Cognitive Quit Smoking

Hi All
Good to see so many posts, lots of nice anniversaries around - well
done everyone.
Cat enjoyed your post girl friend and can understand and identify
with everything you wrote.
You all may remember last year at the beginning of my quit when I was
going to visit with my son who was emigrating to New Zealand and my
new grand-daughter.
It was a real struggle for me to get through that time without a
smoke and it was only by using the cog quit method (not to mention
the support I was given by Steve & All) that I managed to remain a
quitter.
I cannot ever envisage myself ‘wanting’ to smoke again as I cannot
see any benefit from it at all and today I had confirmation how
easily my Hermy has set up new ways to deal with ‘feelings/emotions’
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Wow, there’s been SO many great posts here the past few days. Congrats
on so many great anniversaries. Yep, the anniversaries are VERY SPECIAL
TODAY!!! Ok, Ok, I hit 10 months today. I didn’t even realize it til
someone (a fellow quitter) sent me an email at work this morning
congratulating me. Now, is that not the best feeling? Well, sure it
was a great feeling that this friend sent me the congrats and that Pam,
who is another special friend, posted congrats here and the follow-ups.
BUT, what I mean is, it was great to realize that I didn’t realize that
I had an anniversary today. It was just another fun-filled day at work,
sweating out the headcount numbers (who’s going to get the axe next?).
I guess what I’m trying to say is that I’m glad I’m moving on, getting
on back to a ‘normal’ routine. so to speak.
This reminds me of something else. For the first few months of my quit,
I was obsessed (a parculiar trait of mine) with the fact that everytime
I walked into the grocery store, I STILL had to look to the cigarette
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At 05:47 PM 8/14/2002 -0000, Marion asked:
It’s nicotine, a central nervous system stimulant, that increases
metabolism.

Indi sneaked 10 months quit in very quietly on the 11th, Cat’s
celebrating 10 months quit TODAY! Janine reaches 3 months quit this
Sunday, the 18th - and someone here will be reaching her one yr
milestone on Sunday 18th too. Watch this space ….could be party
time in Spinchat!
Well done everybody
Pam

So I finally got to see a doctor today and got my coveted (by me)
precription for Zyban. Actually the generic antidepressant, so that
my insurance would cover it. So all good there.
However, the dr. said something that REALLY disturbed me. He said
that (some? a lot? I forget now) people who quit gain 15% of their
pre-quit weight. I have NEVER heard this statistic bandied around!
Is he full of it? Cause frankly 15% is a LOT for me, and would be
totally unacceptable.
And in a similar weight gain vein, I have been using the patch. Have
not totally stopped the cigs yet but cut drastically down. (Only 2
1/2 yesterday and well, not quite so good today.) My question is, if
weight gain is to occur would it be upon stopping cigarettes or
stopping the intake of nicotine entirely, that is, going off the
patch?
Sorry, just feeling very discouraged tonight,
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Hi,
I posted a while back and I feel the need to communicate with like souls
tonight.
Two months, two weeks, five days, 6 hours, 28 minutes and 30 seconds. 1605
cigarettes not smoked. Last cig on May 25th 5 p.m. precisely. It was
shite.
This might be a rambling post. I don’t mind if you switch off or give up.
Two extremes.
Last week I had to travel into my office headquarters, on the train. Train
compartments are non-smoking these days. We’re talking U.K. Sticks
(countryside/not city)
I got off the train, I had a flash of enlightenment that this was the first
time I hadn’t been anticipating (screaming for) a cigarette after such a
jouney. I felt a rush of joy and liberation. I had tears in my eyes.
Freedom. This is the wonderful part. No frantic checking of ’supplies’
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Well done Dayla :)) very well done.
I share your confusion about the finer distictions on some emotions and
conditions. Truthfully, I’m not sure it makes any difference. For example,
maybe frustration is a lesser degree of anger. If it is, who cares? My
feeling is lets just include all we can think of it that list. It doesn’t
matter if there are some minor redundancies. The important point is that we
have a comprehensive list the is VERY FINITE. The wonderful thing about
that is that now when we say, “Lets examine each emotion and condition”, we
aren’t going to feel overwhelmed because we aren’t imagining some endless
list but rather a list of maybe 12-20 at the most. Even if there are a few
more than that, it’s still a fairly small and managable number.
I’m going to add a couple to the end of your lists. Anymore out there?

12. Love
13. Hate
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A is one event stated simply.
B is *all* our thoughts about the event, beliefs we have held, and
suggestions for alternative choices/responses
C is the one or two final choices we’ll employ
If you’re deciding now, before you’ve even gotten to the lunch that
you will suffer urges to smoke, you probably will.
This seems to touch on do you want to smoke or not (foundation
statements). Dayla, in past quits you would have wanted to bum a smoke
because you wouldn’t have been bringing prepared thinking to the lunch. I
know you recently went to a party and had no trouble regarding urges or
dealing with the situation. Granted, there was little ‘visible’ smoking,
but still, it was your choices that determined your actions and, to a large
extent, your desires re: your actions. However, if you really aren’t sure
about lunch with a smoker, either go to a nonsmoking restaurant, sit in the
nonsmoking section (You have every right to make that request - if your
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I’ve set my quit date for the 18th, Sunday - which happens to be my
birthday. As some of you know, I lost a yr long quit around 3 weeks
ago, but realise I’d spent that year in a ‘not smoking’ place (I
read about that in a recent re-post).
I’ve spent my smoking life lighting up every time I was sad, mad,
happy etc etc… I felt lousy/wonderful - so I lit up. I never
questioned it - didn’t even realise I was doing it, I just smoked.
As I understand cogquitting, what I’m going to have to do is to
learn to respond to thoughts around events, instead of to the
feelings (btw, I’ve been rereading the text of my chat to Steve last
night - I haven’t suddenly become able to quote it off the top of
my head…..I haven’t actually grasped it all that well yet ) So,
instead of ‘I’m so mad, I need to light up before I blow a fuse’ I
need to think what else might help that ‘mad’ instead of a smoke -
what is it I really need, what’s a more rational response. I think
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Zyban(chemical name: bupropion) is the same drug as Wellbutrin an
antidepressant. Wellbutrin acts on the brain chemicals dopamine and
norepinephrine, unlike some of the other recently developed antidepressants
(I.e., Celexa, Paxil, Prozac, and Zoloft) that target the brain chemical
serotonin.
If you are currently taking an antidepressant discuss the use of Zyban at
length with your physician or pharmacists.
I began taking Zyban about day 4 of hell week. I took the meds twice a day
for two weeks, then I cut back to only once a day. The twice a day dosage
had in a zombie state. Once a day is working very well. My game plan is to
be off Zyban with in 90 days of my quit date. While Zyban can make the
initial quit easier, IMHO if you do not do the ABC’s once you remove the
drug you will be right back where you started.
This drug is not for everyone, as with any health care protocol be your own
health care advocate. Discuss this with you physician but have all your
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