Freedom from Nicotine
New European Union Addiction Warning Label
No nicotine, just one day at a time
Never Take Another Puff!
Compiled by John R. Polito
Nicotine Cessation Educator
Editor, WhyQuit.Com
1325 Pherigo Street, Mt. Pleasant, SC 29464
(843) 849-9721 john@whyquit.com
Special thanks to Joel Spitzer of Chicago whose teaching and insights form the foundation
for this booklet. Joel’s entire library of free articles is available at www.WhyQuit.com
Copyright 2005 WhyQuit.com & Copyright 2005 Joel Spitzer
Freedom from Nicotine
www.WhyQuit.com
Freedom from Nicotine
Canadian Government’s Addiction Warning Label Since 2000
WARNING CIGARETTES ARE HIGHLY ADDICTIVE
Studies have shown that tobacco can be harder to quit than heroin or cocaine
This booklet is a small sampling of the free materials available online at WhyQuit.com, the Internet’s
oldest forum dedicated exclusively to the art, science and psychology of abrupt nicotine cessation. This
program isn’t about “our method” of quitting or presenting “our secrets” but about sharing the method
and means used by all but a small portion of earth’s long-term successful quitters.
The experts assert that it takes the average quitter a certain number of attempts before they discover the
secret to staying free. What they don’t reveal is the precise lesson eventually learned, or that the average
quitter can master it during their very first attempt. In a nutshell, it’s called the law of addiction or the
power of one puff of nicotine to cause full and complete relapse back to your old level of nicotine intake
or higher.
Nicotine dependency is as permanent and real as alcoholism. Once established, we can arrest our
dependency but cannot kill it. The only question is, on which side of the bars will we spend the balance
of life? None of us are stronger than nicotine but then we don’t need to be as it is only a chemical with
an I.Q. of zero and cannot plot, plan, think or conspire. Knowledge truly is power. We invite you to stop
fighting in darkness and turn on the lights! In order to arrest our dependency is as simple as no nicotine
today, Never Take Another Puff!
Freedom from Nicotine
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Table of Contents
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Topic
Your Core Motivations
Recovery Log
What is nicotine addiction?
The Law of Addiction
Just One Little Puff
Riding Robust Dreams to Freedom
Take It One Day at a Time
Recovery Tips Summary
Using Attitude to Reduce Anxiety
My Cigarette My Friend
Fixating on a Cigarette
Minimizing the Most Common Recovery Side Effects
Crutches
What should I call myself?
Quitting for Others
Understanding the Emotional Loss
New Reactions to Anger
The Smoking Dream
The Caffeine/Nicotine Interaction
Time Distortion
Embracing Craves
“I smoke because I like smoking”
“You said it would get better but it’s just as bad”
Every Quit is Different
How Effective are Over-the-Counter NRT products?
Minimizing Weight Gain
Caring for Your Recovery
Never Take Another Puff
The Smoker’s Vow
Tearing Down the Wall
Recovery Time Table
The Effects of Nicotine Cessation - Symptoms
NOTE: This material is presented by health educators who are not physicians. This
booklet is designed to support not replace the relationship that exists between you and
your physician. Do not rely upon any information in this booklet to replace individual
consultations with your doctor or other qualified health care provider.
Freedom from Nicotine
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Your Core Motivations, Reasons, Dreams and Desires
Within hours of inhaling that last puff of nicotine our memories of our reasons for
seeking freedom will naturally begin to gradually fade. Our core motivations are the fuel
for our desire and dreams of breaking nicotine’s grip upon our mind. They are the wind
beneath our recovery wings. If we forget the honest realities of what daily life as an
endlessly feeding nicotine addict was like and why freedom was so important to us then
it’s likely that our dreams and desires will begin to seriously wane as well. Invest a few
minutes now to preserve your reasons either below or elsewhere. Allow them to serve as
a first line of defense and coping tool during those less than three minute crave episodes.
By protecting your motivations you protect your freedom and healing.
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Recovery Log
Recovery is a journey, not an event. Once deep into the forest of recovery how will you know how far
you’ve traveled? Have you ever been sick or hurt and it seemed like you’d never get better? Why
allow fading memories of yesterday’s challenge to discourage performance today? Imagine looking at a
rose bud while waiting patiently for its beauty to unfold. Why allow gradual yet continuous healing to
become a source of frustration?
Keeping a recovery log allows you to quickly see how far you’ve come. It can be an amazing source of
self-motivation should time serious distortion make challenging minutes feel like hours. What was
your day like, how many crave episodes did you have, what seemed to trigger them, how intense were
they, and how did you cope? Your log will allow you to remain aware that the period of time between
challenges is gradually growing further and further apart. The next few minutes are entirely doable!
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What is nicotine addiction?
Nicotine is the tobacco plant's natural protection from being eaten by insects. Drop for drop it's
more lethal than strychnine and three times deadlier than arsenic. Yet, amazingly, by chance,
this natural insecticide's chemical structure is so similar to the neurotransmitter acetylcholine
that once inside the brain it fits a host of chemical locks permitting it direct and indirect control
over the flow of more than 200 neurochemicals.
Within eight seconds of that first-ever inhaled puff, through dizzy, coughing and six shades of
green, nicotine arrived at the brain's reward pathways where it generated an unearned flood of
dopamine resulting in an immediate yet possibly unrecognized "ahhhh" reward sensation.
Sensing it would cause most first-time inhalers to soon return to steal more. Nicotine also fit the
adrenaline locks releasing a host of fight or flight neurochemicals and select serotonin locks
impacting mood.
A toxic poison, the brain's defenses fought back but in doing so they had no choice but to turn
down the mind’s sensitivity to acetylcholine, the body's conductor of an entire orchestra of
neurochemicals.
In some neuro-circuits the brain diminished the number of receptors available to receive
nicotine, in others it diminished the number of available transporters and in eleven other regions
it grew millions and millions of extra acetylcholine receptors, almost as if trying to protect itself
by more widely disbursing the arriving pesticide.
There was only one problem. All the physical changes engineered a new tailored
neurochemical sense of normal built entirely upon the presence of nicotine. Now, any attempt to
stop using it would come with a risk of intermittent temporary hurtful anxieties and powerful
mood shifts. A true chemical addiction was born. Returning home to the “real you” now had a
price. Gradually the wonderful calmness, mental quiet and prolonged comfort associated with
being the “real you” faded into distant or even forgotten memory.
The brain's protective adjustments insured that any attempt to stop would leave you temporarily
desensitized. Your dopamine reward system would briefly offer-up few rewards, your nervous
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system would see altering the status quo as danger and sound an emotional anxiety alarm
throughout your body, and mood circuitry might briefly find it difficult to climb beyond
depression.
Successful recovery is developing the patience to allow the mind the 10 days to two weeks
needed to readjust to functioning normally, and the recovering nicotine addict time to both
readjust to their brain's adjustments and to become 100% comfortable engaging all aspects of
life without wanting for nicotine.
The body's nicotine reserves decline by about half every two hours. If you sleep eight hours, try
picturing your nicotine reserves somewhere down around your ankles or sox upon waking. It's
not only the basic chemical half-life clock which determines mandatory nicotine feeding times
when quitting, it's also the clock that determines how long it takes before the brain begins
bathing in nicotine free blood-serum, the moment that real healing begins.
It can take up to 72 hours for our blood-serum to become nicotine-free and for 90% of nicotine's
metabolites (the chemicals it breaks down into) to exit the body via our urine. It's then that the
anxieties associated with readjustment normally peak in intensity and begin to gradually
decline.
But just one powerful puff of nicotine and you’ll again face another 72 hours of detox anxieties.
It's why the one puff survival rate is almost zero. None of us are stronger than nicotine but then
we don’t need to be as it is simply a chemical with an I.Q. of zero. It does not plot, plan, think or
conspire and is not some demon that dwells within. It’s a chemical.
The key to recovery isn’t in dragging out 72 hours of detox by weeks or months of toying with
gradual weaning or other creative forms of nicotine delivery. In fact, pharmaceutical industry
nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) product commercials for the patch, gum and lozenge have
not been open and forthright with smokers.
We’ve now had seven studies examine over-the-counter (OTC) use of the nicotine patch and
gum. If you combined and averaged the results of all seven studies, for every one hundred
quitters, how many do you think would have succeeded in quitting smoking for six months?
Sadly, just seven. Yes, a 93% six-month smoking relapse rate (seeTobacco Control, March
2003). What’s worse is that almost 100% of second-time nicotine patch users are relapsing
within 6 months (Addiction, Jan. 2004), and that 36.6% of all current nicotine gum users are
now classified as chronic long-term gum users (Tobacco Control, Nov. 2003).
But the most deceitful aspect of pharmaceutical industry marketing has been that placebo
controlled NRT studies were not blind as claimed (see Addictive Behaviors, June 2004).
Within five minutes, would you be able to tell whether or not a piece of gum you were chewing
contained the nicotine equivalent of smoking two cigarettes (2mg)? So could they. Nicotine is
a psychoactive chemical producing a dopamine/adrenaline high. It may be almost impossible
to hide its presence or absence from smokers with any history of quitting as they know what it
feels like when the feedings end.
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What the pharmaceutical industry is not telling you is that in a growing list of real-world smoker
quitting surveys (California, Minnesota, London, Quebec, Maryland) that NRT quitters have
never outperformed those quitting entirely on their own The key to enhancing the prospects of
recovering "you" is education, understanding and support not nicotine. The secret to recovering
you is, for just one hour, challenge and day at a time, to Never Take Another Puff! But how
much does the average nicotine smoker know about recovery?
You have conditioned your subconscious mind to expect the arrival of a new supply of nicotine
at certain times, places, locations, events or when experiencing certain emotions. In order to
arrest your dependency you must encounter and break, or recondition, each of your mandatory
feeding cues. Is the crave episode that accompanies each the encounter necessarily a bad
thing or instead a very necessary part of your healing and recovery?
Are almost all cues reconditioned and broken by a single victory in not providing the demanded
substance? Is serious time distortion a normal recovery symptom? Do all subconscious crave
episodes last less than three minutes? Can distortion make the minutes feel like hours? Can
looking at a clock bring honest perspective? Does the number of episodes peak at an average
of 6 on day three and decline to just 1.2 crave episodes per day by day ten?
Does nicotine really double the rate at which caffeine is metabolized? Will your caffeine bloodserum level really increase by 203% if you drink the exact same amount of caffeine after ending
all nicotine use? If you are a heavy caffeine user can elevated levels of caffeine cause
additional anxieties making nicotine dependency recovery harder than need be?
Why could you skip breakfast and even lunch when smoking nicotine and never feel true
hunger pains? Can difficulty concentrating during early recovery and other low blood sugar type
symptoms often be easily corrected by simply learning that nicotine is no longer your spoon,
and you must again learn to properly fuel your body? How can temporarily (72 hours) drinking
natural acidic fruit juices like cranberry help to both stabilize blood sugar and accelerate
depletion of your body’s reserves of the alkaloid nicotine?
These are only a few of the hundreds and hundreds of nicotine dependency recovery issues
explored in detail at WhyQuit.com, a free online motivation, education, and peer support forum.
If you are addicted to nicotine, we invite you to explore the amazing world of online nicotine
dependency recovery. I think you'll be surprised at how much there is to learn about the deadly
insecticide that now controls your brain, health and life expectancy.
The next few minutes are entirely doable and there’s only one rule - no nicotine today!
John R. Polito
© WhyQuit.com 1999
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The Law of Addiction
"Administration of a drug to an addict will cause reestablishment
of chemical dependence upon the addictive substance."
Smokers are often furious with me because they believe I caused them to go back to smoking.
Why do they think this? Well, I have this nasty habit of making a really big deal any time a clinic
participant takes one puff or maybe just a few cigarettes. The smoker feels I am so persuasive
in my arguments that he has no choice but to have a full-fledged relapse. In his opinion, I
forced him back to the lifetime dependency that will impair his health and may eventually cost
him his life. He is convinced that if I had not made such a major issue out of the incident, he
would just have smoked that one time and would never have done it again. How can I sleep
each night knowing what I have done?
I sleep quite well, thank you. For, you see, I am not responsible for these people's relapses to
cigarettes. They can take full credit for becoming smokers again. They relapsed because they
broke the one major law of nicotine addiction - they took a puff. This is not my law. I am not
setting myself up to be judge, jury, and executioner. The law of physiological addiction states
that administration of a drug to an addict will cause reestablishment of the dependence on that
substance. I didn't write that law. I don't execute that law. My job is much simpler than that. All
I do is interpret the law. This means, by taking a puff, the smoker either goes back to fullfledged smoking or goes through the withdrawal process associated with quitting. Most don't
opt for the withdrawal.
Every clinic has a number of participants who have quit in the past for one year or longer. In
fact, I had one clinic participant who had stopped for a period of 24 years before he relapsed.
He never heard that such a law existed, that even after 24 years, the ex-smoker is not totally
freed from his imprisonment of addiction. He didn't understand that the day he tossed his "last"
cigarette, he was placed "on probation" for the rest of his life. But ignorance of the law is not
excusable - not the way the laws of a physiological nature are written. By the American
standards of justice, this seems to be cruel and unusual punishment. But this is the way things
are.
Maybe instead of going to a smoking clinic, a recently relapsed person should contact his
attorney to plead his case of why he should be able to have an occasional cigarette when he
desires. Maybe he can cheat just once, get a sympathetic jury, be judged innocent, and walk
out of the courtroom a free and independent person. Surely, in pleading his case before twelve
impartial people, he will probably have no problem convincing them that he is innocent of any
wrongdoing. And, as he happily walks out of court a free and independent person, he will
probably have an uncontrollable urge and then light a cigarette.
Don't look for loopholes in the law of addiction. You will be convicting yourself back to smoking.
While it may seem harsh and unfair, to many, smoking is a crime punishable by death. Don't
try to cheat the system - NEVER TAKE ANOTHER PUFF!
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Joel Spitzer
© Joel Spitzer 1988, 2000
"Just One Little Puff?"
It is hard for many people to grasp the concept of how just one little puff can result in full-blown
relapse. It just doesn't seem logical to some people. But should you ever find yourself
debating the thought of whether or not you could possibly get away with smoking "just" one,
think about what advice you would give to a family member or friend who you cared for
tremendously, while knowing that they were a recovering heroin or cocaine addict who was for
the first time in months or years considering attempting recreational use. Imagine your shock
and horror at even the thought of it, especially if you were with them back during the peak of
their addiction when it was ruining almost every aspect of life and maybe even putting his or her
very life on the line.
Would you say to him or her, "well, maybe you are better now, maybe its worth finding out if you
could handle just one?" Would you feel the need to do a little research in current journals to see
if maybe “one” is an option now? Would you maybe even delve into a few neurological journals
to see if the scientists now have a better grip on neurotransmitter pathways that could explain
why addiction happens? Then maybe you could say, "Well they are starting to understand a
little more of how addiction works and maybe soon they can alter your brain physiology. So
now, if you relapse it may not be a big deal for a cure is just around the corner--maybe even
only a few years away.” It is more likely that you would you cut through the rationalization and
say, "If you do it, you are going to be back where you were when you first had to quit. You are
going to mess up your life and everyone around you."
The odds are you would go the latter route. You would be horrified and take a firm stand that
he or she shouldn't do it -- it would be stupid and even worse, suicidal. Well there is no
difference between this scenario and the concept of, “Maybe I can have just one, now.”
Well there is actually one difference. It is not medically or physically based, but rather societal.
Our societies have not been taught about nicotine addiction. People have been taught about
addiction and other drugs. Even though nicotine is more addictive than most any other
addictive substance, and maybe even the most addictive of all, people still don't grasp how any
administration of the substance can cause a relapse, even though they are taught this about
most other addictive drugs.
How often has someone asked you after he finds out that you have quit smoking the question,
"You mean you haven't even had one?" This is such a ludicrous comment, and yet so
common. Or how many times have you seen literature put out by medical organizations
advising a recovering addict to not let a slip put them back to using? The message has been
clear and consistent with other drugs, the message being don't slip.
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Everyone here has been exposed to this discrepancy, not just since he quit, but also for years
and decades while he still smoked. You now have to alter a way of thinking that is part of your
culture, no matter what culture you are from. The pervasive attitude of the society around you
is wrong.
The society may accept the danger of smoking but they do not yet grasp the concept of the
addiction. You have to be smarter and more informed than the society around you, maybe
even your health care provider. It is asking a lot of an individual to think differently than the
society as a whole, but in regards to smoking it has to be done.
The consequence of not becoming fanatical against a puff is too serious to just dismiss. It will
be the loss of your quit, and that can easily translate into loss of your health and eventually loss
of your life. You have to be vigilant at all times, to keep reminding yourself that you are a
recovering addict.
Over time there may be no signs of the addiction; thoughts of cigarettes may have become
rare events now and maybe even non-existent. But even at this stage of the game, there is a
silent addiction still there that can take you down with full force for making one miscalculation -thinking that maybe you are different.
You are no different than any other drug addict, whether the drug was alcohol, cocaine, heroin,
etc. You are an addict for life, but as long as you get the drug out of your system and never
administer it again, you will never be set into the downward spiral that the drug sets into motion
to its users. In regards to smoking, that spiral is loss of your freedom, your health and your
life, which means you can lose everything.
To keep what you've got, always remember that to stay smoke free you must NEVER TAKE
ANOTHER PUFF!
Joel Spitzer
© Joel Spitzer 2002
Riding Robust Dreams to Freedom
What is the inner source that will allow you to stop smoking nicotine, skip those once
mandatory feedings, and resume full control of your life - strength, willpower, desire?
It would be natural to think that it’s a combination of the three but none of us are stronger than
our addiction, as is clearly evidenced by our inability to live the drug addict's first wish of being
able to control the uncontrollable. You cannot beat your dependency into submission, stand
toe to toe with it, or handle one puff of nicotine and prevail. Nicotine's chemical bond with the
brain's reward pathways is beyond the reach of strength.
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Willpower? Yes, we can each temporarily muster mountains of willpower but can willpower
make any of us of us endure a challenge that we lack the motivation to complete? Can you
inhale, chew or suck nicotine into your body and then "will it" to not travel to the brain's
addiction circuitry or create the chemical need for more? Have you ever been able to order or
command the challenges of chemical withdrawal or psychological recovery to cease? If we are
incapable of using strength to control our addiction and we cannot "will" our chemical
dependency into hibernation or submission, then what remains?
As simple as it may sound, dreams and desires born of honest recognition of tobacco’s impact
upon our life have the amazing ability to fuel change, but it takes keeping those original honest
motivations in the forefront and driver’s seat of our mind so that they can both consciously and
subconsciously guide us home.
The successful quitter finds ways to protect and safeguard their primary motivations so that
they remain robust, alive and available at a moment's notice to fuel the patience needed to
transition this temporary period of adjustment called "quitting." The intelligent quitter's strategy
combines an understanding of the law of addiction - one puff of nicotine equals relapse - with
well-protected core motivations.
The successful quitter does not try to forget what their health was like while smoking, what it
felt like to be controlled, the growing sense of becoming a social outcast, or that feeling as we
stood at the tobacco counter and paid our hard earned money to purchase the more than
4,000 chemicals contained in each cigarette that would slowly destroy our body and mind. The
successful quitter keeps such memories - and others - in their mind’s forefront as honest
reminders and motivations to fuel their dreams and desires.
The intelligent quitter realizes that if they allow their motivations to die that their freedom and
healing will likely die along with them. The intelligent quitter finds ways to fuel their motivations,
just one day at a time, through study, understanding, education, skills development, critical
observation and honesty.
They know that they are 100% guaranteed to continue free today if they'll only maintain and
protect their original day #1 genuine desires to ... Never Take Another Puff!
John R. Polito
© WhyQuit.com 2003
Take it One Day at a Time
This concept is taught by almost all programs devoted to dealing with substance abuse or
emotional conflict of any kind. The reason that it is so often quoted is that it is universally
applicable to almost any traumatic situation.
Dealing with quitting smoking is no exception. Along with NEVER TAKE ANOTHER PUFF,
ONE DAY AT A TIME is the key technique which gives the smoker the strength to successfully
quit smoking and stay free from the powerful grip of nicotine dependence.
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When first quitting, the concept of ONE DAY AT A TIME is clearly superior to the smoker
thinking that he will never smoke again for the rest of his life. For when the smoker is first
giving up smoking, he does not know whether or not he wants to go the rest of his life without
smoking. Most of the time the smoker envisions life as a non-smoker as more stressful,
painful, and less fun.
It is not until he quits smoking that he realizes his prior thoughts of what life is like as a nonsmoker were wrong. Once he quits he realizes that there is life after smoking. It is a cleaner,
calmer, fuller and, most important, healthier life. Now the thought of returning to smoking
becomes a repulsive concept. Even though the fears have reversed, the ONE DAY AT A
TIME technique should still be maintained.
Now, as an ex-smoker, he still has bad moments every now and then. Sometimes due to
stress at home or work, or pleasant social situations, or to some other undefinable trigger
situation, the desire for a cigarette surfaces. All he needs to do is say to himself, I won't smoke
for the rest of today; tomorrow I will worry about tomorrow. The urge will be over in seconds,
and the next day he probably won't even think of a cigarette.
But ONE DAY AT A TIME should not only be practiced when an urge is present. It should be
practiced daily. Sometimes an ex-smoker thinks it is no longer important to think in these terms.
He goes on with the idea he will not smoke again for the rest of his life. Assuming he is correct,
when does he pat himself on the back for achieving his goal. When he is lying on his death bed
he can enthusiastically proclaim, "I never smoked again." What a great time for positive
reinforcement.
Every day the ex-smoker should wakeup thinking that he is not going to smoke that day. And
every night before he goes to sleep he should congratulate himself for sticking to his goal.
Pride is important in staying free from cigarettes. Not only is it important but well deserved. For
anyone who has quit smoking has broken free from a very powerful addiction. For the first time
in years, he has gained control over his life, rather than being controlled by his cigarette. For
this, he should be proud.
So tonight, when you go to sleep, pat yourself on the back and say, "Another day without
smoking, I feel great." And tomorrow when you wake up, say, "I am going to try for another
day. Tomorrow I will deal with tomorrow." To successfully stay free from smoking, TAKE IT
ONE DAY AT A TIME and - NEVER TAKE ANOTHER PUFF!
Joel Spitzer
© Joel Spitzer 1995, 2000
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Recovery Tips Summary
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
Canada’s addiction warning label reads: “Warning: cigarettes are highly addictive.
Studies have shown that tobacco can be harder to quit than heroin or cocaine.” There is
no U.S. addiction-warning label. Respect nicotine’s amazing power and treat nicotine
dependency as the true chemical dependency it is.
The law of addition states “administration of a drug to an addict will cause
reestablishment of chemical dependence upon the addictive substance at the old level of
use or greater.” Just one powerful puff of nicotine and you’ll have to endure nicotine
detox all over again. We’re not that strong. Adherence to one rule guarantees success
to all. Just one day at a time Never Take Another Puff!
Nicotine physically alters and desensitizes the human mind. It causes eleven different
brain regions to grow millions of extra acetylcholine receptors. Successful quitting is
allowing time for re-sensitization, time for reconditioning subconscious nicotine feeding
cues, and time to move beyond years of conscious smoking rationalizations.
Nicotine dependency is every bit as real and permanent as alcoholism. Don’t play
games with yourself. There is no such thing as just one puff. It’s an all or nothing
proposition.
Quitting smoking is not impossible. In fact, we have more ex-smokers in the U.S. than
current smokers. Knowledge truly is power. Isn’t it time to turn on the lights?
While 90% of successful quitters quit entirely on their own, the odds of any particular
uneducated and unsupported on-your-own attempt succeeding for one full year are
roughly 5%. Anyone is fully capable of quitting if they make a 100% commitment to
succeed.
Nicotine is an extremely addictive chemical with an I.Q. of zero. Although you’ll never be
stronger than nicotine you don’t need to be. Your greatest weapon is, and always was,
your vastly superior intelligence but only if put to work.
Only in a drug addict’s mind would the chemical depriving them of freedom and
destroying their body be considered a friend, pal or companion. Cigarettes are not your
friend. Imagine the sickness afflicting a mind willing to trade 5,000 sunrises for 1
chemical.
Fear of success is the biggest obstacle to getting started. Your dependency-conditioned
mind is likely terrified that life without smoking won’t be worth living. Within just two
weeks you’ll begin to develop a true sense of both the gradually emerging beauty that is
“you” and that life without nicotine is entirely doable.
Making an uneducated quitting attempt is like trying to land a plane without putting the
wheels down. We invite you to visit WhyQuit.com, the source of these quitting tips.
Forget about quitting “forever.” It is the biggest psychological bite imaginable. Instead,
work at adopting a manageable “one day at a time” standard for measuring victory.
Nicotine dependency recovery is a temporary journey of re-adjustment. It transports you
home to the richest sense of mental quiet and calm that you’ve known since nicotine
assumed control over the flow of more than 200 of your body’s neurochemicals.
Nicotine’s half-life within your blood serum is roughly two hours. If quitting cold, 100% of
nicotine and 90% of its metabolites will be out of your system within 72 hours. It’s then
that neuronal re-sensitization (to acetylcholine) can begin in full.
According to June 2000 U.S. Dept. of Health Guideline, the six-month odds of quitting
“on-your-own” are roughly 10%. Education, behavioral training and ongoing support can
more than double those odds. It’s important to note that 90% of successful quitters quit
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15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
21.
22.
23.
24.
25.
26.
27.
28.
29.
30.
cold turkey.
You may want to talk to your physician about Zyban or Wellbutrin (both bupropion). In
clinical studies it performed roughly 15 percentage points above placebos at six months.
Although its use comes with some risks, they pale in comparison to smoking’s risks.
A March 2003 study (Hughes) combined and averaged the seven over-the-counter
nicotine patch and gum studies. It found that only 7% were still not smoking at six
months. Imagine a product with a 93% failure rate. But it gets worse.
Have you already tried quitting with NRT once? If so, it’s important to note that only two
studies have focused on repeat or second-time nicotine patch users. A 1993 study
(Tonnesen) found that 0% of repeat patch users succeeded in quitting for 6 months and
a 1995 study (Gourlay) found that just 1.6% quit. Unlike repeat abrupt nicotine
cessation, the odds of success during subsequent NRT attempts generally decline.
A 1998 Cochrane Review of nine different hypnosis quit smoking studies concluded that
“we have not shown that hypnotherapy has a greater effect on six month quit rates than
other interventions or no treatment.”
A 2002 Cochrane Review of 22 different acupuncture studies concluded that “there is no
clear evidence that acupuncture, acupressure, laser therapy or electrostimulation are
effective for smoking cessation.”
Once in battle, your mind may quickly forget many of the reasons that motivated you to
quit smoking. Write yourself a loving reminder letter, carry it with you, and read it often.
As with achievement in almost all human endeavors, the wind beneath our recovery
wings is not strength or willpower but dreams and desires. Keep them vibrant and on
center-stage and no circumstance will deprive you of glory.
Each puff of nicotine was your spoon. It allowed you to skip meals without experiencing
blood-sugar swing symptoms such as an inability to concentrate. Don’t skip meals.
You’d need to gain 75 extra pounds to equal the health risks of smoking one pack a day.
Eat vegetables and fruits instead of candies, chips and pastries to help avoid weight
gain.
You cannot quit for others. It must be your gift to you. Quitting for a significant other
comes with a natural sense of deprivation that will ultimately result in relapse.
A positive can-do attitude is important. We are what we think. Take pride in each hour
of healing and freedom, and each challenge overcome. The next few minutes are all
that matter and each is entirely do-able. Yes you can!
Years of smoking nicotine conditioned each of us to be impatient. Think about it. Within
just 8 seconds a deprived nicotine addict could inhale a puff of nicotine and have it arrive
and release dopamine within the brain. Realize the importance of patience to successful
recovery. Baby steps, just one hour, challenge and day at a time and then celebrate the
new found patience you demonstrated.
Get rid of all cigarettes. Keeping a stash of cigarettes makes as much sense as
someone on suicide watch keeping a loaded gun handy just to prove they can. Fully
commit.
If quitting cold turkey, drink plenty of acidic fruit juice the first three days. It will aid in
removing the alkaloid nicotine from your body and help stabilize blood sugars.
Nicotine doubles the rate by which the body depletes caffeine. Your blood caffeine level
will rise by 203% if no intake reduction is made. Although not a problem for most,
attempt reducing intake by roughly half if troubled by anxieties or difficulty sleeping.
You conditioned your mind to expect nicotine when encountering certain locations, times,
events, people or emotions. Be prepared for each to trigger a brief crave episode.
Encountering a trigger cannot trigger relapse unless you take a puff. Take heart, most
triggers are reconditioned by a single encounter during which the subconscious mind
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31.
32.
33.
34.
35.
36.
37.
38.
39.
40.
41.
42.
43.
44.
45.
46.
47.
48.
fails to receive the expected result – nicotine.
In contrast to conscious thought fixation (the “nice juicy steak” type thinking), no
subconsciously triggered crave episode will last longer than three minutes.
Nicotine cessation causes serious time distortion. Although no crave episode is longer
than three minutes, the minutes can feel like hours. Keep a clock handy to maintain
honest perspective.
The average number of crave episodes (each less than three minutes) experienced by
the average quitter on their most challenging day of recovery is six episodes on day
three.
The average quitter experiences just 1.4 crave episodes per day by day ten. If a later
crave episode ever feels more intense it’s likely that it has been some time since your
last challenge and you’ve dropped your guard a bit. See it as a wonderful sign of
healing.
Recognize the fact that everything you did as a smoker you will learn to again
comfortably do as an ex-smoker. You need not give up anything except nicotine.
Be extremely careful with early alcohol use during the first two weeks. Using an
inhibition diminishing substance while engaged in early physical nicotine withdrawal is a
recipe for relapse.
Engage is some moderate form of regular exercise if at all concerned about weight gain.
A substantial increase in overall lung function of up to 30%,within just 90 days, will aid
you in engaging in extended periods of physical activity and allow you to build
cardiovascular endurance.
Don’t expect family or friends who have never been chemically dependent themselves to
have any appreciation of your challenges or the time required to achieve full comfort.
Recognize that smoking nicotine did not relieve stress but only its own absence.
Nicotine is an alkaloid. Stress is an acid-producing event capable of quickly neutralizing
the body’s nicotine reserves. As smokers we added withdrawal early withdrawal atop
every stressful event. You will soon discover an amazing sense of calm during crisis.
Recognize that smoking nicotine cannot solve any crisis. There is absolutely no
legitimate excuse for relapse, including the eventual inevitable death of those we love.
Unlike with less than 3 minute subconscious crave episodes, we can consciously fixate
on any thought of wanting to smoke. Don’t try to run or hide but instead place the
thought under honest light. Flavor? Any tastebuds inside your lungs? Just one puff?
Not for an addict there isn’t.
Consider yourself a "nic-o-holic." Don't debate with yourself about wanting “a” cigarette.
Instead, ask yourself how you’d feel about going back to your old level of consumption.
Save the money you usually spend on cigarettes and buy yourself something you really
want after a week or a month. Save for a year and treat yourself to a vacation.
Practice slow deep breathing when experiencing a crave episode. Try briefly clearing
your mind of all needless chatter by focusing on your favorite person, place or thing.
Quickly climb from that deep smoker’s rut by visiting places where you couldn’t smoke,
such as movies, libraries and no smoking sections of restaurants, by engaging in
activities lasting longer than an hour, and by slightly pushing your normal limits of
physical endurance.
Tell people around you that you have quit smoking. Fully commit to your recovery while
taking pride in each and every hour and day of freedom and healing.
Avoid crutches. A crutch is any form of quitting reliance that you lean upon so heavily in
supporting your quit (yes, a noun) that if quickly removed would likely result in relapse.
Do not lean heavily upon a quitting buddy who quits at the same time as you, as their
odds of successfully quitting for one year are extremely small. Instead ask an ex-smoker
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49.
50.
51.
52.
53.
54.
55.
for support or use WhyQuit’s Freedom from Tobacco to help fuel your recovery.
Are you having trouble getting started or is your motivation in need of a boost? Visit
WhyQuit.com and meet Noni, Bryan, Brandon or Kim. Your local library likely provides
free Internet access.
Be prepared for an extremely vivid smoking dream, as tobacco odors emitted from
horizontal healing lungs come in contact with a vastly enhanced sense of smell. See it
as the wonderful sign of healing it reflects and nothing more.
Regardless of how long you’ve smoked, how old you are, or how badly you’ve damaged
your body, it’s never too late to arrest your dependency, become its master, and
commence the deepest healing your body has likely ever known.
Study smokers closely. They are not smoking nicotine to tease you. They do so
because they must, in order to replenish a constantly falling blood-serum nicotine level.
Most nicotine is smoked while on autopilot. What cue triggered the public feeding you’re
now witnessing? Watch acid-producing events such as stress or alcohol quickly
neutralize their body’s nicotine reserves. You are witnessing an endless mandatory
cycle of replenishment.
What should you call yourself? Although it’s normal to want to be a non-smoker, there is
a major distinction between a never-smoker and an ex-smoker. Only the ex-smoker
needs to protect against relapse.
Don’t let complacency destroy your healing and glory. The ingredients for relapse are a
failing memory of why we quit, rewriting the law of addiction to exclude ourselves, and an
excuse such disloyalty, stress, war, death, celebration or a cigar at the birth of a baby.
Remember that there are only two good reasons to take a puff once you quit. You decide
you want to go back to your old level of consumption until smoking cripples and then kills
you, or, you decide you really enjoy withdrawal and you want to make it last forever. As
long as neither of these options appeals to you – just one day at a time … NEVER TAKE
ANOTHER PUFF!
John R. Polito
The above tips were abstracted from Joel's Library, WhyQuit articles, messageboard posts at Freedom
from Tobacco, and studies.
© WhyQuit.Com 2001, 2005
© Joel Spitzer 2000
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Using Attitude to Reduce Anxiety
Have you tried quitting before? If so, have you ever stopped to consider that each of your
attempts have been different? It’s far more common than you think to see those knowledgeable
and skilled regarding nicotine cessation to experience far less challenge than during any prior
attempt. Those who learn how to correct the wild blood sugar swings that often accompany
cessation, who learn why their daily caffeine intake may need adjusting, and who recognize and
appreciate the different phases of emotional loss associated with giving up their chemical, can
actually use their intellect to help avoid many of the symptoms they would otherwise have
experienced. This article focuses on another important factor, the importance of expectations
and attitude.
Can we make ourselves miserable on purpose? Of course we can. Throughout our lives we've
experienced worry, fear, anger and irritability, only to find out later that our worries, fears and
anxieties were either totally unnecessary, overblown, or were over little or nothing at all.
During nicotine withdrawal, after years of actively feeding, self-induced tensions and anxieties
can at times seem overwhelming. We can escalate them to the point where we lash out against
loved ones and friends, where we want to hit a tree with our bare hand, or where we put our
head under a pillow and scream at the top of our lungs. Craves and urges don’t cause relapse.
If they did then few of America’s 47 million comfortable ex-smokers would ever have become
ex-smokers. What causes relapse is the layers and layers of anxiety icing that we intentionally
cake upon each crave.
Remember when we were first learning to swim and found ourselves in water over our heads?
Did you panic? I did. Would I have panicked if I had been a skilled swimmer? Of course not.
Quality cessation programs teach those seeking freedom how to swim and then lead them into
deep water. Once there, they may still experience fear but they won’t panic and relapse.
Instead, they’ll do their best to remain calm and, as much as possible, enjoy the swim.
Quitting doesn't have to be nearly as difficult as we’ve likely tried to make it. In fact, it can be
one of the most amazing adventures we’ll ever experience. Imagine the healing associated
with every living cell in your body receiving far more oxygen and vastly less carbon monoxide
than they’ve known in years. Imagine slowly realizing that you’ve left nothing behind except a
chemical, as each day you engage additional aspects of life without wanting for nicotine.
Sadly, almost half of all current smokers will not discover how to navigate through their
dependency before it costs each an average of roughly 5,000 days of life. Many genuinely
believe that time is running out and disaster is about to strike. Sadly, such gut instincts are too
often correct and bad news is just around the corner. Others falsely believe that plenty of time
remains but after repeated attempts they still remain nicotine's slaves.
Either way, don’t panic! Instead, invest the time needed to become an excellent swimmer. The
more knowledgeable and skilled we become, the greater our chances of remaining afloat and
breaking free. Yes, there may be a few big waves along the way but that doesn't mean we can't
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do the backstroke while waiting on their arrival.
As part of our recovery, why not work on diminishing all self-inflicted stress, worry, anxiety and
panic. Stand back and take a long look at the stress and anxiety of withdrawal from a different
angle. Will anxieties begin to build if we repeatedly tell ourselves that quitting is hard and
painful? Absolutely. If we begin telling ourselves that we won't be able to make it through the
next few hours or the remainder of the day, what will happen when the next crave-wave
arrives? Will we swim or flounder? If we keep feeding our mind massive doses of negative
thoughts we increase the possibility of relapse. So why do we intentionally set ourselves up for
defeat?
Picture a plugged-in lamp without a bulb in it and the switch turned off. Picture yourself
intentionally sticking your finger into the bulb socket and leaving it there. Now picture all of your
nicotine feeding cues or triggers - the times, places, emotions and events during which you
customarily smoked nicotine and conditioned your mind to expect the arrival of new nicotine being wired directly into the lamp's switch.
Detailed studies have taught us the "average" number of crave episodes that a new quitter can
expect. The lamp will be briefly turned on a specific number of times each day that add up to
roughly 18 minutes of challenge on the most challenging day (day three with 6 craves, each
less than 3 minutes in duration). Be sure and look at a clock because the mind can make a 2 to
3 minute crave seem like 2 to 3
hours. I've prepared this crave
episode chart from the crave
coping data presented in a 1998
study published in “Research in
Nursing and Health.”
In looking at this chart please
keep in mind that these are just
averages and every journey is
different.
Some quitters may
actually experience almost no
crave episodes while others
might experience twice as many
as shown. Even so, if you were in
the extreme, with double the
average, that's still only 36
minutes of crave episode anxiety (12 episodes x 3 minutes) on your most challenging day.
Could you handle 36 minutes of significant anxiety? Absolutely, no doubt about it!
If you know you’ll be encountering your crave triggers but don't know when, what will having
your finger in the lamp socket all day do to your nerves? Will it put you on edge for the entire
day? Will you feel like lashing out against anyone walking into the room? Will you feel like
crying? Will you be able to concentrate on other things? Will it wear you down?
What if you know for certain that the shock itself will always be tolerable, that no crave episode
will harm you, cut you, make you bleed, break bones, make you ill, or kill you, and that it won't
last beyond three minutes? Can honesty, certainty, planning and attitude make the distance
and time between crave episodes more comfortable?
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Instead of focusing on the discomfort that you'll experience during the short period of time a
crave episode is actually occurring, why not focus on enjoying the massive amount of time that
the crave switch is actually off? Instead of our cup being half empty, why not let the time
between craves make it half full? If we keep telling ourselves that quitting is hard, then unless
we're intentionally lying to ourselves, it will be hard and we should expect it to be hard.
Why feed yourself failure? Why fear the swim and needlessly worry when you're not even in the
water yet? Why intentionally breed negative and powerful anxieties? Why allow such thoughts
to fester in our mind until they begin oozing anxiety's destructive relapse puss? Instead, chase
all needless negativism from your mind. Replace it with calmness, joy and the knowledge that
no three minute crave can force you to ever again suck nicotine into crying lungs.
Fight back with positive thoughts that look forward with hope to a new beautiful beginning, a
new way of life, living inside a healthier body. Fill your cup with desire. Fill it with the reasons
that are causing you to want to return home to again meet the real you. Once underway, don’t
look back except to delight in how far you've come. See encountering and reconditioning each
crave trigger and cue for what they truly are, signs of true healing and an extremely small price
for freedom.
Do you feel like you've lost a close friend (half empty) or do realize that friends don’t slowly kill
friends (half full)? Are you “quitting” (half empty) or engaging in recovery knowing that the real
quitting took place on the day that nicotine took control of your mind (half full)? Do you fear the
arrival of that next crave (half empty) or do you look forward to the opportunity to re-condition
yet another subconscious nicotine feeding cue and reclaim another aspect of life (half full)? Will
the next episode last forever (falsehood) or will it end within a couple of minutes (truth)? Will
withdrawal never end (falsehood) or will its intensity peak within 72 hours and then begin to
gradually subside (truth)? Will you continue to experience daily craves forever (falsehood) or
will you experience that very first day where you never once think about wanting to smoke
within the next few months (truth)?
Do you truly find joy in being addicted to one of the most powerful substances on planet earth
or is that just something you convinced yourself of in order to justify your addiction, your next
fix, and to avoid the challenge of withdrawal? Will 5, 10 or even 20 temporary extra pounds
actually kill you (if they even happen at all) or have you learned that it takes 75 to 100 extra
pounds to equal the health risk associated with one pack a cigarettes a day?
Do you tell yourself that smoking helps to calm and reduce stress, or have you discovered that
stressful acid producing events rapidly neutralize the body's reserves of the alkaloid nicotine,
and that smoking more nicotine simply replenishes a rapidly falling blood-serum nicotine level
bringing you back into that artificial comfort zone?
A smoker and a non-smoker both
experience flat tires. The nonsmoker reaches for a jack while the smoker reaches for nicotine.
The smoker doesn’t do so because he wants to but because they must.
Do you tell yourself that you're growing weaker by the hour and won't be able to handle the next
crave episode (if any), or do you find comfort in the fact that it’s a very necessary part of your
healing and won’t last longer than 3 minutes? Do you show fear that breeds and fuels extra
anxiety or does education, understanding, and planning have you celebrating the fresh air now
kissing your lungs? Do you feed your mind visions of going to the store and purchasing that
relapse pack of decay, destruction, defeat, disease and a 50/50 chance of a very early death, or
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do you delight in the extra coins gradually filling your pockets or purse?
Are you missing the lingering clouds of toxic smoke, crushing chemically laden butts and
dumping an endless cycle of ashtrays, or are you marveling in a new ash-free world that's
clean, bright and refreshing? Is your cup half empty or is it half full? We are what we think attitude is everything.
There are lots of recovery lessons but only one passing grade for every nicotine addict NEVER TAKE ANOTHER PUFF! None of us are stronger than nicotine but then nicotine's I.Q.
is zero. I leave you with a brief summary on how to reduce stress by altering outlook, attitude
and perception toward what should be one of the most glorious adventures we’ll ever make.
If you are TRYING to quit smoking then you're still undecided.
Tell yourself quitting is HARD and unless you're lying it will be.
Believe your craves to be INTENSE and intense will be the ride.
Ponder excuses for a FIX and you’ll eventually get to use them.
If you think you might RELAPSE, then relapse you just might.
If you believe that you will FAIL, then chances are you will.
If you WANT to be an ex-smoker, you're mind has yet to heal.
When you’re READY for your freedom, freedom you shall find.
View this challenge as WONDERFUL and fulfillment will arrive.
See the GLORY of today, then glory it will be!
Praise the HEALING of your body and set your spirit free.
Inhale the JOYS of today, feel the spender of the journey.
Yet be TRUTHFUL of the past, to protect the here and now.
BELIEVE yourself an ex-smoker, an ex-smoker you shall see.
NEVER take another puff and freedom it will be.
Breathe deep, hug hard, live long,
John R. Polito
© WhyQuit.Com 2000
My Cigarette, My Friend
How do you feel about a friend who has to go everywhere with you? Not only does he tag along all the
time, but since he is so offensive and vulgar, you become unwelcome when with him. He has a peculiar
odor that sticks to you wherever you go. Others think both of you stink.
He controls you totally. When he says jump, you jump. Sometimes in the middle of a blizzard or storm,
he wants you to come to the store and pick him up. You would give your spouse hell if he or she did that
to you all the time, but you can't argue with your friend. Sometimes, when you are out at a movie or play
he says he wants you to go stand in the lobby with him and miss important scenes. Since he calls all the
shots in your life, you go.
Your friend doesn't like your choice of clothing either. Instead of politely telling you that you have lousy
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taste, he burns little holes in these items so you will want to throw them out. Sometimes, he tires of the
furniture and gets rid of it too. Occasionally, he gets really nasty and decides the whole house must go.
He gets pretty expensive to support. Not only is his knack of property destruction costly, but you must
pay to keep him with you. In fact, he will cost you thousands of dollars over your lifetime. And you can
count on one thing, he will never pay you a penny in return.
Often at picnics you watch others playing vigorous activities and having lots of fun doing them. But your
friend won't let you. He doesn't believe in physical activity. In his opinion, you are too old to have that
kind of fun. So he kind of sits on your chest and makes it difficult for you to breathe. Now you don't
want to go off and play with other people when you can't breathe, do you?
Your friend does not believe in being healthy. He is really repulsed by the thought of you living a long
and productive life. So every chance he gets he makes you sick. He helps you catch colds and flu. Not
just by running out in the middle of the lousy weather to pick him up at the store. He is more creative
than that. He carries thousands of poisons with him which he constantly blows in your face. When you
inhale some of them, they wipe out cilia in your lungs which would have helped you prevent these
diseases.
But colds and flu are just his form of child's play. He especially likes diseases that slowly cripple you like emphysema. He considers this disease great. Once he gets you to have this, you will give up all
your other friends, family, career goals, activities - everything. You will just sit home and caress him,
telling him what a great friend he is while you desperately gasp for air.
But eventually your friend tires of you. He decides he no longer wishes to have your company. Instead
of letting you go your separate ways, he decides to kill you. He has a wonderful arsenal of weapons
behind him. In fact, he has been plotting your death since the day you met him. He picked all the top
killers in society and did everything in his power to ensure you would get one of them. He overworked
your heart and lungs. He clogged up the arteries to your heart, brain, and every other part of your body.
In case you were too strong to succumb to this, he constantly exposed you to cancer causing agents. He
knew he would get you sooner or later.
Well, this is the story of your "friend," your cigarette. No real friend would do all this to you. Cigarettes
are the worst possible enemies you ever had. They are expensive, addictive, socially unacceptable, and
deadly. Consider all this and - NEVER TAKE ANOTHER PUFF!
Joel Spitzer
© Joel Spitzer 1984, 2000
Fixating on a Cigarette
What happens to some people is that when they are off smoking for a certain time period they
start fixating on a cigarette. By that I mean they forget all the bad cigarettes they ever smoked,
they forget the ones they smoked without ever really thinking about them even at the time they
were being smoked, and they start to remember and focus on one good cigarette. It may be
one they smoked 20 years earlier but it was a good one and they now want one again.
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It's a common tactic for the ex-smokers to try and tell themselves that they do not really want
that "good" cigarette. Well, the problem is, at that moment they really do want it. An internal
debate erupts, "I want one, no I don't, one sounds great, no it doesn't, oh just one, not just one!"
The problem is that if the ex-smoker's focus is on just "one" cigarette then there is no clear-cut
winning side to the debate. The ex-smoker needs to change the internal discussion.
Don't say that you don’t want one when you do, rather acknowledge the desire but ask yourself,
"Do I want all the other cigarettes that go with it. Then, do I want the package deal that goes
with the others - the expense, social stigma, smell, health effects, possible loss of life? Do I
want to go back to smoking, full-fledged, until it cripples and kills me?"
Stated like this it normally is not a back and forth debate. The answer will normally be, "No, I
don’t want to smoke under these terms," and those are the only terms that a cigarette comes
with.
Normally if viewed like this the debate is over almost immediately after being pulled into focus.
Again, if the focus is only one, you can drive yourself nuts throughout the entire day. If you
focus on the whole package deal, you will walk away from the moment relieved to still be smoke
free and sufficiently reinforced to NEVER TAKE ANOTHER PUFF!
Joel Spitzer
© Joel Spitzer 2002
"Minimizing the Most Common
Side Effects to Quitting Smoking"
Blood sugar plummets in many people when first quitting. The most common side effects felt
during the first three days can often be traced back to blood sugar issues. Symptoms such as
headache, inability to concentrate, dizziness, time perception distortions, and the ubiquitous
sweet tooth encountered by many, are often associated with this blood sugar drop. The
symptoms of low blood sugar are basically the same symptoms as not having enough oxygen,
similar to reactions experienced at high altitudes. The reason being the inadequate supply of
sugar and/or oxygen means the brain is getting an incomplete fuel. If you have plenty of one
and not enough of the other, your brain cannot function at any form of optimal level. When you
quit smoking, oxygen levels are often better than they have been in years, but with a limited
supply of sugar it can't properly fuel your brain.
It is not that cigarettes put sugar into your blood stream; it is more of a drug interaction of the
stimulant effect of nicotine that affects the blood sugar levels. Cigarettes cause the body to
release its own stores of sugar and fat by a drug type of interaction. That is how it basically
operated as an appetite suppressant, affecting the satiety centers of your hypothalamus. As far
as for the sugar levels, nicotine in fact works much more efficiently than food. If you use food to
elevate blood sugar levels, it literally takes up to 20 minutes from the time you chew and
swallow the food before it is released to the blood, and thus the brain, for its desired effect of
fueling your brain. Cigarettes, by working through a drug interaction cause the body to release
its own stores of sugar, but not in 20 minutes but usually in a matter of seconds. In a sense,
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your body has not had to release sugar on its own in years, you have done it by using nicotine's
drug effect!
This is why many people really gorge themselves on food upon cessation. They start to
experience a drop in blood sugar and instinctively reach for something sweet. Upon finishing
the food, they still feel symptomatic. Of course they do, it takes them a minute or two to eat, but
the blood sugar isn't boosted for another 18 minutes. Since they are not feeling immediately
better, they eat a little more. They continue to consume more and more food, minute after
minute until they finally they start to feel better. Again if they are waiting for the blood sugar to
go up we are talking about 20 minutes after the first swallow. People can eat a lot of food in 20
minutes. But they begin to believe that this was the amount needed before feeling better. This
can be repeated numerous times throughout the day thus causing a lot of calories being
consumed and causing weight gain to become a real risk.
When you abruptly quit smoking, the body is in kind of a state of loss, not knowing how to work
normally since it has not worked normally in such a long time. Usually by the third day, though,
your body will readjust and release sugar as it is needed. Without eating any more your body
will just figure out how to regulate blood sugar more efficiently.
You may find though that you do have to change dietary patterns to one that is more normal for
you. Normal is not what it was as a smoker, but more what it was before you took up smoking
with aging thrown in. Some people go until evening without eating while they are smokers. If
they try the same routine as ex-smokers they will suffer side effects of low blood sugar. It is not
that there is something wrong with them now, they were abnormal before for all practical
purposes. This doesn't mean they should eat more food, but it may mean they need to
redistribute the food eaten to a more spread out pattern so they are getting blood sugar doses
throughout the day as nature really had always intended.
To minimize some of the real low blood sugar effects of the first few days it really can help to
keep drinking juice throughout the day. After the fourth day though, this should no longer be
necessary as your body should be able to release sugar stores if your diet is normalized. If you
are having problems that are indicative of blood sugar issues beyond day three, it wouldn't hurt
talking to your doctor and maybe getting some nutritional counseling. In order to allow your
body to maintain permanent control over the amount of glucose (sugar) in your brain ... NEVER
TAKE ANOTHER PUFF!
Joel Spitzer
© Joel Spitzer 2001
Crutches
"Boy did I ever drink my brains out, today," a clinic participant enthusiastically proclaimed, "But I
did not smoke!" She was so proud of her accomplishment - two whole days without smoking a
single cigarette. To her, being bombed out of her mind was a safe alternative to the deadly
effects of cigarettes.
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Just 24 hours earlier I had made a special point of mentioning the dangers of replacing one
addiction with another. In quitting smoking one should not start using any other crutches which
might be dangerous or addictive. But this was not of concern to her. She said, "I already have
a drinking problem, so what more could go wrong with getting drunk to quit smoking." Twenty
minutes into the program, she stood up, passed out and had to be carried out.
Quitting by crutch replacement carries varying degrees of risks. Turning to any other addictive
substance, even legal or prescribed drugs, carries the risk of a new addiction. In many of these
cases the end result will be a more significant problem than just the original smoking. The new
addiction can cause the person's life to end in shambles, and when it comes time to deal with
the new dependence he or she will often relapse to cigarettes.
Turning to food, especially high calorie sweet foods will usually result in a psychological need
with a subsequent weight gain. The risk of weight gain is insignificant in comparison to the
dangers associated with cigarettes. The ex-smoker would have to gain over 100 pounds to
create the equivalent health hazard of cigarette smoking. But weight gain often results in a
state of panic and frustration, which can lead the ex-smoker to conclude that he or she would
rather be a skinny smoker than an obese ex-smoker. The fallacy, which causes the ex-smoker
to reach this conclusion, is that only two options exist for him or her - smoke or eat more. In
fact, other choices exist. One is not smoking and eating in a manner similar to when he or she
was a smoker. Another is increasing activity levels to compensate for the added caloric intake
when eating extra amounts.
Some people turn to a healthy alternative as a crutch, like jogging or swimming. These
activities carry low risk and, in fact, often result in physical benefits. But if they are being done
as a direct crutch in maintaining abstinence, they pose one major threat. As with drugs,
alcohol, or food, when the day comes that one must stop the activity, the seemingly successful
ex-smoker will often relapse. Sometimes a minor ankle sprain will temporarily end a jogger's
running, or an ear infection will interfere with swimming. What should be a temporary minor
inconvenience ends in a tragic result - relapse to cigarettes. Again, the ex-smoker believes that
only one of two states exist for him or her - either smoking or mandatory exercise. But, in
actuality, a third choice exists, not smoking and doing nothing. This is not to say an ex-smoker
should not take up physical activities after quitting. But exercise should be done for the
enjoyment and for the true benefits derived from it. The ex-smoker should do it because he or
she wants to, not because he or she has to.
If you are going to develop a crutch, make sure it is one that you can maintain for the rest of
your life without any interruption. One that carries no risks and can be done anywhere,
anytime. About the only crutch that comes close to meeting these criteria is breathing. The day
you have to stop breathing, smoking will be of little concern. But until that day, to stay free from
cigarettes all you need to do is - NEVER TAKE ANOTHER PUFF!
Joel Spitzer
© Joel Spitzer 1987, 2000
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"What should I call myself?"
An online forum member recently posted a message asking whether or not she should call
herself a non-smoker since she had in fact quit smoking. Basically the answer is yes, although
for some people it can create a state of confusion. These are people who look at the term from
a historical perspective before the term smoker and non-smoker had any real negative or
positive connotations. Early on the term was often used to refer to a person who never smoked
a day in his or her life. I guess the more accurate term for usage today for a person who never
smoked should be a "never-smoker." But it is hard to undo commonly accepted terminology.
Sometimes on official documentation, such as insurance forms, there may be a legal distinction
between the terms smoker, ex-smoker and never smoker. But for personal and general
purposes, the term non-smoker is fine as long as you understand that there is a difference
between a non-smoker and a never-smoker.
Other terms that can apply to a person who used to smoke but no longer do are ex-smoker,
reformed smoker, recovering smoker, or arrested smoker. Although, I think they should all be
preceded by "very happy" as in "very happy ex-smoker" so the term is not interpreted with a
tone of sadness or deprivation to the person who it is being said to. It is crucial that each and
every person who used to smoke but no longer does understands that there is a big difference
between a never-smoker and an ex-smoker. Even though physically and mentally the neversmoker and ex-smoker may feel the same, even to the extent of having the exact same
attitudes or outlook, there is one important physiological difference. The ex-smoker still has an
addiction. It may now be asymptomatic but it exists nonetheless. This difference may only be
apparent in one situation.
A never-smoker could, if they really wanted to (which, for no logical reason should ever happen)
take a nice deep drag on a cigarette and in all likelihood, they would cough, gag, and possibly
even throw-up from such a stupid and impulsive act. They might feel crummy for a while and
hopefully would never consider doing it again. An ex-smoker could do the same irrational act,
taking a drag, coughing, gag, and maybe even throwing-up. He or she could feel absolutely
horrible, physiologically, maybe even worse than the never-smoker who did the exact same
thing. He or she is likely to end up hating the experience and be very angry at himself or
herself for having done so, but within minutes, or hours or maybe days, he or she will likely
have an uncontrollable urge and smoke another. The second time he or she may get the same
reactions, feel absolutely horrible and sick. Soon the person will find himself or herself smoking
more nicotine and will either quickly or gradually return to his or her prior levels of daily nicotine
intake or maybe even higher than before.
The difference lies in the fact that the first drag - even though unpleasant - creates additional
uncontrollable urges in the ex-smoker as compared to likely fostering repulsion in the neversmoker. One drag of nicotine means relapse to an ex-smoker. The addiction that was lying
dormant is now brought back to full force.
You are an ex-smoker now, or whatever term you are comfortable with. But at every level of
your consciousness, always remember you are still and always will be a recovering nicotine
addict. It is not necessarily a pleasant way to think of oneself, but if your recovery is to endure,
it is important to retain a basic awareness that because of your underlying arrested
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dependency, you must always remain on guard. For as negative as it may feel and sound in
having to identify yourself an ex-smoker, it is far superior to having to again say, "I am a
smoker."
A smoker is a person who is currently under control of a drug that compels them to constantly
administer dose after dose, puff after puff after puff, dozens or possibly even hundreds of times
a day. And with that active drug - nicotine - he or she is also receiving over 40 carcinogens
(cancer producing chemicals) and more than four thousand other chemicals, hundreds of them
poisonous (arsenic, hydrogen cyanide, carbon monoxide, and formaldehyde, to name a few).
The smoker is increasing his or her risks of some of the most debilitating and fatal diseases
known to man. He or she smells perpetually bad and he or she is a social outcast while actively
using his or her drug delivery system.
Yes, ex-smoker may not sound perfect, but active smoker is a much more horrible thing to have
to admit to and experience. To keep your current status using whatever name you've chosen,
and to never return to the deadly way of life of a smoker, just remember to NEVER TAKE
ANOTHER PUFF!
Joel Spitzer
© Joel Spitzer 2002
Quitting for Others
"My husband can't stand it when I smoke - that is why I quit." "My wife is trying to quit, so I will
stop just to support her." "My kids get sick when I smoke in front of them. They cough, sneeze,
and nag me to death. I quit for them." "My doctor told me not to smoke as long as I am his
patient, so I quit to get him off my back." "I quit for my dog."
All these people may have given up smoking, but they have done it for the wrong reason.
While they may have gotten through the initial withdrawal process, if they don't change their
primary motivation for abstaining from smoking, they will inevitably relapse. Contrary to popular
belief, the important measure of success in smoking cessation is not getting off of cigarettes,
but rather the ability to stay off.
A smoker may quit temporarily for the sake of a significant other, but he will feel as if he is
depriving himself of something he truly wants. This feeling of deprivation will ultimately cause
him to return to smoking. All that has to happen is for the person who he quit for to do
something wrong, or just disappoint him. His response will be, "I deprived myself of my
cigarettes for you and look how you pay me back! I'll show you, I will take a cigarette!" He will
show them nothing. He is the one who will return to smoking and suffer the consequences. He
will either smoke until it kills him or have to quit again. Neither alternative will be pleasant.
It is imperative for him to come to the realization that the primary benefactor in his giving up
smoking is himself. True, his family and friends will benefit, but he will feel happier, healthier,
calmer and in control of his life. This results in pride and a greatly improved self-esteem.
Instead of feeling deprived of cigarettes, he will feel good about himself and appreciative to
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have been able to break free from such a dirty, deadly, powerful addiction.
So, always keep in mind that you quit smoking for you. Even if no one else offers praise or
encouragement, pat yourself on the back for taking such good care of yourself. Realize how
good you are to yourself for having broken free from such a destructive addiction. Be proud
and remember - NEVER TAKE ANOTHER PUFF!
Joel Spitzer
© Joel Spitzer 1985, 2000
Understanding the Emotional Loss
Experienced When Quitting Smoking
In her 1969 book, On Death and Dying, Elizabeth Kubler-Ross identified five distinct phases
which a dying person encounters. These stages are "denial," "anger," "bargaining,"
"depression," and finally, "acceptance." These are the exact same stages that are felt by those
mourning the loss of a loved one as well.
Denial can be recognized as the state of disbelief: "This isn't really happening to me," or "The
doctor doesn't know what he is talking about." The same feelings are often expressed by family
members and friends. Once denial ceases and the realization of impending death is
acknowledged anger develops. "Why me?" or "Why them?" in the case of the significant
others. Anger may be felt toward the doctors, toward God, toward family and friends. Anger,
though, doesn't change the person's fate. They are still in the process of dying. So next comes
bargaining.
In bargaining, the person may become religious, trying to repent for all the sins that may be
bringing about their early demise. "If you let me live, I will be a better person, I will help
mankind. Please let me live, and I will make it worth your while." This stage, too, will come to
an end.
Now the patient, becoming aware he is helpless to prevent his impending fate, enters
depression. The patient begins to isolate himself from his surroundings. He relinquishes his
responsibilities and begins a period of self-mourning. He becomes preoccupied with the fact
that his life is coming to an end. Symptoms of depression are obvious to anyone having
contact with the patient in this stage. When the patient finally overcomes this depression he will
enter the last stage, acceptance.
The patient now reaches what can be seen as an emotionally neutral stage. He almost seems
devoid of feelings. Instead of death being viewed as a terrifying or horrible experience, he now
peacefully accepts his fate.
As stated above, these stages are not only seen in the dying person but likewise in the family
members mourning the loss of a loved one. However, on careful observation we can see these
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same stages in people who lose anything. It doesn't have to be the loss of a loved one. It
could be the loss of a pet, the loss of a job, and even the loss of an inanimate object. Yes,
even when a person loses her keys, she may go through the five stages of dying.
First, she denies the loss of the keys. "Oh, I know they are around here somewhere." She
patiently looks in her pockets and through her dressers knowing any minute she will find the
keys. But soon, she begins to realize she has searched out all of the logical locations. Now
you begin to see anger. Slamming the drawers, throwing the pillow of the couch, swearing at
those darned keys for disappearing. Then comes bargaining: "If I ever find those keys I will
never misplace them again. I will put them in a nice safe place." It is almost like she is asking
the keys to come out and assuring them she will never abuse them again. Soon, she realizes
the keys are gone. She is depressed. How will she ever again survive in this world without her
keys? Then, she finally accepts the fact the keys are gone. She goes out and has a new set
made. Life goes on. A week later the lost keys are forgotten.
What does all this have to do with why people don't quit smoking? People who attempt to give
up smoking go through these five stages. They must successfully overcome each specific
phase to deal with the next. Some people have particular difficulty conquering a specific phase,
causing them to relapse back to smoking. Let's analyze these specific phases as encountered
by the abstaining smoker.
The first question asked of the group during the smoking clinic was, "How many of you feel that
you will never smoke again?" Do you remember the under-whelming response to that question?
It is remarkable for even one or two people to raise their hands. For the most part the entire
group is in a state of denial - they will not quit smoking. Other prevalent manifestations of
denial are: "I don't want to quit smoking," or "I am perfectly healthy while smoking, so why
should I stop," or "I am different, I can control my smoking at one or two a day." These people,
through their denial, set up obstacles to even attempt quitting and hence have very little chance
of success.
Those who successfully overcome denial progress to anger. We hear so many stories of how
difficult it is to live with a recovering smoker. Your friends avoid you, your employer sends you
home, sometimes permanently, and you are generally no fun to be with. Most smokers do
successfully beat this stage.
Bargaining is probably the most dangerous stage in the effort to stop smoking. "Oh boy, I could
sneak this one and nobody will ever know it." "Things are really tough today, I will just have one
to help me over this problem, no more after that." "Maybe I'll just smoke today, and quit again
tomorrow." It may be months before these people even attempt to quit again.
Depression usually follows once you successfully overcome bargaining without taking that first
drag. For the first time you start to believe you may actually quit smoking. But instead of being
overjoyed, you start to feel like you are giving up your best friend. You remember the good
times with cigarettes and disregard the detrimental effects of this dangerous and dirty addiction.
At this point more than ever "one day at a time" becomes a life saver. Because tomorrow may
bring acceptance.
Once you reach the stage of acceptance, you get a true perspective of what smoking was doing
to you and what not smoking can do for you. Within two weeks the addiction is broken and,
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hopefully, the stages are successfully overcome and, finally, life goes on.
Life becomes much simpler, happier and more manageable as an ex-smoker. Your self esteem
is greatly boosted. Your physical state is much better than it would ever have been if you
continued to smoke. It is a marvelous state of freedom. Anyone can break the addiction and
beat the stages. Then all you must do to maintain this freedom is simply remember - NEVER
TAKE ANOTHER PUFF!
Joel Spitzer
© Joel Spitzer 1982, 2000
New Reactions to Anger as an Ex-smoker
Dealing with emotional loss has similarities to dealing with anger in regards to smoking
cessation and its aftermath. When smokers encounters a person or situation that angers them,
they initially feel the frustration of the moment, making them -- depending on the severity of the
situation -- churn inside. This effect in non-smokers or even ex-smokers is annoying to say the
least. The only thing that resolves the internal conflict for a person not in the midst of an active
addiction is resolution of the situation or, in the case of a situation which doesn’t lend itself to a
quick resolution, time to assimilate the frustration and in a sense move on. An active smoker
though, facing the exact same stress has an additional complication which even though they
don’t recognize it, this complication creates significant implications to their smoking behavior
and belief structures regarding the benefit of smoking.
When a person encounters stress, it has a physiological effect causing acidification of urine. In
non-active tobacco users, urine acidity has no real perceivable effect. It is something that
internally happens and they don’t know it, and actually, probably don’t care to know. Nicotine
users are more complex. When a person maintaining any level of nicotine in his body
encounters stress, the urine acidifies and this process causes nicotine to be pulled from the
bloodstream, not even becoming metabolized, and into the urinary bladder. This then in fact
drops the brain's supply of nicotine, throwing the smoker into drug withdrawal. Now he is really
churning inside, not just from the initial stress, but also from the effects of withdrawal.
Interestingly enough, even if the stress is resolved, the smoker generally is still not going to feel
good. The withdrawal isn’t eased by the conflict resolution, only by re-administration of
nicotine, or, even better, riding out the withdrawal for 72 hours. This totally eliminates nicotine
via excretion from the body, metabolizing it into by-products that don’t cause withdrawal. Most
of the time, the active smoker uses the first method to alleviate withdrawal, taking another
cigarette. While it calms him down for the moment, its effect is short lived, basically having to
be redone every 20 minutes to half hour for the rest of the smoker’s life to permanently stave off
the symptoms.
Even though this is a false calming effect, since it doesn’t really calm the stress, it just replaces
the nicotine loss from the stress, the smoker feels it helped him deal with the conflict. It
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reaching than just making initial stress effects more severe. It affects how the person may deal
with conflict and sadness in a way that may not be obvious, but is nonetheless serious. In a
way, it affects his ability to communicate and maybe even in some way, grow from the
experience.
Here is simple example of what I mean. Let’s say you don’t like the way a significant other in
your life squeezes toothpaste. If you point out how it’s a problem to you in a calm rational
manner, maybe the person will change and do it a way that is not disturbing to you. By
communicating your feelings you make a minor annoyance basically disappear. But now let’s
say you’re a smoker who sees the tube of toothpaste, gets a little upset, and is about to say
something, again, to address the problem. But wait. Because you are a little annoyed, you
lose nicotine, go into withdrawal, and before you are able to deal with the problem, you have to
go smoke. You smoke, alleviate the withdrawal and, in fact, you feel better. At the same time,
you put a little time between you and the toothpaste situation and on further evaluation, you
decide it’s not that big of a deal, forget it. Sounds like and feels like you resolved the stress.
But in fact, you didn’t. You suppressed the feeling. It is still there, not resolved, not
communicated. Next time it happens again, you again get mad. You go into withdrawal. You
have to smoke. You repeat the cycle, again not communicating and not resolving the conflict.
Over and over again, maybe for years this pattern is repeated.
One day you quit smoking. You may in fact be off for weeks, maybe months. All of a sudden,
one day the exact problem presents itself again, that annoying toothpaste. You don’t have that
automatic withdrawal kicking in and pulling you away from the situation. You see it, nothing
else affecting you and you blow up. If the person is within earshot, you may explode. When
you look back in retrospect, you feel you have blown up inappropriately, the reaction was
greatly exaggerated for the situation. You faced it hundreds of times before and nothing like
this ever happened. You begin to question what happened to you to turn you into such a
horrible or explosive person. Understand what happened. You are not blowing up at what just
happened, you are blowing up for what has been bothering you for years and now, because of
the build up of frustration, you are blowing up much more severely than you ever would have if
you addressed it early on. It is like pulling a cork out of a shaken carbonated bottle, the more
shaken, the worse the explosion.
What smoking had done over the years was to stop you from dealing with feelings early on.
Instead, they festered and grew to a point where when they came out, it was more severe than
when initially encountered. Understand something though. If you had not quit smoking, the
feelings sooner or later would manifest, either by a similar reaction as the blowup or by physical
manifestations which ongoing unresolved stress has the full potential of causing. Many
relationships end because of clamming up early on effectively shutting down conflict resolution
by communication between partners. There’s only one way to guarantee that early nicotine
withdrawal never interferes with your conflict resolution and communications skills again, by
keeping in practice your commitment to NEVER TAKE ANOTHER PUFF!
Joel
© Joel Spitzer 2002
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The Smoking Dream
Smoking dreams are common if not universal among ex-smokers. It is especially common
when a person is off a short time period, and if it occurs within days or weeks of quitting, it is
likely to be extremely disturbing and very realistic. Realistic enough in fact that the ex-smoker
will wake-up smelling and tasting a cigarette, convinced that he or she has actually smoked. I
have had numerous clinic participants search the house for the butt, it was that realistic of a
sensation. Let me explain first why the physical sensation is so pronounced.
When first quitting, one of the early physical repairs that start up is cilia production. Cilia are tiny
hair-like projections that line your trachea and bronchus, constantly sweeping particulate matter
out of your lungs. When you smoked, you first slowed down, then paralyzed and would
eventually destroy cilia. This is why smokers often have more colds and flues, they wipe out the
first line of defense against the incoming microbes causing these illnesses.
When a person stops smoking, usually within 72 hours or so, cilia starts to regenerate. The exsmoker may start cleaning out the lung in a matter of days. One of the early symptoms first
encountered is coughing and spitting out, this is mucous and trapped matter that was never
being cleaned out efficiently while smoking but now has an escape route and mechanism to
start sweeping it. Ugly but good, you are starting to clean out a lot of garbage in your lung.
Much of the garbage is tobacco tar--tobacco tars that have a very distinct taste and smell.
Let’s say you are dreaming now, maybe a totally innocuous dream having nothing to do with
smoking. While sleeping, cilia are sweeping, tobacco tars get brought up, reach sensory nerves
for taste and smell and low and behold, you create a dream sequence involving a cigarette. But
not only are you now dreaming, physical sensations of taste and smell persist upon awakening.
This then becomes a real smoking sensation.
This gives a plausible explanation of why the dream occurred and why it was so vivid. But that
is not the end of the significance of the dream. The dream can be interpreted in one of two
ways upon awakening, and quit often, the ex-smoker takes it as a sign that they actually want to
smoke. After all, they had been off smoking and just dreamt about it, that means they want to
smoke, right?
I used to get calls in the middle of the night for clinic participants panicked by the dream. They
would start off saying, "They can’t believe it, off all this time and they still want to smoke." They
knew they wanted to smoke because they dreamt about it. I would then ask them to describe
the dream. They would tell about the vividness and realism, and they would almost always say
it started to take on a nightmarish proportion. They would wake up in a sweat, often crying,
thinking that they just smoked and blew the whole thing, that they were now back to square
one. That all that time off smoking was wasted.
As soon as they would finish describing their feelings, I pointed out one very obvious fact. They
just dreamt they smoked and assumed that meant that they wanted to smoke. They woke up
and upon further clarification, they describe the dream was a nightmare. This is not the dream
of someone who wants to smoke; it is the dream of someone who is afraid of smoking. This is a
legitimate fear considering the ex-smoker is fighting a powerful and deadly addiction. Hence, it
is a legitimate dream too. It kind of gives you a sense of how bad you would feel if you actually
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do go back to smoking. Not physically speaking but psychologically. If the dream is a nightmare
it makes you realize how bad this feeling is without having to actually have smoked and fallen
into the grasp of nicotine addiction again. It can give you some perspective about how important
not smoking is to your mental health.
The dangerous dream is when you smoke a whole pack in it, hack and cough, get socially
ostracized, develop some horrible illness, end up on your death bed about to let out your final
live breath—and all of a sudden wake up with a smile on your face and say, "that was great,
wish I could do that when I am awake." As long as that is not the dream you were having, I
wouldn’t let myself get to discouraged by it. If that is the dream, then we may need to talk more.
In regards to smoking, no matter what you do in your dreams you will be OK as long as you
remember in your waking state to Never Take Another Puff!
Joel
© Joel Spitzer 2002
The Caffeine/Nicotine Interaction
If you feel jittery, extra anxious or are having trouble sleeping after a few days, take a look at
your caffeine consumption levels. As shown by the below study, nicotine doubles the rate at
which the body depletes caffeine and some caffeine users may find that they cannot tolerate
caffeine consumption at pre-quitting levels. If you are feeling extra anxious or jittery you may
want to experiment with reducing the quantity or strength of caffeinated drinks or products. If
you are not having these difficulties it probably is not important to alter anything now.
As previously discussed there is also a nicotine/alcohol interaction. Nicotine is an alkaloid and
alcohol an acid generating event within the body. When smokers drink alcohol it causes them
to lose nicotine at an accelerated pace thus resulting in heavier smoking while drinking.
Although the situation is similar to caffeine there is one huge difference. Alcohol makes you
lose nicotine, thus being responsible for making smokers smoke more when drinking.
Nicotine on the other hand interferes with the body's ability to absorb and utilize caffeine, often
resulting in a person using more caffeine in order to maintain their minimum needed level.
When they quit smoking and continue to consume the exact same amount of caffeine they
could find themselves actually overdosing on caffeine.
So look closely at caffeine if symptoms persist longer than a few days. You don’t need to get
rid of it all together but just keep it in doses that will not cause unwanted effects. Your general
state will likely be calmer and you’ll experience a feeling of overall well-being that you should be
able to maintain for the rest of your life, as long as you always remember to be mindful of over
stimulation with caffeine and always remember to Never Take Another Puff!
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Joel
© Joel Spitzer 2002
The impact of caffeine use on tobacco cessation and withdrawal.
Addictive Behavior 1997 Jan-Feb;22(1): pages 55-68
Swanson JA, Lee JW, Hopp JW, Berk LS.
“Continuous caffeine consumption with smoking cessation has been associated
with more than doubled caffeine plasma levels. Such concentrations may be
sufficient to produce caffeine toxicity symptoms in smoking abstinence conditions.
To test whether caffeine abstinence influences smoking cessation, 162 caffeineusing smokers were enlisted from American Lung Association smoking cessation
programs. Volunteers were randomly assigned by clinic to caffeine-use and
caffeine-abstinence conditions and measured for 3 weeks post-smoking
cessation, at 6 months and one year. Results showed a significant linear increase
in caffeine sputum levels across 3 weeks post cessation for those who quit
smoking and continued using caffeine. Three weeks after cessation,
concentrations reached 203% of baseline for the caffeine user.”
Time Distortion
Keep a clock or watch handy because when an urge hits the rising tide of anxiety
accompanying it tends to distort time. When first told that crave episodes were less than three
(3) minutes in duration I laughed at the assertion because, if true, there were many times during
this and a dozen prior humbling experiences where those three minutes felt more like three
hours. Now, findings of a new study suggest that time distortion may be an actual symptom of
nicotine cessation.
In considering timing any anxiety event, be sure and make a distinction between the less than
three (3) minute subconsciously triggered crave episode brought on by encountering one of
your un-reconditioned nicotine feeding cues (a time, place, emotion, location, event during
which you've trained your subconscious mind to expect the arrival of new nicotine) and
consciously allowing yourself to fixate on a "thought" of wanting to smoke (more akin to "gee, I
sure wish I had a nice juicy steak!") which can last for as long as you desire to consciously
fixate upon thoughts of smoking.
This time distortion study also gives added weight to the age-old yet critical step of investing a
few moments to document what daily life as an endlessly feeding nicotine addict was really like
and all your reasons and dreams - your recovery fuel - for wanting to arrest your chemical
dependency, stop the roller-coaster, and return your mind to that almost constant sense of quiet
calmness that prevailed before introducing and permanently marrying nicotine to your brain
reward pathways.
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When you are out there in the middle of this temporary period of adjustment called "quitting"
and time distortions start leading you to believe that you have been there for far longer than you
actually have, a short loving letter from "you" to "you" that reinforces why completing this
journey - "just one day at a time" - is so important, can be like reaching for a full canteen while
crossing a simmering desert.
As you learn to reach out and embrace your craves, while learning why each and every episode is a
necessary and amazing part of recovery, you may want to keep one eye on the clock as you continue
following the only rule that 100% guarantees success for all - no nicotine, Never Take Another Puff!
John
Smoking Abstinence Impairs Time Estimation
Accuracy in Cigarette Smokers
Psychopharmacology Bulletin (May) 2003; 37(1): 90-95
Laura Cousino Klein, PhD, Elizabeth J. Corwin, PhD, and Michele M. Stine, MEd
Study Abstract - Time estimation is used as an index of attention processes and may be
sensitive to self-administration and withdrawal of psychoactive drugs such as nicotine, the
primary addictive ingredient in tobacco.
Procedure: To test this hypothesis, 22 nonsmokers (12 male, 10 female) and 20 daily cigarette
smokers (12 male, 8 female) were asked to estimate the duration of a 45-second period of time
in a laboratory setting. Smokers participated in two sessions: once after smoking ad-lib and
once after objectively confirmed 24-hour smoking abstinence.
Results: In smokers, time estimation accuracy was impaired after smoking abstinence
compared to accuracy after ad-lib smoking (P<.01). Relative to nonsmokers, smokers’ time
estimation accuracy differed significantly after the abstinence period only (P=.05). Smokers
reported feeling more stressed and unable to focus after abstinence relative to nonsmokers
(P<.05). No gender differences were observed on any outcome measures.
Conclusion: These results suggest that, in a controlled laboratory setting, smoking abstinence
has a negative impact on time perception, which may contribute to the performance decrements
and discomfort that smokers report during an attempt to quit.
Copyright MedWorks Media LLC, 2001. All rights reserved
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Embracing Craves
All your life you have been conditioned to either stand and fight or turn and run when faced with
challenge. If you are just commencing nicotine dependency recovery then chances are there is
another subconsciously conditioned trigger waiting around the corner that will soon generate a
short yet powerful anxiety attack that we call a crave. The trigging cue could be an emotion,
time, event or place where, or during which, you used to suck warm nicotine laden air into
crying lungs in order to replenish your blood’s rapidly falling nicotine level.
The good news is that most triggers are reconditioned and discarded by the subconscious mind
with just a single encounter. The good news is that the triggered crave episode will last less
than three minutes. The good news is that the anxiety power of our crave generator is fizzling
fast, and with each encountered crave there is one less trigger to recondition. The good news is
that the reward of total and complete comfort and new expectations of awaking each day and
not wanting for nicotine is just down the road. The bad news is that if you’re just beginning this
amazing temporary journey of adjustment then there is probably another crave just around the
corner. But is it bad?
So what approach do you use? Do you duck or run when you sense one coming or do you turn
and fight? Is your game plan working to your satisfaction? Our objective here is simple NEVER TAKE ANOTHER PUFF, but our natural instincts on how best to achieve our objective
may not be the easiest path to travel. Can we hide from our craves or will they find us anyway?
Can we runaway from them or will they catch us? It’s the same with going toe to toe in battle,
isn’t it? Can we beat-up our craves and make them surrender or cry "uncle"? Can we scare
them away? Encountering all of our triggers and craves is a very necessary part of recovering
and normalizing every aspect of our daily lives. It’s true healing and we should fully embrace it!
Tobacco’s deadly cargo is clearly a killer but what about craves? Can a crave that lasts a
couple of minutes kill you? Will it cut you, make you bleed, or send you to the emergency
room? Can it physically harm you? If not, then why fear it so? How much of the anxiety
associated with your recovery is self-induced? Why agonize over the anticipated arrival of that
next crave? Doing so will only fuels the fire.
The anxiety of a craving for nicotine is very real and it’s ok to reach out and feel it but most are
afraid to do so. Instead, what they feel is a tremendously inflated experience driven by fear,
fueled by anticipation, and tense due to a history of prior relapse. Just once, stop running, drop
your guard, take slow deep deliberate breaths and then reach out and touch your crave. It won’t
injure you.
It’s ok to be afraid but be brave for just one moment. Wrap your arms around your next anxiety
event. Clear your mind for just one moment so that you can feel the true anxiety of your
healing. Make sure that you feel your tummy rising and falling as you take slow deep deliberate
breaths into the bottom of both lungs. Clear your mind of all needless quitting chatter, worries,
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fears and thoughts so that you can sense and appreciate exactly what this crave is like.
Touch it, hug it, feel it, sense it! You won’t make the anxiety one bit more intense than it
otherwise would have been. You’re witnessing part of the most beautiful healing that your mind,
body and life may ever experience. Yes, there is anxiety there but for the very first time it’s not
being fed and fueled by you. Feel it’s strength slowing begin decaying. Take pride in your
healing. It can’t hurt you. Only you can do that. Enjoy your recovery don’t fear it. Embrace
your craves. Enjoy your journey home as there is very special person waiting at the other end.
Breathe deep, hug hard, live long!
John R. Polito
“I smoke because I like smoking”
Ask almost any current smoker why she continues to indulge in such a dangerous activity and
she will normally reply, "Because I like smoking." While she may say this in all honesty, it is a
very misleading statement, both to the listener and to the smoker herself. She does not smoke
because she enjoys smoking; rather she smokes because she does not enjoy not smoking.
Nicotine is a powerfully addictive drug. The smoker is in a constant battle to maintain a narrow
range of nicotine in her blood stream (serum nicotine level). Every time the smoker's serum
nicotine level falls below the minimum limit, she experiences drug withdrawal. She becomes
tense, irritable, anxious and, in some cases, even shows physical symptoms. She does not
enjoy feeling these withdrawals. The only thing that will alleviate these acute symptoms will be
a cigarette. The nicotine loss is then replenished and, hence, the smoker feels better. She
enjoyed smoking.
A smoker must also be cautious not to exceed his upper limit of tolerance for nicotine or else
suffer varying degrees of nicotine poisoning. Many smokers can attest to this condition. It
usually occurs after parties or extremely tense situations when smokers find themselves
exceeding their normal level of consumption. They feel sick, nauseous, dizzy and generally
miserable.
Being a successful smoker is like being an accomplished tightrope walker. The smoker must
constantly maintain a balance between these two painful extremes of too much or too little
nicotine. The fear that accompanies initial smoking cessation is that the rest of the ex-smoker's
entire life will be as horrible as the first few days without cigarettes. What ex-smokers will learn
is that within a short period of time, the physical withdrawal will start to diminish. First, the
urges will weaken in intensity and then become shorter in duration. There will be longer time
intervals between urges. It will eventually reach the point where the ex-smoker will desire a
cigarette very infrequently, if ever. Those who continue to smoke will continue to be in a
constant battle of maintaining their serum nicotine level.
Included in this battle is the great expense of buying pack after pack and the dangerous assault
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on the smoker's body of inhaling the poison nicotine along with over 4,000 other toxic chemicals
which comprise the tars and gasses produced from the combustion of tobacco. These
chemicals are deadly by themselves and even more so in combination.
So the next time you think of how much you once seemed to enjoy cigarettes, sit back and take
a serious, objective look at why you have such an idealization of this dangerous product.
Consider all the consequences. You will probably realize that you feel physically and mentally
better now than you ever did as a smoker. Consider all of this and - NEVER TAKE ANOTHER
PUFF!
Joel
© Joel Spitzer 1983, 2000
“You said it would get better.”
“It's just as bad as the day I quit smoking!”
Recently I was met with this warm greeting from a clinic participant on his eighth day without
smoking. As you may recall, we explain during the clinic that if a smoker can get through the
first three days without smoking, the physiological withdrawal will start to diminish, and within
two weeks all physiological withdrawal will stop.
While we can accurately predict the physiological withdrawal, psychological withdrawals can
occur at anytime. It is possible that the urge this man was having was just as painful as the
ones he had a week earlier. While the urge may have been as strong, it was different. When
he had an urge before, there was really nothing he could do to get over it. If he just held out a
few minutes, the urge would pass. But psychological urges are more under the ex-smoker's
conscious control. A good analogy demonstrating the difference between physiological and
psychological pain can be seen by analyzing a common toothache.
A rotting tooth can cause a lot of pain. If your dentist explains to you why the tooth hurts it
really doesn't resolve the situation. You know why it hurts, but it still hurts. Simply
understanding physical pain does not make the pain go away.
To illustrate another point, say you go to the dentist and find out that you have a cavity. He has
to drill the tooth and put in a filling. The drilling can be a very rough experience. After it is all
over the pain will stop, but whenever you hear the sound of a dentist's drill, even if it's years
later, you cringe at the thought of the pain. Once you realize that you are simply reacting to the
sound, you know that you are not really in danger and the reaction will end. Understanding the
root of the fear alleviates the anxiety and the associated pain.
Any urges for cigarettes that occur today are reactions to conditioned triggers. You are doing or
experiencing something for the first time without smoking. It may be going to a bar, a wedding
or going on a plane. It may be seeing a person or being in a place where you always had a
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cigarette in the past. It may be something you hear or even an old familiar aroma. The sense
of smell is a powerful mechanism for triggering old emotional feelings.
So today, if you find yourself desiring a cigarette, look around you and see why at this particular
time and place a cigarette is on your mind. Once you understand that the desire is being
triggered by some reaction to an insignificant event, you can just say "no" to the cigarette
without further problem. All you need to do is understand what triggered the thought. The urge
will pass. The next time you encounter a similar situation you will not even think of a cigarette.
You will have learned how to face another experience as an ex-smoker.
Quitting smoking is a learning experience. Every time you overcome an urge you will have
overcome another obstacle that threatened your status as an ex-smoker. As time goes by, you
will run out of obstacles and you can comfortably go through life a happier and healthier
person. All you need to remember and practice to stay an ex-smoker is - NEVER TAKE
ANOTHER PUFF.
Joel
© Joel Spitzer 1982, 2000
Every Quit is Different
Every quit is different. Not only that, but when a person quits multiple times, each one of those
quits is different also. Some people quit and have a terrible time, relapse down the road and are
terrified to quit again because they "know" what will happen the next time. Well, actually they
don't know. The next time may be a breeze in comparison. On the alternate side, some people
have an easy quit, go back with the attitude, "Oh well, if I have to, I'll just quit again." They may
find the next quit horrendous, and possibly not be able to pull it off.
The reason I mention this is it is possible that you won't have any major symptoms this time. I
have had a lot of four pack a day smokers who smoked 40 plus years who toss them with
minimal withdrawal or discomfort. The reason they never tried to quit before is that they
witnessed people who smoked one fourth of what they did go thorough terrible side effects and
figured, "If it did that to them, it will kill me." But when the time came, their quit was easy in
comparison.
You may find that this quit will be relatively easy. Stranger things have happened. But if it does,
don't think that this doesn't mean that you were not addicted. The factor that really shows the
addiction is not how hard or how easy it is to quit. What really shows the addiction is how
universally easy it is to go back. One puff and the quit can go out the window.
Summing up, the first few days may be relatively easy, or for some, it may be very difficult. Who
knows? The only thing we know is that once you get past the third day nicotine free, it will ease
up physically. Psychological triggers will still exist but more controllable measures can be taken
with them, basically keeping your ammunition up for why you don't want to be a smoker.
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Easy or hard, quitting is worth it. Once you have quit for even a few hours, you have invested
some effort, time, and maybe even a little pain. Make this effort count for something. As long as
you hang in there now, all of this will have accomplished a goal. It got you off of cigarettes. After
that, to stay off, the make or break point simply translates to knowing to NEVER TAKE
ANOTHER PUFF! ANOTHER PUFF!
Joel
© Joel Spitzer 2002
How effective are over-the-counter NRT products?
We nicotine addicts have been lied to by so many for so long that it's getting hard to believe.
One of the biggest lies of all is that few successful quitters are quitting cold turkey, that you
have to be a superhero to do so, or that it requires a Herculean effort to succeed.
To the contrary, even today with smokers being drowned in a sea of magic cures that include
NRT products, Zyban, Wellbutrin, magic herbs, the traveling hypnotist, Smoke-Away,
acupuncture, and every quick fix magic cure ever devised by man, the American Cancer
Society's 2003 Cancer Facts and Figures report asserts that 91.2% of all successful long-term
quitters quit entirely on their own. When it comes to magic quitting cures there is only one cure
with the potential to keep you 100% nicotine free for the remainder of your life and it is "you!"
The websites and commercials of those marketing nicotine replacement therapy products (the
nicotine patch, gum, inhaler and lozenge) are not advertising the fact that a March 2003 study,
published in Tobacco Control, combined and average all over-the-counter NRT patch and gum
studies and found that 93% had relapsed to smoking within six-months. It’s even worse as a
November 2003 study (also published in Tobacco Control) found that as many as 7% of
nicotine gum quitters and 2% of patch users may still be dependent upon the gum or patch at
six months.
Nor will those with a financial stake tell you that if you've already tried quitting with the nicotine
patch once that they have known since as early as 1993 that your odds during a second or
subsequent attempt drop to almost zero (see Tonnesen, Addiction, April 1993). Also don't
expect them to reveal that 36.6% of all current nicotine gum users are chronic long-term users
of greater than 6 months (see Shiffman, Addiction, Jan. 2004), but why?
The hypnotist and acupuncturist will never tell you that governments around the world (including
the U.S.) have reviewed all credible studies and found no evidence whatsoever that either is
effective in helping smokers quit. Why? They're not telling you the truth because they know
just how badly you want to break free and know you're willing to pay hard earned money for a
quick and painless magic cure.
If you are able to get your brain's dopamine, adrenaline and serotonin pathways adjusted to
again functioning without nicotine while continuing to use it, be proud of yourself because you
are in fact a superhero. But if you are among the 93 out of 100 first time NRT users who
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quickly relapse, or among the nearly 100% who gave the patch a second try and again fell flat
on your face, then don't get discouraged as you are in some wonderful company.
There is only one quitting aid that can 100% guarantee success and it is you!
John R. Polito
Minimizing Weight Gain
You may have heard that you can’t deal with weight control issues at the same time as quitting
smoking. It may be fine for some people to gorge themselves while quitting smoking and deal
with the weight at a later time. The health implication of a minor weight gain is negligible in
comparison to the health risks posed by smoking. The average smoker would have to gain
over 75 to 100 pounds to put the additional workload on the heart that is experienced by
smoking, and this is not saying anything about the smoking cancer risk.
But for aesthetic and emotional reasons, allowing uncontrolled eating and the inevitable weight
gain is a mistake that will often undermine the quitting process. Discouragement over
appearance can cause some to return to smoking. Then the smoker has the additional problem
of the extra weight combined with smoking. Sometimes the weight does not automatically
disappear by simply relapsing back to smoking.
Weight gain following smoking cessation can be due to several factors. Smoking can have an
effect on a person’s metabolism and thus quitting can account for a small weight gain in some
individuals. Gains of 5 to 10 pounds over a number of months can be attributed to metabolic
alterations in some individuals. But once weight gain exceeds 10 pounds, other factors are
more probably responsible.
Snacking between meals or increasing the overall size of meals, can easily result in the
consuming of several hundred extra calories per day. Eating just an additional 100 calories a
day will result in a one-pound fat gain in just over a month, 10.4 pounds in one year, and an
extra 104 pounds in ten years. One hundred four pounds of fat from drinking the equivalent of
one extra soft drink per day. This is why you often hear, "I didn’t eat that much more but gained
excessive amounts of weight!" True, they may not have eaten that much more daily, but they
did it everyday, and the cumulative effect can easily account for the "mysterious" weight gain.
Some ex-smokers eat more because they are just hungrier. They find themselves snacking
between meals or needing to eat at times that were never necessary before. If they wait to eat
too late in the day or there is too much time between meals, they may start to experience
symptoms such as headaches, sleepiness or lack of energy. This can be a real side effect of
smoking cessation.
The reason for the new sense of hunger is due to the fact that nicotine is an appetite
suppressant. Smoking between meals seems to eradicate the need for the snacking behaviors
experienced by many ex-smokers. Nicotine does this by elevating the blood sugar and blood
fat levels, basically tricking the body into thinking that it has eaten more than it actually has.
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While that may help to control weight, it does so at a risk. Cigarettes used as an appetite
suppressant can cause cancer, heart disease, strokes and a host of other illnesses.
The ex-smoker is no longer constantly administering an appetite suppressant. This does not
mean he or she needs to increase caloric intake. It may be a matter of redistributing food
normally eaten at single sittings at large meals into numerous smaller meals spaced throughout
the day. This can allow for the snacking between meals ex-smokers are notorious for without
increasing overall caloric intake. As an example, if breakfast consists of cereal, muffin, eggs,
and a glass of juice, instead of eating all that food in one sitting, it can be dispersed over two or
three times keeping a more even distribution of blood sugar throughout the morning hours. The
same rule can apply to lunch and dinner, allowing for numerous snacking times throughout the
day.
A more insidious mechanism of increased caloric intake can be experienced by unwittingly
eating more at the end of meals. The smoking of a cigarette used to signify the end of a meal.
With no cigarette to serve as a cue, the ex-smoker may continue to consume extra food after
every meal whether or not he or she is hungry. The ex-smoker may not even know that he has
eaten more in the process.
One solution to this behavior can be planning the meal out in advance. Calculate and prepare
the amount of food you used to consume while smoking and acknowledge to yourself that you
have finished. Another way is leave the table immediately upon completion of the meal. If you
must stay at the table have a glass of cold water or a non-caloric beverage present. Don’t
leave a plate with scraps or desserts in easy reach.
Another very good solution is getting up and brushing your teeth. This can become the new
cue for the end of the meal as well as improve dental hygiene. The clean feeling in your mouth
may be a new pleasurable experience for an ex-smoker. While smoking, brushing of the teeth
was often followed by a cigarette, compromising the overall cleansing process.
Besides controlling consumption, exercise is another tool to help with weight control efforts after
quitting smoking. Twenty to thirty minutes of exercise done every other day can offset the
metabolic alteration accompanied by smoking cessation. If you are eating "a little more," then
more exercise can help offset that, too. But be realistic. You have to do a lot of activity to burn
off a relatively small amount of food. That is not to say it is a waste of time to exercise to lose
weight; just don’t eat food with a shovel and go for a short walk and expect to work off the
difference.
Successful weight control while quitting smoking can be accomplished with a little extra effort
and planning. If weight gain is experienced during smoking cessation, steps should be
implemented as soon as possible to reverse the process. Then to maintain a healthy lifestyle,
watch your food consumption, exercise regularly, and most importantly - NEVER TAKE
ANOTHER PUFF!
Joel Spitzer
© Joel Spitzer 1997, 2000
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Caring for Your Recovery
The recovered cocaine addict, the heroin addict, the nicotine addict, each knows the law of
addiction. They’ve heard it over and over and over. Just one, just once, that's all it ever takes
and it's back! They’ve also read or heard about the relapse study data indicating that 95% to
97% of recovered addicts who take just one puff, one hit, one snort or one injection, experience
full and complete relapse. They know the rule of addiction and they know what happens if they
break it. Then why do we?
There are three primary factors associated with relapse: (1) rewriting the law of addiction; (2) an
excuse; and (3) a vague memory. It doesn’t matter if it happens within two weeks after quitting,
two months, two years, or twenty years, the factors remain the same and apply to all of us.
Rewriting the law of addiction is easy and you don’t need a pencil, paper or computer to do it.
“Just one puff” and then “do not pass go, do not collect $200, but go directly to the addict’s
prison and surrender your freedom for good.” It isn’t that the recovering nicotine addict doesn’t
know or believe the law of addiction, because we do. It’s just that we begin to believe that
we’re the exception. We convince ourselves that we’re stronger than those who wrote the law,
and wiser than the addicts who came before us. We amend the law. We put ourselves above
it. “Just one, it’ll be ok, I can handle it, I'm stronger than the others, a little reward, it's been a
while, I’ve earned it.”
I’m sorry. As soon as those words are spoken, it's over. Instead of saying that you can handle“
just one ,” a truthful statement would have been “I can handle them all, give them all back to
me, my entire addiction, all the ashtrays, the coughs, the smells, I want it all back.” It’s far
easier to create an exception to the “law” than to admit the truth. A one pack a day addiction is
7,300 cigarettes a year. Don’t picture smoking just one. Picture smoking 7,300 each and every
year. “To thine own self be true.” You deserve the truth - you paid the price - you earned it.
The excuse can be anything. Usually the addict waits for that great excuse to come along, but
some get tired of waiting and any old excuse will do. Even joy! A reunion with an old smoking
buddy, a few drinks with friends, a wedding, a graduation, or even a baby’s birth and a free
nicotine laden cigar, why not! But joyful relapse is harder to explain to yourself and to those
you love.
The smart nicotine addict waits for the great excuse, the one that we know we can sell to
ourselves and others. As sick as it may sound, the easiest to sell and the best of all is the
death of a loved one. Although everyone we love is destined to die and it will happen sooner or
later, for the reformed addict it’s the perfect excuse for relapse. I mean, who can blame us for
ingesting highly addictive drugs into our bodies upon our mother’s death. Anyone who does
would have to be extremely insensitive or totally heartless! Right? Losing a job, the end of a
relationship, illness, disease or financial problems are all are great excuses too - it’s drug time
again! The addict is back!
But an excuse doesn’t work alone. It needs help. Failing memories of “why” we were willing to
climb walls and endure tremendous internal agony in order to break free, breathes fatal life into
any excuse. Most of us failed to keep a detailed record of why we quit or what it was like.
Instead, we're forced to rely upon our memory to accurately and vividly preserve the truth, the
whole truth and nothing but the truth. But now, the memory in which we placed all our trust has
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failed us.
It isn’t that your memory is bad, faulty or doing anything wrong. In fact, it’s working as it should
to preserve in as much detail as possible the joyful events of life, while forgetting, as quickly as
possible, all the pain and hurt that we’ve felt, including all of the wrong we’ve done. To have our
brains do otherwise would make life inside our minds unbearable. If women were forced to
remember the true agony and intense pain of childbirth, most would have just one. God
blessed us with the gift to forget.
So how does the reformed nicotine addict who failed to keep accurate records of their journey,
revive their passion for freedom and recall the price they paid for liberty. If we forget the past,
are we destined to repeat it? Not necessarily. It doesn’t have to be. But just as any loving
relationship needs nourishment to flourish, we can never take our quit for granted or the flame
will eventually die and the fire will go out. We have to want to protect it until the day we die.
We have to turn that "want" into action. If we do, we win. If not, our fate may be similar to
almost all who don’t - relapse followed by crippling disease or early death.
Whether daily, weekly or monthly our quit needs care. If you don’t have a detailed log to
regularly review upon each quit anniversary or birthday, do your best to create one now. Talk
to smoking friends and ask for help in revitalizing your memories. Encourage them to be as
truthful as possible. Although they may look like they’re enjoying smoking, their primary joy is in
keeping their body’s nicotine level within the comfort zone, so as to avoid the onset of early
withdrawal. Show them your pen and paper. Let them help make your list. You may even
spark their desire for freedom. Be kind and sincere. It wasn't long ago that those were our
shoes.
Think about that first week. What was it like? Can you still feel the powerful craves as your
body begged and cried to be fed? Can you still feel the pain? Do you see yourself not being
able to concentrate, having difficulty sleeping, feeling depressed, angry, irritable, frustrated,
restless, with tremendous anxiety, a foggy mind, sweating palms, rapidly cycling emotions,
irrational thinking, emotional outbursts or even the shakes? Do you remember these things?
Do you remember the price you paid for freedom?
If you have access to a computer, you wont’ need a smoker’s help. You can go on-line to
scores of smoking cessation support groups and find thousands of battles being fought, hear
tons of cries and watch hundreds who won’t make it through “Hell Week” to the hope that lies
beyond. Visit as often as possible. Make a few posts to those in need. Share your valuable
quit wisdom and give the gift of hope. Most don’t know what it’s like to be free. Most have few
remaining memories of the days before their addiction. Fear of the unknown is frightening.
Help them and in doing so help yourself.
If you find yourself attempting to rewrite the law of addiction, stop, think, remember, read,
revisit, revive and give to others, but most important, be honest with you. Terrible and
emotional events will happen in each of our lives - such is life. Relapse won’t fix, correct or
undo any of them. In your mind, plan for disaster today. How will you cope? What will do?
Remember, your addiction is real. Today it sleeps. Will it sleep tomorrow?
John R. Polito
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© WhyQuit.Com 2000, 2002
"Never Take Another Puff!"
I said it every day of the clinics, it's in almost all my posts, and you see it at the end of each of
these short articles. Even so, I still feel I cannot repeat it enough - NEVER TAKE ANOTHER
PUFF! It is not that I am afraid that you will like the cigarette and decide how wonderful going
back to smoking will be. To the contrary, it will probably make you dizzy, nauseous, and
generally sick. You may absolutely hate yourself for having done it. Even this, though, is not
the problem.
The real danger is the reinforcement of the nicotine addiction. It is a powerful addiction. One
puff can send you back to your old level of cigarette consumption within days. We have had
clinic participants who have previously quit smoking for periods exceeding 20 years. One day
they decide to try just one. Even after this great period of time, the first cigarette is enough to
start the whole addiction withdrawal process. They are again hooked on a drug and within days
their full chemical dependency returns. All of the physical dangers, psychological problems,
and tremendous expenses return to their previous levels.
If you do not believe this can happen to you, come into the first or second night of my next stop
smoking clinic. Listen to all of the new enrollees who are there to quit smoking. These are
people who were once off cigarettes for a substantial period of time before, people who liked
not smoking, people who loved not smoking, people who now need help to once again reclaim
their nonsmoking status because of one tragic mistake. They were not immune to the first
drag. The odds are, neither are you. Consider this the next time you have a passing thought
for a cigarette.
Now you have a choice. You can remain an ex-smoker or you can become an addicted smoker
once again. Consider both options carefully. Which way of life better suits you - a slave to a
deadly weed or a truly free person? The final decision is yours. If you choose the latter, simply
practice the following advice - NEVER TAKE ANOTHER PUFF!
Joel Spitzer
© Joel Spitzer 1982, 2000
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The Smoker’s Vow
To be said just before taking your first puff after having quit for any appreciable period of time
With this puff I enslave myself
to a lifetime of addiction.
While I can’t promise to always love you,
I do promise to obey every craving and
support my addiction to you
no matter how expensive you become.
I will let no husband or wife,
no family member or friend,
no doctor or any other health professional,
no employer or government policy,
no burns or no stench, no cough or raspy voice,
no cancer or emphysema,
no heart attack or stroke,
no threat of loss of life or limbs,
come between us.
I will smoke you forever
from this day forth,
for better or worse,
whether richer or poorer,
in sickness and in health,
till death do us part!
“You may now light the cigarette.”
“I now pronounce you a full-fledged smoker.”
Postscript: While 1 in 2 marriages end in divorce, the addiction to smoking will last a lifetime albeit a shorter lifetime. Once a smoker, annulment of the addiction is impossible. One puff
can result in a permanent relapse. Don’t take the chance of relapsing to this marriage of
inconvenience.
NEVER TAKE ANOTHER PUFF!
Joel Spitzer
© Joel Spitzer 1994, 2000
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Tearing Down the Wall
The final phase of nicotine dependency recovery is in either allowing sufficient time to pass so
that thoughts of wanting to smoke -- reflecting the mountain of denial garbage we constantly fed
ourselves over the years -- gradually fade away and stop haunting and replaying over and over
in the mind, or accelerating the process by seeing the arrival of each as a golden opportunity to
set the record straight.
Hooked - Imagine residing inside a mind chemically dependent upon a substance that
addiction experts contend may possibly be the most captivating of all. Although it isn't likely that
any of us then knew or realized that our brain had physically grown millions upon millions of
extra acetylcholine receptors, that it had de-sensitized select critical brain pathways from an
endless onslaught of nicotine, or that nicotine was in command and control over the flow of
more than 200 of our body’s neurochemicals, we didn't need to know the details.
We’d each already felt the punishing anxieties of waiting too long between nicotine feedings.
We knew we’d lost the autonomy to simply turn and walk away. Even though we’d tried to tune
it out, we also couldn't help but hear the dull roar of the endless stream of new study findings
telling us that each and every puff not only destroyed more of our body’s ability to receive and
transport life-giving oxygen, but that with it came a greater accumulation of the 43 carcinogens
present in each burning cigarette. We knew that a time-bomb was building in each of us.
Although clinging to the security blanket that all we suffered from was some "nasty little habit,"
deep down we knew we were hooked solid. So how did our conscious thinking mind cope with
the sobering reality that our brain was a slave to its own senseless self-destruction?
Dignity's Denial - How did we look in the mirror each morning and maintain any sense of
dignity, self-worth or self-respect while constantly being reminded that we were prisoners to
dependency, decay, disease, and that today we’d move closer to completing the act of
committing our own chemical suicide? It was easy - we learned to lie.
We each called upon our intelligence and conscious mind to help build a thick protective wall of
denial that not only insulated us from the hard cold realities of daily dependency but behind
which we could hide when those on the outside felt the need to remind us of who we really
were and what we were doing. Our basic tools for building the wall were conscious
rationalizations, minimizations and blame transference.
As soon as nicotine’s urge commands began telling us that smoking was no longer an optional
activity we each found ourselves forced to explain our involuntary obedience to them. Although
nicotine’s two-hour half-life inside our bloodstream was now the basic clock governing
mandatory feeding times, we each became very creative in providing alternative justifications
and explanations.
In our pre-dependency days we may have found honest pleasure in experiencing an unearned
flood of dopamine accompanied by a nicotine induced rush of adrenaline but once the feedings
became mandatory it didn’t matter how we felt about them. Choice was no longer an issue.
Even if we didn’t fully appreciate our new state of permanent chemical captivity, many of us
rationalized the situation based upon what we found ourselves doing.
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Building Protection - "I don’t do things that I don’t like to do," we reminded ourselves. "I
smoke lots and lots and lots of cigarettes, therefore I must really love smoking," instead of
"therefore, I must really be addicted to smoking nicotine." Not only were our "like" and "love"
rationalizations easier to swallow, they provided a conscious defense against those
encouraging us to stop. Yes, the first bricks in our wall of denial were now being cemented into
place, and made thicker with each empty pack.
Some of us hid from our dependency by blaming our chronic tobacco use on what we described
as tobacco smoke’s wonderful smell or taste. This rationalization brick not only ignored the over
600 flavor additives that the tobacco industry uses to engineer an amazing spectrum of smells
and tastes, it ignored the fact that hundreds of other plants, products and people smell good too
but we have never once found the need to light any of them on fire and suck them into our
lungs in order to complete the experience. But if man ever decides to soak any in nicotine,
stand back, as the nicotine addict will likely be burning them soon too.
One brick was our sense that we were each somehow able to control the uncontrollable. Some
of us purchased just one pack at a time, playing the endless mind game that tomorrow would
always be our last. Some intentionally never made a serious attempt so as to avoid having to
admit dependency. Others rationalized that since they only smoked a little more than 5 mg. of
nicotine daily (about 5 cigarettes) they were either less addicted than others, somehow better
than other smokers, or not addicted at all. And then there are our closest smokers - like my
grandmother - who constantly tried to convince us that the cloud of smoke rolling out of the
bathroom behind her really wasn’t there.
The most fatal control rationalization of all is the fraud of "just one," "just one little puff!"
Although a primary maxim of addiction is that "one is always too many and a thousand never
enough," instead of picturing all of them and the return of our entire dependency and the
endless destructive chain of feeding linked to it, we rationalized countless relapses by lying to
ourselves that we were stronger than nicotine and that we could smoke "just one." Why waste
time entertaining the repeating thought reflected by this brick when we now know it be a lie?
Each time our wall was pierced we simply added another brick. There was our "you have to die
of something" brick, our "there’s still plenty of time" brick, and even the rationalization that went
as far as to counter tobacco’s 50% kill rate by asserting that it really meant that "there is a 50%
chance that smoking won’t kill me."
We also have all of our "why we smoked" rationalizations. We told ourselves that it made the
coffee taste better when in fact it deadened our sense of smell and drowned coffee’s flavors in
the 4,000 chemicals present in each burning cigarette. There was our "best friend" brick which
asserted that a chemical with an I.Q. of zero was most loyal companion we'd ever had, even
when smoking it had long ago deprived us of up to one-third of our functional lung capacity.
There was our boredom brick, our appetizer before every meal brick, our after each meal
dessert brick, and the brick proclaiming the first cigarette of the day to be one of the best of all.
Each such rationalization totally ignored the real clock driving the situation - nicotine’s two-hour
chemical half-life.
They ignored the fact that the average pack-a-day smoker will receive a command to smoke
(an urge) about every thirty minutes regardless of which activity their denial wishes to credit. It
ignores the fact that after sleeping through three to four nicotine half-lives we were left with
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nicotine blood-serum reserve levels that were somewhere down around our socks. Those first
daily smokes should have been memorable.
Then there were our alcohol and stress bricks. Living in a world of dependency ignorance, very
few of us knew that nicotine is an alkaloid and that both stress and alcohol are acid producing
events. Instead of understanding how stress and alcohol can neutralize the body's nicotine
reserves we rationalized that smoking reduced our stress and that we liked smoking more when
drinking.
Let's not forget our romantic fixation bricks proclaiming that some of our best memories ever
were based upon the presence of nicotine, and that somehow the moment or underlying
memory would have been less significant if nicotine had not added dopamine and adrenaline to
it. Wouldn't honest reflection have us asking how many of life's perfect moments were
interrupted by a mandatory need to leave and feed, or by a mind pre-occupied with the need to
do so?
And what about our quitting bricks? Pretending that we’d be quitting soon or going so far as to
actually set a date would always make today’s nicotine fixes far more bearable. When we failed
to follow through or relapsed we could always reach for our blame bricks and lay the cause for
our defeat upon family members that just couldn’t handle the temporary anxieties associated
with recovery. We could blame friends, a lack of support, a relationship, stressful times,
financial hardship, other smokers, alcohol or even our job.
Natural Erosion or Conscious Intervention? - The only limit upon the bricks within our wall
was our imagination. Have you ever noticed just how challenging it really is to coax a smoker
out from behind their wall? After years of construction it tends to be a secure and comforting
place to hide from those seeking to impose their will upon us.
It is not necessary that any of us set out to consciously dismantle our wall of denial in order to
successfully keep our dependency arrested. But what it may help to realize is that the bulk of
our "thoughts" of wanting to smoke nicotine are likely a reflection of the very wall that we
ourselves created.
As each thought arrives, will spending a bit of time reflecting upon its origin and validity help
shorten this temporary period of adjustment called quitting, and diminish the number of excuses
available to justify future relapse?
The day and moment is approaching when you'll awaken to an expectation of going your entire
day without once wanting to smoke nicotine. Oh, you'll still have thoughts now and then but with
decreasing frequency, shorter duration and declining intensity. They'll become the exception,
not the rule. It may even get to the point where you'll greet them with a smile as they'll be your
only reminder of the amazing journey you've made.
They say that "truth shall set us free" but here at WhyQuit we have an even better guarantee. It
is impossible to lose our freedom so long as we refuse to allow nicotine back into our
bloodstream. The next few minutes are all that matter and each is entirely doable. There was
always only one rule ... no nicotine today ... Never Take Another Puff! John R. Polito
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Stop Smoking Recovery Timetable
The body's ability to mend is beauty to behold
Within ...
You can expect ...

20 minutes
... your blood pressure and pulse rate to return to
normal. The temperature of your hands and feet will
also have returned to normal.

8 hours
... your blood oxygen levels to have increased to
normal limits and carbon monoxide levels to have
dropped to normal.

24 hours
...your risk of sudden heart attack to have
substantially decreased.

48 hours
... nerve ending to start healing and your sense of
smell and taste to begin returning to normal.

72 hours
... your entire body to test 100% nicotine-free with
over 90% of all nicotine metabolites to have now
passed through your urine. You can also expect the
symptoms of chemical withdrawal to have peaked in
intensity. Your bronchial tubes will begin relaxing
and thus make breathing easier, and your lung
capacity will also begin to increase.

10 days to 2 weeks
... your body to have adjusted to the physical
functioning without nicotine and the 3,500 particles
and more than 500 gases present in each puff.
3 weeks to 3 months
... your circulation to have improved substantially, for
walking to have become easier, and your overall lung
function to have shown an amazing increase of up to
thirty percent.

1 to 9 months
... any sinus congestion, fatigue, and shortness of
breath to have decreased. Cilia have healed in your
lungs thereby increasing their ability to handle
mucus, keep your lungs clean, and reduce infections.
Your body's overall energy will have increased.

1 year
... your excess risk of coronary heart disease to drop
to less than half that of a smoker.

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5 years
... your risk of stroke is reduced to that of a
nonsmoker at 5-15 years after quitting.

10 years
... your risk of death from lung cancer to have
decreased by almost half if you were an average
smoker (one pack a day). Your risk of cancer of the
mouth, throat and esophagus is now half that of a
smoker's.

15 years

... your risk of coronary heart disease to now be that of a
person who has never smoked. Your overall risk of death has
returned to nearly that of a person who has never smoked.
Sources for the above stop smoking recovery data include the 1990
U.S. Surgeon General's Report on the "Health Benefits of Smoking
Cessation, " U.S. National Institute of Health, Medline Plus
The Effects of Nicotine Cessation
WARNING: The below information is NOT MEDICAL ADVICE and you should
IMMEDIATELY CONSULT YOUR PHYSICIAN should you experience ANY condition or
symptom that causes YOU concern or alarm, including continuing depression. Although we're
pretty safe in blaming withdrawal for almost all the effects we feel during the first three days, we
need to pay close attention to what our body is telling us. If at all concerned, give your doctor a
call!
The below symptom information was complied by a nicotine cessation counselor who is not a
physician. The information provided is designed to support, not replace, the relationship that
exists between you and your physician. Do not rely upon any information at this site to replace
individual consultations with your doctor or other qualified health care provider.
We are Nicotine Addicts! Recovery is a temporary period of re-adjustment during which the mind and
body are allowed to undergo an amazing healing process. It's a period when the brain is permitted to
physically re-sensitize neuronal pathways to again functioning without nicotine. It’s giving the
subconscious mind time to encounter and break free of years of dependency conditioning, and the
conscious thinking mind an opportunity to adapt to the physical changes, cope with re-conditioning, and
transverse years of dependency rationalizations. It’s allowing yourself the time needed to arrive at a day
when "you" can again comfortably engage all aspects of life without a physical, subconscious or
conscious need for nicotine.
Although we should expect anxiety producing bumps in the road, with each passing day fewer and fewer
thoughts of wanting to smoke will occur. Recovery is the period when deeply ingrained psychological
nicotine feeding cues, fathered by true chemical dependency, are broken. It's a matter of staying
prepared, as a few such cues may be seasonal, mood related or associated with infrequent activities or
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events.
Whether nicotine dependency was established and/or maintained by being smoked, chewed, inhaled,
drank, snuffed, sprayed, swallowed, sucked, licked or patched, in the end there is only one way out - no
nicotine today.
Every recovery is different. The number and intensity of effects noticed or felt varies from person to
person, and even between each person's own cessation experiences. Many are surprised to find that they
experience almost no symptoms at all while others are confronted with multiple symptoms. The number
and types of particular feeding cues selected and formed by endless compliance with the mind's chemical
demand for nicotine refueling also cause each person's recovery experience to be almost unique.
By understanding some of the symptoms and effects it may be possible, in some instances, to minimize
their impact by thought or action. Removing the mystery associated with the sequencing and timing of
withdrawal and recovery will hopefully make you feel like you have your very own roadmap to the rich
sense of comfort, mental quiet and calm awaiting you at the other end of Freedom's Road. We didn't
suck tissue destroying tar composed of over 4,000 chemicals that included ammonia, formaldehyde,
arsenic, butane, hydrogen cyanide, lead, mercury, vinyl chloride, methane or vast quantities of carbon
monoxide into our body because we wanted to watch each puff destroy a bit more of our capacity to
receive and circulate life-giving oxygen. We did so to get to the nicotine. Is it time to end our own
senseless self-destruction?
Nicotine is a colorless, odorless, organic-based alkaloid in the same family as cocaine, morphine, quinine
and strychnine, yet it is more poisonous than either arsenic or strychnine. Although cocaine and heroin
both produce powerfully intoxicating illegal highs, governments, experts and studies now tell us that
neither is as effective at creating chemical "dependency" as nicotine. The one-year success rate for those
who go through heroin withdrawal is roughly 20%, whereas with nicotine it’s closer to 5%. Except for
the type of high experienced and that fact that our stimulant is legal, we truly are drug addicts, just as
much as the addicts that fill jails and prisons around the globe. In 1998 tobacco killed 25 times more
Americans than all illegal drugs combined (418,690 to 16,926 - U.S. Center for Disease Control).
Don’t Talk Yourself Into Having Symptoms - If you have a toothache at the same time you have a
headache, the one that will receive the most attention and focus is the one generating the greatest pain or
the most discomfort. As soon as the discomfort from your primary concern falls below that of your
secondary concern, your focus will immediately shift to the other. We do the same type of
primary/secondary focusing with the effects of withdrawal and phases of nicotine dependency recovery.
Sometimes we don't even notice a particular symptom until the discomfort of a prior one subsides.
Although the intensity of each remaining effect may be far less significant than the one that preceded it,
the mind of the drug addict is looking for any excuse to relapse. After the dramatic reduction in overall
symptoms and effects experienced within the first 72 hours, recovery remains continuous yet at times so
gradual that - like trying to watch a rose bud open – it almost becomes impossible to notice change. Yet,
within just 2 to 4 months the adjustment process transports most in recovery to a point where they
experience that very first day where they never once "think" to themselves, "gee, I'd sure like a smoke!"
After the first such day they become more and more common. Soon, they become your new norm in life,
with the distance between the occasional "thought" growing further and further apart.
Imagine entire days, weeks, months and possibly even years, where your mind never once "wants" to
smoke nicotine. Imagine living in a constant state of 100% total comfort with no smoking related
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anxieties whatsoever - none, zero, nil, complete and total tranquility. It's where hundreds of millions of
comfortable ex-smokers reside today. Were any of them truly stronger than nicotine? Were any of them
stronger than you or was that just another lame excuse? Breaking free doesn't take muscle or mountains
of willpower. It takes dreams and honest reasons for wanting those dreams, that are kept vivid,
remembered, alive, and in the front-seat of your mind. Your odds of success will be substantially
enhanced by study, understanding, patience, an appreciation for the true power of one puff of nicotine,
and a bit of love of self or at least a wee bit of "like". Again, it takes following only simple rule - just one
day at a time, no nicotine in any form, Never Take Another Puff, Dip, or Chew.
Upon arresting my thirty-year and three pack-a-day dependency, my recovery evolved to the point of
substantial comfort by about eight weeks, a few weeks earlier than most but later than some. It was then
that I experienced my last major subconscious crave episode and started to notice that the once steady
stream of thoughts of wanting were ever so slowly becoming fewer, shorter and generally less intense.
During the first few weeks, I worked hard to maintain a strong positive attitude while refusing to allow
negative thoughts to infect my thinking and dreams. While feeding myself large doses of positive
thought I also confronted and analyzed those remaining thoughts that seemed to keep inviting relapse.
Soon, it was no longer a matter of trying to believe what I was telling myself. I did believe in the new
nicotine-free me!
Although at times intense, I did my best to remain focused on the long overdue healing occurring inside
this body. I saw each and every day as a full and complete victory in and of itself. Today I was free and
today I continued to heal! The little gifts along the way - the smells, tastes, energy, extra pocket change,
the whiteness emerging in the smile, pride, empty pockets, a bit bigger step, odorless fingers, hope,
endurance, an ash-less world, new found time, long overdue self-respect, gradually lengthening periods
of comfort, freedom and even the few extra pounds - was simply me coming home to meet me.
I encourage you not to fight recovery but to find joy in it. Welcome each crave and thought, and embrace
them as a very necessary part of this amazing temporary journey of re-adjustment. It's nice never having
to quit again. Our prior attempts failed because we lacked understanding. Our eyes and minds are open
and this time we're going the distance, headed home to again reside inside a quiet mind and to again meet
the real "us"!
The problem with symptom lists, such as this, is that simply by reading them we tend to lead our minds
to look for and expect symptoms to occur. In fact, mental expectations are capable of generating mental
symptoms. This phenomenon - known as psychological overlay - is very real. Most starting home do
NOT experience the majority of the symptoms listed below. They are shown here only to educate, allay
unnecessary concerns and/or to satisfy curiosity.
Do not sell your mind on the belief that starting your new life needs to be painful or intense. If you relax,
maintain a positive attitude, keep your reasons for wanting to break free in the forefront of your mind,
abandon the unrealistic standard of "quitting forever" (the biggest bite imaginable) and instead focus on
only the next hour, challenge or day (there is no need to see yourself eating the entire elephant when one
bite at a time is all your mouth can hold), drink plenty of fruit juice for the first three days to keep your
blood sugar level, don't skip meals, reduce your caffeine intake by roughly half if you're a big caffeine
user, this adventure toward meeting the nicotine-free and comfortable you may turn out to be the most
enjoyable and deeply satisfying experience of your entire life, even if challenged now and then.
We are what we think. If we think recovery will be difficult then it why shouldn't it be? If we believe
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that the healing happening inside our body is utterly amazing then it is. If we keep thinking we will fail
then chances are we will. Believe that no force or circumstance on his planet can stop our quest for
freedom then nothing can. Victory is in the mind!
The Effects of Physical Withdrawal
Anxiety, Anger, Irritability, Impatience and Restlessness - These are normal temporary effects of
physical withdrawal from nicotine. Our life long roller coaster cycles of rising and falling blood nicotine
levels are now ending. Your mind is in the process of resuming control of the more than 200
neurochemicals that nicotine had directly and indirectly taken hostage, including select adrenaline,
dopamine and serotonin pathways. In resuming control the brain is making sensitivity re-adjustments
associated with mood, reward, stimulation and anxiety. In trying to protect your mind from the deadly
pesticide nicotine it actually desensitized important neurochemical circuits by reducing receptor sites and
diminishing the number of transporters.
If a nicotine user remains 100% nicotine free for just 72 hours they'll likely begin to notice the underlying
current of recovery anxieties easing off as their brain's neurons begin bathing in nicotine-free oxygen rich
blood serum and the brain's sensitivity adjustments begin bearing fruit. Although our quickly healing
body is now 100% nicotine free and most of the normal symptoms of adjustment have reached their peak,
it will take 10 days to two weeks before our mind and body become fully accustomed to functioning with
the absence of nicotine and many of the other 4,000+ chemicals present in each burning cigarette.
The early healing is rapid. Deep breathing with mind relaxation, together with a bit of physical activity,
can help diminish anxieties. Adjustment of caffeine intake and limiting sugars can also have a calming
effect. Acidic fruit juices, like cranberry, may help accelerate extraction of the blood's remaining
nicotine and decease the maximum of 72 hours required for the body to completely metabolize all
nicotine.
There is a detailed cessation effects study by Marcia M. Ward, entitled "Self-reported abstinence effects
in the first month after smoking cessation," published in Addictive Behaviors, 26 (2001) at pages 311327. Its findings are fascinating. For example, it may be difficult to believe but, on average, anxieties
peak on day one (within 24 hours) and within two weeks return almost to pre-cessation levels. Regarding
anxiety, be sure you understand why ex-smokers only need half the amount of caffeine as smokers.
Irritability, often anxiety's aftermath, seems to peak at about 48 hours while restlessness peaks at 72
hours. According to the study, both begin hovering back around pre-cessation levels within two weeks.
Anger apparently peaks for the average quitter at about 48 hours (day 2) and within 72 hours is beginning
to return to almost pre-cessation levels. Amazingly, nicotine assumed command of the mind's
adrenaline circuitry and a small release was part of our high. When taking back control, anger and fear
(fight or flight) are our means of releasing adrenaline. It isn't unusual to find yourself intentionally
attempting to induce adrenaline releases by promoting conflict or feeling fearful about permanently
altering your mind's sense of normal from "nicotine normal" back to "you."
While awaiting re-sensitization, find ways to vent frustrations and release adrenaline that won't cause
needless hurt to family members, loved ones, friends or co-workers. Walk, run, vent into a pillow, find a
punching bag, bend a piece of steel, or even bite your lip during early withdrawal if that’s what it takes.
Discuss your feelings with family, friends or within your support system.
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Following serious challenge, write yourself a loving letter that can be read a year from now that
accurately describes what chemical withdrawal and early psychological recovery were like and why you
were more than willing to endure it. The mind does not remember pain or the bad times. In fact, you
memories of "Glory Week" will rapidly fade within just a few short weeks. Give yourself the present gift
of future memory. It may be just the motivation you'll need to avoid temptation tomorrow.
Occupy your time. Try enjoying your favorite activity, sport or hobby. Celebrate each hour of freedom.
Keep a positive attitude and review your reasons for beginning this journey. If you need a break, briefly
clear your mind of all negative thoughts and chatter by taking slow deep breaths while focusing
exclusively upon your favorite person, place, or object. Don’t allow the seeds of false reasoning to fester
and infect your logic or desire. Let intelligence serve as courage as you break free from years of slavery
to the dictates of a chemical master.
Time Perception Distortion - Nicotine smokers have long known that at times during early withdrawal
time itself seems almost to stand still. The first two weeks can seem like some of the longest days of
your entire life. A new 2003 study suggests that time perception distortion may possibly be a nicotine
dependency recovery symptom experienced by all smokers.
Although a subconsciously triggered crave episode will not last longer than three minutes, as you
probably already know, those minutes can feel like hours. Whether dealing with a subconscious crave
trigger or even consciously fixating on a thought of wanting to smoke, be sure and look at a clock or
watch so that you can gain honest perspective in helping correct your impaired perception of time.
All of us are capable of handling a few brief moments of anxiety - all of us - but we need help in gaining
an accurate estimation of how long we've endured any challenge or this symptom may falsely paint
recovery as being beyond our ability to handle. Don't let time distortion deprive you of your dream of
again comfortably embracing life as you.
When time distortion is combined with a destructive "big bite" recovery philosophy that insists upon
measuring success in terms of quitting forever, it is often a recipe for relapse. Instead, adopt a " one day
at a time " philosophy that sees and treats each challenge and each day of freedom and healing as the full
and complete victory they reflect. What good is holding a victory party after you're dead? Celebrate life
and the victory your latest victory.
Inability to Concentrate or a Foggy Mind - The feeling that your concentration is not as good or that
your mind now lives in a fog is experienced by almost two-thirds of recovering nicotine addicts to one
degree or another. The return of our clearness of mind and concentration levels may seem gradual but
within two weeks most begin experiencing concentration levels very close to those of never-smokers.
Poor concentration, focus and thought can also be associated with low blood sugar. It's important to
understand that nicotine force-fed us stored fats and sugars with each new puff. It's why so many of us
could skip breakfast and/or lunch and yet not feel hungry. Smoking nicotine caused our brain to release
adrenaline which in turn prepared us for the "fight or flight mode" by pumping stored fats and sugars into
our blood stream (the bad artery clogging fats).
Once we stop putting nicotine into our body the adrenaline fat feedings end. If you continue to attempt
skipping meals, your blood sugar will plummet along with your concentration, as nicotine is no longer
your spoon. It isn't necessary to eat more food but only to spread your normal daily food intake out more
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evenly over your entire day. Women would be well advised to put a very small amount of fuel into their
stomach about every three hours and men at least every five. During only the first 72 hours (as it can be
fattening) natural fruit juices (cranberry is excellent) will not only aid with helping stabilize blood sugar
but may actually help accelerate the rate at which nicotine metabolizes just a wee bit.
Even if you can't correct the entire problem by stabilizing blood sugar and you're forced to push yourself
a bit more than normal in order to live up to your old expectations, concentration improvement appears to
be fairly steady and relief won't be long in coming. You may also want to temporarily reduce or avoid
alcohol use, which reduces brain oxygen and obviously impairs concentration. Brisk walks or other
physical exercise and slow deep breathing will deliver additional focus giving oxygen to your mind.
Remember, life-giving oxygen is a far healthier brain stimulant than any addictive substance. Trust in
you. It’s only temporary.
Flash - a May 2002 medical study indicates that heavy nicotine use may actually destroy brain cells and
diminish concentration and memory. If true, the very temporary concentration effects associated with
adjusting to the absence of nicotine might better be seen as a very welcome occurrence.
Feeling Tired or Fatigued - Our body is shedding the effects of being under years of dependence upon a
powerful stimulant and the process of withdrawal and readjustment can be physically and emotionally
exhausting. We're also experiencing changes in basic metabolism as heart rate and respiration have
rapidly returned to normal. Time distortion, awaiting that next crave episode, using anger or fear to try
and generate adrenaline that we sense is missing, possible sleep disruption, it isn't at all unusual to feel a
bit drained during the first few days but after that you should begin feeling much better with more energy
than you may have felt in years.
Just as recovering from any other illness, the body and mind need time to heal. Moderate exercise can
act as a natural pick-me-up and also help us sleep better. We need to allow ourselves additional rest,
extended sleep or even a nap. "Glory Week" can consume tremendous energy.
It is not normal to continue feeling tired or fatigued three weeks after starting your journey and there are
many potential causes ranging from improper diet, blood sugar problems, medications in need of possible
adjustment after ending the use of the 4,000+ chemicals present in tobacco smoke (including nicotine), an
underlying condition that was being masked and hidden by those same 4,000 chemicals, or by other
coincidental conditions that just happened to occur and have nothing whatsoever to do with ending
tobacco or nicotine use. Also, see depression below.
Trouble Sleeping or Insomnia - Nicotine is a powerful drug that affects subconscious thought, brain
waves, the depth of sleep, and can even affect dreams. The disturbance of "normal" sleep patterns can
occur during physical withdrawal or new patterns may be established as you return to your body's true
level of need. You may find that you don't need nearly as much sleep as you did while smoking. Are
you still tired or just sleeping less?
It's important to understand that nicotine smokers need twice the amount of caffeine in order to achieve
the same effect as a non-smoker. Nicotine indirectly causes caffeine to metabolize (to be depleted) at a
rate twice that of non-smokers. If you're a heavy caffeine user who attempts to continue using caffeine at
the same amount as you did while using nicotine, you may find yourself not only having difficulty
sleeping but probably climbing every wall in sight. Here's a Freedom message thread discussing the
issue in far more depth.
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Relaxation through mind clearing and slow deliberate breathing can help induce sleep. Mental relaxation
can be as simple as slowly clearing your mind of all other thoughts by focusing exclusively on a single
object or color. If your sleep continues to be disrupted and is affecting your health, safety or
performance then turn to your physician or pharmacist for assistance. Don't allow sleep to be your mind's
junkie excuse to destroy your quest to meet and become comfortable as "you" again.
Chest Tightness - Chest tightness is normal, temporary and should not last for more than a few days.
Aside from arising from the tension and stress associated with early withdrawal, it can be a component of
normal postpartum nicotine blues or be associated with the early cleansing, coughing and lung healing.
Any tension or depression induced tightness or muscle stiffness may benefit form relaxation exercises, a
warm shower, slow deliberate breathing or moderate exercise. Fluid or ice-water may help with minor
discomfort associated with tar and mucus removal or irritation due to coughing. Keep in mind that your
lungs need moisture to help with healing and flushing.
As a general rule of thumb, normal daily fluid intake should equal a minimum of one-half your body
weight in ounces daily. A cool glass of water may not only taste refreshing it may stimulate a small
earned release of dopamine -- that ahhhh sensation. Add in a few deep deep ahhhh breaths and you may
just begin to sense the beauty of the gradually emerging "you" as neurochemical sensitivity and control
again is regulated by life not nicotine. If we have any concerns about chest tightness, it never hurts to
pick up the phone and give our doctor a call.
Slight Sore Throat - Years and years of smoking while ingesting hundreds and hundreds of chemicals
(every twenty to thirty minutes) has irritated our throat, damaged or destroyed millions of cells, has
deeply marinated tissues in gobs of tar, and has caused them to become numbed to the tremendous harm
being inflicted. As our tissues begin to heal, they may feel temporarily irritated as the cells slowly renew,
our tissues begin to breathe and natural moisture levels gradually return. Cool liquids and juices may
provide a bit of soothing. Hard sugarless candy or cough-drops may also generate moisture, provide
soothing or give relief from minor discomfort.
Coughing, Mucus or Nasal Drip - According to the Ward "abstinence effects: study, roughly 60% in
recovery reported coughing on day two, 48% by day seven, 33% by day fourteen, and 15% by day
twenty-eight. I hope that those still coughing after a month made an appointment to go for a thorough
check-up! Our bronchial brushes or cilia are healing and again engaging in cleaning and clearing. Years
of tar build-up is loosening itself and must either be expelled or flushed from the lungs. Mucus and
coughing are common but as seen from the Ward study many in recovery often experience neither. If
you do experience increased coughing that persists, it is highly advisable to see your physician for a
complete checked-up as one of the earliest signs of lung cancer or disease is a chronic cough.
Clearly our lungs will benefit from extra fluids to aid with cleansing and healing. Although the 8 x 8 rule
is under attack in some literature, many authorities still advocate trying to drink at least eight glasses of
water daily. Try ice to sooth and moisten the mouth and possibly lemon for flavoring and a bit more
valuable nicotine extracting acid. Cough syrups or decongestants can also bring some temporary relief
from coughing or irritation but if your cough should persist don't hesitate to give your doctor a call. It
isn't uncommon to see a smoker's lung function improve by almost a third within just 90 days. That's an
amazing pace. I couldn't run 200 feet prior to quitting and truly thought I would never would again. Not
too far but today these lungs can run like the wind and amazingly not be winded when I stop. I thought
I'd damaged them beyond repair. I'm so glad I was wrong.
Bad breath, Nasty Tastes and Bleeding Gums - Are you noticing the horrible odors rising up from
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healing lungs as they exhale, cough and flush years of tar buildup within notice of healing taste buds and
a more accurate sense of smell? Picturing the slow healing of deeply marinated gum, cheek and tongue
tissues impregnated by years of thousands of passing chemicals may be more accurate than you think.
Depending on how long we smoked it could take some time for these tastes and odors to totally
dissipate. Cell healing, time, oxygen rich blood, and fluids will keep mouth, nasal, throat and respiratory
tissues on the road to maximum recovery. Brushing a bit more frequently and mouthwash should help
control the odors that will continue to be released from both dead and recovering cells.
As for gum bleeding, it’s not unusual to be a bit overzealous and brush too much but also be aware that
your gums are experiencing some rather amazing healing all on their own. Surprisingly, it is normal for
an ex-smoker's gums to be more prone to bleeding during recovery, not less. Nicotine constricts blood
vessels diminishing blood flow, which, according to a January 2003 study, may account for smokers
having thicker gum tissues. According to an April 2004 study, gingival (gum) blood flow rate was
"significantly higher at 3 days" and within 5 days the liquid sticky plasma proteins normally released by
healthy gums (gingival crevicular fluid) had significantly increased and within 2 weeks were comparable
to those of non-smokers. But if it takes a bit of bleeding to begin gradually reversing the risk of
experiencing 220% greater tooth loss than a nonsocial then so be it. If concerned call your dentist.
Headaches - Changing brain oxygen and chemical levels, added anxiety or tension, possible temporary
sleep disruption, increased caffeine levels, or diet changes can all result in headaches. According to the
Ward "abstinence effects" study, 33% of smokers reported having headaches immediately PRIOR to
quitting. Interestingly, those reporting headaches peaked on day three (72 hours) at 44%, dropped to
17% on day seven, and had declined to a low of just 11% on day fourteen.
Within eight hours of commencing recovery, carbon dioxide levels in our blood and brain return to
normal but it takes time to adjust. Relaxation, slow deep breathing, extra rest, mind clearing with thought
focusing exercises, a warm bath or shower, or exercise may help relieve tension and often brings relief.
Aspirin or other headache relievers are available but shouldn't be taken on an empty stomach. If you are
a fairly heavy caffeine drinker make sure you understand that ex-smokers only need half as much
caffeine as smokers in order to get the same effect, otherwise your caffeine overdose may actually cause
your headache.
Stomach Pain, Nausea, Constipation or Gas - Nausea was also examined in the Ward "abstinence
effects" study. Again, although only averages, 16% of participants reported nausea on day one (as
compared to 2% at pre-cessation baseline), 11% on day three, 16% on day seven, 9% at two weeks, and
4% on day twenty-eight.
Cessation related constipation was the focus of a November 2003 study. It found that one in six quitters
develop constipation and that for about one in eleven quitters the problem can be severe. The study also
found that constipation levels peaked at about two weeks. If you develop constipation concerns during
recovery consult your pharmacist or physician and obtain relief.
There are a host of digestive disorders, including cancers, associated with smoking. Intestinal and bowel
movements can be temporarily affected while they adjust to the absence of nicotine. Stress, anxiety or
postpartum nicotine depression can cause our stomach or GI area to generate pain. Tissues numbed and
deadened by years of nicotine use are healing. It isn't uncommon to experience temporary pain. We can
aid the healing process by drinking at least eight glasses of water each day. Increasing the amount of
leafy vegetables, roughage, whole grains, bran or prunes in our diet will aid our intestines in cleansing
and in moving things along. Moderate exercise may also help with circulation and movement. If
symptoms persist, we need to consult our physician.
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Symptoms of Psychological Withdrawal
Cravings, Urges, Yearnings, Desires and Thoughts - The initial powerful cravings that overlay the up
to 72 hours of abstinence needed to purge our blood of all nicotine are more creatures of conditioning
than actual physical withdrawal. Our cravings are the mind's psychological means of warning us that it's
time to ingest nicotine to avoid experiencing physical withdrawal (nervousness, irritability, grouchiness,
tension, anger, rage, frustration, sweating, jitters, shaking, inability to concentrate and mind fog).
Like Pavlov’s dogs, whom he conditioned to salivate upon the ringing of a bell, the nicotine addict’s
mind has been conditioned to expect nicotine as soon as it begins to feel any discomfort associated with
the onset of physical withdrawal. In response to falling nicotine levels, the habitual mind has been
conditioned to intensify "desire" in order to cause us to ingest new nicotine and thereby avoid any
discomfort. When we smoked, most of us received a gentle "desire" reminder every 20 to 30 minutes. If
not satisfied, the desire would build and escalate in intensity to the point of becoming an influential urge
or extremely demanding crave. Our mind has stored the means and manner by which it motivates us to
ingest another hit of nicotine. Even after all nicotine has left our body (72 hours), our mind's crave
generator remains in tact and fully functional.
Our Time Triggers - The foundation for our mind's knowledge of how to escalate the intensity of desire,
to cause us to bring new nicotine into our body, is “time.” Although the subconscious mind is believed to
be incapable of independent reasoning or judgment, our conscious mind has conditioned our
subconscious to realize that
time depletes our blood nicotine
level and that the onset of
discomfort can be satisfied with
nicotine. When we feel a crave
begin to escalate in intensity, it
is simply our subconscious
turning up the volume control
that it has been conditioned to
believe will bring the desired
result. But in that the
subconscious mind is a product
of conditioning and not
independent reasoning, if
nicotine is not ingested after
desire’s volume or intensity
control is increased to
maximum, the subconscious
simply gives up and quits.
It is extremely important to understand that no subconsciously triggered crave episode will last longer
than three minutes. But, as noted above under physical symptoms, time perception distortion appears to
be an almost universal recovery symptom and the minutes can seem like hours. It's important to look at a
clock in order to reassure yourself as it often takes seconds to reach for nicotine and have one powerful
puff destroy all your healing and investment in recovering the real "you." This psychological mind
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warfare is the downfall of many as they begin to falsely believe that the only way to end the current crave
is by means of another fix.
As the body's nicotine level continues to fall during the 72 hours of physical withdrawal, our mind’s time
trigger will continue to be revisited until all nicotine has left the body. It is then that true and complete
reconditioning of our time trigger will occur as our physical symptoms begin subsiding and our mind
becomes conditioned to realize that time will no longer produce new nicotine. Withdrawal’s peak occurs
at or before the 72-hour mark. The average "starter" will experience approximately six desire attacks or
crave episodes on day three. By hour 96 or day four the number of episodes will diminish to about 3.5.
By day ten the average is just 1.4 per day. In that our basic time trigger was reconditioned upon
depletion of our body's nicotine, we need to explore and understand the reason for our continuing craves.
Overlaying our time trigger atop physical nicotine withdrawal symptoms can, for some, generate a rather
intense 72-hour experience, but it's even more complex than that. Conditioned triggers are being
encountered as well. Very few willing to attempt recovery lack the basic core dream and desire needed
to carry them far enough (72-96 hours) to begin feeling their physical symptoms begin to gradually
subside or to watch the number of subconscious crave episodes become reduced by almost half.
With a little self-determination, the battle against physical nicotine addition is over in a matter of hours. It
is hard to believe that drug manufactures have sold so many smokers on their "Nicotine Replacement
Therapy" (NRT) gradual reduction approach, when they've done nothing more than repackage nicotine.
They are telling smokers that the nicotine patch, gum, spray, inhaler, candy or pills will make them more
comfortable and they are 100% correct. Nicotine addicts need nicotine to maintain comfort. The question
should be, does NRT's gradual nicotine reduction approach help smokers achieve permanent long-term
abstinence from tobacco? Sadly, even their own studies (the results of which they hide from their public
web sites and refuse to share with smokers) show that 93% of over-the-counter NRT users in medical
studies - studies designed by pharmaceutical companies to test and prove the merits of their product relapse to smoking nicotine within just six months.
Our Habit Triggers - Although our basic time trigger served as our mind’s foundation for conditioning
it to generate desire attacks, we have also conditioned it to expect new nicotine during certain events, at
specific times each day, upon experiencing certain emotions or when we engage in specific activities.
The mind is a "steal trap." You many not consciously remember what you were doing, feeling or where
you were when you fed yourself nicotine in the past, but those memories have been locked away deep
within your subconscious.
Each of these emotions, events, specific times or locations will trigger our mind’s crave generator to
begin pulsating desire when next encountered. Before total comfort can arrive, each trigger needs to be
reconditioned. Again, the beauty is that our subconscious is not capable of true reasoning and that almost
all of our trigger links will be disconnected or reconditioned after just one episode where they fail to
produce new nicotine. An additional comforting fact is that over time the power and intensity of our
desire or crave generator will diminish to the point of becoming almost insignificant.
Almost like a battery gradually losing its charge, after about twelve weeks or 90 days our once powerful
craves start becoming nothing more than ordinary “thoughts.” Just like the thought of a “nice juicy
steak,” you will have total control over when you discard the thought. You may hear those in “cold
turkey” recovery discuss long term “craves” (months or years down the road) but when you quiz them
they quickly admit that it was more like dreaming about a “Hot Fudge Sunday” and it came and went
almost as quickly as any other normal desire. What's interesting is trying to learn what triggered the
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desire "thought," as it is usually some activity that was infrequently engaged in but during which the exsmoker had previously smoked (weddings, funerals, graduations, births, etc.).
Aside from our basic time trigger that has already been reconditioned, most of our psychological or habit
triggers need to be encountered and reconditioned before total comfort begins arriving. Our
psychological triggers may include such things as the habit of smoking while talking on the phone,
driving a vehicle, working, upon waking, before going to bed, when leaving a store, when around other
smokers, while drinking, surrounding romance, when alone, after meals, during celebrations, when sad,
during stressful situations, during other specific emotions, or upon visiting specific locations (garage,
porch, garden, in-laws, bathroom). You may notice a small crave spike on day seven of recovery as you
celebrate your first full week of freedom. Almost all of us smoked as part celebrating. Unless you've
developed an extremely healthy attitude, up until now you've probably been doing very little celebrating.
When you do first celebrate, expect a visit from your joy trigger, your pride trigger and/or your party
trigger.
The most serious trigger is a period of extremely "high stress" such as tremendous financial strain,
serious family illness, injury, or the death of a close friend or loved one. It’s a cold hard fact of life that
each of us will experience the death of someone we love. We need to prepare our mind now to cope with
our "high stress" trigger, as it is certain to occur for each of us. If it occurs while our desire or crave
generator still carries a significant charge (the first few weeks), it can be used as your mind’s unjustified
excuse for relapse.
Psychological Relapse - Unlike physical withdrawal, psychological withdrawal is 100% mental and
greatly within our ability to control. To understand the process can be power in itself. We also need to
realize that just one puff of nicotine from one cigarette will revive all memories and conditioning
associated with that particular habit trigger and commence the process of re-establishing your full
chemical dependency upon nicotine. Whether immediate or gradual, your freedom is over and you're
going back to your old level of nicotine intake or higher. Soon, the millions and millions of smoking
memories in the recovered addict's mind will make them feel like they've never tasted freedom. Once an
addict, even when we do arrest and trade places with our dependency our probation is conditioned on one
simple rule - no nicotine, Never Take Another Puff, Dip or Chew!
Depression & Sadness - Depression can affect our entire being. Sadness, loneliness, disruption of sleep,
fatigue, digestion problems, stomach pains, poor memory, an inability to concentrate, a loss of appetite or
weight gain, neglect of our appearance, low self esteem, loss of sex drive, irritability, hopelessness,
headaches or even a change in bowel habits can and often do accompany depression. Serious chronic
depression is often easily treated but does require medical assistance. That being said, giving up years
and years of nicotine dependence is a traumatic event, akin to the death of a close loved one, which is
often accompanied by the onset of a temporary state of depression.
Although nicotine is not a close friend or loved one, over the first 72 hours it, along with 90% of its
metabolites (chemicals it breaks down into) exit the body via our urine. As it departs, not only is our
mind breaking an extremely dependent psychological bond, recent studies continue to suggest that
nicotine had physically taken select serotonin anxiety busting neuro-circuits hostage. Once the
administration of nicotine ends, physical sensitivity readjustment is likely occurring as the brain resumes
command and control.
Some degree of postpartum nicotine depression is common and heavy long-term smokers seem to
experience it a bit more frequently. It can almost seem like experiencing the death of a friend or loved
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one or the end of a (chemical) marriage or other long-term inter-dependent bond. It is normal to mourn
the loss and go through the normal phases of grieving. This is an excellent article by Joel on the
emotional loss associated with smoking cessation.
As with the end of any long-term relationship, our period of cessation mourning and grieving can be as
long or short as we desire. Although it can and often does generate physical symptoms, our underlying
conscious thoughts are very much within our ability to control. It can become the primary focus
symptom once crave trigger re-conditioning diminishes in frequency to the point where you feel
somewhat comfortable in managing or coping with craves. This usually happens somewhere between
weeks one and three, but may not be noticed until later if any other symptom is receiving higher priority
due to continuing discomfort.
In the Ward "abstinence effects" study - Addictive Behaviors, 26 (2001) Pages 311-327 - 39% of
smokers entering the study reported experiencing depression on the day before quitting compared to only
19% of the non-smokers in the control group. On day three the percentage in recovery indicating
depression peaked at 53%, and had fallen to 33% (6 points below baseline) by day seven and to just 20%
by day twenty-eight - just one point above the non-smokers in the control group.
It was once thought that those with depression smoked in order to self-medicate but new research is
beginning to seriously ask, "Which came first, nicotine addiction or depression?"
Education and complete self-honesty are the quickest means of putting postpartum nicotine blues behind
us. In reality the real quitting occurred when nicotine assumed neurochemical control and we lost the
sense of normal that defined how and what we felt when interacting with life. You are not quitting you
but recovering you. If each reason for feeling a sense of loss is fully explored we quickly begin to realize
that our long held rationalization was our way of explaining why nicotine occupied center-stage in our
life and an addict’s excuse for an inability to control the uncontrollable.
For example, many nicotine addicts have convinced themselves that tobacco makes their coffee taste
better when in truth their coffee's taste won't change at all. In fact, our healed taste buds and more
accurate sense of smell will allow us to enjoy our coffee or tea even more. The science behind why we
feel that using nicotine helps relieve stress, when in truth it both diminishes the flow of serotonin (a stress
busting neurochemical ) and generates body acids that quickly neutralize reserves of the alkaloid nicotine
- along with numerous other false beliefs - if learned and understood could aid in helping us realize that
nicotine was never our friend. “The truth will set us free.”
It should also be mentioned that the physician’s depression resources include scores of wonderful nonnicotine and non-addictive depression medications that do not have a carcinogen as one of the
metabolites (NNK). Among them is bupropion (Wellbutrin and Zyban), which, after subtracting placebo
performance, appears to aid roughly 13% of quitters. Wellbutrin and Zyban are both manufactured by
the same company (GlaxoSmithKline) and contain the same active ingredient (bupropion). It is very
important in using either of these drugs that you consult and rely upon your physician regarding risks,
potential side effects, and proper use. You may want to note that although identical, Zyban is being
marketed to smokers while Wellbutrin is being marketed to people with depression. I mention this as
almost all health insurance policies cover medications associated with the treatment of depression, while
few cover cessation products or programs.
Loneliness or Feeling Cooped Up - Akin to postpartum nicotine depression, loneliness is natural
anytime we leave behind a lifelong companion (who in this case was extremely unhealthy and killing us
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ever so slowly). It’s time to recognize a new healing and healthy companion - YOU! We need to climb
out of the deep smoker’s rut that we resided in for years. For far too long we've severely limited many of
the activities that as smokers we were willing to engage in either because they might have interfered with
our need to obtain our mandatory nicotine fix (every 30 minutes or so) or because our lungs and body did
not have the capacity to enjoy them. Start your new life now! Don’t wait to gradually learn that you’ve
been missing so much. Alter your outlook, climb from the ditch and open your eyes. One of the
interesting parts of recovery is in learning to live life as an ex-smoker. If we want to stay in our rut and
keep waiting for something to happen, instead of climbing out and learning to enjoy all that we've been
missing, we'll continue to feel lonely. If we don’t replace our loneliness with the glory of our wonderful
new, emerging, and healthy life, we may eventually talk ourselves into returning to the world we know, a
world of fix and fix after fix after fix - until death do we part.
Increased Appetite or Hunger - It’s easy to attribute a new found desire to consume large quantities of
food to our rapidly healing taste buds and our revived sense of smell. Truth is that many reach for extra
calories almost immediately and probably for a combination of reasons. Whether using it as a hand-tomouth oral crutch or as a replacement feeding for those now absent nicotine induced adrenaline releases
that once pumped stored fats and sugars into the blood with each new puff, the net effect is the same extra body weight. How can the weight gained during quitting be minimized?
Yes, the foundation of our dependency was a nicotine-induced flood of unearned dopamine. Yes, a
mouth full of food will provide a small but short-lived burst of dopamine. But whether a brief crutch and
coping tool, take extreme care not to condition your mind to use extra food as a substitute for nicotine.
Serious weight problems can gradually sap you of your dreams and motivations to the point of making a
50% chance of a losing 14 years of life look more appealing than that next extra pound. If you do find
yourself using food as a temporarily early oral substitute (which is NOT recommended) reach for healthy
foods like fresh vegetables.
Even if we leave extra food alone it's very common to see some initial weight gain in the first couple of
days. Unless you're piling it on, it's usually extra water retention primarily associated with physiological
changes. If so, you should see water retention return to normal within two weeks. Minor metabolism
changes can account for a few extra-unburned calories each day but they can be more than offset by
enhanced cardiovascular abilities resulting from up to a 30% increase in overall lung function within just
90 days and general enhanced performance of the entire body. Not smoking nicotine does not cause
weight gain, eating does.
We often smoked at the end of meals. It was a conditioned signal to the brain that our meal was complete
and our period of eating over. This cue no longer exists. Its absence may lead to continued eating after
our normal meal would have ended. If the leftovers keep vanishing you may need to find a new cue that
your meal has ended. A toothpick, walk, immediate brushing of your teeth, doing the dishes, a stick of
sugarless gum, or even a nice big deep breath may be all it takes.
But accept early on that should they occur, that a few extra pounds are acceptable and be patient with
yourself. It would take an extra 100 pounds to equal the health risks associated with a single pack of
cigarettes. Is your life worth a few temporary pounds? There will be plenty of time to shed them later.
The next few minutes are all that matter and each is entirely doable. There is only one rule - no nicotine
today, Never Take Another Puff, Dip or Chew! Breathe deep, hug hard, live long! John R. Polito
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