Second Hand Smoke Question

[ctm]

Last night, my family and I went to see the ventriloquist Jeff Dunham in Hollywood. He is quite funny and I strongly urge all of you to at least rent his dvd’s or look up the free stuff on youtube. He is hilarious!!!

That is not the point of this blog.

Before and after the concert, we spent several hours in Universal City Walk. There were quite a lot of smokers around.

At first, I wasn’t able to smell the smoke so I ignored it and everything was fine.

Throughout the evening, there was more and more exposure and I started to get really pissed off because I could smell the smoke everywhere. It was on my clothing and I could taste it in my mouth.

By the end of the evening, I actually found myself wanting to smoke.

We got lost on the way home and I stopped off at a convenience store to ask for directions. While I didn’t break down and buy a pack, it would have been incredibly easy to do so.

Today, I still find myself wanting to smoke. I’m not going to. If I were, I wouldn’t be writing this blog 🙂

I have read that second hand smoke contains enough nicotine to establish dependencies on people who have never smoked.

My question is:

Does second hand smoke contain enough nicotine to reestablish a dependency on someone who has already quit?

I am trying to interpret what I am experiencing right now. It seems stronger than a typical “memory crave” but at almost 4.5 months now, I have kind of forgotten what the physical stuff feels like beyond the fact that it can suck.

Has anyone else (who has been nicotine free for a while) experienced something like this?

Thanks in advance...

[buddysmom]

I'm sorry I dont have any real advise - I haven been nicotine free very long...I just wanted to say "Lucky you!" for getting to see Jeff Dunham. I have seen the DVDs and you are right - he is hilarious! Glad you had a good time 🙂

[tigs]

Yeah, Jeff Dunham!!! Been following him since all he had was Peanut lol. I had the same experience the first time I was around a bunch of cig smoke. You were stronger than I!! That's why I am back to day 5.

[christine2007]

If I smell apple pie baking - my mouth starts to water. I think smells can be triggers, surely! I'm not sure if there's enough nicotine in the odor... but even just the smell can do weird things to your mind. I have a studio in my home and I've only gone in there a handful of times in the last year because that's where I 'used' to smoke. There's still a faint aroma of butts... but it's enough to jog my mind and make me think about smoking. I avoid the room completely.

I do think that eventually I'll be ok with the faint smell. But for now I steer clear. I often get nauseated at the smell of cigarettes, now. I think this comes from the hypnosis I tried before I quit with Chantix. I still listen to my hypnosis session tapes - but not often now. Thoughts become things! Maybe you need to have your own private hypnosis session with yourself and think about the smell and how it turns your stomach. LOL Who knows, it could work!

[cartel]

ctm......i haven't been free long enough 2 know but i would like to give you a HUGE PAT on the back and a LOUD HIGH FIVE for not craving in over 4months.....you can't allow anyone not even yourself take that away from you. congrats dude...........keep it up.......you must make 2 5months. i need that inspiration.....lol. later

[hwc]

Chuck:

I don't think you will have to go thru withdrawal again or anything, but it is quite possible that you got enough of a dose of cigarette smoke to trigger all kinds of associations. I haven't been around cigarette smoke that much.

[john-pugh]

Stuff happens Chuck.

As a non-smoker we just have to deal with it.
Congrats on the long quit, and good post!

[susan52]

You know- I went to run errands this a.m., and although I am 18 days from my last smoke, I seemed to smell it all over the parking lot, even though when I looked around there only seemed to be one guy smoking by his car. I am still in the "sickened by it" stage, too. In fact, this morning when I got up, the first thing I thought about was how in the world would a start each and every day ingesting poison into my system. Glad you got out of that convenience store without caving. It would be awful to give up the 4 1/2 months you have! Way to go.

[barbara42]

i don,t know if being aroud smoke could but i know that when my husband goes out to smoke, i do not go with him or be around him for a while

[hwc]

chuck:

The more I think about it, I think you probably got whacked with something more like a first time trigger. You probably would have been smoking like a chimney in an outdoor venue like that, especially after being cooped up in a theater for a couple hours. The sum total of the evening was probably a first time trigger on steroids.

[ctm]

Thanks guys.

Here is the link to the article that prompted the original question. I suppose I should have put it in the blog originally.

Second Hand Smoke

I walk through clouds of smoke at work to get in the office and in the parking lot all the time. My sense of smell is sensitive enough that I can tell if the person in the car ahead of me on the freeway is smoking. I walk around 50 miles per week and encounter second hand smoke from cars, people in their back yards and so on all the time...

None of those things bothers me or makes me want to smoke. I couldn't tell if this was just a massive first time trigger or if I actually got a dose of the insect poison!!!

This addiction is sooooo stupid sometimes 🙂

[sarai]

I think it's entirely possible that there are other compounds that might trigger it - hell, if you could smell the smoke on your clothes, that must have been a flood of associations! As advice - I know it's not always practical, but get somewhere where you can avoid the smell - because I know what you mean. While I find the smell of *smokers* disgusting, cigarette smoke itself does act as a trigger from time to time.

On the other hand, BRAVO FOR NOT SMOKING! Focus on that, relish your victory!! You have kept it up and you're still going - now you know that the next time you are in that situation, you will be able to cope! But I agree with the general sentiments, it's best to just avoid smokers outright.

[Jules7]

Chuck I am of the opinion that second hand smoke in concentrated areas is like smoking. That is the point of banning smoking everywhere because nonsmokers got sick and tired of smelling and feeling like smokers.
I had a year and nine month quit once and I was working as a bartender at the time. Every night I would go to work feeling good and 8 hours later I would come out smelling like an ashtray and my throat and chest would feel like I was back to smoking. I would wake up with headaches and have to power walk to clear out my lungs. That quit obviously did not last. I wanted a cigarette every day of that quit. I am certain now it was because I was smoking every night even if I never took a drag myself.

[ctm]

That's interesting...

Thanks Jules...

[Jules7]

Chuck - I should also point out that this bar was an open air bar. My station was on a patio year round unless there was an ice storm so it was an outside environment.

[ctm]

Even better...

Thanks again Jules...

[nancy-c]

Hey guys -- this is very timely for me. I have a new neighbor renting the house next door. Clearly, he is not allowed to smoke inside and his backyard is so close that the smell comes in through my closed windows. It is really driving me crazy and I think about smoking now A LOT. I am expending a lot of energy trying to deal with this.

At first, it was just giving me a headache. Now a lot of times I feel like I've just smoked a cigarette and I think that is triggering the whole addiction mentality again. Worst of all -- I had a smoking dream the other nite. I smoked two cigarettes as I was walking down a hallway with a non-smoker that I admire. My mouth tasted of smoke the whole time I was trying to throw down the cigarette. A bit distressing, but I have interpreted it as a continuation of the fight against smoking and not the desire to smoke.

So far, I have put masking tape around the seams of the windows and next weekend I am going to come up with something else. Something like visqueen over the window from the outside? Naturally, it's my computer room and living room that are on that side of the house.

I know a lot of you live with smokers and still manage to keep your quit, and my hat is off to you. Not that I want to smoke -- just that I am battling that taste in my mouth. I hope he moves soon - but that's not likely.

I guess the lesson is to never take your quit for granted and always be ready to analyze and work through these challenges.

And then pray for an early spring so that I can keep my front door open for circulation 🙂

[christine2007]

Time for some smoke disguisers like candles, plug ins, and a circulating fan. With them strategically placed you can abate much of odor. There are also plug in ozone and smoke eater things. Whatever you can do to change the aroma the better.

You could also consider talking to the smoker to see if there's another area for him/her to smoke in. This person probably has no idea the smoke is lingering and invading your home. Tell him/her that you're a newly quit quitter... and maybe they'll have mercy on you. =D (I recommend taking over a home baked goodie as a welcome to the neighborhood gift... it's hard to resist a person's plea when they come bearing gifts!)

Then have someone check your windows. The odor really should 'not' be coming through closed windows. We all have wood fireplaces in our homes and when you go outside on some nights the air is thick with the smell of burning logs... it's actually quite nice. But, we do not smell it inside our homes. So if the smell is coming in... time to have those windows checked.

There are also weather proofing plastic films that you can put over your windows... to seal them. That should definitely keep out the smell - at least until spring/summer/fall. Unless you can keep the film on all year long.