12 yrs today

[Bill]

Hello.
This is a post I've made a few times here.
12 yrs today.
you can do it.

My Story - Quit date 4/1/2000
Stay away from the first puff

For me, I knew that the first few days were going to be the very
hardest, while I was withdrawing from the nicotine addiction. Down
the
road didn't worry me as I knew if I could just get through the first
days and week, I could make it. The Patch, the Gum, and any other
kind
of nicotine replacement therapy did not seem like a good idea to me.
How could I get off of it if I was still taking it? I know the theory
- slowly withdraw..... This does not seem like a good idea to me -
I'm
sure this has worked for many people but it seems so very
counter-productive to me. Especially because I do understand
addiction
- I've got another major one that I dealt with 25 years ago.


I was apprehensive at first, as I don't like taking any kind of
medications or pills for anything, but what I did was go to my doctor
and get a prescription for Wellbutrin. It also goes by the brand name
of Zyban (which is far more expensive). It is the only drug known
(at
that time) to actually lessen the cravings of nicotine withdrawal. It
was discovered while the drug was being tested on veteran's hospital
patients as an antidepressant. Funny thing - these patients started
quitting smoking! So from this, they knew they had something that was
potentially very special.


You do have to be careful in taking this drug to quit smoking because
the drug company wants you to take it for a long time and take quite
a
dose of it ($$). For me, I had to cut the recommended dose to about ¼
of what was prescribed. I am not the depressive type and their
recommended dose made me a more than a little jittery, in fact on
their recommended dosage I was nearly climbing the walls. It's OK to
take less. You are supposed to start taking it for a week before
your
"quit date", so it's in your system, and then quit cold on that date.
Then it's recommended you continue on for several months with it
until
you are "stabilized", whatever that means. It was strange, I was
actually smoking more at the end of the first week of taking it and
was wondering how in the he.. this was going to work.


Well the quit date came, I quit, was a little uncomfortable, but not
all that bad. I couldn't believe I wasn't climbing the walls! After
two or three days I knew I was going to make it. I took the drug for
about 10 days after I quit smoking and that was 9+ years ago. It was
really far easier than what I remembered of other times far, far in
the past when I had tried to quit and didn't make it. I did that a
number of times and felt defeated and gave up trying to quit smoking
because it was too hard.


My wife also quit at the same time using the same strategy. This
really helped to not have any other person smoking around you, but
also for the support. She also needed to cut back from the
prescribed
dose. We used in total about ½ of what was supposed to be one month's
prescription of the Wellbutrin for one person. In case you're
wondering, we didn't kill each other and are still married!
A couple of other things, when we did this, we were both very
motivated. We both wanted to quit - badly. For years I kept thinking
about quitting smoking and knew I could not continue to smoke for the
rest of my life without some very severe consequences. Like early
death! I started smoking in my teens and smoked about a pack or a
little more per day for years. I'm a little past 50 now, so that is
a
very, very long time. I was ready. We both were. That is the most
important ingredient. You can't quit for someone else or because of
some outside pressure and stay quit. You will more than likely start
smoking again. In fact it's almost guaranteed. It's got to be for you
and the decision has to be yours. Half measures will avail you
nothing
in this battle. It's all or nothing and you have got to be committed
to get through the tough stuff that will come.


My number one rule - Stay away from the first puff. I used this and
it
worked well - especially in the very early days. When the craving
hit,
I just thought that all I needed to do at that time is not to smoke
the first puff. Put my attention on something else, anything really.
It didn't matter what it was. The first puff will lead to the first
cigarette which will lead you back to smoking just like you used to
do. No first puff - no first cigarette - no habit restarted. These
addictions are very powerful and your brain will do things like tell
you it's OK to smoke one cigarette - just to see if you can. This is
very dangerous thinking. Just stay away from the first puff - this
keeps it simple. It does take quite a while for all the smoking
related thoughts to get out of your head but they do all eventually
leave. It took about a year or more. I do not miss any of it at all -
I think it is disgusting and the most completely worthless addiction
known to man. I don't harangue anyone else about it though.


I would recommend the Wellbutrin, or to get this up to date, the
Chantix method to anyone who sincerely wants
to quit and is scared to death of the first few days without
cigarettes. It does work - I can vouch for it. Then the rest is up to
you.


Bill

[BessieBee]

On 4/17/2012 9:03 PM, Mastic wrote:
> That web site won't work for me.
> There is no way, no button, nothing to register or to sign in.

I see you've found your way to the online site. Glad to have you there!!
--
BessieBee

"I was gratified to be able to answer promptly, and I did.
I said I didn't know."
-Samuel Clemens