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Today will be one week for me, sans smokes. I'm using Zyban and low dose patches and have found they really take the edge off the desire to smoke.
Zyban is pretty awesome in that it not only helps take the desire to smoke away but it also removes the pleasure from smoking. You start taking it a week before your quit date so you're still smoking as it builds up in your system. By my planned quit date, I still 'wanted' to smoke (habit) but found lighting up gave me none of the familiar pleasure. Heck, I found I was walking away after smoking half a cigarette.
I had tried multiple times to quit over the past several years, using the patch, gum, cold turkey (ouch!) but nothing 'took'.
After 23 years of smoking, I'm having to re-learn how to eat, wake up, go to bed, etc. By effectively mitigating the effects of nicotine withdrawal, the patch and zyban have allowed me to more easily modify my life.
I believe the biggest (and most effective) tactic for me this time is how I'm viewing what I'm doing, since I'm admittedly not terribly motivated to not smoke. I'm not 'quitting smoking', rather 'I'm becoming a non-smoker'. The former has connotations of sacrificing something you enjoy whereas the latter is a lifestyle change.
After 7 days, the cravings are still there but it's more of a twinge and I'm no longer seeing having a cigarette as a way to satisfy what's bothering me.
Hell, if I can get through being bitten by a dog I was training at the SPCA without reaching for a smoke, I figure it's downhill from here.
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