Post by Graciedonovan on Sept 29, 2004 6:04:02 GMT -5
The following is an excerpt from a free ebook called “Stop Smoking – Break the Chain” by Mark Jordan.
This is a good exercise for newbies to assess the REAL pain of withdrawal. It is also great for oldbies when they have that occasional urge for “just one”. This book is a free download at the following website.
freestopsmoking.homestead.com
CHAPTER 2 - DEALING WITH PAIN
The following is a list of commonly reported symptoms of nicotine withdrawal and it is very likely that your symptoms will be amongst them.
A FEELING OF ‘EMPTINESS’ IN THE CHEST
A FEELING OF HUNGER
A FEELING OF TIREDNESS
A HEADACHE
A DRY MOUTH
A CONFUSED FEELING
A TENDENCY TOWARDS IRRITABILITY
A FEELING OF HELPLESSNESS OR WEAKNESS
These symptoms make up the bulk of the feelings you may experience as part of your withdrawal. In addition, because we are all so unique in our physical and psychological construction, you may of course feel symptoms other than those mentioned here. Also, because of our uniqueness these symptoms will be felt by each person to a different degree, so if you happen to be one of the lucky ones, they may present you with absolutely no difficulty at all. However, if you are like most people you will probably feel one or more of these symptoms and when you do, you can compare each one to the following table:
1 NO PAIN AT ALL
2 ALMOST NO PAIN
3 A LITTLE PAIN
4 PAINFUL
5 VERY PAINFUL
6 EXTREMELY PAINFUL
7 ABSOLUTELY UNBEARABLE
Here’s how to use the body check and pain strength table:
OK, say for example that you stopped smoking two hours ago and you begin to feel the symptoms of nicotine withdrawal. What should you do?
The first thing you need to do is to complete the head to toe body check to see exactly where the problem lies. A typical body check would be something like this:
HEAD - A bit sore.
NECK - OK.
ARMS - OK.
CHEST - A very empty, hollow sort of feeling.
ABDOMEN - A kind of hungry feeling.
LEGS - A tired feeling and a bit shaky
FEET - OK.
MENTAL STATE - A bit confused and a bit angry, feeling a little panicky.
Now, what you need to do is to take each symptom separately and compare it to the pain strength table. I can absolutely guarantee that once you think honestly about it, you will be surprised at just how low you register each symptom on this table. For instance, one of the most common withdrawal symptoms that leads to failure is that feeling of ‘emptiness’ in the chest. If you are unaware of the tricks of your little ‘voice’ and have not thought consciously about just how bad this discomfort really is, then in no time at all you can lose the true perspective, start to believe that you are in agony, and throw in the towel. If, however, you do have an awareness of this little ‘voice’s’ tendency to make you focus on your symptoms, and you look at your pain realistically, (by means of the body scan and pain chart) you will soon see that the pain really is for the most part an illusion. You may well find that what at first appears to be a vast, unbearable emptiness raging within your lungs, when critically examined, turns out in fact to be nothing more unpleasant than a feeling similar to hunger, or, perhaps, like a slight pressure on your sternum. This illusory effect applies to all of your symptoms and all you need to do to overcome this illusion is to think about each symptom as it occurs, and measure it on the pain chart in order to see it for what it really is.
If you do this exercise as honestly as possible, you will find that you rarely encounter a pain or discomfort that registers above ‘a bit painful’. If this turns out to be your experience, as is likely, then you will be depriving your little ‘voice’ of the central focus of its power. That is, the illusion that you are in so much discomfort that you should start smoking again. If, however, you are one of the few individuals who have an exceptionally low tolerance for discomfort, (and of course your little ‘voice’ will no doubt try to convince you that you have the lowest pain threshold of anyone who ever lived!) then fear not, for all is not lost! If you find in assessing your pain honestly, that you are continually registering in the very painful or unbearable areas of the pain level chart, then you still have a few options open to you. First of all it is important to know this:
NICOTINE CRAVING COMES IN BURSTS OF THREE TO FIVE MINUTES.
Now, I don’t care how unbearable you think your cravings are because there is almost no one who, if they are serious about stopping smoking, cannot tolerate three to five minutes of pain or discomfort at a time. Let’s face it, we are not talking about being run through with flaming swords, we are talking primarily about feeling ‘empty’ or ‘hungry’ or having a bit of a headache.
Furthermore, not only do the cravings come in bursts of three to five minutes, but as time wears on these attacks become less and less frequent and also less intense. What this means to you is that if you can get over the first few days, your task will become progressively easier.
Remember that it is not going to be a totally pain free ride, but you have agreed to pay the price of at least some pain!
Finally, in this section here is some further advice for those who need even more assistance to deal with these early stages of withdrawal.
Keep in your mind the following saying for when the going gets rough. It is a saying used by recovering addicts and alcoholics all over the world, when they feel that they are starting to falter. The saying is simply this:
“THIS TOO, SHALL PASS”
You will find that the bad times always pass. You also now know that it is not always going to be tough, just every now and again and for short periods. Always remember that after the first few days, with each passing hour, you are getting further and further away from your addiction and its symptoms, and continually closer to being a symptom free non smoker.
The final tool to be discussed here is also one used by recovering addicts and alcoholics the world over. They use this when they find staying abstinent difficult . It is an expression that most of you will have heard before and it is this:
“ONE DAY AT A TIME”
This method has proved its worth time and time again and it works like this:
When you feel yourself starting to struggle and your little ‘voice’ seems to be operating on overdrive, tell yourself that:
“NO MATTER WHAT HAPPENS I WILL NOT SMOKE FOR TWENTY FOUR HOURS”
At first glance this might seem like a license to smoke after twenty four hours, but of course it doesn’t quite work like that. First of all, after twenty four hours you may not be in such a negative mood, or you may no longer be feeling any withdrawal symptoms and, therefore, might not want to smoke. Furthermore, all you have to do at the end of twenty four hours is to make another resolution not to smoke for the next twenty four hours. At first glance this may seem to be a bit daft, but on closer examination it makes a lot of sense. Many of us could tolerate things for twenty four hours that would seem impossible to consider for a lifetime. If you put yourself in the position where no matter what happens you will not smoke for the next twenty four hours, then soon enough you will have strung together enough days to take you far enough away from your withdrawal to allow you to succeed.
This is a good exercise for newbies to assess the REAL pain of withdrawal. It is also great for oldbies when they have that occasional urge for “just one”. This book is a free download at the following website.
freestopsmoking.homestead.com
CHAPTER 2 - DEALING WITH PAIN
The following is a list of commonly reported symptoms of nicotine withdrawal and it is very likely that your symptoms will be amongst them.
A FEELING OF ‘EMPTINESS’ IN THE CHEST
A FEELING OF HUNGER
A FEELING OF TIREDNESS
A HEADACHE
A DRY MOUTH
A CONFUSED FEELING
A TENDENCY TOWARDS IRRITABILITY
A FEELING OF HELPLESSNESS OR WEAKNESS
These symptoms make up the bulk of the feelings you may experience as part of your withdrawal. In addition, because we are all so unique in our physical and psychological construction, you may of course feel symptoms other than those mentioned here. Also, because of our uniqueness these symptoms will be felt by each person to a different degree, so if you happen to be one of the lucky ones, they may present you with absolutely no difficulty at all. However, if you are like most people you will probably feel one or more of these symptoms and when you do, you can compare each one to the following table:
1 NO PAIN AT ALL
2 ALMOST NO PAIN
3 A LITTLE PAIN
4 PAINFUL
5 VERY PAINFUL
6 EXTREMELY PAINFUL
7 ABSOLUTELY UNBEARABLE
Here’s how to use the body check and pain strength table:
OK, say for example that you stopped smoking two hours ago and you begin to feel the symptoms of nicotine withdrawal. What should you do?
The first thing you need to do is to complete the head to toe body check to see exactly where the problem lies. A typical body check would be something like this:
HEAD - A bit sore.
NECK - OK.
ARMS - OK.
CHEST - A very empty, hollow sort of feeling.
ABDOMEN - A kind of hungry feeling.
LEGS - A tired feeling and a bit shaky
FEET - OK.
MENTAL STATE - A bit confused and a bit angry, feeling a little panicky.
Now, what you need to do is to take each symptom separately and compare it to the pain strength table. I can absolutely guarantee that once you think honestly about it, you will be surprised at just how low you register each symptom on this table. For instance, one of the most common withdrawal symptoms that leads to failure is that feeling of ‘emptiness’ in the chest. If you are unaware of the tricks of your little ‘voice’ and have not thought consciously about just how bad this discomfort really is, then in no time at all you can lose the true perspective, start to believe that you are in agony, and throw in the towel. If, however, you do have an awareness of this little ‘voice’s’ tendency to make you focus on your symptoms, and you look at your pain realistically, (by means of the body scan and pain chart) you will soon see that the pain really is for the most part an illusion. You may well find that what at first appears to be a vast, unbearable emptiness raging within your lungs, when critically examined, turns out in fact to be nothing more unpleasant than a feeling similar to hunger, or, perhaps, like a slight pressure on your sternum. This illusory effect applies to all of your symptoms and all you need to do to overcome this illusion is to think about each symptom as it occurs, and measure it on the pain chart in order to see it for what it really is.
If you do this exercise as honestly as possible, you will find that you rarely encounter a pain or discomfort that registers above ‘a bit painful’. If this turns out to be your experience, as is likely, then you will be depriving your little ‘voice’ of the central focus of its power. That is, the illusion that you are in so much discomfort that you should start smoking again. If, however, you are one of the few individuals who have an exceptionally low tolerance for discomfort, (and of course your little ‘voice’ will no doubt try to convince you that you have the lowest pain threshold of anyone who ever lived!) then fear not, for all is not lost! If you find in assessing your pain honestly, that you are continually registering in the very painful or unbearable areas of the pain level chart, then you still have a few options open to you. First of all it is important to know this:
NICOTINE CRAVING COMES IN BURSTS OF THREE TO FIVE MINUTES.
Now, I don’t care how unbearable you think your cravings are because there is almost no one who, if they are serious about stopping smoking, cannot tolerate three to five minutes of pain or discomfort at a time. Let’s face it, we are not talking about being run through with flaming swords, we are talking primarily about feeling ‘empty’ or ‘hungry’ or having a bit of a headache.
Furthermore, not only do the cravings come in bursts of three to five minutes, but as time wears on these attacks become less and less frequent and also less intense. What this means to you is that if you can get over the first few days, your task will become progressively easier.
Remember that it is not going to be a totally pain free ride, but you have agreed to pay the price of at least some pain!
Finally, in this section here is some further advice for those who need even more assistance to deal with these early stages of withdrawal.
Keep in your mind the following saying for when the going gets rough. It is a saying used by recovering addicts and alcoholics all over the world, when they feel that they are starting to falter. The saying is simply this:
“THIS TOO, SHALL PASS”
You will find that the bad times always pass. You also now know that it is not always going to be tough, just every now and again and for short periods. Always remember that after the first few days, with each passing hour, you are getting further and further away from your addiction and its symptoms, and continually closer to being a symptom free non smoker.
The final tool to be discussed here is also one used by recovering addicts and alcoholics the world over. They use this when they find staying abstinent difficult . It is an expression that most of you will have heard before and it is this:
“ONE DAY AT A TIME”
This method has proved its worth time and time again and it works like this:
When you feel yourself starting to struggle and your little ‘voice’ seems to be operating on overdrive, tell yourself that:
“NO MATTER WHAT HAPPENS I WILL NOT SMOKE FOR TWENTY FOUR HOURS”
At first glance this might seem like a license to smoke after twenty four hours, but of course it doesn’t quite work like that. First of all, after twenty four hours you may not be in such a negative mood, or you may no longer be feeling any withdrawal symptoms and, therefore, might not want to smoke. Furthermore, all you have to do at the end of twenty four hours is to make another resolution not to smoke for the next twenty four hours. At first glance this may seem to be a bit daft, but on closer examination it makes a lot of sense. Many of us could tolerate things for twenty four hours that would seem impossible to consider for a lifetime. If you put yourself in the position where no matter what happens you will not smoke for the next twenty four hours, then soon enough you will have strung together enough days to take you far enough away from your withdrawal to allow you to succeed.
