Keeping NRT In Case Of Emergency

[MarylandQuitter]

Here's another one which goes along nicely with this topic.

 

"It's Inevitable, Some Smokers Are Going To Relapse" 

If you are a member of any quit smoking support group, whether it be online or a live program, it is likely that some members of your group are going to fail. You should not interpret this fact to mean that it is likely or inevitable that you are going to fail. Video spells out the major difference between people who relapse and those who don't.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ego_dpPmfOk

[MarylandQuitter]

And for the record, people relapse because they still believe smoking benefits them in some way.

[BAT]

No matter what path you take to reach your final quit, in the end it comes down to just you and the turkey. 

 

7 months and some change of rocking the quit for me. If my weak willpower ass can do it. I sure as heck no anyone can do it. 

[beacon]

When I was thinking about quitting I googled quit smoking information and of course I found whyquit. The site really scared me and I dismissed it as militant and fanatical. I felt that I could only quit with an aid and that cold turkey is unnecessary and overboard. Now I understand the site and I value the information. I was not a cold turkey quitter.

 

When I quit I used the patch. I was very afraid of removing the last level. Weeks and weeks went by, beyond what the box suggested , and I kept using the patch...i thought that I could not do it alone but I knew I had to do it.

 

At four months I finally stopped. Of course then came the final withdrawals. What was strange was that I did not crave the cigs; I craved the patch! One day I went to the store to buy more patches but the line was too long and I was more impatient than desperate so I left without the patches. After a few weeks, the nicotine was gone. I craved but it was mental, not physical.

 

I say whatever it takes to keep quit. You are the captain of your ship.

[Chrysalis]

...When I quit I used the patch. I was very afraid of removing the last level. Weeks and weeks went by, beyond what the box suggested , and I kept using the patch...i thought that I could not do it alone but I knew I had to do it....

 

I say whatever it takes to keep quit. You are the captain of your ship.

That's interesting, Beacon. I used the patches to help me quit many years ago. Like you, I was afraid to go cold turkey and I was afraid to stop using the patches. Finally, after 5 or 6 months, the weather got hot and the patches kept falling off. However, I didn't realize my patch fell off until I went to remove the patch at night and it wasn't there. I had no idea when it came off. After this happened 3 or 4 times it finally dawned on me that if I couldn't tell when the patch fell off, I probably didn't need the patch and stopped using them. (Uh duh!). Yep. Fear.

[Aine]

 Relapse is a choice that comes after neglecting to do what I have been taught to do in order to keep my "quit."

 

Frankly, I did not expect quite this much difficulty for this length of time, primarily due to having minimized the role of nicotine in my life. However, nicotine has been a part of Everything I have done for 40 years, and the addictive nature of nicotine I dramatically underestimated. However, If I stay educated and alert to the addiction of nicotine, then I can stay, just for today, clean off nicotine. My take on it is, as long as I never forget that it is impossible to smoke just one--for me, to smoke one means I will be smoking the three packs a day again until I die or I quit again (and who wants to do either of those things!!!!), then I will not smoke.

 

I think it's bullshit to have an "emergency stash"; I am not talking about Chantix here, by the way, but a nicotine product of any kind. I agree with Joel, that there is no excuse for relapse; if I relapse, it is not because I am more emotionally sensitive or weaker than the next or that nicotine is SUCH a powerful drug, it is because I have let the denial/illusion creep back in again that I can smoke just one.

 

I have six months clean off of nicotine; I don't need to see success/fail rates for this forum.Whatever the numbers, I  would only twist the info in order to talk myself into  smoking the next time I have a desire to smoke. lol!

 

So, I try to be honest when I have a desire to smoke

I try to REALLY look at what smoking just that one will lead to

I remember that a craving only lasts a couple of minutes

And I come here so that we can keep reminding each other of all this. . .

 

FYI; I didn't want to smoke last week while waiting to see how hubby was doing after the heart attack; I wanted to smoke when leaving the hospital, walking out to the parking lot. Damn triggers. That desire was greatly minimized by seeing a woman pushing an IV pole, gown flapping, over to a van to get a puff off of her friend who was smoking and sitting in the van. I have no idea what the woman was in the hospital for, but I could sure relate at the moment. And, I didn't want that woman to be me some day.

[MarylandQuitter]

 If I stay educated and alert to the addiction of nicotine...

 

This is the key to longterm success.  Awesome post, Aine.

[sgt.barney]

I am sick of the quit smoking industry pushing the dogmatic view that says, "Once you have quit smoking, it's better to relapse than to go back to using an NRT." because that's basically what I hear Joel saying in this video

 

Time to adjust the hearing aid, 'cause you're hearing something that isn't there, and not at all what is being said.

 

 

Easy Peasy

[El Bandito]

hmmmmm...

 

Interesting subject.

 

I make no claim to having THE answer. I have, seven month quit or no, been craving a smoke this week. 

 

Some people are thinking "ahhh...7 months, eh"

 

In my opinion it is nothing to do with 7 months. There is a lot going on in work right now, meaning big huge days, lots of stress etc. In short, triggers, big self-justifying triggers. 

 

MQ quotes the reason for his relapse in the past. I know that he and I both know that while his "circumstance" is pretty much as tough as it gets (I mean really - that is a horrific experience) - it has absolutely ZERO to do with relapse. It is a massive excuse - and every single one of us would be tempted to use it - but there is not a one of us who deep down does not know that a smoke does not help. It never has and it never will.

 

Aine, MQ, me, lots of us, will get triggers. Self-justifying triggers. We just won't act on them.

 

If NRT, Chantix, or a bright purple placebo helps - then I am all for it. But - in my opinion, its all in the head, and it is in the head that battle is fought and won.

[beacon]

Aine, I was a woman with an iv and a hospital gown smoking outside the hospital. :( ......i watched the above video right now. It made me feel good. I made a commitment to be in good health. I will not relapse