Burny and awful
Question: what ersatz experience resembles slowly dissolving a teaspoon of stale supermarket pepper, mint, and nutrasweet on your tongue for fifteen minutes in search of a fix that's about as exciting as rubbing your feet on carpet and touching metal? If you answered, "Ohmygod, Nicobate CQ 4mg lozenges, those things are foul," you have my empathy. For god's sake, no cigarette ever tasted this bad. Haven't had a cigarette in about six hours now. I'd like one, but I'm not going to murder anybody over it. As I thought, I can handle the psychological withdrawl alright, as long as I can still get a nicotine fix. But what's the point? I'm still addicted to nicotine, and a big part of me thinks if I have to cut back gradually in order to quit, I might as well do it with cigarettes, which I at least enjoy. Why do these things have to taste so burn-y? My idea, before I started on these things, was that it was probably better, or at least healthier, to be addicted to lozenges. But if I have to be addicted to something, I'm going back to cigarettes.They come with some fairly ridiculous instructions: "One lozenge should be placed in the mouth and allowed to dissolve for best effect. Periodically, the lozenge should be moved from one side of the mouth to the other until the lozenge is completely dissolved." Christ, if I managed to work out cigarettes on my own, I think I can cope with sucking a lozenge without help.
Anyway, I'll let you know how it goes. I have enough lozenges for about a week - I'll try, at least, to stick with them for that long. My lungs need a break. It is fairly clear at this point that I probably don't have the Allan Carr/Boy Scout spirit that is required to properly quit, but we'll see what happens.
posted by Nicholas @ 10:42 PM
17 Comments:
I stopped smoking about a year ago and just did the cut out nicotine altogether route. It makes for an unpleasant weekend but the physical addiction expunges itself in about 72 hours.
Best of luck.
I also cut out nicotine altogether-the very first time I tried to quit I used patches, but they made me go a little crazy. I have to admit it didn't work in the long term. But my latest attempt-also a 'cold turkey' one- has lasted for three months,and I have pretty much no desire to smoke at all now. Anyhow-to cut a long story short, don't try to cut down, it really doesn't work, and maybe try microtabs instead of lozenges? I haven't tasted lozenges but I've seen the face of someone who has just had one, and from that I can understand just how hideous they must be.
I think I'm starting to get the logic of them - it's probably good that they taste so awful. It means I only have one when I'm really desperate, as opposed to cigarettes, which I have every time I can't think of anything better to do. Aversion therapy. Might work.
I should also clarify that I'm not making any great vows here, just dipping my toes in to see what happens and how my body handles it. My fatuous attempts to go cold turkey didn't last very long at all - after a couple of hours I realised there was no way I was going to make it, so I couldn't see the point of torturing myself any longer. Not that I think I couldn't do it, but it seemed to require an effort of will that was just greater than my desire to quit smoking.
well-the old cliche is true. In order to be able to quit smoking, you have to really really want to quit. Otherwise, it ain't going to work, or at least, it won't last.
but you already know that I'm sure.
My desire to quit these fucking lozenges is INTENSE. if that counts for anything.
hah. I think they would probably force me back onto the durries.
this guys book worked for me: http://www.allencarrseasyway.com/
looking at the website now it all seems a bit over the top and cheesy, but if you're interested in quitting it's worth a shot.
p.s. you can keep smoking until you finish the book too ;)
haha - just finished reading your post. you can retract my comment ;)
Yup, Toby. I believe that Allan Carr probably works, but it's a little too cult-like and self-helpy for my tastes. I've looked through it, and won't be going there until I'm absolutely desperate.
First time I tried quitting I used backstreet aversion therapy. i.e. I went outside and rolled myself a heap of cigarettes, then sat there with my watch in my hand taking a drag every ten seconds. Soon as I finished a cigarette I started another one. Got through four or five, I think, like that, although I wasn't smoking so fast by the end. Then went inside and practically passed out for two hours.
It gets you over the bump, for sure, of the cravings you get at first. And I didn't want a cigarette for a few weeks after that. But I guess it's pretty hard to teach your brain anything about smoking, cos after a while I started wanting cigs again.
I've kinda cut down at the moment... mostly cos I was really sick for about a month, which is a pretty decent way of putting yourself on the wagon. And I'm skint, so that helps. Haven't bought cigarettes in ages, though I'll have one or two a lot of days.
Yeah.
After smoking a pack a day for ten years I eventually quit after reading the Alan Carr book too. Had made numerous attempts previously, including gum, patches etc, but the cold turkey / cult approach worked a treat in the end.
Quitting was the most horrible experience... I honestly felt like I would never be normal again (I recall sitting in front of the tv, wrapped in a blanket, and moaning!) but all the bad stuff just eventually went away and then I couldn't believe that I had wasted so much time, money, thought on smoking in the first place.
Good luck cuz.
Amber
amber i often think of that cartoon of yours with the cigarette saying "amber, i've always been there for you".
and tash, your quit smoking method is old school. i'd be quite happy to be an occasional social smoker, i really would.
so many reformed smokers in my blog audience.
anyway, after a day or so of veering between cigarettes and lozenges, i've thrown my pack up on top of a bookshelf where i'd need a ladder to get it down, and am coping alright with just the occasional lozenge. heading into my second day without a cigarette. posting it on the blog is also a pretty good method, coz everybody is watching.
I'm not sure if there is such thing as a social smoker...I think that if you smoke at all, you're a plain old smoker.
How about a comment from a non-reformed smoker and virulent pro-smokers rights advocate...;)
The physical withdrawal part is the easiest - all melodrama aside. It's not like withdrawing from heroin. So we get a bit grumpy, possibly a few headaches and the occasional desire to kill someone. It passes, eventually. Though to be honest, I haven't ever personally really suffered any physical withdrawal issues on any of my previous attempts to quit.
The hardest part of quitting - as someone who has managed to do it for six months but is happily back on the wagon now - is the psycho-social aspect. No lozenges or patches can address that. I don't care what the anti-smoker's current cheerleader "Wendy Quitting" says...
The "waiting for a bus" cigarette. The "beer in one hand and nothing in the other" cigarette. The "post- dinner/sex/Hoyts (or any equivalent non smoking environment) cigarette". The "I'm stressed/depressed" cigarette. The "work smoko that pisses non-smokers off (heh heh heh)" cigarette.
Basically I found that an entire decade's lifestyle habits needed to change. Hence quitting quite easily after the move to Perth. But living with another smoker was too strong a link to my past life as a desperate fag hound.
So now I wait until I get pregnant. At least us girls have that. I have no doubt that the health and wellbeing of my unborn child will act as a very emphatic deterrent. Plus, the no alchohol thing ties in very nicely there!
only way i was able to quit was by moving to a canadian ski resort for the winter. smoking is banned over there inside all pubs etc, and the thrill of going outside for a cigarette quickly loses its appeal when its minus 10 to minus 20 degrees outside. i agree with the comments that the hardest part is the social habits... was very hard to go for a coffee or beer and not smoke. though after a while you really do get over it... since quitting i've maybe had 2 cigarettes in the past year, and unexpectedly didn't enjoy either.
btw that was dane
you're probably right, fiona, and yet there are people who manage to only have a cigarette in certain very narrowly defined social circumstances, and do fine without them otherwise, and i would be happy with that. because my most biggest problem with the smoking is not the money, or the health problems, but simply how much i hate being dependant and in thrall of them. and i'm not quite ready yet to vow to never have another cigarette as long as i live.
sure is impossible to be a social quitter, though.
today sucks. this feels like the hump - i sure hope so.
and mel, you get no sympathy from me. "here, have a cigarette." then, "now they're fifty cents, heh heh heh. you'll soon see it's more economical to just buy a pack." ring any bells?
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