Posted on 12/04/2011 7:22:02 AM PST by Marie
A couple of months ago I posted a thread that I was trying to quit smoking and asked for advice.
I tried going cold turkey, but only managed a few days. I finally went to the doctor and got a prescription for Chantix.
I'm right at three weeks smoke-free now. I quit taking the Chantix about a week and a half ago (horrible nightmares and seriously screwed up sleep) and I'm past the 'cravings' stage. I really only think about smoking a couple of times a day, but I'm not fighting the urge to smoke any more.
This is the point where I usually fail. Week three.
Since I quit, I've been dealing with a constant, low-level anxiety. It's like a panic attack that won't stop. I'm very sensitive to noise and even mild stress pushes me into a horrible place.
This is not 'craving'. This feels like the worst, never-ending, PMS attack ever.
I've been through this before and, as I said, this is when I fall. I start to think that this is how I'm going to feel forever. That I'm never going to feel normal again.
In the past, I've given up and started smoking, not because I wanted a cigarette, but because I knew that this horrible anxiety would go away as soon as I had a cigarette. I actually have made the choice to smoke rather than be crazy.
I need to know that this does eventually end. That I'll one day feel normal again. That I'll be able to concentrate and think and not feel like I'm having a panic attack. That this is part of the process and that it does get better.
Quitting smoking is easy! I’ve done it many times.~Mark Twain
I wish I knew what to tell you, I have also tried to quit and it’s a tough row to hoe.
Oh yeah, those little dum dum suckers are good. They occupy the hand to mouth habit.
Are you on nicorette?
Also go to your doctor, explain the situation and ask if you can get on some Buspar for a while. It’s an anti-anxiety med.
Why not try an eCig?
It took me several attempts before I was able to quit for good. I quit by using Committ Lozenges -but I got hooked on them too (and had to have some major dental work done) but nothing as bad as what smoking was doing to me.
Prayers!
Good for you, Marie. It almost sounds like your brain is re-adjusting itself to being nicotine free. Is there anything you can do to calm yourself during the anxiety issues like soaking in a tub, taking a walk... something that usually calms you down?
I quit cold turkey in March of 1986.
I kept it a secret from friends and co-workers until I was three months in. Then someone noticed I wasn’t smoking and this was quite a boost.
I think it was five years before I quit reaching for a pack in my shirt pocket.
Did you wean yourself off the Chantix? If not that can be the problem. Chantix stopped me from smoking in two weeks also. Now I need something like Snacktix.
regular excercise, even if its just a fast walk can help. plus chocolate.
I quit Chantix, too. It altered my awareness to the extent I used no judgement at all and walked up behind one of my horses who was asserting her dominance over another horse. I know better than to do this....but wasn’t even thinking. I got kicked in the face from one of her rear legs as she was being emphatic in her message to the other horse. My injury was only superficial, fortunately.
This particular horse is a loving, gentle horse and has never, in 20 years, ever kicked a human. I never took another Chantix...this was maybe 10 days, 2 wks into the medication.
It took me 3 tries but I finally kicked it. In 6 mos you will be so happy that you don’t smoke anymore. My secret crutch was a roll of Sweet Tarts in every room. Just sit down to watch a little TV and make sure you have the Sweet Tarts there to take the place of smoking. Worked like a charm.
I quit smoking 4 years ago after many attempts using patches to ease the withdrawal.
When you start to feel the need for a cig, think of resisting as your body healing.
Eventually, I came to regard smoking as a deadly temptation. I know that if I have one cigarette, I would smoke two packs by midnight. So I avoid smoking anything.
Hang in there dear FReeper! I did it cold turkey 15 years ago. Look how far you’ve come going from being consumed by it to now only having a couple of fits a day. It’s how you handle the couple of times a day the urge hits that matters now.
I had to train my brain by literally telling myself NO!, NOT GONNA HAPPEN every time I had a fit in the later stages.
You can do it.
I quit for good in 1990,after going to the doctor during a particularly bad chest cold (coughing spells almost to the point of passing out).The doc told me,”You have chronic bronchitis,which will develop into COPD,which will kill you if you don’t quit.” I broke down crying and asked him to help me.He wrote me a prescription for Nicorette gum(not OTC at that time,and $99 for a box of 100 chiclets) and after 3 weeks I traded an addiction to cigarettes for an addiction to sugarless gum. Cheaper,tastier and guilt-free.Find a gum flavor & stick to it.During the times you normally smoke (after meals etc.),pop a couple of sticks of gum in your mouth instead. Sounds crazy but it works. Chantix is some pretty severe stuff....have you tried the patches? Some people swear by them.
Freedom, healthy outlook and $5.00 a day, everyday, to spend as I please.
For some reason, nicotine always seemed to improve my thinking focus. During withdrawl in the first few months, I could not rely upon my thinking, insight nor intuition. I started chewing Nicorette and it really helped.
After 3 months or so, I scheduled a nice vacation on a nice, warm beach where I didn't have to make too many choices and was nicely distracted by the bikinis on the beach (not much thinking going on there).
Good luck to you. Stay off the sugar foods too.
It took months of prep for me but I did it. Here’s how. I naturally wake up every night at 3am or so for about an hour. While awake, I imagined what my lungs looked like. What the smoke did when I inhaled. What it would be like to suffer cancer, stroke, heart attack. What my family would do without me. Take all of your imagination and get as horrible an image of these issues as possible. You’ll quit. In Feb 1988 I went to a stop smoking clinic. This is how they do it except with film footage and actual pics. In 1993 I started smoking again. In 2007 I quit using the negative techinique I described. It works but I’ll never totally get rid of the urge.
A fellow at work, quit almost 6 months ago and replaced cigs with those chewable nicotine pills. He still eats them like candy. I tried almost everything and eventually did do it cold turkey. Every time I failed it was for the reasons you cited, but the psych stuff did eventually go away. I can’t remember how long though.
You can do it, you’re just not sure you can.
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