Comments on: I’ve started!!

By: Raleigh Missy

Raleigh Missy — Tue, 24 Aug 2004 12:11:46 +0000

Hi Kajha,
I remember leaning over the kitchen stove, inhaling a cigarette smoke,
blowing the smoke out the exhaust fan, and thinking that I didn’t own me.
It was as though I was controlled by a cigarette. I think you were
refering to the same sort of control issue when you wrote:
“One of the reasons I wanted to quit was that feeling of the cigarettes
having control over me. The statement that I use to keep me going is “I
refuse to be controlled by a substance, I want freedom!” Problem
is I put the patch on because without it I smoke so that statement isn’t
working well.”
Here’s another way to look at it… Cigarettes have no control over us.
A burning cigarette is only a manifestation of an active addiction/habit. I
seperate addiction from habit for ease in dealing with them. The
controlling, or directing, element in my leaning over the stove was found
in my thinking. There was a reason why I ‘had’ to light up any particular

cig. (My belief is that the reason was invariably either withdrawal due to
a sagging nic level or it was in respnose to any sensation that remotely
resembled a sensation of withdrawal.) How I perceived the reasons and what
responses I chose to deal with them, how and what I thought, were within my
control. I just had to learn how to manage the control. How are you
managing so far?
Steve

By: Raleigh Missy

Raleigh Missy — Tue, 24 Aug 2004 04:56:52 +0000

Hi Sharon,

It can be a bit of a surprise when we start discovering the extent to
which our smoking behavior followed the ‘running commentary’ we call our
own thinking. You’re coming up on 2 weeks quit, are you becoming more
aware of the connections between what you’re thinking and how you’re
responding? Let us know how you’re doing.
Steve

By: Lester Sierra

Lester Sierra — Sat, 21 Aug 2004 04:39:54 +0000

Thanks so much Gai!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :))))
I am playing this game one day at a time…………..
So far - so good………………..
but I am as unsure as any newbie that “my way is the right
way”………… So good luck everyone……………….
Think Steve has the right idea …………………… Jean

By: Lester Sierra

Lester Sierra — Fri, 20 Aug 2004 21:24:59 +0000

Hi Sharon and all “newbies” to cog quit……………
Can’t give advice……………:)
At 6 mos quit as of 11:00 pm last night (I do not know anyone not in
this group who can appreciate what this means)……….. :)))
Please read the past posts at the cog quit site……………!!!!!!
I was almost 50 years a smoker………….heavy one………..smoked
ALL the time when it was possible!!!!!!!!!!
And surely found it difficult understand cog quit…………..
but eventually it started to make sense…………….
smoking had become Warren’s response to any kind of
tension………………..(big or small)
so many seemed programmed responses…………..(I had a hard time
finding Warren’s input in the felt demand for nicotine when I first woke
in the morning) but gradually I have worn him down in that regard………..

A cig is no longer the first thing I reach for …………….
(I plug in the kettle instead)
but tension keeps recurring (and I keep trying to identify the
source)………….
most of it is “feelings” I find……….(I hurt - and want to reach for
solace)
Tried some inappropriate stuff - (wine - and then realized creating new
problem)
(admit I have yet to find anything as effective in calming that tension,
though)
Perhaps we all need a ‘major’ reason to stick to a quit……………
(mine happened because a doctor I admired warned me)
So I vowed that any response (other than smoking) was OK……………
(at least for a while)
If you can (avoid this route) Admit I feel for those of you younger than I………………
I manage to cope with “brain fog” (but I do not have to go to work) Still I allow myself some slack - (I think I should be allowed a little
while to recover from those 50 years of smoking……………..
Admit I have no guarantee if my vow to quit will withstand any
catastrophic happening in my private life………..but I shall be
trying……………….
There simply HAS TO BE a more appropriate response !!!!!
Jean