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Confessions of an Ex-smoker
Winning the Battle Against Nicotine By Teri Brown
Linda Dupie of Fredericksburg, Va., knows what that failure can do to you. "I tried to quit at least a half-dozen times before my current success," she says. "Whenever I failed to quit, I felt weak. I would walk around for weeks after wondering why I couldn't help myself.
"Smoking gave me a high at first. Mostly it was just habit. I felt good while doing it, and then I felt guilt because I was the kid that had harped on my father to quit smoking."
Dupie was able to quit during pregnancy, but went back to smoking during a particularly stressful period of her life. Like most smokers, Dupie used cigarettes as an emotional crutch. When times get rough, cigarettes often are the first thing a nicotine addict reaches for. This tendency is one of the many reasons so many smokers are unable to quit for any length of time.
According to John Fitzgerald, a psychiatry professor at Oregon Health and Sciences University and a licensed professional therapist specializing in the treatment of addictive disorders, research indicates that most people who try to stop smoking relapse a number of times before finally succeeding, and most relapses occur in the first three months after quitting.
Fitzgerald, whose private practice specializes in the treatment of addictive disorders, believes that a negative mood is one of the most common relapse triggers. Others include drinking alcohol, being around other smokers and weight gain.
"It is the place where breathing, heart rate and our thermostat for hunger and sleep are found," Fitzgerald says. "Those addicted to smoking have, in effect, educated their brains to believe that the need for nicotine is as strong as the need for oxygen, food and sleep. This is why, for some people, stopping seems to be an impossibility."