Ever since I started smoking again last year, I've been trying to quit. I could never get past the first two days though, no matter how much I wanted it. I can't say this strongly enough...I HATE SMOKING. But, the nicotine addiction was so strong and my life so stressful that I couldn't see myself quitting without either slapping someone in the face, or throwing a temper-tantrum at work (excuses, excuses).
When I had my surgery in August, I had no choice but to quit as the doctor said that the bones in my neck wouldn't fuse well if I didn't. I took advantage of being completely drugged up to get me through those oh-so-horrid first three days. But sadly, the second week I smoked. Not because I had an urge or really wanted to at all. I tried to see if it would help me with a problem I was having...which I won't go into for fear of treading too far into TMI land. And this wasn't just some lame excuse to get to smoke either. I was beyond desperate. Suffice it to say, it didn't work, and I let the nasty beast nicotine back into my body for nothing and that one cigarette turned into hundreds more...make that THOUSANDS more. Crap!
I was supposed to quit again October 1st with a friend at work. I lasted 2 days, then realized that I was really stupid to try to quit at the beginning of the new quarter, when I'm the most stressed out at work (even though, oddly enough, I didn't smoke at work). I know this sounds like an excuse too...it's never a good time to quit, right? Well, I really did have to take into account that I could jeapordize my job by pummeling a particularly frustrating and annoying co-worker.
So, I finally decided to look into the smoking cessation program offered at work. I knew they had revamped it in the past few years and I was delighted to find that it was no longer a reimbursement program, but one where they pay for any kind of treatment you decide to use up front. As soon as I saw that one of the options was for medication, I knew that was what I wanted to do.
I don't believe in Nicotine Replacement Therapy. To me, that is just prolonging the agony. If I'm going to have to go through the stress of quitting the act of smoking, then I'm not going to want to have to deal with all of the real hard-core nicotine withdrawl later on! I'd rather rip that band-aid off fast and get all the pain over at once. When I quit a few years ago, I went cold-turkey and relied upon all of the knowledge I gained at a website: http://www.whyquit.com/ to help me understand what I'd be going through, which really did make things much easier. But, since I had started up again, none of that knowledge was helping.
I chose to get a prescription for Bupropion (which is the generic version of Wellbutrin), which I actually took for a few months last year. I had noticed that while I didn't quit smoking while on it before, I could go for long periods of time without having a cigarette and not get that feeling deep down that I NEEDED to smoke. And because it's not just a smoking cessation drug, but also an anti-depressant, I thought it would be a really good option for me right now...not that I'm depressed, but quitting smoking makes me feel depressed, and I'm all for staying in a relatively good mood for the next few months. Not to mention, it also acts as an appetite suppresant of sorts for me, which is nothing short of a miracle when quitting.
All I had to do was call the American Cancer Society quit hotline and set up some counseling sessions. After the first one, they decide which option would be best for you, and because I basically told them what I wanted to do, they approved the prescription and gave me a code, which I then gave to the pharmacy (after seing good ol' doc for the script), and they handed me the drugs at no charge. BONUS. :)
I started taking it a few weeks ago and set my quit date for November 10th. I haven't smoked in 7 days and things are looking good. No one has been slapped, though I have been just a little bitchy at work (I believe this is not as related to the nicotine withdrawal as it is related to how freaking annoying certain people can be). I had to take a half day Friday, but still consider this a relatively easy quit.
NOW....to get to the point...just like when I was on Medical Leave for the surgery, my sleep schedule is all kinds of messed up. I experienced sleeping issues last time I took this medication, but they only lasted for the first week or so. This time, I just can't shake it. I've been waking up by 5:00 a.m. on my own, even if I've gone to bed after midnight. I don't get up most days because I'm so mad I'm awake. My ass is staying in that bed until that alarm clock goes off, dammit!! But no matter how hard I try, I lay there wide awake.
I couldn't sleep last night period. I was awake until 6:00 a.m. And that was after having 4 Woodchucks!!! Anyone who knows me knows that this girl doesn't stay awake long after drinking, but I couldn't sleep to save my life. I finally got 2 hours of sleep in the morning, then another hour of sleep this afternoon. But, here it is, past 1:30 a.m. and I am WIDE AWAKE. I hate starting off a work-week sleep deprived. It takes the whole week just to catch up. I don't drink coffee, drink only caffeine free soda, and haven't even been drinking that much soda lately anyway. I've been flushing out the system by drinking lots of no-sugar-added cranberry juice and water. So, why am I so utterly wide awake? Aaarrrrgggghhhh!!!
Oh well...I guess I'd rather be a zombie at work for a while than still be smoking.
So...here are my quit stats so far:
I have been quit for 1 Week, 2 hours and 26 minutes (7 days). I have saved $31.95 by not smoking 142 cigarettes.
Here's a wake-up call...my stats if I had stayed quit after surgery:
I have been quit for 3 Months, 1 Week, 5 Days, and 2 hours (104 days). I have saved $468.45 by not smoking 2,082 cigarettes.
And, last but not least...what my stats would be if I hadn't started again last year...damn me!
I have been quit for 2 Years, 10 Months, 2 Weeks, and 2 hours (1,049 days). I have saved $4,720.96 by not smoking 20,982 cigarettes.
$4,720.96!
$4,720.96!!!!!
That blows my mind. Hell, even the $468.45 since August blows my mind. That's 2 car payments! One of my favorite parts of quitting is the money I don't spend on making myself stink. :)
So, I'm going to go lie awake in bed now. Send me sleep vibes y'all!
When I had my surgery in August, I had no choice but to quit as the doctor said that the bones in my neck wouldn't fuse well if I didn't. I took advantage of being completely drugged up to get me through those oh-so-horrid first three days. But sadly, the second week I smoked. Not because I had an urge or really wanted to at all. I tried to see if it would help me with a problem I was having...which I won't go into for fear of treading too far into TMI land. And this wasn't just some lame excuse to get to smoke either. I was beyond desperate. Suffice it to say, it didn't work, and I let the nasty beast nicotine back into my body for nothing and that one cigarette turned into hundreds more...make that THOUSANDS more. Crap!
I was supposed to quit again October 1st with a friend at work. I lasted 2 days, then realized that I was really stupid to try to quit at the beginning of the new quarter, when I'm the most stressed out at work (even though, oddly enough, I didn't smoke at work). I know this sounds like an excuse too...it's never a good time to quit, right? Well, I really did have to take into account that I could jeapordize my job by pummeling a particularly frustrating and annoying co-worker.
So, I finally decided to look into the smoking cessation program offered at work. I knew they had revamped it in the past few years and I was delighted to find that it was no longer a reimbursement program, but one where they pay for any kind of treatment you decide to use up front. As soon as I saw that one of the options was for medication, I knew that was what I wanted to do.
I don't believe in Nicotine Replacement Therapy. To me, that is just prolonging the agony. If I'm going to have to go through the stress of quitting the act of smoking, then I'm not going to want to have to deal with all of the real hard-core nicotine withdrawl later on! I'd rather rip that band-aid off fast and get all the pain over at once. When I quit a few years ago, I went cold-turkey and relied upon all of the knowledge I gained at a website: http://www.whyquit.com/ to help me understand what I'd be going through, which really did make things much easier. But, since I had started up again, none of that knowledge was helping.
I chose to get a prescription for Bupropion (which is the generic version of Wellbutrin), which I actually took for a few months last year. I had noticed that while I didn't quit smoking while on it before, I could go for long periods of time without having a cigarette and not get that feeling deep down that I NEEDED to smoke. And because it's not just a smoking cessation drug, but also an anti-depressant, I thought it would be a really good option for me right now...not that I'm depressed, but quitting smoking makes me feel depressed, and I'm all for staying in a relatively good mood for the next few months. Not to mention, it also acts as an appetite suppresant of sorts for me, which is nothing short of a miracle when quitting.
All I had to do was call the American Cancer Society quit hotline and set up some counseling sessions. After the first one, they decide which option would be best for you, and because I basically told them what I wanted to do, they approved the prescription and gave me a code, which I then gave to the pharmacy (after seing good ol' doc for the script), and they handed me the drugs at no charge. BONUS. :)
I started taking it a few weeks ago and set my quit date for November 10th. I haven't smoked in 7 days and things are looking good. No one has been slapped, though I have been just a little bitchy at work (I believe this is not as related to the nicotine withdrawal as it is related to how freaking annoying certain people can be). I had to take a half day Friday, but still consider this a relatively easy quit.
NOW....to get to the point...just like when I was on Medical Leave for the surgery, my sleep schedule is all kinds of messed up. I experienced sleeping issues last time I took this medication, but they only lasted for the first week or so. This time, I just can't shake it. I've been waking up by 5:00 a.m. on my own, even if I've gone to bed after midnight. I don't get up most days because I'm so mad I'm awake. My ass is staying in that bed until that alarm clock goes off, dammit!! But no matter how hard I try, I lay there wide awake.
I couldn't sleep last night period. I was awake until 6:00 a.m. And that was after having 4 Woodchucks!!! Anyone who knows me knows that this girl doesn't stay awake long after drinking, but I couldn't sleep to save my life. I finally got 2 hours of sleep in the morning, then another hour of sleep this afternoon. But, here it is, past 1:30 a.m. and I am WIDE AWAKE. I hate starting off a work-week sleep deprived. It takes the whole week just to catch up. I don't drink coffee, drink only caffeine free soda, and haven't even been drinking that much soda lately anyway. I've been flushing out the system by drinking lots of no-sugar-added cranberry juice and water. So, why am I so utterly wide awake? Aaarrrrgggghhhh!!!
Oh well...I guess I'd rather be a zombie at work for a while than still be smoking.
So...here are my quit stats so far:
I have been quit for 1 Week, 2 hours and 26 minutes (7 days). I have saved $31.95 by not smoking 142 cigarettes.
Here's a wake-up call...my stats if I had stayed quit after surgery:
I have been quit for 3 Months, 1 Week, 5 Days, and 2 hours (104 days). I have saved $468.45 by not smoking 2,082 cigarettes.
And, last but not least...what my stats would be if I hadn't started again last year...damn me!
I have been quit for 2 Years, 10 Months, 2 Weeks, and 2 hours (1,049 days). I have saved $4,720.96 by not smoking 20,982 cigarettes.
$4,720.96!
$4,720.96!!!!!
That blows my mind. Hell, even the $468.45 since August blows my mind. That's 2 car payments! One of my favorite parts of quitting is the money I don't spend on making myself stink. :)
So, I'm going to go lie awake in bed now. Send me sleep vibes y'all!
