PlutoLuvr
KORT RORP/ERS AULS TKPWET T LA*S WORD :)
- Joined
- Mar 6, 2006
- Messages
- 1,555
I'm glad to read that so many of you have stayed away from smoking due to Chantix!! I know I 'have' to quit - and would really like to (it's sad when your nieces and nephews ask you why you are smoking and when you are going to stop - they don't want you to die)
I just keep thinking of what am I going to do during those times when I'm so used to smoking (in the car, ect.)
OP (or others who have quit with Chantix) - Did you quit smoking on your quit date, or did you continue till it tastes/smells bad?
I hear you on the family pressure. It's really pressure from everywhere. That was probably half the reason for my quit, and I was not very confident I would succeed for that type of reason. Smokers have become "offensive" to a pretty large chunk of our fellow man. Right or wrong, agree or disagree, it's something I had to face. It's definitely no longer "cool" to smoke.
And I noticed benefits almost immediately and was able to really enjoy and appreciate them. I think that's where Chantix is different from other quit aids I've tried. With previous quits, I was just going out of my mind wanting a smoke -- for days which turned into weeks. I never felt I was enjoying any of the benefits because I was going out of my mind because of the addiction and habit. Chantix makes a craving around a 2 or 3 out of a scale of 1 to 10. It certainly makes it hard to believe I was physically addicted to the nicotine.
I, too, wondered about what I would do during all my smoking times. At 2 1/2 packs per day, just about everything I did, if I wasn't in a courtroom or sleeping, involved smoking. For DH, my mother & I, we were very pleasantly surprised that we were able to handle most of these things. I still have not gone to our outdoor bar/restaurant happy hour on Fridays. We've gone to new, indoor places, tho (no smoking indoors here unless it's 100 percent alcohol only). Surprisingly, the car is fine.
What DH & I have struggled the most with are our "relaxing" times, namely after work, after dinner between the hours of 8 p.m. and 11 p.m. With the cravings so mild and passing so quickly, we just change our routine a little bit. Instead of plopping on the couch and watching tv, we'll work on a puzzle in a different room or play a party game on the Nintendo -- something sort of mindless that just takes our mind off our old routine.
DH, my mother, nor me quit on the day you're supposed to. DH quit on day 14, I quit on day 15 and Mom quit on day 24. I think we were all expecting something from the med it isn't designed to do. We thought the med would make us not want a cig. That never happened. Yes, it made them taste bad, smell bad, actually made us nauseous to smoke on the med, but if the smokes were in the house, we'd go light one up.
What we all finally did was just, "Okay. When this pack is done, we're finished. And let's see what happens." DH finished his last smoke after dinner on 5/21; I finished my last smoke on a Tuesday morning, 5/22; and Mom smoked her last smoke in the wee hours of a Thursday morning. We just never went out of our minds to get another pack. I'd heard the first 72 hours are the worst, and at the end of the three days, we all just looked at each other, scratched our heads and said, "That was it?"
Hindsight being 20/20, I would have just quit on the day 8 like it recommends. But everyone is different. The smokes tasted/smelled bad immediately for me. The first day, I decreased how much I was smoking by about a third without even trying. By my last pack, I was down to about 10 a day.
(I forgot to mention that earlier!!)
The online help is kind of silly, but I will take any support I can get.
To those who are "thinking it over"...what are you waiting for....make the move before it is too late and you do not have another chance as my father does.
