junkie thinking
Just read about this definition on the internet, so now I have a name
for what I’ve been thinking the last couple of weeks. Have been on
the “patch” for 6 weeks now. The first 4-5 weeks were quite great -
almost no physical symptoms and absolutely no psychological ones.
Then, last week or so, the “junkie” thinking started - why bother
stopping, you’ve smoked so long, won’t do any good to stop//all this
stop smoking is just politically correct garbage, etc. So what is
the best strategy with this kind of thinking…let it just think
itself out, argue with it, fight it, replace it with positive
thoughts?
April 2nd, 2005 at 2:35 am
Hi Diana,
Interestingly, that was exacly what our smoking had become, a
Steve
visceral/emotional response to any and all physical sensations. Logically,
there’s no way we can expect a habit like smoking to fade away if we
continue to follow the very same behavioral modes as quitters that we
followed as smokers.
Do the foundation statements make sense to you or are there some
reservations? Have you started to jot down some of the lists?
Glad you’re with us Diana
April 2nd, 2005 at 4:58 pm
Hi Steve- I have absolutely no reservations re the foundation
statements- I no longer want to be a smoker- I cannot visualize any
instance where smoking will help- there is nothing good about it. I
am unsure of the lists and what the purpose is.
Diana
April 3rd, 2005 at 12:13 am
Me again- I have made my lists- have been reading some of the ABC’s-
will keep reading- so much interesting and thought provoking material
Diana
April 3rd, 2005 at 7:35 am
Hi Diana,
This is a repost of some list info.
Steve
To all our recent newbies and to any of you who haven’t yet made out your
lists,
MAKE OUT 3 LISTS:
List 1- Reasons to smoke.
This list contains every reason you can think of where you would light
up. Everything from phone calls to driving to anger and hunger, getting up
in the morning and going to bed at night, times, places, any and all
reasons you can think of. This list could become huge. Do what you can,
don’t get overwhelmed.
List 2- Emotions and Conditions
This list is of all the emotions (happy, sad, lave, hate, etc) and
conditions (hot, cold, hungry, tired) that you experience. This list is
usually no more than 12 - 20 entries. If some seem to be variations on
others in your list, don’t worry about, just list them. The list will still
be relatively short.
List 3- Physical sensations: where and how
Take each of the entries in List 2 and imagine experiencing that
particular emotion or condition. What does it ‘feel’ like physically? Where
do you feel it i.e. muscles in the shoulders and neck? Does the experience
of that emotion or condition include changes in how you breath (rapid,
slow, deep, shallow) or heart rate? Are there abdominal sensations or
feelings in your chest? if so, describe them. If you can’t find many ‘ways’
to feel things hysically, don’t be upset. There aren’t that many. There are
a limited number of ways we experience emotions and conditions in physical
terms. Physically, anger and anxiety might have very similar sensations.
It’s only from context and our own interpretation that we call that set of
sensations either anger or anxiety. This list will be very short.
Why the lists? In 35 yrs of smoking I never lit a cigarette because I
‘thought’ it was needed. Every cigarette I ever lit was because I ‘felt’
some physical sensation(s) and only then did my thinking connect those
feelings to a cig solution. I’m going to make an absolute statement here
… every one of us lit every cigarette we smoked because we first ‘felt’
something and only then ‘realized’ a cig was the proper response. And it
all began with our addiction to a chemical called nicotine.
Being addicted means that we must maintain a particular blood level of
nicotine in order not to begin to experience withdrawal. Remember how you
felt as a smoker, 2 hrs into a 2.5 hr movie? Were you ever in a very long
meeting or had to wait forever in some place where you couldn’t smoke? That
feeling was the onset of withdrawal. The growing anxiety, the irritability,
the foggy head, these were the first signs of a lowered nic level. We’d
light up and within seconds we experienced relief. That was the beginning
…. feel withdrawal, light up, feel relief. That is also how the rest of
our yrs of smoking worked, we’d feel a sensation, if that sensation had a
cigarette association with relief, we’d light up. Anxiety can have many
different sources i.e. nicotine withdrawal, some important event, some news
with serious consequences, or worry about anything. If we experience
anxiety in the same physical terms as nicotine withdrawal and have
developed the habit of automatically responding to those sensations by
lighting up then in order to stop the urge to light up we need to learn
to accurately identify what we feel and what the source of that feeling is.
Once that’s done, a reasonable and effective response will become self
evident.
While ABCs will be more effective and often easier if you do the lists
first, the primary purpose of the lists is to help you become very aware of
what you feel, when, and where. The secondary purpose is to take our
smoking habit out of the vague and infinite and make it very clear and
finite. From one of our posts: “I was a pack and a half per day smoker
- my response to EVERY situation was to reach for a cigarette”. I think a
lot of us can relate to that sense of a constant urge to light up.
Unfortunately, that view of a nonstop urge with it’s constant response
allows no way of gaining a hand hold. Listing the events that made up our
smoking habit provides finite individual points where we can examine and
begin to dissassemble the smoking pattern. So please, all of you, make up
your lists.
August 2nd, 2005 at 3:05 am
reasons to smoke:
get up, eat, shower,computer,work,dont care attitude,on way home.
breaks,stress,angry,depressed,sad,on phone,feed cat,cooking, finished
eating,social situations,walking,computer,tv,inside,watering plants,
I get it we smoke all the time.
Emotionals & conditions:
depressed,sad,angry,thinking,stressed,talking on phone,walking,full
just ate
Physical sensations:
feel tired,letdown,lied to,neck sore musles sore&tense,numb,heart
rate a little faster,stomache heavy full,
What feeling: To address:
hungry eat
tired rest
Alot on mind deep breathing,pray
full from dinner deep breathe
angry address situation with indvidual
lightheaded cutting down on cigs deep breathe, drink water
back sore get off puter& rest
August 6th, 2005 at 11:25 am
Reasons to smoke
get up, have coffee,eat, work, stress, anger, depressed, sad, got
paid have money, on phone,social situations, good mood, having fun,
computer work, inside,outside, walking, talking, patting
cat,shower,on way home, before bed
Emotions-conditions
depressed,sad,full from meal,angry,tired,stressed,wet from
shower,toothpaste taste,cold,tired,hot
Physical sensations
sore neck & back,heart rate a little fast,body feels heavy,stomach
full heavy,feet cold tingly
wet body& chills,toothpaste leaves tingle in mouth,sweating