Stop smoking support group

Okay, guys - jenniferelyse74 and I have embarked on part of our next journey in our healthy lifestyle.  We're going to quit smoking!

Anyone want to join in?  We need suggestions on a game plan for how to quit - we have a deadline of September 30th.  Anyone done this successfully and want to offer words of wisdom?  Anyone willing to be there for the rants and frustration when the cravings hit?

Thanks for your support!

{{{jenne}}}

WOO HOO.  Day 6 without a cigarette.  The cravings are coming and going but haven't been too bad.  I've been trying to stay busy. 

If I don't buy them, I can't smoke them.  It's worked so far.  Everyone I know that smokes is under strick orders NOT to let me bum any.  I haven't even considered bumming one and if I did I think I'd be more afraid of ridicule than caving in.  (The guys I work with are very good natured but love to pick on everyone.)

Good luck to anyone else that's trying to quit.

I can't get rid of this headache.  I'm still not sure if it's nicotine withdrawal related, but it is really fierce and tylenol didn't help.  I'm hanging in there!

Thanks Jennelaw!

I caved.  Oh well.  I've had a rough, stressful evening.  I lit a cigarette, took 4-5 puffs and it was aweful.  I put it out.  I lit another one a couple of hours later.  Took only 2 puffs and put it out.  Nasty.  Maybe its true that after 3-4 days the nicotine is out of your system.  Back on the wagon for me.  Good luck everyone.

Well, at least I don't feel quite so guilty now.  I think it was the heat from yesterday.  They are fixing the air conditioner today and they had to completely turn off the unit.  I was at the house with them for over an hour and the house was 88 degrees.  That's when it started.  By the time I got home I could hardly see and I was nauseous.  I went to sleep at 5:30 and woke up feeling much better this morning.

I've been off the caffeine for over four weeks, so it wasn't that.

how are you doing there, guys? Jennifer, it's ok to cave once in a while. Today is a new day. Get rid of your stash, and keep going. Smoking half of a cigarette after 6 days is not failure! I look at it as a step towards permenant quitting.

When I was quitting, I told myself that I would allow myself to smoke a cigarette if I got really distressed, but only if it was to the point that I couldn't resist, and it was 1 cigarette, not a pack. The most I ever smoked after my official quit date was 3 at my aunt's house when I was having marital problems that I was having a hard time dealing with. But ya know what? After that, I was ok. I went home, and continued in my quest to being a non-smoker.

Just remember: you decided to do this and you CAN! You are past the physical addiction part by now, so it's all mental now.

You guys are doing a great job! They say that nicotine is more addictive than heroine and you're already past that now! Get that defeated voice out of your head, you've accomplished something! Deciding to quit is a huge huge thing! Think about all the people out there who haven't even brought themselves to the decision to quit yet! Keep checking in, guys. You're doing great!

-niki

Congrats to all of you quitting.

I quit almost 6 months ago. I read a book, and I swear, it was the easiest thing to do...One of the keys to success is disassociating smoking with situations, you know what I mean? A lot of people smoke while driving, so you have to remove that connection in your mind, just like you get stressed and you have a smoke. Make sense? If you really think about it, does the cigarette actually help you in your stressful situation? or any situation for that matter? You may think it helps, but would stepping away for 10 minutes have helped too? Just wanted to give you a few things to think about.

Keep it up!
Amanda

I totally agree with disassociating smoking with situations.  Shakti pointed out to me when I first started talking about this a while back that a lot of times we use the cigarette break during the day as an excuse to grab a few minutes of me time during the day.  I totally do that!  It's a great excuse to go outside and away from the phones and the paperwork and everything else.  The hardest thing for me is disassociating with smoking while I'm talking on the phone at night.  Don't know why, but that's when I really crave one.

it apparently takes 3 wks for bodies to adjust to new routines etc... i quit smoking 2 yrs ago!!! WOW! (i just realized it's been that long now!) and it was hard as hell but I've never really gone back (slipped and had a few here and then again) but havent had anything (not even a drag) in over 6 months... it loses its appeal... you CAN do this.....

Wish someone could wave a magic wand and make it easier.....especially today!

Today is a complete wash out for me.  I've got several stressfull issues going on throughout the weekend.  I'm hoping to start fresh on Monday.  Hopefully some of the personal stuff will be resolved or more manageable by then. :{

Guys,

Quitting smoking is not easy for 2 reasons.

First, there are the nicotine withdrawal symptoms that are "dramatically" subdued by the 3rd day... in any case, 3 weeks are more than enough for ALL physical dependency on cigarettes to be gone.. so why do some people return to smoking after long time of cessation (long after the body is completely adjusted to function without nicotine)?

The truth is smoking gives you extra DOPAMINE levels! Dopamine is a brain chemical that's responsible for the feel of PLEASURE and REWARD! So, quitting in the short run is difficult because of the fact that the body became a slave to nicotine. In the long run, though, quitting can be difficult because every once in a while you'd miss that extra dopamine associated with smoking a cigarette!

Thanks to a great advice from a friend, I surpassed the nicotine withdrawal phase with A LOT of ease by taking up vigorous aerobic exercises (I used to bike for 3 straight hours in the park, walk for 2 hours in my neighborhood and use the elliptical machine for an hour in the Gym). 10-14 days of this and I was "completely" over smoking, well, at least physically.

As for the so-called "psychological withdrawal" it really is nothing but "missing" the extra dopamine levels in your brain!!! When the quitting sites tell you to try to de-associate pleasurable activities from smoking they're really trying to say to you to try to get used to the "normal" dopamine level associated with any pleasurable activity! Now, this can take anywhere from 2 months to a lifetime! Yes, you used to enjoy sitting and talking with your friends before becoming a smoker... but when you took up smoking, you realized that smoking gives your feelings of pleasure an extra edge! Now, the smoking cessation guys try to tell you that this is psychological effect, blah blah blah when the HARD FACT is that smoking shoots up the pleasure/reward chemical in your brain, DOPAMINE. So, it really is hard to go from elevated levels of pleasure back to just "normal!"

I trained myself to elevate my dopamine levels close enough to the levels associated with smoking... now, I enjoy all my pleasurable activities almost the same (when I used to be a smoker). It takes a lot of concentration and brain power but it's doable. In any case, even if I couldn't then I'd settle for normal dopamine levels rather than allowing nictine to be the master over my body and brain... I choose to give up slavery for ever!

One last note: even after years of cessation you cannot allow yourself to smoke even one cigarette, because the the rule of quitting says: one cigarette and there's a 95% chance that you're back to a full blown slavery to nicotine! But why? Because, as a smoker your brain became a lean mean nicotine processing machine! In other words, the slightest amount of nicotine running through your veins will trigger your brain to process it and become slave to it "again" instantly!

Note that the situation is different for someone who NEVER smoked before... it takes many cigarettes for a cigarette-virgin to become a SLAVE, BUT for an ex-smoker it takes only ONE cigarette to become a slave "again".  

Falsalem, you make some good points, and I like the insight you provided about dopamine. That's something I hadn't heard much about before when talking about smoking.

As far as smoking another cigarette after years of not smoking, I agree! After 11 months being smoke-free, I wouldn't dare pick up a cigarette at this point. I have been tempted but I know that I have mastered life without cigarettes, and to go back would be a choice to return to that lifestyle (since I have no physical addiction or psychological habit any longer).

I think the key while quitting is to know yourself and to be honest with yourself about the decisions you make. If you decide to do something, you can do it, and you will work toward it until you decide not to. Search youself. Decide if you want to quit, and then don't look back. Looking back is only for when you think you've made the wrong decision, and you KNOW that quitting smoking will only imporve your health, hygiene, and wallet, therefore there is absolutly no reason to 2nd guess your decision to quit. If you are honest with yourself, you can't deny that quitting is the right choice.

If you are having a hard time getting past the first few days, I urge you to try the patch. It helped me a LOT during the first 10 days (that's all I used it for). In fact, I expected it not to work... even hoped it wouldn't work so I could justify not quitting, but to my dismay, it helped and it actually WASN'T too hard! As much as I hoped it would be, it wasn't... and since it wasn't, I couldn't justify NOT quitting to myself. I have like 6 of the things left over from when I quit. I wish I could give em to you just so you could see how much they help without having to spend the money on them.

I HATED quitting. I honestly did. I wasn't ready, my life was a mess, and I was a basketcase with stress because my husband had just cheated on me and I was bouncing from one relative's house to another with my 1 and 2 year old babies. If I can quit after 10 years in the middle of that crap, YOU can quit in the middle of whatever is going on in your lives. There is NEVER a "good" time to quit. Life is never perfect, and when it is nearly perfect, we aren't thinking about quitting smoking. Don't wait for it to get easier. It won't.

I smoked for years and years waiting for the "right time" to quit, and it never happened. Instead I wasted years of my life poisoning myself and the people around me. This is going to be difficult.. but you knew that when you posted the first time about quitting. You guys can do this!

My mom keeps waiting for herself to feel "ready" to quit. Well, it's been 10 years she's been waiting, and I'm thinking if this readiness hasn't occured once in 10 years, chances are it's not gonna happen. You cannot control your circumstances, you can only control the way you react to them.

niki,

Indeed, the dopamine issue is usually "intentionally" missed in smoking cessation groups. They don't want you to know that nicotine actually has a positive side... like a drug, it increases the levels of dopamine in your brain. But I don't see why they hide this from us? We're grown-ups... we can handle the truth.

In my case, I have decided that the extra dopamine levels are absolutely NOT worth the slavery to smoking. See, smoking has 2 sides: wanting and needing. When someone smokes his first cigarrettes for the first time in his life, it's purely wanting to smoke... because of the elevated dopamine experience... this, however, becomes more and more needing as well. Because after smoking for so long, the brain and body become dependent on nicotine to function properly.

So yes, when you first quit smoking you don't only feel bored (normal dopamine levels as opposed to elevated levels), you also feel your body and brain (unable to concentrate etc) are dying for a cigarette.

See these 2 links for info on dopamine.        

http://www.thebrain.mcgill.ca/flash/i/i_03/i_ 03_m/i_03_m_par/i_03_m_par_nicotine.html

http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/pto-2 0041111-000001.html

Okay, today is a new day and I'm starting over (again).  Almost fourteen hours completely smoke free.  The cravings are setting in and I feel like poop, but I am staying in the office for lunch and not leaving the building.  If I don't leave, I can't buy.  If I can make it until tomorrow morning, I will be much better.  Unfortunately, I left all my nicotine gum at home so I am really having to cold turkey this morning.