How to Quit Smoking : Pam's War for Better Health : Cutting Back

Pam found out the hard way that quitting smoking--"smoking cessation" as the pros term it--wasn't happening cold turkey. But that didn't mean it was time to quit quitting. Not by a long shot. As Sarah Palin might say, my wife wasn't retreating; she was reloading.

Today (April 9, 2011), she's doing extremely well...but that simple statement needs a bit of expansion and clarification

After failing three weeks ago, Pam began to prepare much more extensively for her next try.

Target date: Wednesday, April 6.

April 6 results: This time she began a "cutback program" and targeted a limit of 3 cigarettes per day. This approach is actually addressed in the ASHLine (quit smoking help line) materials which state that cutting back prior to quitting once and for all is the only angle that actually works for some people.

Additionally, she's now smoking only ultralights (GPC Silver) rather than her former staple (GPC Gold, or lights). She'd also eliminated some of the triggers, such as opening a new pack (I do that now, out of her sight), and waits until the coffee is ready before lighting up that first volcano of the day. Her cravings were excruciating, she was astounded at how incredibly hard quitting was turning out to be, and the rage factor spiraled almost out of control.

But she made it through the day.

April 7 results: She got her "gold star" on the calendar for the previous day, having stuck to her 3-cigarette limit. Her cravings were as intense, or possibly even more intense, than on April 6. However, she became keenly aware that her senses were getting sharper. Even cutting down to three, even fighting the urge hardcore, she stuck with it.

Tough girl.

April 8 results: Things got worse. She was raging at having smoked her first cigarette before the coffee was ready, finally broke and had a second cancer stick with that first cup of joe. On this day, she received her weekly call from her ASHLine counselor, and it went very, very well. The counselor was astounded that someone with Pam's level of mental illness could pull this off; she's never seen that done before, ever.

Unfortunately, as soon as the call was over, Pam had to have a smoke. She was that way when she quit alcohol in 1998, too: Going to an AA meeting was a sure way to make her start craving a drink by the time the get-together was over.

By the time the day was done, she'd smoked six. No gold star on the calendar today, just a black dot!

But she wasn't even considering giving up. Missing a bronc out of the chute and getting a "no score" for the day is not the same as quitting the rodeo circuit. She gets that; this time the habit is going down.

April 9: Short on sleep, I got her coffee and first cig squared away this morning, fed the cats, and went back to bed. By the time I got back up around 11:30 a.m., she'd reworked her game plan. She advised me (both verbally and through notes she'd made in her journal):

1. She had to be quitting for her sake, not anybody else's. (First time she's truly "gotten" that.)

2. As she puts it, "I thrive on guilt!" Her journal entry: "Must stay away from guilt!"  I've been telling her that for fifteen years.  This time, she told me.  She has, wiithout question, begun to successfully reprogram her subconscious mind

3. Her new plan is, for the short term: Four cigs per day. I'm to place two each morning in her cute gold-colored e-cig case, then two more each afternoon.

4. Unless weather and/or health absolutely forbids it, she will walk over to the old camp trailer to smoke--and will no longer smoke in the house at all.

5. It's really hard to do, and it's okay that it's really hard. (This is important. She's so talented and so strong that most obstacles have fallen before her onslaught like wheat before the combine. It's been a shock for her to discover that in smoking she had a truly formidable opponent.)

She's totally eliminated the rage, and as of this writing (3:00 p.m.) has smoked 2 1/2 cigarettes. It's quite likely the half cig remaining over in the camper will be all she'll use for the remainder of the day, putting her consumption back to 3 for the day, not 4.

Along the way, things that turned out to not really work for her included: E-cigarettes, Nicotrol inhalers, nicotine lozenges, nicotine patches, etc. But they were still worth trying; no expense is too much when it comes to a challenge like beating a 40 year smoking habit.