Quitting is Contagious

[Undermind]

Today marks 6 weeks for me with no cigarettes at all!  I'm going up north (Northern Maine) for the week with the fam for the week.  My mom and stepdad, who both smoke cigs, will be joining us.  I really don't expect to have much of an issue though.  I am still on the Chantix and plan on smoking plenty of  :smoke: to get by!

[UncleEbinezer]

Day 12 completed. 

[VA $l!m]

Day 12 completed.

jeebus dude, your home free!

just curious... is there any1 else here that smoked at lesat a pack a day for over 10 years? ive got about 18 as a daily smoker... shits seriously hard core for me at this point. i dont think i can do it without a prescription or somethin. :|

[UncleEbinezer]

Day 12 completed.

jeebus dude, your home free!

just curious... is there any1 else here that smoked at lesat a pack a day for over 10 years? ive got about 18 as a daily smoker... shits seriously hard core for me at this point. i dont think i can do it without a prescription or somethin. :|

Me.  I think a lot of people here were heavy smokers for a long time.  I smoked a pack or more a day for probably 10 years and have smoked for about 15.  First few years were only a few on the way to and from school, but once graudation and college hit, it was a pack a day.  The past year or so not nearly that much.  Probably half a pack, but I would cram that half a pack into my drive into work and my lunch break, so extrapilating out, yeah a pack a day.

The only thing I have found is that the past few days, my mind knows...oh its lunchtime usually I would have a cigarette, so those times are tough, but today for instance, it came on strong and I popped my nicotene mint as soon as I noticed it and boom that was it.  I don't even know that its a nicotine thing for me now, but its just changing the habit. 

Hood and I had this chat over the weekend.  Right now I feel completely OK with still relying on nicotine to help me along.  I am not relying on cigarette nicotine.  Eventually I could substitute the nicotine mint for a regular mint or something and then on to nothing.

I by no means am an expert as I am going through the process as we speak, but you can do it.  For a real smoker, when you finally say fuck it, its definitely a life changing event.  Even some of my earlier posts in this thread were not as strong as I feel now.  I am determined to beat this and so far so good.  I feel a hell of a lot better.

Use whatever crutches you need!!!  This is by no means a race, but a serious journey, so if you don't think you are ready for the race, then start out slow. 

[Superfreakie]

just curious... is there any1 else here that smoked at lesat a pack a day for over 10 years? ive got about 18 as a daily smoker... shits seriously hard core for me at this point. i dont think i can do it without a prescription or somethin. :|

I did. Smoked from the age of 13 to around 30, I no longer remember the exact day or year I quit. But as I have mentioned to you before, my quitting was only a small part of a complete life overhaul which included going back to school, getting a gym membership and working out, change of diet, no more 420, stopped drinking daily etc.... I didn't take medication but my motivation was incredibly strong; I knew I had to quit and there were no other options, I was in really really bad shape and basically scared I wasn't going to see 40. It's not easy, but so much lies upstairs inside your head. I always felt that medication, while minimizing the jones, would actually prolong it, but this probably varies from individual to individual. And I wanted it over and done with. I was so sick of being a smoker that immediately after I quit, I went to the dentist and had my teeth bleached so that any reminders of me being a smoker were gone. As for getting my lungs and body healthy, that took about a year, although I felt a huge difference after the first 60 30 days.

IT IS ALL ABOUT WANTING IT and understanding it ain't going to feel good at first. I used to have a set of before and after pictures from this reincarnation I went through. The former being from the first day I walked into the gym, as my friend, who was the owner, whipped out his camera and snapped one. I eventually deleted the picture because I looked like walking death. Change is possible yet few succeed because it is so contrary to the natural human condition.   

[justjezmund]

Day 12 completed.

jeebus dude, your home free!

just curious... is there any1 else here that smoked at lesat a pack a day for over 10 years? ive got about 18 as a daily smoker... shits seriously hard core for me at this point. i dont think i can do it without a prescription or somethin. :|

add another one, i did from age 14 or 15 till this may.  you can do it if you want to.


WE BELIEVE IN THE !CEM@N

[mbw]

i started in 6th grade  :lol:
of course, not heavy, but by the junior/senior year of high school i was def a pack a day, just got worse and worse.
so....smoked for about 20 of my 33 years, at least a pack a day for about 15 years, two packs or more for a long time now...

:smoke:

:dies:

[StCarl]

I started smoking around 10th grade - always Merits my friend swiped from his dad.  The way we figured, somebody had to burn a cigarette to cover up the other smoky smells we were always making, and I was one of the crew that didn't mind doing it.  When I was twenty and working for the tollway, I was up to 2+ packs a day.  You know how it is if you're at that point - you can't always be inhaling but you always have one going so you can.  Marlboro 100s from then on.  After finishing school at 25, tapered back down to around a carton a week until I was around 30. 

I tried just putting them down at least three significant times times in my late 20's, but those tries didn't take.  I quit in my early 30s when I got the standard respiratory bronchial lung hacking thing one winter.  The kind where smoking cigarettes is almost too gross to try doing it, and even the ganj has the exact same crappy sick taste.  Used that as the springboard.  I had already gone more than a couple of days without smokes because of being sick so I said what the fuck and got the gum.  Worked good enough (you can mess yourself up on that gum too, btw) and I was done.

When I met Maggie a couple years later, she kept a pack in her freezer, maybe smoking one or two a week with a beer after work.  I had a few in those early days and they didn't suck me back in - they didn't make me want to puke but I didn't like them or anything either.  They're not pot.  We cut that out when she decided it didn't really fit with her always training for running events lifestyle.  Didn't phase me at all.

So, yes...  I had a long relationship with cigarettes and it's dunzo.

We do still keep the same half pack of Camel Lights that we've had since 2005 in the console of the Vanagon.  You know, just in case 

[Superfreakie]

Here you go it's in the mind

http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20100803/sc_livescience/smokersbrainscancontrolcravings

Smokers, take heart: A new study finds that even strong cravings for cigarettes can be curbed. You just have to use the right parts of your brain.

Using a technique called functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), researchers watched the brains of smokers as they were shown images of cigarettes and food. When the smokers tried to resist their cravings for their objects of desire, parts of their brain associated with control of emotion lit up with activity, while craving-related areas quieted.

"This shows that smokers can indeed control their cravings, they just need to be told how to do it," lead researcher Hedy Kober, assistant professor of psychiatry at the Yale School of Medicine, said in a statement.

Smoking on the brain

Kober and colleagues tackled the study of cravings because previous research has found that the presence of these strong urges is one of the best predictors for relapse in substance abusers. As a result, many recovery programs use a method called cognitive-behavioral therapy to retrain the brain in the face of temptation. Often, these strategies involve tamping down emotion and thinking logically about the long-term consequences of giving in to the craving.

While cognitive-behavioral therapy is often successful for helping people quit smoking, no one knew exactly which brain areas were involved in this craving-reduction process. Previous work pointed to a few key areas, including the prefrontal cortex, an area of the brain behind the forehead that's known to be important in cognitive control. Another area of interest, the ventral striatum, is buried deep in the forebrain. This region activates when people feel cravings for a drug.

To test their theory that these areas are important in resisting cravings, the researchers had 21 smokers try to resist cravings triggered by the images of cigarettes and food. The smokers were told to think of the long-term negative consequences of giving in.

Brain curbs cravings

As it turned out, the smokers had stronger cravings for cigarettes than food, but they were able to manage both cravings equally, reducing each by about one-third as shown by decreases in activity in the craving region of the brain. As they successfully resisted their cravings, the smokers' emotional regulation areas in the prefrontal cortex showed increased blood flow, indicating greater activity. Meanwhile, the ventral striatum and other emotional areas tied to cravings such as the amygdala (an almond-shaped structure deep in the brain), showed less activity. The pattern held whether the participants were fighting the desire for food or cigarettes.

"We saw really nicely that there's this pathway," said Kevin Ochsner, a psychologist at Columbia University and senior author of the study. "The frontal lobe comes on, the striatum goes off, and then craving goes off."

Many people assume there is something wrong with the brains of addicts that makes them unable to resist cravings, Ochsner said, but the fact that smokers were able to equally control their cravings for addictive tobacco and non-addictive food suggests that something else is going on. More likely, smokers either lack strong enough motivation or effective strategies to quit, he said. The researchers' next step is to examine the brains of smokers who are using cognitive-behavioral strategies to quit and to see if something in their brain activity can predict their success.

[UncleEbinezer]

2 weeks!  booyah!  Who's coming with me?!?!

[gah]

2 weeks!  booyah!  Who's coming with me?!?!

It's been a week since we last heard from you in here, what's the deal brother?

Also, I wanted to share this from a couple days ago. So the other night I had a dream, and as some of you all have had also, where you smoke in your dream, and enjoy it, or later regret it or whatever, and I'd had a few of those, mostly where I just got pissed at myself, but would wake up, and be cool that it was just a dream.

Well, the other night I was out (in my dream), and a couple friends stepped outside to have a smoke, and I went with them, and just stood there talking, and someone offered me one, and I was like, nah, I quit, and they said, oh yeah, forgot, sorry. I say, yeah, no worries.....and so there it was. When I woke up, it occurred to me. It's really done. Even in my deepest subconscious thoughts, I'm no longer a smoker, and it felt freaking amazing. It felt great. Actually, still does just thinking about it.

[UncleEbinezer]

2 weeks!  booyah!  Who's coming with me?!?!

It's been a week since we last heard from you in here, what's the deal brother?

Also, I wanted to share this from a couple days ago. So the other night I had a dream, and as some of you all have had also, where you smoke in your dream, and enjoy it, or later regret it or whatever, and I'd had a few of those, mostly where I just got pissed at myself, but would wake up, and be cool that it was just a dream.

Well, the other night I was out (in my dream), and a couple friends stepped outside to have a smoke, and I went with them, and just stood there talking, and someone offered me one, and I was like, nah, I quit, and they said, oh yeah, forgot, sorry. I say, yeah, no worries.....and so there it was. When I woke up, it occurred to me. It's really done. Even in my deepest subconscious thoughts, I'm no longer a smoker, and it felt freaking amazing. It felt great. Actually, still does just thinking about it.

3 weeks now.  I just figured I'd report back when it hits 1 month so that way i don't add more fuel to the Bobby Tweets discussion.

[gah]

2 weeks!  booyah!  Who's coming with me?!?!

It's been a week since we last heard from you in here, what's the deal brother?

Also, I wanted to share this from a couple days ago. So the other night I had a dream, and as some of you all have had also, where you smoke in your dream, and enjoy it, or later regret it or whatever, and I'd had a few of those, mostly where I just got pissed at myself, but would wake up, and be cool that it was just a dream.

Well, the other night I was out (in my dream), and a couple friends stepped outside to have a smoke, and I went with them, and just stood there talking, and someone offered me one, and I was like, nah, I quit, and they said, oh yeah, forgot, sorry. I say, yeah, no worries.....and so there it was. When I woke up, it occurred to me. It's really done. Even in my deepest subconscious thoughts, I'm no longer a smoker, and it felt freaking amazing. It felt great. Actually, still does just thinking about it.

3 weeks now.  I just figured I'd report back when it hits 1 month so that way i don't add more fuel to the Bobby Tweets discussion.

Still waiting on my shirt! I know that dude, the dude that tweets.

[Superfreakie]

2 weeks!  booyah!  Who's coming with me?!?!

It's been a week since we last heard from you in here, what's the deal brother?

Also, I wanted to share this from a couple days ago. So the other night I had a dream, and as some of you all have had also, where you smoke in your dream, and enjoy it, or later regret it or whatever, and I'd had a few of those, mostly where I just got pissed at myself, but would wake up, and be cool that it was just a dream.

Well, the other night I was out (in my dream), and a couple friends stepped outside to have a smoke, and I went with them, and just stood there talking, and someone offered me one, and I was like, nah, I quit, and they said, oh yeah, forgot, sorry. I say, yeah, no worries.....and so there it was. When I woke up, it occurred to me. It's really done. Even in my deepest subconscious thoughts, I'm no longer a smoker, and it felt freaking amazing. It felt great. Actually, still does just thinking about it.

I.haven't.420'd.in.8.years.except.for.this.summer's.disaster.at.Furthur.but.I.ofte.get.really.baked.in.my.dreams.Like.STONED.

[phuzzyfish12]

2 weeks!  booyah!  Who's coming with me?!?!

It's been a week since we last heard from you in here, what's the deal brother?

Also, I wanted to share this from a couple days ago. So the other night I had a dream, and as some of you all have had also, where you smoke in your dream, and enjoy it, or later regret it or whatever, and I'd had a few of those, mostly where I just got pissed at myself, but would wake up, and be cool that it was just a dream.

Well, the other night I was out (in my dream), and a couple friends stepped outside to have a smoke, and I went with them, and just stood there talking, and someone offered me one, and I was like, nah, I quit, and they said, oh yeah, forgot, sorry. I say, yeah, no worries.....and so there it was. When I woke up, it occurred to me. It's really done. Even in my deepest subconscious thoughts, I'm no longer a smoker, and it felt freaking amazing. It felt great. Actually, still does just thinking about it.

Congrats