Cognitive Quit Smoking

One of the first symptoms of withdrawal that smokers report is anxiety.
I did a google search for define: anxiety which returned these physical
components:
“often accompanied by physical sensations such as palpitations, chest pain
and/or shortness of breath”
“accompanied by restlessness or tension”
“rapid heart beat, feeling faint and trembling”
and this complete definition from www.depression-help-center.com/glossary.htm
“an uncomfortable emotional state in which one perceives danger, feels
powerless and experiences tension in preparation for an expected danger.
Physical symptoms include increased heart rate, irregular breathing,
trembling, and sweating.
Some of that may occur only in instances of extreme anxiety. But the
physical sensations are present in subtle forms right from the start. It’s
these physical elements that we’ve associated with relief by cigarette. And
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I took notes over one day only and then didnt feel the need.
The 1st day was cold turkey then I bought Nicorette patches the next
morning.
When I woke up on the 2nd day of my new quit I was just so happy to
have got thru the 1st day and be smoke free again. It was an
emotional roller coaster last time doing it cold turkey and I put on
a lot of weight. Also I wasn’t prepared for the debt crisis and in a
panic turned back to cigarettes.
When I started smoking again straight away I felt ill. I knew my
body was rejecting the smoking.
With the patches I barely notice any cravings, only a passing
thought here and there and I breathe deeply, do the stretches and
drink water.
I have planned the 3 phases to last 3 weeks each then quit the
patches too. I will have broken the habit again and am very much
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How would you interpret ‘Quitting For Life’?
Something positive that you’re doing to support and nurture your being?
Or something ongoing and tedious that you’ll be doing for the rest of your life?

Patrick? Betty? How are you two doing?

Hi Steve,
Thanks for the chat the other evening/early morning. It helped a lot,
I started checking my body signals and emotional levels with the
timer.
My kids (not actually kids LOL) aged 28 and 29 have both gone back to
the UK and I have renewed my efforts to quit. I feel a big relief that
Mike my son has gone back but miss my daughter Johanna very much.
Mike is volatile and bossy treating us like old people but Jo is the
sweetest girl you can imagine and restarts her last year of her Law
course in Uni in September. Mike is without a job but I have told him
to get looking pronto as he was the force behind us buying this land.
I have now accepted that my hubby and I are back in debt again but
after working out all the money we think we can just about manage if
Mike helps out.
I have been off the ciggies for 3 days now. I think my relapse lasted
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So why a timer? Because without some external reminder to take a moment and
pay attention, we carry on in automatic mode, just as we’re designed to do.
A timer will remind you to stop and observe the subtle body signals. Only
by the repetitive action of paying attention will you begin to recognize
how your body experiences your life. When you’re aware of your body cues,
you’ll be able to choose new actions.
We are not aware of the subtle signals our bodies send. Many of us, myself
included, aren’t aware of the not so subtle signals either. There’s no
reason for us to be aware. If you sit too long in one position and your
butt gets numb, do you have to think about how to deal with that situation?
Or do you simply shift in your chair? You simply shift and that because you
already know the sensation you feel as ‘numb butt’ and you already know
that a shift in position will create a change in sensation. That’s the
automatic nature of how we deal with most of the signals our body sends
during a routine day. Part of your brain is already programmed to
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I can’t do one day at a time. I don’t even do one hour or minute at a time.
Never could, don’t expect I ever will. I don’t have whatever it takes to
hang in or hang on. As soon as things start to get a bit rough, I start
looking at all my rationalizations why today isn’t the time to do ‘one day’
and why hanging in or on isn’t going to get me anywhere except
exhausted. I’m sure that perspective and lack of ‘whatever it takes’ has a
lot to do with why I smoked for 35 years.
Cognitivequitting evolved out of my quit experience. Because of my
inability and unwillingness to ‘hang’ I had to find a different way to
quit. What I found was that physical sensations were connected to urges to
smoke. Some were the physical sensations that come from being too long
without a cigarette. Everyone knows that antsy irritable nicotine fit state
of being. We all rushed to smoke just as quickly as possible and as soon as
we sucked in that first couple of drags felt immediate relief. The
condition of being nicotine deprived is characterized by general muscle
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Hi there,
I am about 55 hours without a cigarette or any nicotine replacement
right now. Are the first 72 hours the worst ones? I slept most of
yesterday. And the night before I felt like my bones were going to
come apart.
Thanks,
Patrick

For smokers, a shot at quitting
A nicotine vaccine may break the cycle that fuels the habit.
By Regina Nuzzo, Special to The Times
July 17, 2006
The vaccine, called NicVAX, is far from proven technology. But it has shown
promise in early trials even in smokers who had no plans to quit.
In March, the Food and Drug Administration granted NicVAX’s manufacturer,
Nabi Biopharmaceuticals of Boca Raton, Fla., a fast-track application to
help speed the drug’s review process.
Now nine centers across the U.S., including UCLA, are recruiting smokers
for a Phase 2 clinical trial. Initial results of the trial, funded in part
by a recent $4.1-million grant to Nabi from the National Institute on Drug
Abuse at the National Institutes of Health, are expected in mid-2007.
Better quit-smoking therapies are sorely needed to treat today’s smokers,
who appear to smoke more heavily and be more addicted than in the past,
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Hi Liz,
If it’s time consuming, you may be doing it incorrectly. The notes
themselves shouldn’t take more than 60 or so seconds write out. You may,
however, find yourself thinking about it all at times during the hour. But
actual time spent ‘doing’ the exercise is really very short. Keep it
simple, focus on body cues (physical sensations/breathing). Prepare to be
amazed Steve