I smoked about a pack a day however Jan 21,2007 my husband and I both quit. We found Chantix helpful as it allowed us to begin the physical withdraw before having to face the psychological . . . I have heard people say a substance is not physically addicting it is only psychologically addicting. In a way this statement makes it sound like psychological withdraw isn't as bad but nothing could be further from the truth. It is the psychological component that has people returning to the habit months even years after they quit. It is the psychological addiction that causes a cigarette craving a year later - because you are typing a post about it.
Never underestimate the physcolgical component of addiction.
I agree that most if not all addictions have a biological chemical component. Some thing like 70% of alcoholics have wide fluctuations in their blood sugar - most experience low sugars and many recovering alcoholics have chocolate cravings after they stopped drinking although IO do not have any actual figures on that one as it is merely an observation.
It would be better to be able to address biological predispositions before an addiction takes place - information about the biochemistry specific addictions may also one day be useful in increasing the chances of ending harmful addictions.
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Hi,
As the ADD father of an ADHD daughter, I'm tickled pink that my daughter recently stopped smoking after 7 years of nicotine stimulation. She did it in part because a close, older friend modeled quiting the weed, and because her doctor had the right injectable meds for her that reduced her cigarette craving. Ultiamtely it also helped that she was able to use her ADD to hyperfocus on the need to stop smoking for health and financial reasons.
In a word she was self-motivated, not that her mother and I didn't drop small hints; but we certainly weren't unbearable when speaking about our concern for her - and she has asthma to boot!
To reiterate, in some ways ADD kept her smoking - perhaps as you say, due to it being a form of self-medicating. But her ADD had something to do with her capacity to give it up too.
I'd like to think that she also took a cue from me, her "old man." Not that I ever smoked - except for the first and last five cigarettes I was given by a friend's older brother at age 13, when I was a Boy Scout patrol leader! (Really! I was the leader of the pack! ugh!).
Rather, I'd like to think that in quitting her smoking, my daughter took some of her cues from me, as I'm a former prostate cancer patient whoe has begun to conquer my illness and it's treatment side effects, as described in a book I wrote, which she published, called Conquer Prostate Cancer: How Medicine, Faith, Love and Sex Can Renew Your Life (www.ConquerProstateCancer.com).
In a real way my ADD daughter has conquered her desire for smoking. After four months, now, I have a hunch she's conquered it for good!
Now if she'd only go from self-medicating to self-meditating, she'd be so much better!
-Rabbi Ed Weinsberg, Sarasota, FL