Have you ever heard of a Rehab Center for Nicotine Addicts?

[Nancy]

I have wondered about this for years.  It seems for every other addiction, there are places you can go and check in for 2 weeks or even months to get help overcoming addiction.  I have heard of Quit Smoking seminars or lectures, but never anywhere smokers could actually go and stay.  I would visualize that while you were there, you would learn a lot of the information we find here or at whyquit.com about the addiction and steps for coping with withdrawal and recovery.

 

If cigarettes are as addictive as heroin (although the withdrawal symptoms are light years apart)  why isn't there a Betty Ford (just picking one) type clinic for smokers?  Any thoughts?

[JackiMac]

Nancy totally agree with you here, when you read that cigarette smoking is harder to quit than Heroin it makes you wonder why there is no rehabilitation centre for Nicotine users. Seems to be plenty of replacement products out there to help you quit and self help books and tapes but no actual place you go book yourself into, sometimes I wonder if they feel that the withdrawal symptoms aren't as violent (is that the right word) as alcohol and drug withdrawal and don't need regular daily checks and more one on one help as people seem to suffer far worse when they are going through the withdrawal process from drugs and alcohol.

[Sazerac]

Pretty slim pickings but, I looked for a decent amount of time today

and found this excerpt in another article

 

The eight-day residential treatment program at the Mayo Clinic Nicotine Dependence Center in Minnesota

“provides the most intensive treatment option available for stopping smoking,” according to its web site.

Two other inpatient programs are at St. Helena’s Center for Health in Deer Park, California and Hazelden’s Next Step program.

[Jenny]

Good question.  I have wondered that myself and when I first quit would have loved to be admitted somewhere, anywhere that could help.

 

One thing is for sure and that is that there is not enough attention to nicotine addiction as there should be.  That's why sites like this one are so important.

[MarylandQuitter]

From Joel's Freedom Forum

 

I originally wrote this to a member asking if we knew of a program that would lock her up so she would have to quit smoking:

I do think there are some clinics out there that do basically lock up people to quit smoking. But I wouldn't put much stock in the technique. We lock up people all the time in our hospital and don't let people smoke. It's not in our smoking clinic; it's in our intensive care unit. You can lock people up for days and weeks if the condition is serious enough.

 

Technically, these people are detoxed from nicotine. Heck, some of them were comatose and never even experienced withdrawal. In theory, this sounds appealing to some smokers. But the reality of the situation is often, in fact maybe more often than not; the first thing these patients do upon release from the hospital is grab for a cigarette. You see these people never quit smoking. They were smokers who were just not allowed to smoke.

 

They don't learn anything about survival in the real world without smoking. They know how to be fed intravenously, they know how to use a remote on a television, but that is about it. The urge for a cigarette upon being released is incredible. It's interesting though, there is a real easy way to stop the urge. Throw them on a gurney, stick an IV in their arm and all of a sudden they don't need a cigarette. They are doing the one thing they learned, being a connected patient.

 

People need to face the real world as quickly as they can to start to break the associations of day to day rituals. Only then will they prove to themselves that there is life after smoking.

 

As far as being sad, this is normally experienced when quitting. Unlike the physical symptoms, striking hard and then dissipating within days, psychological symptoms are less predictable. But in some ways, they are also more controllable. I am going to attach to letters here to this post addressing these issues. They have been on the board recently, but so you don't have to scramble looking for them they will be right here.

 

Hope this helps a little.

Joel

 

P.S. There actually was a hospital in the Chicago area that used to have an inpatient unit for smoking cessation. It went under in less than a year of operation. I had three of their patient's come to my program to quit. Two of them made it. All of them said that they were basically doped up during the hospitalization. I think they were using a drug called clonidine at the time. Powerful antihypertensive that at one time was thought to be helpful. Never met anyone who actually got off smoking using it though. So if you find a program, check out what they do before assuming it's a good plan.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jBHsHzvRip8

[Nancy]

I am picturing the type of place that people would go voluntarily...to be with others who really want to quit and to learn about the addiction and coping strategies...not somewhere where people would be locked up and drugged...unrealistic, I guess....

[action]

A bit like AA, where people get to go to meetings and share their feelings on alcohol? A smokers version would be great - just so you know that you aren't going crazy, and that others have been through / are going through the same thing?

 

I know that some days I just felt like I was going mad and was scared and I know I wouldn't have got through it without you guys... Support was pretty important to me, but so was accountability.

[beacon]

I looked around myself when I was thinking about it. I know about the Mayo clinic. There are also spas with stop smoking programs such as the Canyon Ranch. Of course i was in the hospital for my first 24 hours. Thank God I found the other place and heard about Alan Carr. What a delight to read his approach. Joel was scary to me in the beginning but Alan was all about , this is an addiction. You will detox. Go live your life and enjoy.

[MarylandQuitter]

I am picturing the type of place that people would go voluntarily...to be with others who really want to quit and to learn about the addiction and coping strategies...not somewhere where people would be locked up and drugged...unrealistic, I guess....

 

You mean a place like this?  :)  There are local support groups where people meet like an AA meeting but I really don't see a need for a full fledged rehab to help people deal with withdrawals etc. 

 

I really never bought into the notion that nicotine is just as addictive or as hard to quit as heroin.  When heroin users are asked about the first time they shot up, they loved it.  They craved it and wanted more.  Who wouldn't with that rush of dopamine flooding and overcoming your entire body.  When we smoked our first cigarette, most if not all of us did not like it.

 

I've dealt with junkies and people addicted to crack and it's nothing like being addicted to nicotine.  Pain killers are probably worse than all three.  If anybody needs a hospital to break an addiction it's the heavy pain killer addict.  Horrible, horrible addiction.

 

Smoking is just as deadly as any of the others and although it may not kill instantly due to an overdose or cause us to lose our jobs and live in the streets, it will slowly kill us and cripple us in misery for years before death.

[Nancy]

I guess I am visualizing something like a Quit Train camp....I do not have medical training with drug addicts...but I still think the idea is valid....and worthy of discussion and not just correction...

[Kristin]

I went through an outpatient rehab program about ten years ago, and I find myself going back to many of the things I learned there to help me cope with quitting smoking.

 

I think any support group and education on addiction is a valid option. Thinking of those groups is what made me search for a support group for nicotine, and find you all in the first place. 

[rowlyd]

I wouldn't compare quitting smoking to quitting heroin unless I had actually done both... There is a place like AA to help people quit smoking and it's called Nicotine Anonymous. But they don't lock you up....

[rowlyd]

I wouldn't compare quitting smoking to quitting heroin unless I had actually done both... There is a place like AA to help people quit smoking and it's called Nicotine Anonymous. But they don't lock you up....

[...]

I totally get this Nancy. I have thought about that same exact thing. If there was a place I could go, that would help me with this......I would do it in a heartbeat. It's not about comparing it to heroin.....it's about beating a habit that so many struggle with. Take away the availability of cigarettes and I think you would see the addiction is very much like heroin. Or meth. Or crack. Addiction is addiction. What your addicted to is trivial. I think there would be a higher success rate if one was offered this opportunity.

 

Nicotine gives the illusion of being a stress reliever. If I could go somewhere where the daily stresses of life were on hold for awhile and I could only deal with quitting.......I think I would have a lot more confidence in my quit. Once I got my quit established, then go back to the real world and learn how to live in it without smoking.

 

Smoking has become acceptable in our society. While it may be banned from many places, there is still a level of acceptance with smoking. And a level of tolerance with smokers. I can step away from a birthday party to go smoke a cigarette and no one thinks twice about it. But if I was to step away to go smoke a pipe of meth.....then someone might speak up. People don't take smoking as serious as any other drug. And that's costing a lot of people their lives. More education needs to take place.....more awareness of how it does destroy lives and eventually families.

[...]

.......it may not kill instantly due to an overdose or cause us to lose our jobs and live in the streets

I understand what your saying but I have to say......... I see them on the streets all the time. With their IV poles, IV meds, and monitors still attached to them. Just like the junkie sitting in the dark corners of our cities dying slowly and quietly. There is no difference in the addicted, the only difference is how they are viewed by the rest of the world.

[El Bandito]

I understand what your saying but I have to say......... I see them on the streets all the time. With their IV poles, IV meds, and monitors still attached to them. Just like the junkie sitting in the dark corners of our cities dying slowly and quietly. There is no difference in the addicted, the only difference is how they are viewed by the rest of the world.

The only thing that counts Tiff is how you view them.

 

Any rational thought process leads to the conclusion that smoking does nothing but kill the user slowly.

 

You are liberal enough to accept that someone may walk away from a party and smoke, but make no mistake, that person deserves your pity as they are killing themselves all the same.

[...]

The only thing that counts Tiff is how you view them.

Any rational thought process leads to the conclusion that smoking does nothing but kill the user slowly.

You are liberal enough to accept that someone may walk away from a party and smoke, but make no mistake, that person deserves your pity as they are killing themselves all the same.

That's what I'm saying. Society, including me, tolerates smoking and views it to be more socially acceptable than heroin addiction. But the truth is, it's not. I agree with Nancy. I feel more of an effort should be taken by our society to assist with cessation of this addiction and that should include inpatient treatment.....or a boot camp, as Nancy called it. We have treatment facilities available for all kinds of addiction....sex, food, drugs, anorexia, you name it. In every major city, you can find a treatment place. But look for one for smoking.....a leading cause of death in America, and you won't find one. We even have fat farms for goodness sake. That, somehow, doesn't make sense to me.

 

Pity ? I don't pity myself. Not sure I can pity someone else. There's a belief system with smoking that we deeply ingrained into our psyche. I feel immature and uneducated. But not pitied. And that's the way I feel about most smokers. It's very difficult for some of us to break that belief system.

[beacon]

This is my preferred way.  I have been to the Canyon Ranch spas in Arizona and Miami and the Pritikin at the Doral in Miami.  Not to do the quit smoking but to do spa stuff.  

 

http://www.spaindex.com/special-features/stop-smoking-spa-programs/

[Jclarke241]

Quit train camp sounds perfect! A few days voluntarily spent away from the daily stress of life in a extremely supportive environment seems like a wonderful place!

[MarylandQuitter]

Camp starts March 1st in Maryland. Come prepared to work. ;)

[Chrysalis]

Hey, MQ, no fair! If we're going to recruit a bunch of non-smokers to gather for a work detail, I want "dibs" on that. So for all those who want a QT boot camp, come to Atlanta on February 28th and be prepared to work. Atlanta will have better weather than will Maryland and I bet I'm a better cook than MQ is. :)