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: Afraid of the agony of withdrawal |
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| | | From: Joel (Original Message) | Sent: 12/8/2005 11:17 AM |
JOEL; TO BE HONEST I AM IN A SERIOUS CRISIS. I HAVE BEEN DIAGNOSED WITH BLOOD CLOTS IN LEFT LEG AND I AM STILL SMOKING. I WANT TO QUIT AND YET I CONTINUE. I AM GOING TO TRY COLD TURKEY BECAUSE VARIOUS AIDS JUST MAKE ME MORE CONSCIOUS OF SMOKING. I WILL HAVE TO GO THROUGH THE AGONY OF WITHDRAWAL. Bolivar Hello Bolivar: I am going to attach three articles that I think you would benefit from reading. Yesterday I started up Question and Answer board at http://groups.msn.com/AskJoel/askjoel.msnw. If I could have your permission I would like to pose your comments there. I think you will get a lot more insights and assistance from some very seasoned quitters. Take a look at the site and if it is okay with you I will post your email there, of course, not using your name. Joel Response from Bolivar: Joel it is okay to post my statement.....I will accept any help |
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Hi (((Bolivar))), I just read your message and am thinking: what ARE YOU waiting for? You already are suffering from the consequences of smoking and nicotine use. I know there is no point in me saying "Please, quit now and don't wait until it really is too late and your family and friends will have to say a final good-bye to you, too." You might still be looking for that Easy Way to Quit Smoking ... what is easier, though, when you really think about it than to just stop feeding your body nicotine? Don't just "try Cold Turkey, do it!!! What was withdrawal really like? is a string that shows you that there really is nothing to be afraid of and you know yourself that you will have so much to gain. You have also found the whyquit-site and Joel's library - have a good look around there and educate yourself about our addiction. Also read all the articles that Joel has recommended to you and anything else that will be given to you as a reading suggestion. You said you are afraid of withdrawal - well, good news here: it won't last forever and if you experience any agony (which you might not, you never know - it might be so much easier than you think), you also know it will pass. The agony WILL pass, the withdrawal WILL end but you WILL still be there to live, you will have reached a comfortable state as an ex-smoker and you will be able to enjoy a much healthier life with all your loved ones. You might also be interested in having a look at Bolivar, come on and fly with me ... - honestly: it is so worth it, you are so worth it and in a short time you will see that yourself. Gitte 377 days and a bit |
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Bolivar, You may doubt my next statement but pelase hear me out. I know exactly how you feel. Afraid to quit because you've been convinced that quitting is agony. "WILL HAVE TO GO THROUGH THE AGONY OF WITHDRAWAL." What I found almost a year ago was that there is NOTHING to be afraid of in getting nicotine out of your body, your mind, your life! NOTHING. Read for two hours at www.WhyQuit.com &/or All Freedom Message Boards and you'll see there is nothing scarier than continuing to senselessly kill yourself by smoking tobacco to maintain an addiction to the chemical nicotine. Fear of success, fear of failure, fear or poor health, fear of loss of limb, fear of loss of life, fear of loss of identity? Lots of fears, Right? They all are based on one fear - The Fear of the Unknown. Educate yourself on what happens when you take nicotine into you body. Find out for yourself what immediate and long term effects nicotine in your blood serum chemistry has in your brain and circulatory system. Discover how teh cigarette is simply a highly engineered and manipulated delivery device, ensureing you stay addicted as long as you do not break your chemical dependency. Get rid or nicotine. Remove it from you body / mind / bloodstream. Get rid of smoking nicotine the same way you would get rid of smoking crack cocaine. Never Take Another Puff. Here are two of my favorite reads on attitude which helped make reagaining control of my mind and my life an absolute joyful gift to me from me. Bolivar, Be not Afraid. Give yourself the gift of LIFE! Do it for YOU, Do it NOW! THere's nothiing to be afraid of in recaiming control of your life and arresting your addiction to nicotine. "There's Nothing to Fear but Fear Itself." (Sir Winston Churchill) Like you, just a guy who did not know or understand whay I was addicted to tobacco until 332 days ago when I found FreedomFromTobacco and decided to NeverTakeAnotherPuff. |
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Bolivar, Wanting to quit is not quitting nor is trying to quit the same as quitting. A basic premise which when said to oneself sound silly but is a basic truth that we who have quit have come to understand is this
In order to quit smoking you have to quit smoking.
People will try every kind of snake oil on the market in order to avoid "the pain" of quitting. The pain of quitting is NOTHING in comparison to the pain of continuing to smoke. There are some things you should know. It may be difficult, but you can control the difficulty to a degree with a positive attitude. Don't look at this as though you are making a sacrifice when you quit. You are not giving up smoking you are throwing it away. Cigarette smoking is a delivery method for a drug named nicotine. The way to quit nicotine in your case is to quit smoking, the way to quit smoking is to never take another puff - no matter what. If you want to know how we were able to accomplish this you should be reading all of the material on whyquit.com. Knowledge is your best defense and indeed your best offense. Don't consider yourself a victim, "Somebody help me." Take control, make the decision, quit now. |
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Hi Bolivar, to me, "blood clots in your leg" sounds absolutely terrible! I do hope it doesn't hurt... Don't get me wrong but it sound weird to me that someone can face the dangers of blood clotting in his leg and everything that comes with it, and at the same time be so scared of quitting because of "the agony of withdrawal". Even if you are not in pain now, you must be worrying yourself sick. What if that blood clot blocks an artery and the foot dies? What if the blood clot moves with the bloodstream and causes a stroke? If you quit, you have very good chances that your circulation problems get better very quickly. You will have nothing to worry about on that side. What I am trying to tell you is that you are probably having more problems now than during the first days of quitting. Every quit is different. You might have a very smooth quit, you never know. I didn't experience any of the terrible symptoms people sometimes describe. It was not nice but it was by no means as bad as some people make it seem. (Sometimes I am inclined to believe that people who have a vested interest in my smoking spread these rumours...) Just take the plunge. Don't buy a new pack. Save your life by NTAP - it is really that simple. PinkFlowers Saving her life since 2 March 2005 |
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Bolivar, a long time ago I too wanted to quit but yet continued to smoke. The reason I continued to smoke was because of the addiction to the nicotine in cigarettes. Everytime I started to quit, I (my brain and body) would sense the diminishing levels of nicotine in my bloodstream and the withdrawal would make me crave more nicotine. The only way for me to relieve the craving was to smoke more cigarettes. But there is another choice you can make to relieve the withdrawal and craving for nicotine... choose not to put any more of it into your body! Because we are addicted to the drug nicotine, there are likely to be some withdrawal symptoms when we quit feeding it to ourselves. But, there is no withdrawal symptom than can actually hurt you. While it may seem uncomfortable for short time, withdrawal will not physically hurt you! Do not fear withdrawal! Instead, arm yourself with knowledge. The following links (and the links within the links) can do just that. Bolivar, you can do this! You are worth it! Richard 22 months of freedom (after 33+ years of smoking) |
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Dear Bolivar, Your decision to quit is wonderful. Your choice of Cold Turkey is a great one. I hear your fear when you describe withdrawal as agony. I cried my eyes out the day before I quit. Let me tell you that my fear of withdrawal was far more agonizing than anything I went through in withdrawal. There is no way around, only through. The methods that "assist" with quitting smoking actually drag out withdrawal, some for many months. Cold Turkey gets it over with as fast as possible. Smack in the middle of it, it may not feel very fast, but once you have tucked some time in, your retrospective will be, not only that it wasn't that long but also, that it was 100% worth it! I highly recommend reading these: One of these days I will get around to writing my spin, One Task At A Time. That is how I made it through withdrawal as comfortably as I could. I would decide, "Okay, I'm just going to do this." Then I would do just that one thing without smoking (pick something, anything: taking a shower, getting dressed, eating a meal, driving to work, etc.). And then when I recognized that I lived through the task without nicotine, I would tackle another one, just this now. Reading through it is a great way to spend a craving. When you get through the immediate recommendations, cruise this: Take care of yourself. Heal. Kay (After 25 years of smoking: 1 Year, 11 Months, 15 Days of Freedom!) |
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| | | From: Linda | Sent: 12/8/2005 9:38 PM |
Hello Bolivar: My husband was also diagnosed with a vascular problem, three abdominal aorta aneurysms, and his doctor said he was a walking timebomb just as I'm sure your doctor has told you. He said you have two choices to make. You quit smoking and I will attempt to repair the damage that nicotine has done to your body, or two...you can keep smoking and wait for your arteries to explode and you will bleed to death. That was six years ago. He either quit or continued smoking and face sudden death. It was a certainty. Circulatory and cardiac problems many times offer no warning of impending death like our lungs or organs do when we smoke. Death is usually instantaneous and suffering is minimal. One puff and it's over. Done. We don't live to see old age and we don't live to see those we love grow and thrive. There is no agony like the agony a family faces when a loved one suddenly dies from a condition that would likely have improved if that person had stopped smoking. Below I will give you links to people who lost their lives at a very young age because they did not think nicotine would harm them. Don't think that quitting is agonizing. Quitting can be the most rewarding experience of your life. Never compare your quit with others quits or even your own past attempts to quit with this quit, because they are all different. ( Every quit is different) My husband and I quit smoking six years ago after smoking four decades and he survived his surgery. Our lives have changed dramatically since then and each day has been a gift. We find it difficult to remember why we ever smoked or even why we continued now that we know about nicotine addiction. We are thankful that things turned our the way they did and that we finally made up our minds to quit. Read all the threads and links offered in the above posts and you will see how each day that passes nicotine free becomes easier and easier. You will also see that gaining your freedom is a simple as never taking another puff. You can do this. We did and we love living nicotine free. Wishing you the best, Linda |
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