Hey there all! My name is Matt. Long time smoker, first time poster. I just signed onto the ex website and I am just starting the program. I have quit many times and have always rationalized myself into another cig. Longest was over a year... what a shame! The times that I have quit, have been anything from cold turkey, to the inhaler and zyban. Zyban was by far the best, but the side effects were awefull. I got rashes on the back of my elbows and knees... it was unbearable. The first time I used it it wasn't so bad until being on it for about a month. The next time I tried it I got the rashes within a few days of being on the med. I have a couple of friends who have used the chantix and hopefully that will do the trick for me. I may also use the inhaler as that is very good for the actual physical side of the habbit... inhaling something.
The biggest trigger for me unfortunately is being in a bar, and I am a bar manager who spends most of my time in a bar so it makes it tough. I go in for an 8 hour shift bartending, and I typically go through more than a pack. Many of the cigarettes are no more than room insence as I take a puff and then they just burn out in the ashtray, but I still have to pay for them. Here in Wisconsin, a GOOD deal on a carton of Marlboro's is $45 with the recent addition of a $1 per pack tax increase. God forbid I have to buy a pack at the bar because they are $7 a pack at the bars now. That is a lot of money!!! I bought 5 cartons in Kentucky for $26 each on a recent trip to FL and it is my plan to finish those up and be done with it.
So that is that I guess. Hopefully this will work for me. I'm sick of being passed over by beautiful, healthy women, burning my clothes and car seat, reeking of smoke, coughing and gagging in the mornings, running to the gas station at midnight because I forgot to buy a pack earlier that day, making my daughter leave the room so I can light up, spending about $300 per month on a stupid habbit, and doing all the ridicules things that we have to do just because we are smokers.
