Scared to quit smoking???? (pregnant, cold, chantix, doctor)

[fierce_flawless]

Doesn't that sound CRAZY, that title?

I am hoping ? planning ? to quit, with my partner. We both smoke and have smoked since our early teens, and we are both in our 30's!


I have tried to quit before and actually succeeded once, made it almost three years actually. How stupid can you get, huh? I quit when pregnant and with my second son I stayed "quit" until he was 2, then one night I went to a party and had too much wine and someone had some "foreign" cigs that were supposed to be healthier, blah blah, and there it all went.

The one time I was actually successful for a long time (2nd time), when pregnant, I went out and bought a pack of cigs and a box of gum and put both in the bathroom cabinet and told myself I'd try going cold turkey, but was reassured knowing I had two "outs" if I wanted to. To me this made it more of a "choice" and gave me more of a sense of control (vs. having NO cigs in the house). It seemed to work for me. So I wonder if we should do the same again?

My partner has never managed to quit though she's tried several times... but she's all for it, in fact she seems more confident in our ability to quit than I do, yet I am the one who DID quit before, isn't that weird?

Anyway, the anxiety I am feeling, knowing we are planning this, is growing daily. I feel like I've signed up to kill off a close friend.
I am terrified of failure, I guess. I have watched two very close friends quit for their husbands, then start up again after a divorce... in both cases, over a DECADE later! Maybe it was just rebellion against guys who basically said "I'll never marry a smoker" but still, it makes me wonder if I'll ever quit "for good"? My mom is in her mid 60's and still smokes and she, too, has quit, more than once and for a year or longer each time.

Is it strange to be so "scared" of quitting??

Despite the fear, I MUST QUIT. I know this. I have the same reasons as everyone else, but for me the big ones are 1) money, 2) health fears 3) fitness levels and 4) my kids. I want to get into REALLY good shape, I'm tired of coughing in the mornings, and we cannot afford cigs anymore, we need to face the facts on that. I'm not getting any younger and I always said I'd quit by age 30. Well I'm 37 as of last month! We don't smoke in the house with the kids but they do SEE it and know we smoke, and I don't want them emulating us in this one. They beg us to quit... and we keep telling them we will, and I am one of those parents that NEVER likes to make promises and not follow through.

So, along with questions about the fears of actually QUITTING, I have others:

The patch helped me before in a shorter quit period. The gum, as I remember it, tasted NASTY. The thing is, all this stuff used to be OUTRAGEOUSLY expensive, (10-plus years ago) is it still? I don't have health insurance so no hopes of getting anything paid for that way.

On that note I've heard wondrous things about Chantix. Any clue how much it would be to pay out of pocket? I know of a sliding scale clinic I could go to for a script. I have no idea how much the Chantix would cost though.

Maybe I could try the Wellbutrin option? Some scripts via that clinic are "generic" priced at $5 each. Not sure if Wellbutrin would be or not.

We said we'd quit when this carton was gone. Well, we have 4 packs left, which means 2 days (we each smoke about a pack a day)... and I'm getting panicky about this now. Should we have (or should we try) to "taper down" first? I didn't do that before, I just quit, from a pack a day to nothing, but being pregnant helped. I'd just found out and it was easy to do it "for the baby". Stupid, because those babies are still here (though not babies anymore) and they NEED me to quit just as much as they did when they were inside me... so I keep reminding myself of that. THEY need me to quit, I can still do it "for the babies", right?

[PinkString]

As a former smoker I would say to taper off first. I found it to be easier in quitting when I quit. If you smoke a pack a day, taper off to smoking 1-2 less a day until you get down to 1-2 cigarettes for the whole day. I know it will take you longer to quit, but you will thank me later.
Also, get regular drinking straws. Cut them down to the size of the cigarettes. And then "smoke" those, by grabbing for one and inhaling and blowing out. Pretend you are smoking. It really does help. Do this while tapering down.
The totally best way to quit, hands down, is cold turkey. But to get there, do the tapering.
Also, you will smoke in your dreams after you quit. Just ignore them and go on with your life. I hate to say it, but even after 13 years of my not smoking, i still get those darn smoking dreams..where i'm buying packs of cigs and smoking, but at least i only do it in my dreams. Good luck!

[cmacf1]

Your feelings of panic are totally normal. Since you have quit before, you now how it feels (i.e. how HORRIBLE it feels.) Having quit 5 or 6 times before I quit for good (just had my 14th anniversary for quitting,) I so know what you're talking about.

Let's see, what did I use to try quitting? The gum: yes, it was gross, but I got myself addicted to it when it was prescription only and after a year, my doctor refused to write more prescriptions for me (so I had friends who were traveling through Europe buy it for me.) After I broke a molar, I quit the gum and restarted smoking.

I tried sheer willpower and quitting cold turkey for several of the tries. That lasted a few weeks, but I always started again.

I tried the patch for the 6 weeks suggested in the directions. I did it for 6 weeks just like they said, I'd go off, then I'd start smoking again.

What finally got me to quit was staying on the patch for 20-22 weeks. I quit cold turkey (if there were cigarettes in the house, I WOULD smoke them at the rate of about a pack a day, so I could have NO cigarettes anywhere near me - cutting back was not an option for me.) I tripled the amount of time recommended for wearing the patch. Like if the directions said to wear the strongest patch for 2 weeks, I wore it for 6 weeks. There were three levels of patches. Once I'd been on the smallest patch for 6 weeks, I was afraid to just stop wearing one, so (against the directions) I cut a patch in half and wore one that size for a while, then in 1/4s, then in 1/8s. I think at that point it was more of a psychological thing than a physical thing at that point.

The other thing I did was that I stopped hanging out ANYPLACE where smoking might be happening. I no longer went to bars or hung out with my smoking friends (which was really sad, but I had to put my health above everything.) I absolutely could NOT drink any alcohol because any lessened inhibition would help me to reason that I could have ONE cigarette (I could not and still CANNOT.) I think it is imperative that your partner quits at the same time. There's no way one of you can smoke and one not. I do know couples where that is the case, but I just can't imagine that. The temptation would be FAR too great for me.

I wish I could tell you the prices now, but I just don't know. I do know that Wellbutrin (which I'm on for mental health purposes now) is in generic form now, so it's less expensive (I have a presciption plan, so it's lower cost.) Wellbutrin has the extra added bonus of enhancing sexual responsiveness for some lucky people (I'm one of them ) so instead of smoking, you could be doing something else!

You have my complete empathy on quitting. I believe it's about the hardest thing I've ever done, but also probably the best one for my health. Things taste better, you smell better, your house smells better, your kids and pets will smell better, and you won't feel like you're held prisoner by the habit, you'll have more money to spend on your kids and yourselves, you won't feel like a societal pariah, and you'll feel the accomplishment of doing something really really difficult.

Now, I believe I read some statistics that say that those who have tried to quit before are more likely to be successful. You have attempted to quit before and did quit for periods of time. Your partner also has attempted to quit. So BOTH of you have experience with how it feels. You know it's not going to feel good, so you can prepare. Get your favorite foods, some movies, get in your jammies and just get prepared.

I just reread your original post and it mentioned keeping some cigs in the medicine cabinet. Personally, I think that having this crutch is a harbinger of nicotine withdrawal disaster. Nicotine is a very potent drug and if you KNOW it's so available, you're FAR more likely to give in to temptation. I'm sure the thought of NO cigarettes being in your house causes you panic and oh I understand that feeling (I still remember and I could easily throw myself into a panic sitting here typing remembering the feeling.) But, if you're going to be successful quitting, you cannot ever have cigarettes again. It's like losing a friend that has helped you through good times and bad. It was profoundly sad for me to think about giving up cigarettes because they had helped me through some awful times (and I LOVED drinking beer and smoking with my friends after work.) BUT life does go on and it really is better once you're free of the habit. TO be honest, I'd still love to have a cigarette, but I know I cannot have one ever again. I still have dreams that I smoked and I wake up panicked thinking I've started again. But I haven't and I won't.

I wish you and your partner great success in this incredibly difficult thing. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask! BEST Of luck to both of you.