Hi Elfern - So glad you're back!

It's admirable that you attempted to tackle the smoking, but I think it's better to focus on the drinking addiction first. I was a heavy smoker years ago, and now I only smoke when I'm doing some serious drinking - the habits seem to go hand in hand for a lot of people. I know what you mean about looking forward to the end of the vacation/summer season. So much partying is fun, but becomes exhausting. My liver will also be grateful once things get back to normal.

You're doing great, and while you might not think so, your chart would still show an overall decline, despite the spikes. As long as your numbers don't continue to stay at or exceed your pre-TSM values, it will show a downward trend. You're making progress, and higher numbers during holidays is just part of that. So let's drink to the upcoming death of summer - I'm right there with you!

Hi Kris ,
Quite right concentrate , so no drink today and further but a few cigs .
Yes, agreed drink to the end of the summer . Next year's summer should be well
different for us all .
You amaze me that you manage to smoke occaisionally without taking it all back .
You know the first cig after a week off tasted foul but the effect was glorious - such is the beauty of addiction .
Looking foreward to reading your news now .

Hi guys,

In regards to smokes. My wife and I used Chantix before. I got down to 1 smoke a day. My wife quit for a month. She wanted to get healthy and really focused on working out etc.... she was more movtivated than I. Anyway, she hurt her hip because she had a complete moron for a personal trainer. She got depressed cuz she couldnt work out anymore until she healed and we started back up again.

We have scripts for more Chantix, but my concern is what odd effects will Chantix have with Nal? I read somewhere that it shouldnt but, Im already messing with my brain on Nal, and to add some other inhibitor....just not sure.

Thoughts on this?

Great job on quitting the smoking. Thats truely a great feat.

hapful

Hapful
I really don't think NAL + chantix are allowed together a doctor wouldn't give it,
I already asked .
My thinking when I mentioned it was to stop NAL and stop alcohol for the time it'd take to quit the cigs . i wouldn't consider both together , I guess neither would work effectively .
Yes , I've heard good reports too for chantix . Stopping cold turkey as I did can just
cause so much suffering it seems best to try anything that aids . The attraction of chantix is that it claims a kind of de addiction like NAL . Also that you can smoke with it at the start and loose interest naturally .
Oh , by the way I have gone back on the cigs , lasted a week , not my best attempt
( 7 months on three occaisions ) but I suspect it didn't help my drinking last week
if I wanted to smoke I had a glass of wine etc so i just can't accept that .

Good stuff AJ thanks.

Quitting smoking at this point will certainly prove to be a challenge, in light of possible conflicts between Chantix and Nal. However, from what I have read, Chantix blocks different areas than Nal. Im not looking to be a guiney pig at this point. But in time, the issue will certainly raise its head. Have to quit smoking. The kids plead with me all the time to quit. Its heart wrenching at times. And sometimes at night, in that place between sleep and awake, a very bad image jolts me upright and I think to myself, I have to quit.

Oh well one challenge at a time eh eflern?

Thanks much,

hapful

Thanks AJ , my doctor's ideas must be in the boot , I don't want to fire another one. Well , that is good to know .

Hapful , I empathize with your agonies and the kid's pressures , don't let that push you beyond what is reasonable .
On the face of it one could say " well , simply try it nothing ventured nothing gained " If you feel such an attitude fits you it could work .
My experience is that that attitude just doesn't fit me , the whole thing of stopping and "failing" in a week plays merry hell with my emotions and it normally takes at least a few months to feel ready to take it on again .
But AJ's indication of NAl + CHANT is very good to know for later .

Thannks WTE
That's the thing with these pills some of the fx are really drastic .
If one has a tendancy to depression it's a definate sign to avoid otherwise
it just has to be tried and abandoned if need be but that's easier said than done
because fx come and go or creep up slowly and people tend to put up with them as much as they can to get the job done .
i'm in favour of trying but not right now !

Hi elfern
Well done for trying the smoking - you know the quote from Mark Twain(i think) or Jerome k Jerome 'Giving up smoking is easy. I've done it 700 times!" I so know that place of going through the horrible foul, disgusting taste to get the hit. Also i'm sure you already know that nicotine is far more physically addictive than alcohol and even heroine!
If you are determined to try now have you thought of using either nicotine chewing gum, tabs or patches. I successfully quit using the gum. The good thing is you don't have the weight gain, this may not worry you. The research shows that people who use one of these aids are much more likely to succeed- can't rem exact stats. also you are not putting yet another chemical in to you system (Only nicotine which your body is used to). I found that it allowed me to start getting fit and increasing my lung capacity which increased my motivation. I did it by stopping smoking completely and using the gum but my friend did it by initially allowing herself to smoke a little while using the gum. I imagine it must be harder in france- i was horrified at how much smoking in public etc happens in france.

Soul , you've done really well keep it up and don't go the way of Mark Twain .
Yes , I've tried the patch and felt quite comfortable with it but found the drip feed never replaced the hit of a cig , I was then persuaded that it wasn't good to keep the nicotine as that's the very thing we're addicted to . Allen Carr argued strongly against it . So what you [i]choose [i]to believe is important . So I don't really know if it is harder to quit than heroine but reckon it's important to not believe it as :
" Name your limitations and sure enough they're yours " (Jonathan livingstone Seagull
I'll have another try in a while stronger patch or Chantix , both , exhaust all methods til win !
Stick with it .
Smoking is banned even in bars now here , a top down initiative because as you saw it's rather the old fashioned way here still with smoking .

With any luck I'll be done soon and finished with this thread. The last couple of weeks I've been flying low in safe drinking airspace and only lack of confidence that it's just a bright spell keeps me from shouting "cured " because God knows it feels so unusual to be so intensely stable with alcohol.
I'll briefly resume the last weeks to point up the seachange that augurs well and it does hinge on attitude .
The six month closed with an upturn , daily drinking and just one AF that prompted me to double check my goals and in the name of gaining control I saw them as
1 being able to do a "7" week without alc and no knuckling and
2. Drink say 5/6 times a month .
And having then just drunk six days out of seven I wasn't feeling that happy . So the following week (27) , I exchanged my Six drinking days for Six AF's and announced it in my signature as I was so delighted . Despite the delight
I was counting too much on this particular vector and missing the real treasure
which I spotted in week 28 . I supose increased Af's or drinking/craving greatly less
are both symptoms of the huge change and you can't have them both at once.
So in week 28 craving just fell to the floor (level 0 or 1) then I'd drink usually 3 glasses max . This situation has been maintained for some ten days .
The chief problem I have now is " bizarre" behaviour As when I went to the supermarket and spent ages gathering different alcoholic drinks not to increase the quantity but to ensure a choice because I just couldn't get really enthusiastic about drinking , each bottle I imagined how it'd be and felt luke warm so kept adding more bottles , when I realized the absurdity it felt so daft that i began to put them all back and walked out empty handed . A satisfied customer
Many analogies could serve but the one that appeals to me is how an amputee
still has sensations from the lost limb although it no longer exists . Alcohol has left such a stain on my thinking , a ghostly pall in my psyche that makes me still haunt the booze aisles of supermarkets - at least for the meantime . Oh well , that's ok ,
could be alot worse !