Congratulations on 9 days!!!!!, rutlandvt!! That's very impressive.
I'm sure you will get lots of answers from more knowledgable people than me, but I'll put my 2-cents in, anyway.
I look at smoking as 2 parts - Part A: is the addiction. Part B: is the habit
Part A is all the physical changes our bodies endure while we are smoking. Some of the changes don't seem so bad (like little happy guys running around in your head!); but you know that most of them are really and truly awful. Technically, we are no longer under the influence after about 3 days. All the nicotine is out of your system and you're cruising on your own power.
Which brings up the second part of smoking; Part B, the habit. The habit of smoking is what makes triggers so painful. Even if you haven't had a smoke in months, you can suddenly find yourself in the middle of an intense crave because you drove past the park where you used to sneak cigarettes back in high school. In my very humble opinion, Part B is harder to get over than Part A. Everytime we fed the addiciton, we also built a habit. And kept building it.
So what does this have to do with Chantix????
Well, Chantix helps give the brain happy guys while your body works to break an addiction. It is much harder to quit when you're depressed. One of the reason many of us crave sugar during the quit is because that's a happy guy pathway. Chantix helps keep the quit until new habits of being a non-smoker are built.
Once your quit is deeply engrained, you can ween yourself from Chantix and build other habits that will get those happy guys flowing. Like taking a little walk or stretching (for reals!)
You are doing great. Keep up the good work
PT
Keep the Quit
PT
