Cognitive Quit Smoking

Hi Pam,
Here’s a stab at one of those events. Hope I have the gist of it!
Thanks,
Harper
a) Today is going to be a hard day because I am bone tired. Slept horribly last
night. Was late getting up, and had no time for breakfast. And I have a meeting
at 10:00 this morning with senior officers of the company.
b) I am feeling so foggy; so lethargic; so ânot here.â My body feels heavy,
my back is really tired, and it would help if I could lie down. Iâm at work,
so I canât really do that. Usually a cigarette helps pick me up, makes me more
alert. I need to be alert for this meeting; need to be able to think on my toes.
c) I will smoke a cigarette to feel alert; and if my energy lags during the
meeting, I will smoke a cigarette at the break.
B1) My body will feel heavy, back tired, no matter whether I smoke a cigarette
or not. It is not the lack of nicotine that is making me feel this way, it is
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I have been told already this is not the 12 steps
I know that
I have been told the 12 steps are not as thorough as cog thinking
ok fine
then how come I have to use them to deal with this?
cuz i dont know any other way and because its damn powerful
and not so easy to find my way out of.
that is being thrown into a pool of darkeness filled only with poisen and
trying to maintain some sense of sanity
so you use whatever you know works.
I dont think it really matters
and its over with
but I still havnt cogged it cuz I cant do it.
caisy

I have a Q for you guys with some time under your belt.
I an not what I term depressed but I am not in a good state of being either.
Not happy not sad, more blah, like what the hell does it matter. I am on no
meds, other than for my RA. This is a different state than what I have
ever experienced or can remember experiencing. Is this part of my quit or
is it life in general and I am blaming my quit?
Next Q. When does my digestive track get ok again? I am 3 months into my
quit and still have major digestive issues. I went to an internist, his
laymen’s term was…..my intestines are in knots.<G
words and I have these somewhere but for this email the gist is, He blames
the lack of nicotine and my poor brain not compensating with the correct
firing of chemicals, so my body is not working correctly.
He suggested I am among the 2% that have real difficult with physical side
of this. I am not sure of that but he is the doctor.<G
posted about his a few weeks ago or I read it in the archives.
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Hi, Pam,
Thanks for the link! I will print and do some ABCs.
–Harper
In a message dated 9/30/2002 5:06:24 PM Central Daylight Time,
ph001b6379@… writes:

You’ve expressed that belief several times. My experience of 6+ yrs
with on-line quit smoking support agrees with that belief completely. The
progress of your understanding of cog quitting has been facilitated by your
active involvement within the group. That ‘reality’ holds true for
everyone, and always will. The greater an individual’s involvement,
generally the better and faster the results. I can’t see how not posting
your ABCs is to your benefit.
Steve

Yesterday at work I was furious with my boss and I didn’t know what to do
with the anger I had. I wanted to buy cigarettes more than anything and
inhale deeply. Instead, I left work early, came home and tried to relax.
Yesterday was day 45 of my quit, and it was the closest I came to losing.
I guess it shows that I’m not out of the woods yet.
WB

Hi, everyone,
I have a follow-up question to the homework, and forgive me if it’s been
asked and answered and I overlooked it.
I’ve done the list of reasons; the emotions and conditions; and the physical
sensations. Do I now do an ABC for each reason, or do I pick the biggest
triggers, or pick a few on the list…etc.
Thanks in advance!
Good week to everyone.
Harper

Ok back to the confusion about feelings.
what happens when your guts or instincts are telling you this is a bad
situation, dont even mess with it, or this is not a good person, get
away from him/her.
not even when its life threatening, but just there, I always think the
best thing is listen to my instincts and back off and leave it alone
before I have to deal with it, unless of course there isn’t a choice.
I ran into a situaton like that today, there wasnt a trigger involved
in it, but I had trouble taking the time to stop and think whether
this was cognitive reaction, well no I never thought it was, but once
I had walked away, I had to wonder if it would have been better to
take a cognitive approach to decide about what to do.
in the past it would have been a trigger but I decided instead it was
time to eat, and after go for a walk and get a little excercise. it
was after the whole thing that I did some abc’s.
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Ok I’m still in the group and I’m still not smoking and I’m still
learning. But I think I’ve got it now. The answer to the question
is `DO THE ABCs’. This is what I’ve been told since I joined, but if
you’re ornery, like me, then you need to whittle it down, split that
hair, and eliminate the crap before you bow to the creed. Hey, it’s
my life, and there are an awful lot of charlatans out there.
One of the major difficulties I had in subscribing to CogQuit
theories was the idea that I should replace the chemical hit with
something bland and ordinary.
E.g. you smoke you’re stressed out.
A. wow I am really wound up
B. I smoke when something happens
C. I will smoke a cigarette
(Interesting to note that while there are a million As in that ABC
above, the B and C stay the same)
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Its been an interesting last few days,after deciding the best thing to
do was just hang out with this emotion I was having, to not try to
change it, just allow it run its course, and I am glad to say it pretty
much has.
It got tricky at times, and more then once I had to do abc’s to keep
things in check and be sure that I wasnt heading into trouble. It was
also intersting that alot of it stems from things that have been events
in my life time starting early and leading up to right now.
I keep finding it ineresting that so much of it, there are so many
seemingly different events that share the same needs and emotions and
phsycial feelings.
This is going to require more work to get a good grip on it and be able
to chose different responses everytime, so off to work I go.
at one point it turned into an early yet powerful resentment, Im sorry
to say I didnt know how to deal with it, so I resorted to 12 step
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