GUS (Gave Up Smoking) is a community support diary for Kossacks in the midst of quitting smoking. Any supportive comments, suggestions or positive distractions are appreciated. If you are quitting or thinking of quitting, please -- join us! We kindly ask that politics be set aside.
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"I have had to fight like hell and fighting like hell has made me what I am." - John Arbuthnot Fisher
"Success is sweet and sweeter if long delayed and gotten through many struggles and defeats."
- Amos Bronson Alcott
Y'know, I've often asked myself, if it's so easy to pick up smoking (and for many of us, especially those of us with addictive personalities, it's a little too easy), why is it so damn hard to quit?
Why does it take so many of us so many tries?
Why can't it just be a little easier?
Of course, one big reason we're in this boat in the first place is that a primary mechanism of nicotine addiction is the [artificially induced] release of dopamine, a neurotransmitter that functions as the brain's little reward system. Nicotine addiction involves a fundamental change in our body chemistry that essentially turns us into reward-seeking machines. There's also a powerful psychological component to nicotine dependence, with smokers typically using the act of smoking as a coping mechanism in the face of everyday stress, anxiety, or difficulty. Unfortunately for us, it's far easier to establish and reinforce these addictive processes than it is to stop doing them.
In a way, smoking has conditioned us to want an easy path out. Nicotine addicts are at a chemical and psychological disadvantage when it comes to being able to muster up the very things that are helpful in any type of behavior modification. We tend to have craptastic coping skills, a baseline elevated level of anxiety, and our big plan for dealing with the stress brought about by our efforts to quit usually begins and ends with "I need a cigarette right now!" It's never a good thing if your go-to Plan A for dealing with the fallout of your behavior modification effort is the very behavior you're trying to modify.
As smokers, we're used to turning to something external -- a substance -- just to feel normal. We recognize, consciously or not, that we're addicts, and apply all of the boneheaded, morality-based popular sentiment associated with that to ourselves. We even start believing those unhelpful, unproductive messages: that we have no willpower, that we kind of suck because we can't seem to control our behavior, that we'd be able to quit if we just tried a little harder, and that because we've tried to cut back or quit and slipped means that we're stuck with this addiction.
None of this is true, but that doesn't stop us from internalizing it, and letting it inform our actions.
You don't hear a whole lot in the media about one of the more effective methods used by the majority of long-term quitters: Cold Turkey. One reason for this may be that relatively few people are really invested in getting this particular message out (whereas there is plenty of pharmaceutical industry money to support messaging about various forms of nicotine replacement therapy, or NRT). The other reason, as far as I can tell, is that discussing this approach involves an unpleasant truth that many (though not all) Cold Turkey quitters experience: it can be a downright miserable process to stop smoking that way!
Seriously, it's just not a whole lot of fun. In fact, it's kind of the opposite of fun. For some, it reveals underlying psychological issues; for others, it brings on fairly significant physical symptoms. I don't know anyone who actually enjoys it.
That's kind of a hard thing to sell.
It can certainly be a struggle to maintain a Cold Turkey quit at first, since there's not a whole lot you can do to mitigate the symptoms of withdrawal. If you're not using some kind of NRT, you'll most likely experience some seriously unpleasant physical side effects, as well as psychological ones, in the initial days and weeks. For a lot of people, the psychological aspects are harder to take; it's difficult and daunting to realize you'll probably be experiencing anxiety on a regular basis until your brain rewires itself. For the average smoker, that might translate to three minutes of anxiety (the average time of a craving) x as many cigarettes as you were used to smoking, at least until the worst of the physical cravings subside. That's a whole lot of climbing the walls, snapping at your loved ones, and feeling edgy (or weepy or frustrated, or scared, or a thousand other anxiety responses)!
On the other hand, it's sort of like ripping off a Band-Aid or doing a cannonball into a cold pool: the worst is over that much quicker. The very unpleasantness of the quit may even serve as your best reminder that you don't want to go through it again! What's that old saying? What doesn't kill us makes us stronger? Kind of like that.
At least, that was the case for me. The thought of having to experience those first three days of Cold Turkey all over again was enough to keep me off the smokes until I learned how to not be a smoker. Oh, it took a while, don't get me wrong. It wasn't just three days of detox and :::BAM::: everything's all hunky-dory. It was a process, like a lot of others, one that took some time, involved some struggle, and didn't always make sense in the moment.
And as with many other things in life, working hard to achieve and maintain my quit sort of made me appreciate it more. When we work at something -- especially something we've struggled with, or been intimidated by -- we become invested in our own success. We care a little bit more, because we remember what it took to make it happen. Once we succeed, we may even be more likely to want to reach out to others and try to help them.
This is not to say that Cold Turkey is the only path to a successful quit -- far from it! For every study that looks at success rates for NRT-free quits, there are a bunch that highlight the successes of NRT-supported quit efforts, or those that combine medication and therapy. There are other approaches to behavior modification in cases of addiction, including hypnotherapy (providing subconscious messaging to counter or negate addictive conditioning), aversion therapy (creating actively unpleasant associations between smoking and a person's sense of well-being), and cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). A single one or some unique combination of these approaches may be what ultimately works for you. The only certainty is that you can't succeed in your quit until you give it a try. Or two tries. Or however many tries it takes.
It may not be easy, but I promise you it will be worth it.
"Need and struggle are what excite and inspire us." - William James
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