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snakecharmer 
My Story So Far..
For anyone who's interested, or new here...
Beginning of November 2006, I tried to quit cold turkey: I had made a decision that it was going to be the cigarettes or me - purely as an issue of self-discipline. I "succeeded" for a few of weeks; I was holding up during the day at work, but eves and weekends I'd be an emotional wreck, suicidal. Not actually wanting to kill myself, but living without smoking was so awful that I honestly didn't want to. Also, I have ADHD and bipolar/schizoaffective disorder - I have read that nicotine is even more troublesome to quit for them because it's self-medicating.
I started to backslide because my exhusband smokes, and I'd occasionally have one or two of his. This turned into one or two per day. I'd buy a pack, have one or two, then run it under the sink and throw it out. The decision to go on Chantix came one day when I was driving home from work and the emotional pain was so excruciating that all I could think to do to relieve it was to imagine cutting myself when I got home. This scared me terribly - it was over 10 years ago that I used to self harm, and I never did it again since then.
That was it. Sent up alarm bells for me. I made an appointment with my psych and went in the next day to try Chantix. He seemed to be pretty positive about and explained how it worked. He said it worked in 2 ways:
1) It eases the effects of the withdrawal from nicotine by increasing the dopamine levels
2) It prevents you from experiencing any of the usual reward effect if you DO have a cigarette.
I found this very hard to believe but I was willing to try anything. I've been on it 2 weeks now. When I started I was having about 4-5 cigarettes a day (it says to pick a quit date about 7 days in). Early this week it was about 2, then one, yesterday 0. I didn't even have to really try - in fact, I was TRYING to smoke (can you believe this?) because it was pissing me off that it wasn't pleasurable anymore!!! That's right! It tastes like burnt paper, and I absolutely get ZERO nicotine high from it. NONE. It really works! Thank God.
I don't want to smoke at all anymore, except that I miss going outside, and I also miss having something available to soothe me when I get suddenly emotionally upset. But it's amazing, the difference! I highly recommend it.
For anyone who's interested, or new here...
Beginning of November 2006, I tried to quit cold turkey: I had made a decision that it was going to be the cigarettes or me - purely as an issue of self-discipline. I "succeeded" for a few of weeks; I was holding up during the day at work, but eves and weekends I'd be an emotional wreck, suicidal. Not actually wanting to kill myself, but living without smoking was so awful that I honestly didn't want to. Also, I have ADHD and bipolar/schizoaffective disorder - I have read that nicotine is even more troublesome to quit for them because it's self-medicating.
I started to backslide because my exhusband smokes, and I'd occasionally have one or two of his. This turned into one or two per day. I'd buy a pack, have one or two, then run it under the sink and throw it out. The decision to go on Chantix came one day when I was driving home from work and the emotional pain was so excruciating that all I could think to do to relieve it was to imagine cutting myself when I got home. This scared me terribly - it was over 10 years ago that I used to self harm, and I never did it again since then.
That was it. Sent up alarm bells for me. I made an appointment with my psych and went in the next day to try Chantix. He seemed to be pretty positive about and explained how it worked. He said it worked in 2 ways:
1) It eases the effects of the withdrawal from nicotine by increasing the dopamine levels
2) It prevents you from experiencing any of the usual reward effect if you DO have a cigarette.
I found this very hard to believe but I was willing to try anything. I've been on it 2 weeks now. When I started I was having about 4-5 cigarettes a day (it says to pick a quit date about 7 days in). Early this week it was about 2, then one, yesterday 0. I didn't even have to really try - in fact, I was TRYING to smoke (can you believe this?) because it was pissing me off that it wasn't pleasurable anymore!!! That's right! It tastes like burnt paper, and I absolutely get ZERO nicotine high from it. NONE. It really works! Thank God.
I don't want to smoke at all anymore, except that I miss going outside, and I also miss having something available to soothe me when I get suddenly emotionally upset. But it's amazing, the difference! I highly recommend it.
Comments
Wow! That is great and I am very proud of you that you had the courage to find something that would work. I quit cold turkey, but if that doesn't work for everyone, KEEP TRYING to find something that does. Hooray and big hugs for you today girlie. Viv xxx ooo
velcroviv
Yippee! How wonderful. I may just have to look into getting this drug to help me quit. I made a New Years resolution to no longer smoke in the house and let me tell you............IT SUCKS! I am sticking with it though and it is a step in the right direction. Keep us posted and LIVE LONG AND PROSPER!
mschif