecided as to October 14th. Working part-time here, there and everywhere. Hoping to volunteer at the hospital soon. Going through very ugly divorce. Quit smoking a mere 11 days ago. Suffer from insomnia.
Sun, 2008-09-28 07:05
#3
Maysie
Welcome to babble G. Pie!
Sun, 2008-09-28 07:06
#4
Well, thank you. And good Sunday morning to you.
Sun, 2008-09-28 15:30
#5
Hey G. Pie. What're you doing for the smoking, anything? I took Zyban, it worked okay. A friend of mine started running five days after quitting a two-pack a day habit, at 50 years old and 60 pounds overweight, he just couldn't believe he could do it, now 13 years later he runs half-marathons against his 20-something daughter and sometimes he wins.
I didn't get that lucky... just quit, no other associated epiphanies.
Sun, 2008-09-28 19:46
#6
Polly B
Welcome to Babble! Don't worry about the insomnia that goes away after a few weeks off the smokes. Something to do with the uglies working their way out of your system.
Mon, 2008-09-29 18:25
#7
Thanks, you guys. My insomnia predates my quitting smoking but it may have made it a little worse. I'm chewing the nicotine gum and am dreading giving it up. I thought I'd give it a month or so. It's funny the associations, though. I'm pretty much okay with it but then I drove by a coffee shop that I used to frequent and the urge to smoke was overpowering. I try to just think "I've decided not to smoke today." Contemplating the rest of my life nicotine-free is just too frightening. Of all the reasons to quit smoking, I chose the most shallow: I just don't want to smell like that anymore.
Tue, 2008-09-30 02:34
#8
There are no shallow reasons when it comes to quitting. Nice job GP, stay with it.
[ 30 September 2008: Message edited by: WendyL ]
Tue, 2008-09-30 06:45
#9
scott
Welcome to the monkey house. [img]biggrin.gif" border="0[/img] If you are 11+ days without smoking you are past the worse part.
Tue, 2008-09-30 06:54
#10
But don't let your guard down too much. I'm at sixteen months (after smoking for almost forty years) and I still feel it at times. It's mostly when I'm trying hard to concentrate or feeling stressed.
Tue, 2008-09-30 07:10
#11
M. Spector
Quitting smoking is one of the hardest things you will ever do. It was more than ten years after quitting that I stopped getting tiny urges to smoke. I'd find myself saying to myself, "Gee, a cigarette would go great right now," and a second later I'd be saying, "Holy crap! Where did that come from? I haven't had a smoke in X years!"
Nicotine addiction is incredibly insidious.
Tue, 2008-09-30 09:46
#12
scott
Cravings get less frequent and less intense with time. They were completely gone for me after 2 years. It takes longer for others.
Tue, 2008-09-30 09:54
#13
My cravings were gone after a month. I found if I kept my hands busy it was impossible to smoke. Psychologically, I was still having dreams in which I was smoking more than a decade later.
Tue, 2008-09-30 10:15
#14
Has there never been a way to simply reduce? If you could get yourself down to 3 a day, and then 1 a day, (and then maybe even just 2 or 3 a week) that's almost like not smoking at all, and yet you still get the pleasure and the ritual out of it and it becomes more meaningful. Like an evening cigar.
I've heard from past smokers that, no, it doesn't work that way, but was just wondering if anyone has ever done it this way.
I was wondering if another way also might be to smoke yourself sick. Next time you cave in, light two cigarettes, not just one and then chain-smoke for two hours straight, until the thought of any more nicotine makes you gag. And then next urge you get, maybe the next day, do the same thing.
Tue, 2008-09-30 10:36
#15
There are ways of reducing smoking that come from the harm reduction model of addictions treatment. Some sort of personally tailored structured approach works a lot better than just generally trying to smoke less, and are fitted to your lifestyle.
For example, smoking when watching TV. When the chainsmoker's brain says "time for a ciggie", cut yourself down to say one at the beginning of every half hour show. Or, when you brain says that, have a timer handy, and set it for 15 minutes before taking the smoke. Then you can move it up to maybe half an hour. Quitting smoking for the day may be too difficult, but telling your mind you're quitting smoking for 15 minutes is an argument with yourself you can win.
Know how many cigarettes you go through in a day, and set up yor structure so that it will be several less. (I'm imagining a fairly heavy smoker here) Soon, as you stretch out the time between smokes, this becomes your new baseline, then reduce more from there.
Depends on your lifestyle. I work with people on disability who are at home and isolated a lot. Someone who works and can only grab a smoke on a break may might want to try skipping one break. Again, that's telling yourself not to smoke for only 15 - 20 minutes, and promise yourself one at the next break. It's an argument with youself that you can win. Think about how when you finally do light up, how much more you'll enjoy it, because you will, but that's ok. The key is to keep lowering what your body feels is the baseline of how much you smoke.
[ 30 September 2008: Message edited by: oldgoat ]
Tue, 2008-09-30 10:46
#16
I like that model. I was also thinking of smokers I've known who have succeeded in quitting for a period of time, but then start again. And many times what seems to happen is they think of it as "failure" and for some reason (maybe it's just an excuse) they go back on it whole hog. When perhaps all their body needed that fateful day was that one cigarette. So you break your mostly smoke-free status and have one. Then maybe next day you have another. But maybe the day after that, you can go without one. But just to be able to keep that control, even if it gets back up to several in a week, but not just folding your hand and saying "Forget it. I tried. It didn't work."
Tue, 2008-09-30 10:52
#17
I quit Cold Turkey after failing through trying to reduce in the past. I've got a fairly addictive personality. All or nothing tends to work best for me. I know others who have been very successful using a harm reduction model. It can be very reinforcing of success whereas if smoking one cigarette is your definition of failure, then you have failed.
Tue, 2008-09-30 10:57
#18
I slowly reduced smoking and finally quit around the time my first kid was born, 21 years ago. I tried to become aware of triggers, and avoided them. For example I cut out my morning coffee, or rather deferred it 'til I was in a non smoking area. I even stopped going to pubs for a while. I also switched to the lowest tar and nicotine brand on the market.
I've had a very rare smoke since then. The last one was working eday on the last provencial election. I had scrambled getting the vote out, finished scrutineering the count, and was at the CAW hall in Oshawa for the party, and just had to have a cigarette. Man was it good, but it made me kind of dizzy, and my mouth tasted bad all next day.
Tue, 2008-09-30 11:00
#19
The cold turkey model worked for my sister. She smoked close to a pack a day of Players plain for almost 40 years. No filter! One day at work she ran out and decided that was it. I was pretty impressed.
Tue, 2008-09-30 11:00
#20
A friend once talked about with regard to diet, "making more vegan choices" rather than "going vegan" - which, in our culture, can be a pretty drastic step. Maybe the same could be thought of with smoking addiction. Instead of saying "I'm quitting smoking" if you know that may not be true, you could say "I'm making more smoke-free choices".
Tue, 2008-09-30 16:47
#21
Oh, jas, I would love to be able to attack my addiction that way. But for some of us, one is too many and 1,000 is not enough. Many years ago, I was off the ciggies for 12 years or so. I convinced myself that one was okay and the next day I went out and bought a pack and was right back to where I started.
I've just moved and my new apartment has a very quiet, private balcony. I couldn't help thinking what a great place to smoke that would be. But I said "No, not today. No cigarettes today. Reassess tomorrow." And I also remind myself of how a first cigarette after abstaining actually feels. My mouth feels burned, my energy drains away and I develop an unquenchable thirst. It's horrible.
Tue, 2008-09-30 16:47
#22
I eat meat -- my dad was a butcher -- but I can go days without it and not blink an eye. Whereas, by the end of my fifteen-year smoking addiction I couldn't sleep through the night without lighting up. That was pretty much what did it for me, actually; I was a house fire waiting to happen, plus it was getting to be such a pain in the ass to have to leave places all the time, like social gatherings, and work, to go outside and smoke. Plus, I got pregnant.
Most of the time I'm so happy I quit. I don't cough anymore. I can taste food better. I have more money. It gives you so much freedom that you never even knew you were missing.
Guilty secret though: sometimes when I'm around union people, I still smoke. Otherwise I miss the comraderie too much, out on the smoke breaks and Wednesday night benders. I didn't start doing that though until about five years after quitting, and it's strictly occasional, not everyday. Not yet, anyway.
Tue, 2008-09-30 16:52
#23
quote:
Originally posted by G. Pie:
[b]for some of us, one is too many and 1,000 is not enough[/b]
So true! I always tell my husband that the day I turn 70, to go look for me in some shack down in the southern US, cause I got a lot of smoking to do.
I find that comforting somehow. Mind you, the day could be closer than I think if I don't stop gambling with the once in a while.
Tue, 2008-09-30 18:54
#24
M. Spector
I quit cold turkey, but it required preparation.
First, I had quit many times before, and it was always a wretched experience. I finally convinced myself that it was better to have the wretched experience once and for all, rather than repeating it over and over.
Second, I had to psychologically come to terms with the fact that quitting would mean I could never have another cigarette for the rest of my life. That can be a frightening prospect, and I recognized that my previous attempts to quit had failed because I could not bring myself to accept it. Related to this was the necessity of acknowledging that I would always, for the rest of my life, be a nicotine addict, which is precisely why I could never have another cigarette as long as I lived.
Third, it occurred to me that I had [b]unintentionally[/b] quit for brief periods on many occasions, when I had gotten sick with the flu or a nasty chest cold. I had quit simply because it was so unpleasant to continue smoking, but when I felt healthier, I would always come back to smoking. I decided to use this aversion to smoking to my advantage, to get me over the first few days. Once I was ready to quit, I resolved that the next time I got sick, I would stop smoking, as usual, and simply never start up again. And it worked.
I had to get rid of all my cigarettes so I would not be able to relapse if my resolve weakened. I threw out all my ashtrays. I told myself I was now a non-smoker. I started keeping track of all the money I was saving, and I spent it instead on things to reward myself. I gained 20 pounds in about two months. But I haven't had a cigarette since 1982.
Tue, 2008-09-30 19:03
#25
I'm glad for you, M. Spector. Live well and be well everyone. Money can't buy good health once you've lost it.
Sun, 2008-10-05 07:06
#26
Stressful day yesterday. I didn't smoke but I did get some smokers to blow some secondhand my way. Is this the top of the slippery slope?
Sun, 2008-10-05 07:42
#27
I doubt it G. Pie. It's really hard to quit. I smoked for a very long time, then quit in 1997 and started smoking again just three months ago.
I think M.Spector is right and he describes things pretty much the way I dealt with it.
Now that I'm smoking again every single time I take a puff I think about what toxins I'm putting in my body. Even more embarrassing is that I go to the gym 4 times a week and am a vegetarian. While I'm all about being healthy, I realize this smoking is going to kill me if I don't stop but it's never too late.
Good luck to you. You can do it.
Sun, 2008-10-05 08:34
#28
Stargazer, I fear you're right. Especially now that I've bought a pack and just smoked one out on my back porch. In my defence, I think I was chewing so many Nicorettes I might be better off smoking a few ciggies and chewing Dentyne instead. I'm feeling an absence of the usual shame, though. It's Sunday morning. If I can make this one pack last a whole week, I'll think I'm still in the game. I don't/won't smoke in my apartment, or in my car or at work. 'fraid that's the best I can do at the moment.
I also have a drinking problem. Probably, it's best that I don't touch the stuff but I have learned how to have one or two beers and then stop. Moderation takes some effort but it's doable.
What did me in yesterday was visiting my old home (I'm in the process of getting divorced). Picked up a few of my things, played with my animals and gazed wistfully at my old smoking place in the mud room. My husband smokes in moderation and I've always kind of admired that.
Sun, 2008-10-05 09:35
#29
G. Pie. You are doing a great job! Just stay the course. All quitting is tough and we each find our own way. You are finding yours.
I quit smoking some 6 or 7 years ago...smoked for 31 years and was smoking 70 cigarettes a day by the time I gave it up. I had never, ever tried to quit before that. Not once. The very thought of quitting would send me into a power smoking madness.And, with a huge amount of felt shame, must admit to sitting by my sister's side as she died of lung cancer and still I did not quit. She told me that she continued to smoke in her dreams, but always in hiding... Such a loss. I miss her more and more with each passing year.
The day I quit, my partner, who had quit 7 years prior, said: "You know, there will never be a day you don't crave a smoke...." Thankfully, for me, I have never looked back and never once wanted a cigarette. I knew that if I could go 1 hour without a smoke, I could go forever! A week later, I had my teeth whitened as part of my self-congratulatory puffiness and called myself a nonsmoker from that day forth.
I have a very dear friend, Margaret. Margaret smokes 3 cigarettes a day. Every day. She wishes to kick her addiction and to date, after many years, has been unable to do so. Every day, in the early evening, she sits on her porch and smokes her three cigarettes. Smoking 70 cigarettes a day, I used to wish I could be addicted to just 3/day. But, I understand Margaret's dilemma.
Accckkkkk too much! With each attempt, you will become stronger. Don't beat yourself up over anything. Take deep breaths and babble away!
Sun, 2008-10-05 10:03
#30
quote:
What did me in yesterday was visiting my old home (I'm in the process of getting divorced). Picked up a few of my things, played with my animals and gazed wistfully at my old smoking place in the mud room. My husband smokes in moderation and I've always kind of admired that.
Totally understandable. Emotional trauma is a big trigger.
Sun, 2008-10-05 11:35
#31
Thanks, you guys. This is so much more positive and hopeful than the AA-style kind of approach. As for Margaret, is she nuts? I'd LOVE to have that kind of self-discipline.
I read somewhere that the smell of smoke triggers ancient, primordial feelings in human beings. Campfire, cavefire, whatever, smoke is the smell of human congregation.
I'm sorry for your loss, WendyL. I lost my sister, too. Two years ago and I feel just as sad as I did the day after. She died of bad habits, too.
Sun, 2008-10-05 12:03
#32
G. Pie, I'm right there with you....
Sun, 2008-10-05 18:20
#33
quote:
Originally posted by oldgoat:
[b]For example I cut out my morning coffee, or rather deferred it 'til I was in a non smoking area.[/b]
I quit smoking eight times.
And then I figured out what was going on, and quit for good.
Doctors have found nicotine is as addictive as cocaine. Don't try to outwit it.
Sun, 2008-10-05 18:44
#34
quote:
Originally posted by Wilf Day:
[b]And then I figured out what was going on, and quit for good.[/b]
Care to share?
quote:
[b]Doctors have found nicotine is as addictive as cocaine. Don't try to outwit it.[/b]
I've tried cocaine and it didn't interest me. I'd say (from my own personal experience) that nicotine is FAR more addictive.
[ 05 October 2008: Message edited by: G. Pie ]
Sun, 2008-10-05 21:29
#35
quote:
Originally posted by G. Pie:
[b]"Originally posted by Wilf Day:
And then I figured out what was going on, and quit for good."Care to share?[/b]
I was kidding myself that I had quit. Clearly I had not.
Any alcoholic knows there is no such thing as "just one drink."
Nicotine, same deal.