It's time to Quit Smoking - Part 1

Okay, well; as I said in my last post (http://www.progressiveu.org/003325-its-time-to-quit-smoking-preamble) Today was my official "Quit Date". So far, so good.

First, there are quite a few things that I went through to get to this point: where I am ready to quit smoking. I had already decided that I was going to quit when prices for a pack of cigerettes sky-rocketed to more than $5.00 a pack. Besides choosing to quit smoking, I had to develop a plan of how I was going to accomplish this. There are so many treatments available today, not to mention the good-ol' Cold Turkey method that my father used just 8 years ago.

But, I know my will-power. Yes, it can be very strong, but it can easily waiver. This week also marked the start of a new job as a substitute teacher, the end of my Junior year in college, my husband was prescribed a wheelchair, and my oldest Godson has been diagnosed with mild High Spectrum Autism. So many changes, each with a new form of stress that I will have to get used to. So, needless to say, Cold Turkey was not an option.

There are other plans available, of course (we see the commercials for them all the time). Nicorrette and Nicoderm, or some other brand of Nicotine Replacement, are very popular. But, they're also very expensive. Honestly, if people were so worried about having smokers quit smoking - then why make them pay more for the treatments than the cigarettes? A pack of Nicorette gum, for one week's worth, is $50 - $39 for the generic equivalent. And they recommend staying on the program for - get this - 12-18 weeks. So, sure, after 12-18 weeks, I'll be saving money. But until then I'll be paying double the money to try to quit! And the patches are just as expensive, and the length of treatment is about the same.

Then it dawned on me - treating a nicotine addiction with Nicotine.... isn't that kind of like treating a morphine addiction with Cocaine? So I asked my doctor. According to him, nearly 35% of the people in my area that used patches or gum to quit smoking ended up being addicted to the patches or gum! Well, that just wasn't going to work for me.

So, the program I decided to go with was Cigarrest. For an initial payment of $3 (yes, THREE dollars) I received support pamphlets, 180 pieces of Nicotine free gum, 270 Nicotine free tablets/lozenges, and 90 Vita-Guard Vitamins. The gum (a very *bright* flavor of mint) is to be chewed to help reduce cravings and irritability. The vitamins are taken once a day to help the body speed up the healing process and flush out tar and nicotine still left in the system. And the tablets are also to reduce irritability and cravings. All of the ingredients are natural and nonaddictive.

So far today, I haven't had very many cravings; but the fact that I'd been working since 6:45 in the morning until just before writing this post probably helped with that - since I was very busy with large classes of kids.

But I'll keep you posted as to what develops!