Scenic Route

I lost most of my apprehension over using the patch on Saturday night when I sat down with the instruction book and listened to the CD.

I’d been apprehensive thinking it would draw out the quitting process by six to eight weeks. It’s generally bad enough as it is, without having to endure an extra couple of months.

And I was thinking that I might not fit as the type of quitter that would benefit from the patch. After all, it has only a 20% success rate.

But reading the enclosed literature and listening to the enclosed CD, I found that, first, I fit right into that minority that could be successful, and second, that what it does is separate the quitting process into two logical parts that are then identifiable and dealt with separately.

Yes, come Sunday morning when I stuck the first one on, I had lingering doubts about the product itself, but not the process.

What I can report so far is that the patch works well with regard to maintaining blood-nicotine levels, thereby eliminating (for now) physical addiction-based “needs” to have a smoke.

It can’t do anything about the the ones I “want” to smoke or that seem to come automatically or are associated with a particular activity or emotional response. That’s my part of the job.

It buys me time and gives me practice at dealing with these urges, without having to simultaneously deal with the physical craving and withdrawal symptoms. I can learn how to deal with the behavioral aspects, before having to deal with the physical ones.

In short, so far, so good.

I’ve discovered that the ones that are hardest to deal with are the ones I thought would be hardest to deal with:

• After brushing my teeth. It’s the first thing I’d do in order to get that nasty mint taste out of my mouth. (Why, oh why do dental products come only in mint-flavored?) Strangely, brushing is one of the things recommended in the kit as an avoidance technique.
• Working or writing at the PC when I need to take a break to collect my thoughts. I’ve noted that I try to “work through” the need to take a break rather than find an alternative way of taking one.
• The middle of the night when I wake up and can’t get back to sleep.
• And when I finish a bike ride. I know, it’s exactly the thing motivating me to quit, but those are exactly the ones added in the past few months that increased my smoking from a third of a pack a day to half a pack.

Physically, I’m dealing with only two issues so far. First, well, there’s no delicate way to put it, but there’s nothing like the first smoke of the day to jolt the bowel awake for the morning constitutional. Finally, this afternoon it got tired of waiting. The afterglow was better than the one from after sex.

Second, I know it sounds counterintutive, but there are times I’d smoke just to clear my lungs. There’s something about the irritation, I suppose. First thing in the morning, and after a bike ride are two examples of when a smoke would loosen things up so I didn’t feel like I was drowning in mucus. For the time being, I’m not sure what to do about this one.

Emotionally and psychologically, I haven’t been stressed yet. Anger, frustration and anxiety usually brings on the urge. And the effect of the drug is to quieten down those things. We’ll see what happens tomorrow when I sub for a co-worker at the library…

Overall, I’m amazed at how well the thing works. It won’t make the process easy, but it seems to be easier by virtue of making it less overwhelming. And I know it won’t do it by itself. I have a role to play, and I’m learning it.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 22nd, 2006 at 12:21 am EST and is filed under Generic. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.