Comments on: HI Everyone

By: Norbert Devin

Norbert Devin — Sat, 10 Jun 2006 15:30:28 +0000

I am new to the group, but I have been quit for 3 weeks, 2 days, 9
hours and 11 minutes. I still want a cigarette every day(all day
lol), but I am trying to empower myself with enough knowledge and
support so that I will stay quit FOREVER. I was a smoker for 25 years
(am I really that old?)and it’s been hard but also rewarding. I am
showing some signs of “quitter’s flu”. Anyone else with me there? My
lungs are trying to get rid of all that icky crap I put in them for
so long.
At any rate I look forward to interacting with you all and hope you
all have great success in being quit and healthy.
Have a wonderful day!
Lisa

By: Raleigh Missy

Raleigh Missy — Fri, 12 May 2006 14:19:23 +0000

… after almost 3.5 weeks dealing with things I’d rather have not had to
deal with, sleeping on air mattresses that would deflate in the middle of
the night, living out of a suitcase, eating at odd times, driving back and
forth cross country (southern AZ to Toronto and back) …. all of which
isn’t all that much different from life since last June. Worst of all was
the sporadic net access which is why I’ve been less than ‘here’. Anyway,
I’m as ‘home’ as I can hope for till the end of this coming June when I’ll
be moving yet once more.
To all our new members I’d like to extend a warm welcome. If you put
in the time and effort to follow the Cognitive Quitting program you’ll
reprogram your automatic responses to life and become very comfortably
quit. That’s not to say that life will become comfortable, only that you’ll
not be associating a smoking response to life events that you encounter.
I realize that the preceding paragraph ignores the chemical dependence
part of the smoking patterns. You’ll hear very little about patches or gum

or inhalers or any other sort of NRT in this group. The reason is that our
smoking, while certainly partly addiction maintenance, was mostly a simple
established response to routine and normal physical cues. Those cues were
part of normal emotions, situations, and conditions. (If you’re thinking
“what about crisis?”, crisis is nothing more than ‘normal’ cranked up
several degrees.) How we step off the nicotine addiction, whether cold
turkey or some other route is of little importance. Choose whatever you
feel most comfortable with. The real work in staying quit is in how we
change our associations between the physical sensations we experience and
what we ‘believe’ to be the best way to respond to those physical sensations.
Mary, you asked about how much nicotine there is in a
cigarette…. a regular cig contains about 1 mg nicotine. However, low tar
(light) cigs usually have holes in the filter which are suppose to reduce
the amount of smoke we get. Smokers usually compensate by covering those
holes with their lips, tearing the filters off, or inhaling more
forcefully. Figure on 1mg nic/cig and you won’t be far off. However, all
you’re really doing is juggling nicotine levels. While that may seem to
relieve the discomfort of the moment, it’s maintaining an active nicotine
addiction. I understand that some quitters prefer the ’step down’/'wean
slowly off of nicotine’ method and if that works for them, great.
Personally, I’d prefer to go directly to the behavior and deal with the
primary reasons why we chose to light up in response to everything from
driving to coffee to cleaning. This is where Cognitive Quitting comes into
play.
Mary mentioned having a day of anxiety and very accurately recognized
that it was a muscular experience. As smokers, a cig (or many) would have
provided a momentary relief from the muscular discomfort we perceived as
anxiety. A cognitive approach would have you examining the specific muscles
that were uncomfortable and dealing directly with them. (That ‘direct
dealing’ might have to happen every 20 or 30 minutes just as we smoked
every 20 or 30 minutes) Obviously this has little or nothing to do with the
reason there’s anxiety, but then neither did smoking. Smoking only
addressed the muscular cues, and that only for a short time as every one of
us knows that the more anxious/stressed we were the more we smoked.
Shelly posted wondering if tossing the cleaning might be a way to deal
with the urge to smoke between cleaned rooms. Actually, no. If it’s
not cleaning it’ll be some other chore that routinely includes some sort of
break or shift in focus. Breaks are important. They provide a rest time, a
moment to gather thoughts, a space to recovery from the previous and move
into the next stage. Plan for it. Make you breaks cognitive. Plan to
breath, rest, stretch, provide something energizing whether it’s fruit
juice or some other healthy snack.
A- I finished cleaning one room and I’m on to the next. I want ’something’.
B- In the past, that ’something’ would have been a cig. Now that I’m
directing my quit I’ll prepare a break tween cleaned rooms that includes a
few moments to rest (sit, breath deeply to relax, stretch to relieve
muscles, something healthy as a snack).
C- I’ll direct my breaks cognitively by …… (you choose what works for you)
Do Not skip breaks. They are how we function most effectively. There’s
nothing that says that a ‘break’ has to be a smoke break. A break is a rest
in order to reenergize and carry on.
Barbara, you said you’d gone through the QuitSmokingOnline program. I’ve
read though some of it, got frustrated and gave up on trying to plow
through the rest so I applaud you for being able to get through it. Maybe
just ‘accepting urges and letting them go’ works for some. I’m afraid I
never mastered that trick. I’m a bit too pragmatic and prefer tools that
allow me to address urges directly and effectively deal with them. The
reason you saw some posts with the Foundation Statements posted verbatim is
because that’s part of the Cognitive Quitting program. The Foundation
Statements are intended to define our goal, our commitment, and to close
ALL back doors that we might try to slip through once we’re into the quit.
Basically, either we want to be quit or not. If it’s conditional, then
we’ll always find a reason to light up. The Foundation Statements keep us
honest with ourselves. I request that Cog Quitters accept them as written
and not try to rewrite them. However, if you can suggest something that
would make them even more iron clad, please speak up. I’m always open to
suggestions that will improve the program. Good work on your
lists. Pay particular attention to the physical sensations. Those are
where all our smoking instances started. Have you begun working with your
timer?
A word about the upcoming workshop…. it’s open to anyone who
would like to work through the Cognitive Quitting program, whether you’re
just quitting, you’ve been quit a while, or you’ve yet to quit.
It’s good to be back,
Steve

By: Marshall Steven

Marshall Steven — Fri, 12 May 2006 09:21:31 +0000

Hi Group,
Just wanted to say hello to everyone. I am doing well and have been
quit for 2 months now. For some reason, it seems alot longer. I was
wondering if anyone had any ideas for ABCs on when you are
housecleaning. You know, the cigarette breaks between rooms… etc…
I can’t figure out what I am feeling physically when this happens.
But, some of my biggest urges right now are when I am cleaning the
house. Maybe I should give up housecleaning too. Thanks,
Shelly

By: Neva Marjory

Neva Marjory — Tue, 13 Dec 2005 11:41:53 +0000

Not many of you here know me, but I’m Katie from the north east of
England. I’ve been lurking for quite a long time now, sorting out
various issues in my life, but delighted to be enjoying my smoke free
life - its now…. ummmm, I need to count up…. 19 months. I was
very involved with this group when I first quit, and I think
Steve/Pam would agree that I did my work and practised my ABC’s and
got well and truly cognitively quit! What I learned taught me skills
to deal with so much in my life, much like Corin was saying here.
Throughout a lot of stressful times my first reaction has never been
to run off for a smoke - murder maybe, but never a smoke I can
only stress what a valuable, effective way this is to quit - you will
learn a heck of a lot more than simply how not to smoke if you do
everything that’s suggested in Steve’s programme, and really won’t
have to hang on hoping you can get through another day smoke free,
into the bargain. To my fellow Brits/quitting buddies - my email is

on its way to you, with all the gossip. If you’re good Steve, I’ll
c.c. you into it Its good to be back here Katie

By: karey_1100

karey_1100 — Fri, 29 Jul 2005 16:26:45 +0000

Hi all how are you all well Im now into my 19th day of quit and I am
having a few bad cravings today so Im going to go for a walk in a
little while and try and clear my head.
Have a good weekend all.
Love
Gilly
XXX

By: Neva Marjory

Neva Marjory — Tue, 28 Dec 2004 10:41:39 +0000

I’m Phil R. I’ve been quit for 25 days now and I’m pleased with how
it’s gone so far. This is hardly my first attempt at quitting, and
I’ve had several quits exceed a month (one 13 months). I’ve had a
couple of problems that I can recognize. 1) I get complacent after
a month or two 2) I never got rid of the notion that I was giving
up something by quitting and 3)on the longer quits. I basically just
got worn down by relying solely on gritty dtermination.
I’m using nrt this time, but after about 10 times of going CT for a
week or more, I’m of the opinion that the initial method of getting
thru withdrawal isn’t nearly as important as the attitude one can
sustain long-term.
I’ve read most of the subjects on cognitivequitting.com and I think
I’ve got the basics down. After all my previous quits, I think I’ve
refined my approach to the point where it isn’t fundamentally
different from the behavioural system put forth at cogquit. But I

undoubtedly have much to learn.
I’m hopeful that the tone and subjects discussed here will be of a
higher caliber than I’ve encountered with some other sites. I know
that sounds snooty, but I know what I need. I’d love to hear back
from you all in time. Ill try to include more personal details
about myself and my quitting experience soon. Thanks for reading
this–Phil

By: Lester Sierra

Lester Sierra — Tue, 25 May 2004 07:21:12 +0000

Lots of people here better able to tell you about the “cog quit
method”…….
but I CAN tell you they are a super supportive group!!!!!!!!
Good luck…….
Jean

By: Neva Marjory

Neva Marjory — Mon, 24 May 2004 09:16:55 +0000

Just a welcome from me too I’m one of the newer quitters round
here - I’ve got just over a month under my belt now. I discovered
cogquitting at the outset, and can recommend it highly also. I
always knew there was more to all this than simply tackling the
chemical addiction, but couldn’t find the answers at any of the
quitsmoking sites I visited. Steve ‘found’ me in a ‘whoo hoo’
chatroom and told me about cogquitting, and has given me much
support since then, along with Pam ( a fellow Brit) and others here
too.
As others have said already, do read up, ask questions and post.
You’ll then find yourself in a quit which won’t have you hanging on
for dear life until ‘it’ goes away - but one which you’ll be working
through logically and taking charge of. Good luck!
Carla
— In CognitiveQuitSmoking@y…, “pattiereed”

By: Neva Marjory

Neva Marjory — Mon, 24 May 2004 02:02:00 +0000

Hi! Welcome to this site. I highly recommend this method. I have
been practicing cogquit since about the second week of my quit and
I’ve been quite comfortable for at least the past few months. I know
that I’ve been more comfortable in my quit than a lot of others who
quit around the same time. I would suggest that you go to
cognitiveqitting.com and start reading. A lot of your questions
about cognitive thinking as it applies to quitting the smokes will be
explained there.
Let us know if you have any questions or email ddsteve; keep in touch.
- Cat (6M+ months quit)
— In CognitiveQuitSmoking@y…, “pattiereed”