How Addicted Am I?

I just filled out the 3rd and final questionnaire over at QuitNet, titled "How Addicted Are You?" In order to find out how addicted you are to nicotine, the questionnaire uses the Fagerstrom test. According to QuitNet, "the Fagerstrom test is a rough estimate of your physiological addiction to nicotine. It can give you an idea of where you stand in relationship to other smokers in terms of how physically dependent you are on the active drug in tobacco."

Here are my results:

Fagerstrom Addiction Questionniare

The Fagerstrom test is a rough estimate of your physiological addiction to nicotine. It can give you an idea of where you stand in relationship to other smokers in terms of how physically dependent you are on the active drug in tobacco.

Your score was 50% (5/10 points) on the questionairre.

What does this mean?
Your score on this questionnaire was in the average range. This means that you are likely to have some difficulty with physical withdrawal symptoms when you quit, but no more than most other people.

Okay, so that does not sound too bad. I will go through some withdrawal, which is to be expected. I am hoping that by working through my plan, I can minimize the withdrawal symptoms. I guess we will have to wait and see what happens.

If Today Was Your Last Day

Have you ever noticed that when you are consciously thinking about something, you see it everywhere? For example, lets say you went out looking at cars and you found one you particularly liked. Over the next several days you notice that make and model of car everywhere. But prior to you looking at the car, you probably didn't notice them.

Now that I am consciously thinking about quitting smoking, things that I had not previously associated with smoking I am starting to associate with smoking. On the way home from work tonight I was listening to a song by Nickelback called "If Today Was Your Last Day". I had heard the song a few time before I started quitting smoking, but now that I am in the process of quitting, the words have a different meaning. I won't post all of the lyrics here, but here is the first verse and my thoughts about some of the lines in the verse:

My best friend gave me the best advice
He said each days a gift and not a given right
Leave no stone unturned
Leave your fears behind
And try to take the path less traveled by
That first step you take is the longest stride

"Each day is a gift and not a given right"
We never know how long we are going to be here on Earth. Every day is special. So why am I shaving time off of my life by smoking? If I were laying on my death bed and was still a smoker, I would be kicking myself in the ass for not quitting. I would be telling myself something like 'If only I had quit 20 years ago I would be able to stay here on Earth with my beautiful wife and kids. But because I let the addiction consume my life I must say goodbye.'

"Leave no stone unturned"
I need to do whatever it takes to overcome this addiction.

"Leave your fears behind"
Like most smokers who are thinking about quitting, I am scared. Scared that I will not be able to quit. Scared that I will become irritable as I go through withdrawal and take my aggression out on people that I care about. Scared about what life will be like as a non-smoker. Scared of a lot of things. And I can't be afraid to ask for help if I need it.

"That first step you take is the longest stride"
The first step is always the hardest. I have been thinking about trying to quit again for months. Thinking is the easy part. There is nothing easy about actually starting the process of quitting. I know this will be a long journey, but I hope that as the days go by, it gets a little easier.

The entire song is good and has really made me think about life and how how we cannot rewind the clock. There is no going back. Once your clock runs out, that's it. You can't replace the batteries.

I think I am going to make this song my Quit Smoking Anthem. Every time I am having a hard time quitting or thinking of giving up the fight or want to remind myself why I am doing this, I will play it.

If you want to hear the song, here it is with the lyrics. I used to have the actual music video, but it was pulled from youtube for some reason. Probably copyright issues.

SmokeSmart Review

In my previous post, "My Quit Smoking Plan", I mentioned that I was going to use Nic-Out filters and SmokeSmart during Phase 1 to slowly reduce the amount of nicotine entering my body. Since I have already written a review of the Nic-Out filters, I will not go into that here. If you missed that review, you can read it by clicking HERE. I do, however, want to tell you about SmokeSmart.

Honeslty, I don't really know how to describe SmokeSmart. I guess the best way to describe it is that SmokeSmart is a device that allows you to slowly reduce the amount of nicotine, tar, and carbon monoxide that you inhale from your cigarettes. It does this by putting little perforations into the filter of a cigarette. It is really easy to use. All you have to do is insert the filter end of a cigarette into the hole in SmokeSmart and squeeze. That's it.

How does SmokeSmart actually work at removing the nictotine, tar, and carbon monoxide for a cigarette? I found the following information at quitsmoking.com:

SmokeSmart creates ultra fine perforations in the filter or tip end of any brand of cigarette. When you puff on a cigarette processed with SmokeSmart, the perforations allow cool air to enter the cigarette and combine with the hot gases from the burning tobacco. The blending of hot and cool air causes the "condensation" of harmful cigarette gases, trapping tar, nicotine, carbon monoxide and TPM-Total Particulate Matter (hundreds of dangerous chemicals in cigarette smoke) before they can enter your mouth or lungs. (Courtesy of quitsmoking.com)

So how much does SmokeSmart reduce the tar, nicotine, and carbon monoxide of a cigarette? It all depends on how many perforations you put into the filter.

• 1 perforation reduces nicotine by 20%, tar by 30%, and carbon monoxide by 36%

• 2 perforations reduce nicotine by 28%, tar by 50%, and carbon monoxide by 58%

• 3 perforations reduce nicotine by 53%, tar by 63%, and carbon monoxide by 71%

• 4 perforations reduce nicotine by 62%, tar by 72%, and carbon monoxide by 80%
  

Unfortunately, I do not have any equipment to verify these claims, but I have been using SmokeSmart for a couple of weeks now and I have noticed that I feel like I need a cigarette more often. I feel as if my "nicotine fix" wears off quicker. I just have to make sure that I do not give into the craving right away. I also feel like I am not inhaling all of the normal "crap" that is in cigarettes. When I first start using it I noticed that it almost felt like I was not smoking at all. Have you ever smoked a "regular" cigarette and then switched to a "light" cigarette. It kind of felt like that, which I don't think that that is a bad thing. It makes me feel like I am doing something good. Sure, I am still smoking, but I am making steps on becoming a non-smoker. I started out with 1 perforation, and am now using 2 perforations. I will probably continue with 2 perforations for another week or so and then start smoking with 3 perforations.

The cost of SmokeSmart is only $5.95 over at QuitSmoking.com, so it might be a worthy addition to your quit smoking arsenal.

Questions or comments are gladly accepted.

My Quit Smoking Plan

"He who fails to plan, plans to fail."

I am not sure who said that, but there is a lot of truth in it. If you don't have a plan, you are going to fail. Imagine trying to build a house without a plan. Or go through school without a plan. What would the results be? Probably not very good. The house would probably collapse on top of you, and you would probably never finish your education.

If you have ever tried to quit smoking, you know that it is a HUGE undertaking. Although some smokers are able to wake up one morning and decide they will never smoke again, most of us simply cannot do that. We need to have a plan. We need to figure out how we are going to overcome nicotine addiction, what methods we intend on using, and what support systems we are going to use.

To me, my smoking is 2 things. It is an addiction, and it is a habit. I am addicted to nicotine, but I also find myself smoking out of habit. When I started thinking about quitting again, I looked back at my previous attempts at quitting and tried to figure out why I failed. It occurred to me that in all of my previous attempts, I focused on the addiction and not the habit. Let me explain. In one of my previous attempts at quitting, I used the nicotine patch. A nicotine patch provides a steady, controlled dose of nicotine throughout the day, thereby reducing the effects of nicotine withdrawal. Patch strength is reduced over time, which weans the smoker off of nicotine gradually. The patch helps people quit smoking by gradually reducing the amount of nicotine that enters the body. So, in essence, the patch fights the addiction, but really does nothing for the habit. The habit is going for a cigarette even though you are not craving one. For example, every morning when I wake up one of the first things I do is go out for a cigarette. I don't even have to think about it. It is like second nature. When I get to work, I have a cigarette while I am walking from my car to work. Again, I don't always feel like I 'need' a cigarette. It is just habit. And this continues throughout the day. Does that make sense? Do you see how addiction and habit are 2 different things? Since I feel that I have to fight both the nicotine addiction and the smoking habit in order to become a non-smoker, I have come up with a plan. There are 2 phases in this plan.

Phase 1
In Phase 1 of my plan, I will work on the addiction. During this phase, I will decrease my body's dependence on nicotine. I will use a combination of Nic-Out filters and a device called SmokeSmart. I have reviewed Nic-Out in a previous post. You can see the review by clicking HERE. I will review SmokeSmart in the near future. Both Nic-Out and SmokeSmart reduce the tar and nicotine in cigarettes. I will slowly wean by body off of nicotine. When I feel that I have gotten my nicotine intake to a low enough level, I will move on to Phase 2.

Phase 2
In Phase 2 I will work on the habit part of my smoking. When I am at work, I currently have a cigarette break every 2 hours. During this phase I will slowly increase the time span between cigarettes. Instead of every 2 hours, I will have a cigarette ever 2 hours and 15 minutes, then every 2 hours and 30 minutes, and so on. There are a few habitual cigarettes that are going to be hard to change...like the 1st cigarette of the day, and the last cigarette of the day. I have not totally figured out how to deal with those yet. But I figure if I start with the habit cigarettes that are easy first, then the harder ones might not be as hard when I get around to working on them.

So there you have it. I have 2 things to work on in order to give up smoking, and I have a plan that will work on each of those things individually. There is 1 more thing that my plan needs...my quit date. I originally though that August 1st, 2009 would be a good date to shoot for. It was far enough into the future that I would not have to rush my plan and still give me a month until the baby is born. But someone at QuitNet talked me out of it. They thought that quitting smoking and then have a baby soon after would be too stressful. So I have changed my quit date to July 4th, 2009. It may seem that July 4th is too far into the future, and maybe it is. But like I said earlier, I do not want to rush this quit. I want to take it slow and easy. Besides, I like the thought of quitting on Independence Day.

Wish me luck!