Patty, they require a prescription because they (Welbutrin, Zyban, Chantix) are all powerful drugs with a potential for abuse, not to mention a street value.

I didn't think of it that way. I guess that makes sense for the pills but I'm thinking Kendra's answer makes sense also about the patches, gum, and lozengers. You don't want to be selling stuff OTC and then find out later people are dying from heart attacks or something like that. I guess if you can only get it by prescription, it is controlled as to who has gotten them and should there be any adverse side effects it would be easier to contact anybody who had gotten a prescription. They wouldn't have to do an all out recall and the chances of getting sued are far less then if anybody and everybody under the sun was allowed to walk into the store and buy it. Interesting at how many different conflicting stories there are out there as to what works and what doesn't work though. I guess it all boils down to it's an individual thing. I've met people who've said the patch/gum worked for them and then I met people who've said they had no luck with it. So far EVERYBODY I've talked to about this new drug has said it worked for them. It's so good, Angiebiker, that you and your husband are going to do this together. I'm sure it will be a real good support system!! I wish you both the best of luck!!

Kendra.....thanks also for the tip of writing how I handle the triggers down. I'm also going to start writing down the reason WHY I want to quit and the way I will feel as long as I don't light up!! You know, things like I'll be able to walk up the stair without getting winded or I'll be able to walk further on my treadmill as long as I don't light up. I am seriously getting ready to set a quit date within this week sometime. I want to do a little more reading up and getting myself ready though. I want to be armed to the "T".

Well....thanx again for all your responses. I have to get off of here so my son can go on for awhile. That's ok though because this computer is one of my triggers!! I'm going to go cook him and his friend some popcorn chicken which will keep my mind off of smoking for awhile.

Thanx again!!

Patty

In trials, the Chantix looks promising but the success rates of a product tend to drop dramatically when the product is being used by people who aren't being supported professionally in a drug trial with counseling, support and advice. I really hope that this drug will prove to be as effective in 'real life' use as it was in clinical trials because that could mean a lot less smokers in the years to come and that can only be a good thing.
For referemce, in trials NRT had about the same success rates as Chantix does now but when you look at success rates after a year, NRT suddenly doesn't look so great.
This article on Chantix gives a lot of statistical data that some may find interesting: http://www.whyquit.com/pr/082506.html and at the bottom of the article are links to quite a few more.

Here's a question to ask for all those who tell you they quit smoking using NRT products. How many of them are still using the NRT at 6 months? A year? According to the Nicotrol product, the consumer is supposed to be completely off the product within 16 weeks, but statistics show that a large percentage of users don't quit using the product and instead become chronic users of NRT; they haven't kicked their addiction, they just changed the delivery device of their drug of choice.

That's a good point you have there. At least with the Chanix you only get a months supply. According to the guy in work, he used 2 weeks worth and threw the rest away. I'm sure there are quite a bit of people out there who probably used it for a month and still couldn quit. From what I heard though (from another guy at work who is in the process of quitting), you can smoke for the first 7 days while taking the pill but after that you have to stop. I don't know why you can smoke for the first 7 days and not after that..???.... but then again......I'm not a doctor. I'm sure there are some people out there who just decided to stop taking the pill after the 7 days and instead decided to continue to smoke. We just haven't heard about them yet. It only gives more creedance (sp.?) to the fact it is a mental thing. You have to truly physically and mentally want to quit and although I think I getting the mental aspect of it down, I am having a hard time with the physical aspect. I WILL get it though!! I'm giving myself one week to do this. If I don't have it under control by then........it's going to be cold turkey!!

Patty

Lisa,

Let me first say that I am NOT pushing NRT as the only way or the best way to quit for everyone.

I was told by my counselor at The National Cancer Institute about the current statisics for long term success was higher with NRT that cold turkey. She was NOT pushing NRT but I wanted to know what the truth about the different methods. She gave me a lot of research, I do remember some studies showed it was 4 times more effective. Anyways here's a couple of links: http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/HealthA...ving/DG_4002727
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/...3&dopt=Abstract
The number to talk to a counselor at The National Cancer Institute is 1-800-784-8669 it's free and they will also send written material. They aren't going to push any one type of method to quit. Here's the website

Just because NRT does not help some people is not to say that it doesn't work for everyone. That's why there's so many various methods to quit, the trick IMHO is to find what works for you and stick with it. Don't brush off anything, it might be just the thing that works for you. Who cares if someone else says it won't work, or it's a placebo or whatever they claim, bottom line is to find what works for you.

I'm familar with WHY QUIT and Joel and frankly find them to be too prejudice against NRT. All of the research data on that site is lifted to support that view point. They won't even let you join if you are quitting using an NRT, they kick out members if they confess to smoking a cigarette while quitting, etc. If that sort of thing works for you then by all means go for it with my blessings!!! I say do whatever works.

Some people quit successfully with herbs, homeopathic remedies, tobacco patches, meditation, hypnosis, therapy and other methods while people will claim that none of those methods work either. I say don't knock whatever someone wants to try. Who knows, that might be just the perfect thing for that person. (I tried everything on that list except the tobacco patch b/c I just saw that in the drug store the other day.) NRT helped me, that's not to say that I didn't learn from each of my experiences of not sticking with my quit.

Here's a link to a comprehensive list of government sites on quitting: Gov research, pulications & help



Well that's right from the pages of Joel's rhetoric on Why Quit. I find it insulting. I am NOT on any NRT now. The majority of people on Quit net were not staying on them either.

I couldn't agree more. Do you know what the difference was between the first 6 attempts I made to quit and the last (aside from the last also being cold turkey)?
On my first 6 attempts, I approached my quit with the attitude of "I really like smoking, but I guess I have to quit/should quit because....(fill in your most pressing reason here)"
On my last attempt, an article at www.whyquit.com challenged me to face the lie that I had been telling myself all along. Do you know what that lie was? That I really liked smoking. When I sat down, pen in one hand, paper at the ready, cigarette in the other hand, I could not honestly write down a single thing that I liked and enjoyed about smoking from the time that I first lit up until I snuffed out that butt. That was the last cigarette I ever smoked and any time I have a thought about smoking now, I remind myself of that moment of honesty and tell myself, "Self, don't be a silly twit. Why would you pick up a bad habit again that was slowly killing you when there was nothing about it you ever liked?". Here is a link to that article: http://whyquit.com/joel/Joel_01_02_I_Like.html
It's all a matter of mindset (and being brutally honest with yourself).
If you believe that there is any part of smoking that you like and are going to miss, it's a lot harder to walk away from that even knowing that the behavior is slowly killing you than it is when you approach it with the mindset of, "I'm giving up something that does nothing for me and is, in fact, slowly killing me and there isn't even anything that I like about it".

Here's another article regarding the effectiveness of various methods. Yes, I found it at WhyQuit, but they did not do the study or fund it. In fact, it was a study done in Australia. The results, however, are the same.
http://whyquit.com/pr/051906.html

As for WhyQuit being prejudiced against NRT, perhaps Joel has a reason for it, like maybe years of experience and noting what works for people who pass through his quit smoking clinic and what doesn't?
Personally, I don't care if standing on your head helps you quit as long as you are able to kick the nicotine and stay quit and my hat is off to those who manage to actually quit nicotine using NRT because they did it the hard way IMO.

Kandra, I'm glad that your experience with NRT was positive (how long have you been quit, by the way?) but to be honest, everyone that I know in real life (not on a website) who has tried to quit using NRT has failed and I know quite a few at the moment because my company is going completely smoke free April 1; employees will not be permitted to smoke on company property or within 250 feet of if at all after that date. Those that violate that edict will be encouraged to seek employment opportunities elsewhere. How's that for harsh? By failed, I mean either they are still using the product 6 months later or longer (the longest I'm aware of currently is 3 1/2 years) or they have gone back to smoking.

Hi I just wanted to jump in here and have a say.

I am hooked on the NRT gum and I still smoke - how's that for a mess up? However, I don't smoke very much at all, and a lot less than I did before the gum. I also try to limit the gum - sometimes I'm successful and sometimes not. I also have emotional problems but am not on any meds for those.

I keep trying to quit cold turkey - I have read all the books and done lots of serious self-counselling, but I just flip out at the first hurdles every time I try. I tried the wellbutrin about 5 years back and stopped smoking - but couldn't hack the side-effects which were severe insomnia for me. BUT I STOPPED SMOKING. I had to come off it though - so started smoking again. I stopped for a week after reading Allen Carr's book - then just started again for no apparent reason. That book only works once if it works.

I am possibly going to try the Chantix when it comes out in April here in Chile, and if that doesn't work, I will just have to keep doing the gum until I get pregnant in which case I will definitely have to do cold turkey and go through with it. I just don't want to have to wait until then.

I AM A WUSS!!! Seriously - some people just can't do cold turkey. Shoving those statistics in people's faces is like saying -

hey, the only way to quit is cold turkey - otherwise you're screwed - no other way works.

Cold turkey might be the BEST way, but seriously how many people can do that? Some people just never managed through the initial withdrawal, so trying alternative methods is better than just accepting that they will be smokers the rest of their lives.

Anyway sorry for hijacking thread - just wanted to say that.

Statistically? Only 10% kick their addictions long term successfully no matter what method they use. If your two choices were hard and harder which would you pick?
You are not a wuss, but it seems that you have stressors in your life that complicate your chances of a successful quit.
Statistically, more long term successful quitters did so cold turkey.
That's not to say that other methods do not work, they just don't seem to work as well as using nothing at all.
Be very careful with using NRT and smoking together; nicotine is a poison and doing both at the same time raises your risk of nicotine poisoning which is why there are warnings on the packages of gum and patches not to do both at the same time.

yeah it's not good - but I don't do them both at the same time. I do wait awhile.

Having said all that - for me right now I keep going periods without either. Even if I can't quit - and I keep trying - I keep getting this motivation to try anyway. And I do notice that the more I do this the less resistant I am to going the same hours in the day without.

Maybe it is getting me nowhere but at least it cuts down on my whole nicotine intake and gets me in the practice of feeling the cravings and accepting them, which I believe will be useful when I finally manage to completely go for it. Or is that all wrong? Does it make any difference at all?

You have to really want to quit otherwise it just won't work for you. If it's not your time to quit, then it's not your time.

I also didn't let anyone know I was quitting, then I didn't have to answer the same questions day in, day out. I told only my mum and told everyone else after I had quit.

I was a heavy smoker and I quit cold turkey in 1992. The addiction takes 3 days for it to be gone, the rest of the time is habit. If you can make it the first 3 days, you should remember that the rest is just missing the movement of the cigarette to the mouth. I quit on a dare with a co-worker that was trying to quit smoking and could not. He had a rubber band around his wrist and everytime he wanted one, he was supposed to pull it and hit himself with it. The sound got so annoying, that one day I just walked over and said: "I bet that I can quit smoking without all that fuss". I did, and I have not smoked since.

Just a matter of mind over matter. 3 days, that's all it takes. If after that you put the cigarette back in your mouth is because you want, not because you need to.

Be strong, your lungs will thank you.

Studies have proven the tobacco industry has increased the number of addictive substances to cigarettes over the last 10 years or more. The addiction is not completely *over* in 3 days. I urge anyone who is trying to quit to check out www.quitnet.com. It was an invaluable asset to me.

Deb
Smoke-free since 10/2/06 - NOPE (Not One Puff Ever)

I think what SadLady is trying to say is that nicotine is out of your bloodstream completely in 72 hours; at that point a quitter is officially 'nicotine free'. Physical cravings peak at the 3 day mark and decrease steadily from that point forward both in frequency and intensity.
Once you are an addict, you are always an addict; that never goes away but it is up to the individual to make the choice daily, hourly and sometimes minute by minute to not use again.
You always have a choice; use or don't use, it's up to you.

Well.....sad to say, I haven't quit yet. I was trying to a least cut down but the past couple of days that hasn't even been working. I don't know.....I think it's a mental thing or something with me. The more I really DON'T want to light up, the more my body fights me for a cigarette to the point where I give in. I feel like I'm smoking MORE now that I really don't want to be a smoker anymore if that makes any sense.

This is it!! I'm giving myself until April 1st and then I am going to try my darn hardest not to give into the urges!! I might have to lock myself in my room for a few days but if that's what it takes......I just may do that. So, if anybody can come up with some mental techniques by next week......I'd still appreciate it.

Patty