Whispers

St Patty day run...

#NOPE

It gets better desperate1, lilly gave you an idea. Serial is a podcast if you like true crime.. Take a nice long walk or workout, keep yourself/mind busy on other things

#NOPE

It gets all over everything, i just re painted the walls. The White Vinegar Solution More than one method removes tar and nicotine cigarette stains from walls. Start by adding warmed vinegar to a spray bottle for tough stains. Dilute using a one-to-one ratio with warm water for less noticeable stains. Apply the warmed vinegar or mixture directly to the walls. Because tar and nicotine develop a sticky and hardened surface, the warmth of the vinegar helps to soften these substances. Vinegar removes both smells and stains. The Ammonia Method Ammonia can also remove cigarette tar and nicotine from walls when mixed with water. Combine a tablespoon of ammonia for every cup of water, or roughly 1/2 cup of ammonia to a gallon of warm water. For painted walls, reduce the mixture to 1/4 cup to a gallon of water. For a stronger solution, increase the ammonia to a full cup. Apply the cleaning agent directly to the wall and let it sit for about five minutes before wiping it off. Follow with a clean rinse of warm water. For Tough Cigarette Stains Trisodium phosphate works best to get rid of tough stains because it also degreases the tars from cigarette smoke. You can find trisodium phosphate where you normally purchase household cleaning agents or at your local home improvement or hardware store. Wear gloves when you apply it to the walls after mixing 1 tablespoon in a gallon of warm water. To avoid streaks, start at the bottom of the wall and work your way up. Let the mixture sit on the walls before wiping it off. Rinse with a sponge dipped in clean water, changing the rinse water often as you work. Once walls are clean, they might require a primer and paint coat to freshen them up. Choose a primer product that can cover tough stains. The Smoky Smell All of these solutions can remove the cigarette stink from the walls, but the smell may linger inside the home and recontaminate the walls if you forget to clean the filters for the home's HVAC system. As you clean the walls, ventilate the house thoroughly. If the house has a whole house fan, turn it on or temporarily set a large reversible square fan inside a window to vent the household air outside. Remove and clean washable cold-air return filters or replace them completely. Clean the grates around the cold-air return to remove tar and nicotine stains. Clean the carpet and drapes thoroughly to get all the offensive odors out of the home.

Thanks Linda! I also use a fitbit to count steps. Use it walking on treadmill etc. It was in the low 50's here tomorrow will be in the 60's.

#NOPE

How Addiction Hijacks Your Brain By The Fix staff 03/06/19 Sponsored What we know, and what is still a mystery. It’s impossible to talk about addiction and recovery without considering the effect that substance abuse has on the brain, and how brain changes wrought by addiction can affect a person’s ability to get and stay sober. “The brain is the main player in addiction, and countless areas of the brain are affected. Addiction is a disease of the brain,” said Beth Wright, a therapist intern at MFI Recovery Center, which provides affordable rehab for people with substance use disorder in California. “When we are using substances we are tampering with our brains and all the amazing natural chemicals in it.” Understanding how addiction affects our brains and the chemical communications that take place within them can help people understand the process of addiction and recovery. How Does the Brain Become Addicted? Although there is still an idea that substance use is a choice, science is making it clear that addictive substances change the make-up of our brains, making it more likely that people will continue to use substances even if it does them harm. “While addiction professionals and addicts understand that addiction is a chronic disease, often an individual who has never struggled with addiction will frustratingly argue that addiction is a matter of willpower,” Wright said. “Addiction occurs in incredibly intelligent, high-functioning individuals and does not discriminate. It is not a matter of sheer willpower.” This is because addiction affects two important systems in the brain: the amygdala, which controls conditioned learning and affects our feeling or rewards, and the frontal cortex, which affects decision making, judgement and much more. “Brain structure and function are both altered by addiction. An addict becomes trapped in the endless cycle of craving, intoxication, and withdrawal, which leads to cravings, intoxication and withdrawal – the endless cycle,” Wright said. This becomes worse over time. “The more the individual uses a substance, the greater the damage done to the brain,” Wright said. Rather than thinking rationally, a person’s decision making becomes dominated by their need to get the next dose of their drug of choice. “The individual in the simplest terms becomes motivated by the reward system, and all rational thinking becomes secondary,” Wright said. “Motivation for all behavior begins coming from the addict believing the drug is needed to survive, which is the mid-brain running the show and overriding any rational thinking our frontal cortex would normally suggest, such as not selling all of our family’s jewelry for meth, or spending our last dime on a gram of heroin when we are late on our rent.” In addition, facing life without the drug becomes unbearable. The person who is addicted believes that they need their drug of choice to survive, and that becomes the primary driving force in their day to day lives. “The desire for the drug will override the need for food, shelter, sex, our basic human needs,” Wright said. Repairing the Dopamine System Dopamine is a brain chemical that is naturally released when we experience pleasure. However, drugs flood the dopamine system. To attempt to regulate this, the brains of people using drugs will stop producing dopamine and eliminate dopamine receptors, Wright said. This can make it tough when people with substance use disorder enter a drug treatment program and get sober, since they don’t feel the same dopamine hit from regular activities like music or physical touch. “If and when an addict decides to enter recovery and stop substance use, the brain needs time to begin producing its own natural dopamine and begin repairing receptors. We have to patiently wait as our brain heals itself and we have usually by this point depleted our natural ‘feel good’ chemicals in our brains,” Wright said. “This takes time, where with addiction, the dopamine surge is immediate. Instant gratification is what every addict becomes accustomed to, hence the horrible relapse statistics.” People in recovery also need to retrain their brains to remember not just the euphoric high of their drug of choice, but also the real negative consequences. “Recovery will involve uncovering and challenging the addict to face memories or ‘triggers’ such as seeing a needle or a bottle of alcohol, and with time the implementing of new behaviors and creating coping skills in order to rewire the brain,” Wright said. The Unknowns About Addiction and the Brain How exactly drugs affect the brain depends on many factors, including what type of drug a person uses. “This is the absolute simplest way of describing the brain. So many fascinating and terrifying changes can occur in the brain during substance abuse depending on numerous factors – age of onset, mental health disorders, substance being abused, etc.,” Wright said. Methamphetamine use can cause psychosis in an individual who previously has not had mental health issues. Alcoholics can drink themselves to the point of Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome, which causes dementia-like symptoms. Memory loss can be permanent, and psychosis may occur for several days or several months. Although the specifics may vary, it is clear that drugs can have lasting and dangerous effects on brain health. https://www.thefix.com/how-addiction-hijacks-your-brain

Quitting Smoking: Closer with Every Attempt Cigarette smoking remains the leading cause of preventable death and disease in the United States, accounting for 480,000 premature deaths per year.1 The havoc cigarettes wreak on the body has been widely known for many years now among health professionals and the public, yet according to the latest data from the National Health Information Survey, 34.3 million U.S. adults still smoked cigarettes in 2017.2 What keeps people smoking even when they know cigarettes are harmful to their health? Nicotine. Nicotine, the highly addictive drug present in tobacco products, is the main reason that people continue to use tobacco even when they want to quit.3 According to a 2015 survey, about 70 percent of current adult smokers in the United States wanted to quit, and although about 55 percent had attempted to do so in the past year, only 7 percent were successful in quitting for 6-12 months.4 If you are in the majority of adult smokers who have made an unsuccessful quit attempt in the last year, do not give up. Try again. Cigarettes are designed to deliver nicotine quickly to the brain, and because your brain is addicted to the nicotine in cigarettes, they are difficult to quit, both physically and mentally. Although addiction makes quitting especially hard, remember it can be done. Quitting Smoking: Closer with Each Attempt When you first quit smoking, your body goes through withdrawal, or the physical manifestation of nicotine leaving your system. Withdrawal symptoms may include: temporary depression; disrupted sleep patterns; irritability; anxiety; difficulty concentrating; increased appetite.5 The first few days are the most uncomfortable, and physical symptoms of withdrawal should only last about three weeks. However, many smokers find that certain places, occasions, and behaviors—such as drinking coffee going out with friends, or particularly stressful events—can bring up an urge to smoke even after withdrawal symptoms have ended.6 While it may take longer to break these patterns, it is possible to live a completely smoke-free life. Cigarettes’ addictive nature, the discomfort of withdrawal, and environmental factors associated with the act of smoking all play a role in making quitting a difficult and daunting task. But quitting is possible. It takes many smokers multiple tries to permanently quit smoking, but each quit attempt is not in vain, but rather, can be thought of as practice for quitting for good. With every attempt, you learn more about yourself and your addiction,7 including what techniques work for you to help you stave off cravings. Each of these practice tries gets you that much closer to quitting cigarettes forever. Nicotine Replacement Therapy If you have struggled with quitting in the past and are ready to try again, nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) may help. NRT can help get addicted smokers through the toughest part of quitting, by relieving cravings, lessening withdrawal symptoms, and helping to reduce stress. When you use FDA-approved NRTs, you gradually withdraw from smoking by receiving measured amounts of nicotine without the toxic chemicals from cigarette smoke. When used properly, NRTs are safe and effective cessation methods and can double a smoker’s chances of quitting cigarettes successfully.8 NRTs are available both by prescription and over-the-counter for adults age 18 and over, and include: Skin patches that deliver nicotine through the skin. Nicotine gum that releases nicotine as you chew it. Nicotine lozenges that dissolve in your mouth. Although NRTs are intended to be used temporarily with the nicotine amounts decreased over time, and eventually removed completely, FDA and doctors recognize that some addicted smokers may need NRTs for longer lengths of time to avoid smoking. If you have unsuccessfully attempted to quit smoking with NRTs, you may want to revisit this option. Many smokers need to experiment with different NRT options before finding one that works for their individual needs. NRTs are considered safe enough that multiple methods9—for instance the patch and the gum—can be used at the same time, and you may start using NRT prior to quitting cigarettes.10 This tactic may alleviate some withdrawal symptoms, as your brain will still receive nicotine during your transition from cigarettes to NRTs. Telephone quit line counseling (PDF) is another effective strategy, and combining counseling with NRTs can be more successful for quitting smoking than nicotine replacement therapy alone.11 How Tobacco Regulation Plays a Role in Helping You Quit FDA understands that quitting is a difficult process, and that NRTs may not work for everyone. The agency’s Nicotine Steering Committee is tasked with researching potential new harm reduction and cessation methods for addicted smokers. Additionally, in July 2017, FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, M.D., announced the agency’s intention to lower nicotine levels in cigarettes to minimally addictive or nonaddictive levels. While this action would not remove cigarettes from the market, taking the addictive property out of cigarettes would provide addicted adult smokers with a chance to attempt to quit with the help of NRTs, or to switch to other potentially less harmful tobacco products, like e-cigarettes. While more research is needed to understand the potential health risks and benefits of e-cigarettes at both the individual and population level, a 2018 report by the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine found that completely switching from cigarettes to e-cigarettes may offer addicted adult smokers a significant harm-reduction opportunity. Each Quit Attempt is a Step Forward As 2019 approaches, if you are among the 34 million U.S. adults who smoke cigarettes in this country,12 and your New Year’s Resolution is to quit smoking, either for the first time or to make another attempt, do not give up, and know that you are not alone. Many smokers do not quit on their first attempt and need several tries before they succeed.. Even small successes are wins. For instance, you may find that the next time you try to quit, you are able to go longer without a cigarette than the last time; or you might discover exercise helps to stave off your cravings. Each time you make a quit attempt, you learn new techniques to implement and move one step closer to being able to call yourself a “former smoker.” https://www.fda.gov/TobaccoProducts/PublicHealthEducation/HealthInformation/ucm628369.htm?utm_source=CTPTwitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=ctp-healthobservance

Awesome and Ugotthis... Its a great feeling when you remove anything toxic from your life... Ciggs are very toxic

FYI... This dont count! Or does it??

#NOPE

This is what happened to me, 9/24/12 my mother had a terminal diagnosis. I said F-it, dont do that. Dont be the fool i was and start all over, this is something we will battle even as quitters. Move a muscle, change a thought (go for long walks). I'm sorry you're going through this

I remember you, i also have blown a 2 1/2 year quit and after many failed attempts, i got back on track. You can and will do this HS.

Thats another scam, they would never call and use a threat over the phone. You would get a letter if it had to do with IRS. If that call eve comes, scam them back lol

Roz, feb 22 or 23rd last year i believe

Congrats on 5 years...

Hello... Hell week is behind you

#NOPE Atta Girl, Lilly!

I agree... We may need a "scam the scammer" thread . Have you got the "You owe the IRS $ and we're coming now to lock you up" call ?