I really want a cigarette right now

I won't do it.

Just sayin.

~ ~ ~
All meetings end in separation
All acquisition ends in dispersion
All life ends in death
- The Buddha

|\_/|
='_'=

Every hundred years, all new people

█▆▇▅▇█▇▆▄▁▃
Big PEMFin H & z's
"I ain't no entertainer, and ain't trying to be one. I am 1 thing, a musician." � Miles

"When the music stops he falls back in the abyss."

My best friend just celebrated a year. He said he still dreams about smoking every night.

Both of my parents are trying to quit now. Any tips for them?

I'll post them tomoRrow when I'm not on my phone l
~ ~ ~
All meetings end in separation
All acquisition ends in dispersion
All life ends in death
- The Buddha

|\_/|
='_'=

Every hundred years, all new people

sorry this has taken so long. It's been insane here.

I used Chantix, which helped me a LOT, but the biggest help for me was, first, that I was extremely motivated to quit, and second, the support from Chantix. The prescription comes with an online program that includes tips and suggestions, kudos every day you get through without a "slip", and lots of follow up. There is a lot of discussion here and there about side effects of Chantix, including depression and suicidal ideation. I never got these, but I've certainly had these side effects in other attempts to quit smoking. I honestly don't think they're Chantix side effects -- I think they are side effects of nicotine withdrawal.

I do not find nicotine replacement to be helpful. I tried it myself several times, and it didn't help at all. Here's why: Smoking cessation is two things. It's the physical addiction and the emotional addiction. The emotional addiction is never gone (see, e.g., that I still crave a smoke now and then). The physical addiction is, I understand, a three-week hump, after which your body isn't screaming at you even though your mind may still be screaming at you. Nicotine replacement puts off the physical withdrawal while you get used to not having a cigarette in your hand or a smoke when you're frustrated or bored. But to me, that's backwards. That's putting off the physical withdrawal (the fast part) until the emotional withdrawal is under control (which is never).

I know that there are people who have successfully quit using nicotine replacement and I congratulate them and smoking cessation really is about what works.

Something to remember is that smoking cessation has all the physiological hallmarks of depression -- disturbed sleep, anger, obsessive thinking, changes in eating patterns, despair about the future, you name it. Wellbutrin (Zyban, when marketed for smoking cessation) can help with all of these and it has also been used successfully as a smoking cessation aid.

About 14 years ago, I quit for ~1.5 years, using Wellbutrin and, most important, affirming what I felt. Rather than using affirmations that denied what I felt ("I am a nonsmoker now"), I would say out loud to myself something like "fuck I really want a cigarette" then I would say, "Not now. Maybe later." And then later (which might be five minutes later) when I would get the urge again, I would say "Not now, maybe later." Later, later, later. But if you say NEVER AGAIN then it turns into a huge boulder you're trying to lift rather than a little pebble.



~ ~ ~
All meetings end in separation
All acquisition ends in dispersion
All life ends in death
- The Buddha

|\_/|
='_'=

Every hundred years, all new people

don't be a loser like me

missed you on these boards


"i wanna hug all u idiotic bastards & then set you all on fire" -Bin

www.twitter.com/bedstuybetty
http://bedstuybetty.tumblr.com/
DROkayplayer: Giving you good puff since May '05

Lions don't lose sleep over the opinions of sheep.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhuYIr1J1zc

thats depressing as fuck man.
im 2 months in.
if im fighting cravings like that YEARS from now?
i dont have that much fight in me.
im down to do the work, but i figured over time I just wouldnt care anymore.
shit, for the most part i dont care anymore already, so maybe its more of a personal thing.

I've got two years and while I every once in a while get a craving, it is very rare and nothing compared to the first six months. Keep it up it gets much easier.

Cravings are rare. Strong cravings very rare. But they do come and you have to be prepared because after a year or so you'll think "what's the harm in just one?" Don't fall for it. One leads to another to another and quitting is always hard.
~ ~ ~
All meetings end in separation
All acquisition ends in dispersion
All life ends in death
- The Buddha

|\_/|
='_'=

Every hundred years, all new people

a nice square while youre drinking or after a nice meal...the cravings definitely lessen as you get more time in but every now and then a moment hits where youre like...damn it would be nice to have a cig. im not sureif that ever really goes away totally

is that at the same time that I'm remembering the comfort of feeding my addiction, I also know that it's been long enough that I would simply hate the experience, so what I want isn't available to me with or without a cigarette, so no point in smoking again.

Last night I went and had a couple of drinks instead.

~ ~ ~
All meetings end in separation
All acquisition ends in dispersion
All life ends in death
- The Buddha

|\_/|
='_'=

Every hundred years, all new people

>is that at the same time that I'm remembering the comfort of
>feeding my addiction, I also know that it's been long enough
>that I would simply hate the experience, so what I want isn't
>available to me with or without a cigarette, so no point in
>smoking again.

the thing you want doesnt even exist anymore

even tho a cig would be good at that moment do i really wanna go back to spending x amount of dollars on cigs, go back to being winded after walking up a flight of 5 steps, and smelling like a walking smoke stack? that usually does it for me lol

Do I EVER want to do that again oh HELL no

~ ~ ~
All meetings end in separation
All acquisition ends in dispersion
All life ends in death
- The Buddha

|\_/|
='_'=

Every hundred years, all new people

reasons. i got 4 teeth pulled and was advised not to smoke for 7 days after and just kept rolling with it...another time i was in a car accident and the doc told me if i wanted my bones to heal right i shouldnt smoke. but just quitting on your own is a monster

and I was like NO NO NO and I told her it was because I needed to stay home with my cats but really it was because I wanted to be able to smoke. Imagine smoking with strep throat so bad it turned into a staph infection. My view was that if you could stop smoking for a few days for a medical reason, you weren't a true smoker.

~ ~ ~
All meetings end in separation
All acquisition ends in dispersion
All life ends in death
- The Buddha

|\_/|
='_'=

Every hundred years, all new people

hooked up to them to keep them alive and they out there puffin away

________________________________________________

The ULTIMATE negation of everything.

The space between despair and orgasm is hard to fill ~ Maron

again.

keep up the good work, and even as a nonsmoker I can applaud and commend the discipline it takes to quit and not go back.

__________________________________________
CHOP-THESE-BITCHES!!!!
------------------------------------
Garhart Ivanhoe Poppwell
Un-OK'd moderator for The Lesson and Make The Music (yes, I do's work up in here, and in your asscrease if you run foul of this

It was cool.

fuck you.

I still have the occasional cigarette when I'm NYC, but no relapses.

asked him if he still misses it. I thought he would say no...

he looked me in the eye and slowly said "EVERY DAY"

lol

***
when I come around, they frown
then wanna dap me down
but when I leave?

has it really been 6 + years? or did you start taking it after that last cigarette?

oh the time, where does it go

They say to take it for 2 weeks and then quit, but I was ready so I just did it.

~ ~ ~
All meetings end in separation
All acquisition ends in dispersion
All life ends in death
- The Buddha

|\_/|
='_'=

Every hundred years, all new people

well done Janey!

mostly what I was saying was that I was so stressed that a cigarette seemed appealing. I wasn't bragging LOL

~ ~ ~
All meetings end in separation
All acquisition ends in dispersion
All life ends in death
- The Buddha

|\_/|
='_'=

Every hundred years, all new people

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Sometimes I contemplate moving to a warmer place, then the lake and skyline give me a warm embrace" © Common

**********
"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

"One of the most important things in life is what Judge Learned Hand described as 'that ever-gnawing inner doubt as to whether you're r

by a guy named Peter Trachtenberg. I just happened upon it the other day, and it came at exactly the perfect time. He wrote a book that I really really like called 7 Tattoos. In fact, one of my tattoos matches one of his. So anyway, I didn't know he'd ever written anything else, and I was wandering around in a kind of despair because I had just visited my cat in the kitty hospital where she was in isolation with a fever in the range of organ failure, and nothing seemed to be helping, and after I left, I was kind of walking in circles and then realized I was half a block from a really good bookstore. So to find comfort I went in an browsed and here was this book. It's about love and loss and relationships and people and cats. And it's written around the loss (and eventual recovery) of his cat Biscuit.

If you know Geoff Dyer's work, Trachtenberg is somewhat similar. He's a former addict, he's selfish and self centered and he knows it, so it's not really a mushy cat story. Yet it is a cat story. With a happy ending.

My cat came home from the hospital last night. She's on the mend. So anyway, I'm reading Another Insane Devotion (named after a line in a Gertrude Stein poem) and really liking it.

I'm on goodreads, too. We should be goodreads friends.

~ ~ ~
All meetings end in separation
All acquisition ends in dispersion
All life ends in death
- The Buddha

|\_/|
='_'=

Every hundred years, all new people