MetaChat - (Cross posting from AskMe)

MetaChat is an informal place for MeFites to touch base and post, discuss and chatter about topics that may not belong on MetaFilter. Questions? Check the FAQ. Please note: This is important.

04 April 2006

(Cross posting from AskMe) I've ceased smoking cigarettes. Problem - I have developed severe motivation problems. Suggestions for solutions?→[More:]
The setup:

2/3rd to 1 pack a day smoker for a dozen years. Started 150mg Zyban for 3 days. Successfully defended MSc thesis. Upped Zyban to 150mg/day x2 daily. Stopped nicotine intake. Zyban was adversely affecting me and I cut back down to 150mg/day in the morning only.

It's been 19 days of nicotine abstainance (aside from a Marly light which didn't do anything for me about 4 days after the cessation - which confirmed that the Zyban is interfering with positive sensations of nicotine intake). Major symptoms are gone. Minor symptoms (difficulty concentrating, random desire for vapourized nicotine intake, minor irritability) persist. Symptoms intensify when smoking triggers (leaving the lab at the end of the work day, after meals, having alcoholic beverages with friends, &c) present themselves but I tolerate those.

Problem: I've realized that I used cigarettes heavily as a reward mechanism. I'll make myself do something "unpleasant" on the assumption that I will go for a walk and a cigarette afterwards. Also, cigarettes as a "break" when doing work/concentration intensive activities for extended periods of time.

Now that I've decided to abstain, I find myself with extreme difficulty concentrating on mental activities (say, writing a protocol to apply for ethics review board approval of a minimally invasive procedure) or making myself start such activities (like putting a huge bollus of data togather and preparing a manuscript for submission for peer review) or when I try to mentally engage in understanding written work (such as peer-reviewed scientific articles).

When I "man up" and make myself procede, feelings of irritability and lack of focus are very strong and is usually accompanied by dizzyness and occassionally blurred vision.

Solicitation: Can you suggest anything to help me overcome this diffculty in motivation?

Difficulty: I abhor sweets and chocolate. I do high impact, low cardiovascular exercise daily in the mornings before showering.

Sorry for being so long-winded.

post by: porpoise at: 14:01 | 3 comments

Cigarettes do indeed act as a reward and a mood regulator. Until you are more secure in the quit attempt, you need to plan in regular daily rewards and bigger rewards for each significant milestone. Choose a few things you really want to do, but wouldn't normally take the time for or splurge on.

For me, at 30 days I bought a gas grill, and I had other intermittent rewards. They need to be very regular rewards at first and they need to be planned and you need to follow through. It's a psychological trick, but it works.

At 19 days, it's about to get quite a bit easier.

Take a look at the American Lung Association's Freedom From Smoking program (to which I owe my own nicotine-free state). You have already gone through the quit part, but you may find their lesson plan 'modules' helpful, and you are likely to get better responses on the FFS message boards than on MeFi. You might also want to check out the WhyQuit.com articles for more solutions.

Until you get past the adjustment period, quitting is job #1. Do whatever you need to do.

posted by Miko 04 April | 14:11

I wish I could offer advice but I cannot, I can only offer my deepest congratulations on your choice to stop smoking.

Time will allow your body to get back to where it needs to be and your body chemistry is still adjusting to the lack of the reward stim. Give it time and you should bounce back to being the same old you but without the nicotine needs.

posted by fenriq 04 April | 15:47

Let's see... what did I do/love most when in these throes...?

Lost of video games (zone out for hours, stay marginally engaged until sleep took me).
Celestial Seasonings Tension Tamer tea (I swear it took the edge off - call me crazy).
Nicotine patch (oh yeah! that was helpful. makes quitting a 2-step process: habitual, then physical).
Any and all sexual stimulation I could get (blow jobs ideal, sex always welcome though kind of a lot of effort, decent porn and a reclined position never a bad combination).
Reading LOTR (something about the innocent wee gnomes resisting the pull of the Evil Thing sounded a note of endurance for me).
Netflix.
Spending half an hour half asleep on the toilet at work around 2pm every day. Well, not quite ASLEEP, but damn tired and unresponsive.
Chugging metamucil laxatives.

It's a crappy time but it doesn't last forever.

Whatever you do, don't slip into the whole "OMG I HATE MYSELF WITHOUT CIGARETTES. LOOK HOW USELESS I AM" way of thinking. It's invalid. Because the malaise doesn't last forever. It's WITHDRAWL. You'll survive it.

posted by scarabic 04 April | 23:19

← We need something fun || Your favorite works of art. Post them here, please. →

HOME || REGISTER || LOGIN