Aine

The first three digits of our telephone number weren't digits; they were Amherst 6, etc. A chair by the phone cause the phone didn't move more than 3 feet. And. . .the curly wire on the phone was ALWAYS tangled up beyond belief. 3 channels to watch on the television. And you had to get up and change the channel each time.And children didn't get to decide. Lawrence Welk; those stupid bubbles and big dresses! Every musical ever created. The leprosy scene in Ben Hur. . .every year, "there, did you see it?" Getting regularly beat up by Sandy, the tallest girl in 6th grade. No mention of the word "bully." Mom teaching me how to hold my fists and throw a punch. Things I do not hear from parents these days: "Be home before the street lights come on." "Do you WANT a spanking?" Then we went out back and picked out our own switch and went back in to the house for a spanking. We learned early to NEVER pick the smallest switch! "You will sit there until that plate is clean, do you hear me? " Liver and onions six hours later. Ugh. Bedtime at 9 pm on school nights until I was 15. Hot breakfasts every morning.

I will not smoke today.

I agree; addiction is addiction, no matter how much one uses. My mother in law is 79 and has always smoked that amount and she's been a smoker since she was in her 20's, I think. My feeling is that some people are more prone to heavier usage , perhas due to screwy dopamine receptors, or something? And, of course, the quantity does seem to increase for most due to desensitation of nicotine receptors, according to the studies I've seen. Doesn't matter; results are the same for me and for her; she "needs" to go out for her smoke every 4 hours or so. . . she just pays less for her drug than I had to lol! Addiction is addiction, no matter the quantity.

Yep. Dang.

This is a 5 minute timer link: http://ipadstopwatch.com/timer.html# This is what I used, particularly the first 5 days, off and on. When the "I HAVE to smoke crave comes, start the timer. Eat sunflower seeds, etc. and post your SOS. DO NOT LEAVE YOUR CHAIR. Watch the timer. The physical crave will be gone by 5 minutes. You will then read our responses and start to feel better in the head, too. Remember this: YOU WILL NOT EXPLODE. I truly thought I would if I wasnt able to smoke; turns out I didn't. lol!

That was not, not, Vin Diesel.

I know a couple of people who seem to really be able to smoke one or two cigarettes a day and be comfortable with that. My mother in law, the greatest mother in law in the world, was up for lunch yesterday, along with my sister in law, to celebrate my son's birthday. She smokes about 6 cigs a day. I had put out an ashtray on the patio for her; but she didn't want to smoke around my husband or me. So she attempted, after a few hours, to creep to the car for a smoke. I felt bad for her; I didn't want her to be uncomfortable, but I felt good, because I really don't think it would have bothered me that much. I choose not to smoke to day for my own reasons, but if I had only smoked a half dozen cigarettes a day, honestly, I would never have quit. Yeah, yeah, I know. But there it is. I did enjoy many of my cigarettes during the day; not all, no; perhaps a handful or so, out of the 3-4 pack a day habit I had. Problem with addiction, though, is that I don't get to decide how much I get to smoke. I absolutely do not understand my mother in law's habit, nor one of my co worker's who smoked 2 a day, until she said the whole business was silly and stopped. I. . .do. . .not. . .understand. . .. .. I have never wanted to "quit" doing many of the things I have quit in my life. However, logic and sanity indicates that I do it anyway if I truly wish to live as long as I possibly can. Quitting smoking just pisses me off, these days. Better than the first week, though, when quitting meant a possible trip to a locked ward. :D

Netflix carried 3 seasons and I watched most. Love Karl!

I will not smoke today!

No more chronic chapped lips. Seriously painful chapped lips. Who knew? Life long insomnia pretty much gone. And, yeah. . .only one burn hole in the new car I got in September. The trade in had, um, a few more than that. No more chronic cough. Cleaner teeth and mouth.

I love this bit by John Polito on the nature of a relapse; I need the reiteration of some of these basic ideas of addiction and the dangers of romanticizing the smoke. "Just one rule - “No nicotine today!” There are hundreds of quitting books with millions of words and scores of quick-fix magic cures promising near painless and sure-fire success. There is but one principle that affords a 100% guarantee of success to all adhering to it ... “No nicotine today.” While the Brandon and Boreland studies afford the junkie-mind an ever so slight amount of wiggle-room on the violation side of “The Law,” there is zero wiggle-room for those of us who fully take it to heart. It is impossible to fail so long as no nicotine enters our bloodstream. If we want to live nicotine-free then why toy with horrible odds? The Final Truth Assume for a moment that we made it! We learned how to remain patient during the few minutes a crave episode clamored for compliance. We knocked them dead. We stuck with it for the full 72 hours it took to empty our blood, brain and body of all nicotine. At last we were clean! Our healing and glory continued for the roughly two to three weeks it took for our mind to adjust to chemically functioning without nicotine and all the other chemicals that arrived with it. We confronted and extinguished all but our remote, infrequent or seasonal subconscious crave triggers, and tasted that very first day of total and complete comfort where we never once thought about wanting to use nicotine. But still, we have days where our mind becomes occupied with thoughts of lighting a fire between our lips, or of chewing “nicotiana tabacum” (the tobacco plant’s biological name) or of a quick dip in nicotine’s pond. Years of hard to suppress dopamine “aaah” replenishment memories keep teasing us. How does the recovering, rationalizing or bargaining mind’s vision of what it would be like to just once more use nicotine, compare with the realities that occur during relapse? Recall that the 1990 Brandon study examined lapse and relapse in smokers who’d successfully completed a two-week stop smoking program. The study also documented the primary emotion felt immediately following smoking nicotine. Assume that at two weeks into recovery, each who lapsed during the Brandon study had already succeeded in fully navigating physical withdrawal. Assume that their brains had almost fully re-sensitized. Reflect on the fact that the addict’s sense of “nicotine normal” no longer existed. By that I mean, there was no chemical missing, nothing in need of replenishment, the number of acetylcholine receptors had fully down-regulated, and their brain’s sense of homeostasis had been fully restored. So what was their prime emotion following relapse? The vast majority had a negative reaction. Among them, 13% felt depressed and hopeless, 33% experienced anxiety and tension, 16% were angry and irritated, and 12% felt boredom or fatigue. Only 3.6% reported what most of us would have expected following normal replenishment, which was “feeling relaxed.” Although some of us hated bondage, there is no denying that each nicotine fix brought relief from falling blood nicotine levels that were beginning to deprive us of a level of dopamine to which we'd grown accustomed. Each nicotine fix played a vital role in restoring us to a relaxed level of comfort upon which we had each come to depend. Chronic nicotine use creates its own artificial sense of normalcy, an addiction comfort level. Yes, each fix brought the addict in us a true sense of comfort (from the pains of our own addiction) and yes, most of those memories still remain. However, one important thing has changed: our brain no longer has a chemical need for nicotine. If we visit online quitting forums and dig back through messages describing relapses that occurred beyond week two, most will have a common ring to them. They read like this, "I had a mouth full of smoke, I was dizzy and I coughed, but I didn’t get the sense of satisfaction I expected. It just didn’t come!" The thousands of enticing memories in their mind expected a sense of "aaah" relief from wanting. But their body and mind had already adjusted to life without nicotine. There was no need for replenishment as nothing was missing. The take it or leave it feeling in no way matched the relief felt when satisfying dopamine pathway want. The need to use just wasn’t there. Unlike when those old want satisfaction “aaah” memories were created, there was nothing missing, no withdrawal induced anxieties or depression, and nothing that needed replenishing. Without realizing it, while their conscious mind simply tinkered with the prospect of functioning without nicotine, their body and brain were on a path of real and significant physical healing. Falsely convinced of the need for nicotine in order to feel normal, while they briefly paused in using it, they did not embrace the prospect of life without it. They longed for what was left behind, blamed every healing sensation on its absence, and in doing so transformed a culprit into a cure. So, with great expectations they took that first puff; expectations now shattered. " Exerpt from a free pdf book by Polito JR entitled "Freedom from Nicotine - The Journey Home"

There seems to be second person pronouns in Mandarin created after West meets East. They seem to be reserved for addressing deities and/or used infrequently, from what I've quickly read. Ask Mom anyway.

The discussion about nicotine as an addiction seems to be finished. . . Good night, all.

Cessation is one method used to treat some alcoholics. This is what I said earlier. This is not an "endorsement." This is a fact. An endorsement is something quite different. That is why I was confused about your comment.

Why are you plumbing the garage?

???

Cold Turkey is cold turkey. This treatment is used for both alcohol, narcotics, and nicotine cessation. Different techniques are used by psychologists for behavior modification. There is no one approach for treatment for nicotine addiction.

These two statements are not "facts" . These are your opinions. You have every right to them. As I do mine.

Pictures of the fedora, please! I had somebody besides myself trim my hair today. She talked a lot about "products," Which "products" did I use at home, etc. For the life of me, it took me a couple of minutes to translate! My answer of "cheap hairspray" didn't seem to satisfy her. I get this done generally once a year, with me snipping away at what is in my eyes. Usually results in hair stylists looking askance at their coworkers when they think I'm not looking. lol! I enjoy that almost more than the hair cut.

Jennie, I assume you are referring to me with your mention of "newer quitters?" Please don't dismiss me like this. It is hurtful. I have a different viewpoint about my addiction to nicotine. I would like to be able to share it without being told "I haven't done the work." I believe I have an addiction to nicotine. Addiction is never a state where one will not "have these feelings and thoughts." It is about, though, what I choose to do with those feelings and thoughts.

With, of course, some exceptions, when using 3rd person internal referencing. . . Illeism can be seen as an effective narrative style. . .

Geographical difference is not the issue since we both speak English. First person is still the accepted usage when sharing personal experience, which is what this forum does so well. Second person "you" is understood by all cultures that have second person (Chinese may not have this pronoun-need to double check on that one) pronouns to be a dogmatic and a hierarchal point of view, putting the speaker on a level higher than his or her audience, and thus is frequently seen as patronizing. There are no trained professional teachers here; thus, my discomfort when you tell many in this thread that our perspective and feelings are "incorrect." I do appreciate, though, your sincerity and willingness to share.

Absolutely, total command of the crowd. http://youtu.be/eQsM6u0a038?t=4m37s