Cognitive Quit Smoking

A long time ago you started smoking and became addicted to nicotine.
Do you remember how you felt when you’ve gone ‘too long’ without a
cigarette? Those were the first physical cues of nicotine withdrawal
(shallow breathing, muscle tension, foggy thinking, shifts in mood).
Most of us saw it as antsy, jumpy, impatient, irritable.
It didn’t take too long before you immediately, and almost
automatically, reached for a cigarette in order to relieve those
uncomfortable physical cues. It was much the same as driving… you
needed to pay attention while you were learning to drive. But once
you’d been driving for a while, most of the mechanics of staying in
your lane, adjusting speed, etc became pretty much automatic.
Once you became an automatic smoker, you no longer smoked only when
your nicotine level had dropped. You smoked anytime there was a
sensation that felt like a symptom of nicotine withdrawal. Anger,
hunger, fatigue, boredom… in fact any form of stress comes with
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Hi Lynda,
I noticed that you’ve logged into the chat room a few times. If you
drop me a note at steve@… and let me know when you
might be there, I’ll do my best to meet you there.
Congrats on your 4 days quit,
Steve

I did reread it before I sent it, honest. Maybe the fact that it’s
7am and I had all of 2 hrs sleep can be my excuse.
The second line in my reply was suppose to be… “It’s not
surprising that you don’t want to quit, quitting is usually an
uncomfortable process that’s tied you in knots every time YOU TRIED.
(not ‘every time your tied’.)

Hi everybody,
I just joined the group, and am really addicted to smoking.
I have been trying since 1989.
I tried everything. I don’t want to quit, I like it, but I don’t like
it and I gave up, but then I haven’t given up, and that is why I am
here.
I know I must quit, but I don’t want to do it.
But I do. So please help me.
peace

I guess in all cases deep breathing helps.
Melissa

This sounds a lot like biofeedback. I went to the website. So
basically all I have to do to quit smoking is make sure I am relaxed
at all times or not hungry? I guess I could work on that but what do
you do when you’re bored and tired? What are alternatives? Finding
something to do is sometimes hard. I guess for tired just try your
best to get your rest.
Melissa

HALT - hunger, anger, lonely/bored, tired
Those are the 4 major stressors. We all experience them.
In my last post I used a segmented orange as a way to visualize some
the intellectual, emotional, and physical components of anger. There
were two examples of thought segments about a co-worker and two of
physical segments that come with anger. I had a rough time coming up
with emotional segments which is a bit embarrassing since anger
certainly comes with emotional segments. The problem may be my
inability to separate intellectual from emotional. I’m sure some of
you are better at it than I.
What I’d like to suggest is that we put together a list, sort of a
reference list of segments that are characteristic of each of the
halt stressors. I’d imagine that your segments would vary from mine
and that’s exactly what I’m looking for, a spectrum that includes us
all as individuals.
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Answers often present more questions and questions often lead to more
questions.
When I was a smoker, I thought I smoked because I was stressed. I
smoked because I was angry, I was tired, I needed one… just because.
So if I smoked because I was angry and I didn’t want to smoke, were
my only two options;
1- don’t smoke (been there, done that, didn’t know how to make ‘not
smoking’ work), or
2- don’t get angry (didn’t know how to do that either)?
Anyone see a third option?

Everyone connects smoking and stress. The most common reason for
relapse is “I was stressed”. Hunger, anger, loneliness, fatigue, etc
are all seen as stress.
Here’s the question…
Do you smoke ‘when’ you are stressed or ‘because’ you are stressed?
(’when’ you are angry or ‘because’ you are angry? ‘when’ you are
tired or ‘because’ you are tired?)
Any thoughts on that?

I am so glad I found this group!
I have been smoking since I was 17 and I’m 35 now. 6 days ago (a Friday
night) I was unwinding with my husband (smoking) and smoked more than I
normally do. I woke up the next morning feeling a very tight chest and felt
like I couldn’t breathe normally. It felt like a panic attack as I have had
one before but I thought it was brought on by too many cigs.
I felt like this most of the day but by evening, felt better and smoked more
cigs though not nearly as many as the night before.
The next morning I woke up the same way only the tightness lasted all day
and at times I felt I couldn’t breathe and felt dizzy. I was panicking so I
feel I probably made it a lot worse than it was. I decided to quit that day.
On Sunday. I did not sleep well at all that night.
Monday I still experienced the tightness and felt more and more panicked. I
did not smoke. I thought maybe the cigs had triggered an asthmatic attack
and so on Tuesday I went and got an inhaler. Did not smoke on Tuesday but
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