Chrysalis

I'm not having that problem.

wicked

Thanks, Nancy. I'm not happy to hear that Beth is having some struggle recovering from this surgery. However, yours is the kind of report I expected the day after open heart surgery. If I were Beth, I think I'd want to be in the hospital for a least a week. Make sure all those stitches are healed up and stuff before I went home. :(

I didn't feel anything when I started Chantix, either. I started the vivid dreams during the first week and they came more frequently after that. I also had some gas and stomach cramping so I took the pills with food and I was OK. When day 8 came (what was supposed to be my quit date) I didn't feel ready so I kept smoking and kept taking Chantix. What I did do was try to cut down on my smoking. For example, rather than have my cigarettes next to me while I worked (I work from home) I put them in another room so I had to go and sit in that room to smoke. Or I didn't smoke in the car on the way to or from the grocery store. Little things like that. I noticed that delaying smoking was getting easier and easier. I would sometimes get busy and a whole hour would go by and I hadn't thought of a cigarette, which was a big change for me. Then after about 2 weeks on Chantix I noticed that I would smoke half a cigarette and realize that I wasn't enjoying it and put it out. At the end of 3 weeks I was smoking half what I had been smoking but I had reached a plateau-- I was at about 15 cigarettes a day and staying there. So I decided at the end of 3 weeks on Chantix to just stop smoking completely. That was my "Quit day". I continued the Chantix for another 2 weeks and by then I felt ready to taper off on the Chantix. I also felt like I had no energy. I couldn't tell if I was a little depressed or if the vivid dreams were disturbing my sleep and making me feel tired during the day. So I gradually reduced the Chantix for another week or 10 days and then stopped.

Thanks, MQ. That's great news! Home on Friday already??!! Beth must be one tough cookie!

O-o-o-o! I wanna be a Jen, too! Can I be a Jen?? Me! Me! Me!! (Just don't tell my mother. :girl_wink: )

damned

archangel

Yes, Rooster, Alan Carr's book has been a game changer for many of us. You will see many references to his ideas and many recommendations to his book as you continue reading the posts here. I've noticed that the people who seem to have the most success at permanently quitting smoking work at it and continue to work at it for at least one year. Reading Carr's book more than once is often part of the success. What that means is many people read up on quitting smoking, quit for a few weeks or a month, and then think "Great! I did it! I'm free now." They think that they know it all, they kicked the habit and now they can leave the forum, stop obsessing about quitting smoking, and relax. Then they relapse. There are many reasons for this. One of the main reasons is that cravings will keep happening for months-- sometimes they will get really, really bad months after a quit. People get blind-sided by this and impatient with it and begin to fear that they will NEVER be totally free of the desire so they might as well just go back to smoking. What we have seen on quit smoking forums like this is that it's extremely helpful to keep reading about and educating yourself about how to quit smoking for at least a year. New triggers will pop up that you don't know how to handle. Or you will get rattled by a wave of craving that you thought was gone for good. Or somebody will say something that you heard before but they say it in such a way that this time it "clicks" with you and makes your quit stronger and more comfortable. So I'm delighted that you read Allen Carr's book and found it helpful. But don't think that you are finished. You would be wise to plan on reading it again in 3 or 4 months. You will learn new things and renew your motivation to stay quit. I also suggest that every day you watch one of Joel Spitzer's videos (most are less than 10 minutes long) for helpful information, funny stories and reassurance. Some of Joel's best videos are pinned at the top of the QT "Quit Smoking Discussions" sub-forum; his complete collection is on Youtube at https://www.youtube.com/user/joelspitz You don't have to watch them in any order, just pick a topic that intersts you. Take the NOPE pledge here every morning and reach out to help other people who are quitting-- thinking about others' problems and offering your best advice will help you when you find yourself faced with a similar problem. You're already developing a strong quit and taking all the right steps. I'm very optimistic that this will be your permanent quit. Just take it one day at a time and keep educating yourself about nicotine addictions. Next thing you know, you will have earned a place on the Lido deck for having completed one whole year!

Oh. Well, if I may be so bold, why don't you try emptying a tea bag into your manestra? :yahoo:

Thanks so much for the update, MQ. I'll be praying for Beth to make a quick recovery and to start feeling more energetic immediately.

Hey, frez- I never heard of manestra before. I found a recipe on Google and decided to make it for lunch. I was bummed out when the recipe said that 1 tsp dried spearmint or regular mint is essential. I am out of mint. Then I remembered that I have herbal mint tea. I looked at the ingredients on the tea box and it was a mixture of mint and spearmint. Perfect! I emptied the tea bag into my pot and the manestra came out very tasty. :D My husband happened to stay home from work today so he had this for lunch, too, and pronounced it "excellent". Thanks for the suggestion.

Jeni, as you can see, there are a bunch of us here wanting to help you. Talk to us. What's happening with you now?

Road trip! Road trip! ROAD TRIP!!! Whoo Hooo!! :)

Great strategy, Action! Going for a walk (without your wallet, no less) not only got you farther away from the cigarette shop, the exercise itself and the distractions during the walk are both great techniques for getting through a crave. Your instinctive reaction to strong craves-- get your rational brain to shout, "N.O.P.E.!" at your junkie brain, get some exercise, and distract yourself from thoughts of smoking is PERFECT! Thank you for sharing that.

That's exactly right, Sharon. Imagining yourself buying cigarettes and/or smoking one is a clear danger sign. If you find yourself doing that, get a grip on yourself or post an SOS immediately!

frez, that looks delicious! How do you make Greek chicken?

Oh, gosh, Doreen! The uncertainty is so hard to bear, isn't it? If you don't hear back from your doctor today, call his/her office and find out what's going on. I suspect that "no news is good news" but the patient really deserves a direct report, right? I'll keep praying for you both.

Wendy, I'm sure that if you really want to quit smoking you will remember to take the Chantix twice a day. I think that's a non-issue and you don't need to worry about it. I'm sorry to hear about your in-laws, though. They both are facing very scary illnesses. You are smart to picture yourself in their shoes some day and use that to help you keep your quit. Good idea!

Sharon, this is a great video! Thank you for posting it. I quit smoking 3 times before in my life and relapsed each time. So this time I knew that I could quit smoking (as they say, "done it 100 times") but I was particularly sensitive to the relapse problem. I did come very close to relapsing 5 months after my quit. I recognized what was going on and was able to stop it. And really, statistically something like 2/3 of people in smoking cessation support groups relapse within a year so relapsing is a real problem for former smokers. Recently, somebody asked me how you know when you are sliding towards a relapse. How do you distinguish between "normal" carves and "dangerous" craves. I hope that my reply to her (below) will help others. "... you are asking very good questions. I think just about everybody romances cigarettes to some extent, particularly early in their quits. I don't know what causes some people to romance cigarettes a lot and others not so much. What I learned about myself is that if I'm wanting to smoke in a vague, non-specific way (as in, "Gee, I would love to have a cigarette right now.") that's pretty normal and not a real threat to my quit. But if it escalates to the point where I am actually imagining picking up a cigarette and lighting it (like visualizing myself driving to the nearest convenience store to buy smokes or imagining being in a designated smoking area with my friends and accepting a cigarette from one of them) then we are looking at a serious threat to my quit. I guess the distinction is between "I want to..." versus "This is how I will..." A thought versus a plan. That is when you need to redouble your efforts to remind yourself why you quit, distract yourself from thoughts about smoking, and post an SOS here if you continue to struggle."

please! :)

Excellent video, Sharon, thank you! You know, I never believed that relapse happens suddenly. When people say, "I don't know what happened. I was doing fine and then I was at a party and someone offered me a cigarette and BAM! I was back to smoking before I even realized what happened!" Really, the seeds of relapse are planted days or weeks before the event; we just don't realize it. One of the things I like about this video is that it recognizes that these seeds are planted early and tells you how to recognize it and how to deal with it. One thing I noticed about smoking (and that the video addresses early on) is that when we quit, if we don't do "self care" we are setting ourselves up for relapse. I mean, look at why we smoke. We smoke because we're bored or anxious or lonely. We smoke because we want to celebrate a small victory or because we're up to "here" with screaming kids and just need a 5 minute break. So we step outside or kick back in our chair and smoke for a few minutes. Then we feel calmer and ready to get back to our day. When we quit smoking, what do we do to fill those needs instead of smoking? How you do bleed off stress or anxiety? What do you do when you're up to "here" with the kids? When can you even get a break if you're not smoking? I used to use smoking as a way to sit down and rest and relax for 7 minutes several times a day. When I stopped smoking, I no longer had an excuse to sit and do nothing-- I expected myself to go, go, go all day long without stopping. After all, if I don't need to smoke, why should I stop working? So with no way to bleed off stress, no excuse to step outside or have a seat and clear your mind for a few minutes, of course the desire to smoke is going to build. You don't really miss the nicotine per se, you miss having a ritual or a strategy to care for yourself and give yourself periodic relaxation breaks throughout the day. So the emotional pressure and frustration build up. Remembering the good things you associated with smoking build up. And the next thing you know, you accept an offered cigarette and BAM! you relapse. From "out of the blue" right? Wrong. The relapse had been building for weeks because you weren't paying attention to your inner needs or providing yourself any alternatives to cigarettes.

I never thought that I would last a month so I, too, celebrated like mad when I hit 28 days. Perhaps Mrs. Sarge was equally nervous about quitting. Don't be a grinch, Sarge, give her a reward for BOTH 28 days and the 15th of the month.

gates

teeth