[ Quitting Smoking ] 02 March, 2008 22:42

Know These Truths

1. The only thing a cigarette gives you is the need to have one.

2. The reason for your current misery is because you smoked, not because you quit.

3. What is the cause of your discomfort and disease can not possibly be the cure; an addiction is not a snake bite.

Never:

1. doubt your decision to quit.

2. entertain thoughts of returning to smoking.

Get these things down and the battle is won, for you do not fight against a body or a demon or a life circumstance. The battle is in your mind. Stop believing in cigarettes and……


Free Your Mind

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[ Quitting Smoking ] 01 March, 2008 12:36

The Aaaaaaah Sensation

The Aaaaaaah Sensation-Repost
From ksobrien on 3/1/2008 8:40:03 AM
The AAhhhhhh sensation. This is what keeps smokers caught in the nicotine trap. It is also the voice that can beckon ex-smokers to just try one cigarette, just for old times sake.

So is the Aaaaahhh sensation real? It is very much real, but it is WHY it is real that is the illusion.

I truly believe that smoking does nothing for the smoker. Others might disagree with that statement. They might say that smoking released dopamine that gave us that AAaahhh sensation and that's why we were hooked, but when I look back now at my first cigarette and past quit attempts. It only reinforces what I believe.

The first cigarette I ever smoked. As Dopamine was rushing through my system. I didn't get that Aaaahhhh sensation. That cigarette didn't give me any relief. I didn't get that feeling of calmness come over me after smoking a cigarette that I would come to know in my smoking career.

I experienced quite the opposite. I felt dizzy. I felt nauseous. I felt shaky. I basically felt horrible. I should have stopped at that one, but I was a stupid kid trying to be cool.

It took a little time, before I would start notice what would become to be known as the AAaahhhh sensation.

What I also didn't know was that sucking in this poison was physically altering my brain.

Being the amazing machine it is, my brain had to adapt to this foreign poison I was forcing into myself.

Nicotine was releasing a flood of dopamine into my system by mimicing the neurotransmitter acetylcholine. My system became off kilter. My brain needed to regulate the amount of dopamine being released, but it couldn't regulate nicotine, as it was a foreign substance (poison). So it had no other choice. My brain started turning down it's own sensitivity to acetylcholine. Nicotine was literally desensitizing me and impacting my mood.

The more I smoked. The more my brain turned down it's sensitivity to acetylcholine , creating a cycle that would make me rely more and more on the cigarette just to feel "normal".

My brain also started rewiring itself to try and intergrate nicotine as part of it's normal function.

In some neuro-circuits my brain diminished the number of receptors available to receive nicotine, in others it diminished the number of available transporters and in still other regions it grew millions and millions of extra acetylcholine receptors (up-regulation), almost as if trying to protect itself by more widely disbursing the arriving pesticide.

Nicotine also having the ability to fit my adrenaline locks, created another problem for me. As the effects of dopamine wore off. I was left with a fight or flight feeling. As I increased my nicotine serum level. My anxieties started to become more severe as the effects of nicotine wore off.

Yet, my subconscious started to figure out something that I wasn't fully aware of. If I smoked a cigarette, that anxiety would go away.

This was the start of what would become known to me as the AAaaahhhhhh sensation.

For 21 years I lived this illusion. As much as I hated to smoke. I always thought that it must have done something for me. Yet the more I smoked, the more I didn't feel anything anymore. Nothing. I was now smoking just so I could feel "normal". I was now smoking just to keep the anxieties of not smoking at bay. There was no pleasure there and I didn't even realize it. I was stuck in the cycle of addiction.

I have also given away many quits because AAaahhhh memories were calling my name.

The cruel trick is, I would never find that AAhhhh sensation from smoking the first cigarette that killed my quit. It was the ones after that cigarette, that gave me that.

Here is an exerpt from an old post of mine about a lost quit.
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" I needed that AAAHHHHHHHHHH sensation and I needed it now!!!

So I lit that smoke(I can vividly remember this one cigarette to this day) and waited for that AAAHHHHHHHHH sensation to come to me. You know what I felt? It felt like someone took the heaviest wet blanket of depression and threw it on top of me. It literally felt like that. I got so dizzy. My vision was blurry. My heart felt like it was beating too fast. I felt nauseous and my body was shaking. I had to kneel down for almost 10 minutes to re cooperate from that cigarette. What did I feel after that cigarette? I felt horrible, both mentally and physically."
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So do cigarettes really DO something FOR you or do they DO something TO you. I found no comfort in that cigarette I mentioned. It didn't bring me what I wanted. It only brought me back to my addiction.

Allen Carr's quote at the beginning of this post speaks volumes about this addiction. That simple quote sums it all up for me.


So, is the AAahhhhh sensation real? Yes it is very much real. It is WHY it is real that is the illusion.

Eric
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This is one of the quotes I saved that I think made the most difference in my quit....
roxie

kelli
day 914

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[ Quitting Smoking ] 28 February, 2008 21:42

BBB

I hosted my debut Bonfire tonite on the Q and I have to say, as exhausting as it was responding to about 48 people over a 3-hour period, it was a blast.

I am so amazed sometimes with the ppl of the Q. I can't believe how loved and supported I am there. They make me feel so good, so useful and like I've really helped them. It's a wonderful thing to feel wanted and needed and purposeful.

I remember when I went to the Bonfires...it's incredible how a virtual Q Island can feel so real and relaxing when you get your head in the game. Sometimes it was the best salve for my frayed nerves at the end of a stressful day.

If anyone reading this has never been to a Q Bonfire, they take place each nite between 7-10 p.m. (EST) and it's something that must be experienced. Hope you love it as much as I do.

jules 9M yesterday (and celebrated w/ the family at a sushi bar w/ hot sake!)

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