Thu, Jan-11-07, 18:13
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Plan: Bernstein Diabetes Soluti
Stats: 260/-/145
BF:
Progress: 63%
Location: Michigan
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Quote:
Originally Posted by sublime
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IMO, a person can psych themselves into a miserable quit experience or an almost effortless one.
Clinically speaking, the withdrawal symptoms of nicotine are very mild when compared to other drugs of equal addictiveness. Yet the media has the world convinced that quitting nicotine will turn you into a raving maniac without patches, drugs or gum.
Not so. I quit cold turkey (after trying every other method out there without success, so I do have some basis for comparison here) and the worst I experienced was a few minutes of anxiety and on the worst day, about 7 episodes of craving which never lasted more than 3 minutes; 21 minutes on the worst day (get a stopwatch and time those cravings and anxiety feelings...it really helps you stay grounded in reality)! In fact, even those closest to me didn't know that I had quit until I revealed the fact a week later. Honestly, cold turkey was the easiest of all my quits; maybe because I wasn't keeping myself in a constant state of withdrawal with nicotine replacements?
Think about it this way; everyone who uses a nicotine replacement product will still have to face withdrawal from nicotine at some point or remain addicted. That withdrawal isn't going to be easier just because the source of the nicotine has changed. It really isn't even helping you get over the psychological triggers of addiction because you are still actively rewarding those triggers with what they want...nicotine.
Of course, everyone has to find their own way and if it's a choice between smoke or use a patch, the patch/gum/lozenge is obviously the better choice but it's also a tremendous feeling of accomplishment to realize that you have stared down your addiction and freed yourself from it forever.
Last edited by Lisa N : Thu, Jan-11-07 at 20:24.
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