Is This Depression normal? after giving up smoking?

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by JohnC on Thu Jul 02, 2009 10:49 am

Looks like you're on the wrong forum

This one is for people trying to get info on an enjoyment that the antis and sheeple are doing their best to destroy.

Hint-------- look up anti-smoking or quit smoking --- google has many
Wink

-J.C.-

JohnC

Enthusiastic Smoker Joined: Dec 23, 2004 Posts: 334

by Asmoker2 on Thu Jul 02, 2009 2:36 pm

I'll tell ya what depresses me, jessica... people like you who think everyone should act and think as they do. Is there a cure for people like you of which you know?

Asmoker2

Smoker Joined: Mar 24, 2009 Posts: 143

by Pete Gatti on Thu Jul 02, 2009 11:13 pm

I quit for a year back in '87. No depression cause it wasn't all that hard to quit. The thing is, after being a smoker for almost my entire life, being a non smoker felt so blah. It just wasn't me. The me I've always known wasn't entirely me anymore. I guess the best way to explain this would be if I had to give up my life long affair of drinking coffee for tea. I wouldn't feel like an American any more, I'd feel like a Brit. Not that there's anything wrong with Brits mine you, but it just isn't me.

For some of us, smoking is a life style. It is a part of who we are.

Pete Gatti Enthusiastic Smoker

Enthusiastic Smoker Joined: Mar 26, 2009 Posts: 218 Location: Dade City, Florida

by gilster on Fri Jul 03, 2009 7:51 am

Depression is normal when giving up smoking using Chantix/Champix - it's even written on the side-effect now with a 'black-box' warning.

The most disturbing side effect of those medications is Suicide - that's wicked Depressing....

gilster

Smoking Lobby Sponsor Joined: Apr 19, 2006 Posts: 1209

by libertarian99 on Fri Jul 03, 2009 1:29 pm

Pete Gatti wrote:

Living a smokefree lifestyle was fun and rewarding for me at first, when I had a sense of accomplishment and felt like I had conquered something. I managed to quit smoking when I was a 26-year-old newlywed who believed life was always going to be grand and exciting and full of reward. At that time, I got all excited about my new exercise program. I started eating right. I thought my life would be a cakewalk from there on out.

My brain was revved up from all the love chemicals I had floating around in there. I'm not making that up. MRIs reveal that a person's brain is actually in an altered state for the first two years of a relationship. Modifying my behavior in ways that would have once made me feel deprived now seemed challenging and fun and well worth the trouble, considering the shiny, brand new life I was getting in return for my sacrifice.

Years later, as a divorced, bored, middle-aged person working a dead-end job and taking care of an elderly parent, living a smokefree lifestyle just didn't appeal to me any more. "The rest of your life" is a long, long time. I firmly believe that older people have earned the privilege of smoking in peace, if it cheers them up after all the hoopla of youth is over.

libertarian99 Enthusiastic Smoker

Enthusiastic Smoker Joined: May 01, 2009 Posts: 453

by Pete Gatti on Fri Jul 03, 2009 4:38 pm

libertarian99 wrote:

And they say nicotine is addictive? It's a piece of cake compared to love juice. But it can't be any ol' love juice, it's the one formulated by a special someone just for you. Love addiction!

When I quit smoking it was about a couple years after my last divorce, I always kept myself physically fit so maybe that's why I didn't feel any payoff for my effort. As for a sense of accomplishment, I've done so many challenging things in life that had a much better payoff than quitting. If I should die tomorrow, I would have no regrets, my life was a full and interesting one.

I'm now taking care of my mom age 89, since my dad died age 96. Both life long smokers who quit in their late 60's. Reason for quitting? Not health, a dollar a pack was too much to pay. Smile

Pete Gatti Enthusiastic Smoker

Enthusiastic Smoker Joined: Mar 26, 2009 Posts: 218 Location: Dade City, Florida

by libertarian99 on Sat Jul 04, 2009 1:34 am

Pete Gatti wrote:

I'm now taking care of my mom age 89, since my dad died age 96. Both life long smokers who quit in their late 60's. Reason for quitting? Not health, a dollar a pack was too much to pay. Smile

That is so funny. I can honestly say money was never enough of a motivating factor to make me quit. In fact, when the government tries to control my behavior by making my cigs more expensive, I just become that much more determined to rebel and find a way to keep smoking, no matter what.

My mother is 91 and is in good physical shape, but her short term memory is gone. She never smoked or drank or engaged in any form of risky behavior. She claims that she never became a smoker because she got ill when she tried her first cigarette.

My dad died at age 72. He quit smoking and drinking before I was born, but never gave up his Skoals snuff and eventually returned to sneaking shots of whiskey after retirement, in order to squelch his anxiety over health problems.

Out of their four children, three became regular smokers and one temporarily took up smoking, but easily gave it up. One sister is a chain smoker, and I used to be a chain smoker the first 10 years, but I never went back to that level after quitting.

I found a little program you can run where you look at video clips of family members being interviewed about their smoking behavior, and then you guess which genes they inherited. As you go along, you build a little family tree based on smoking behavior.

It's sort of interesting, if you want to look at it:

http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/addiction/genetics/pi.html

libertarian99 Enthusiastic Smoker

Enthusiastic Smoker Joined: May 01, 2009 Posts: 453

by runamok on Sat Jul 04, 2009 8:02 am

This is off topic but as long as the discussion is centering around the elderly...

I swung into Fleet Farm the other day on the way home from work to pick up some golf balls. Got in line to pay and there is an elderly black gentleman in front of me buying, of all things, a box of .22 rounds.

I was in a bit of a hurry 'cause I had a tee time to make and this gentleman is fumbling around for change, etc. The cashier asks him for ID as they do when you buy ammunition. The fella was apparently a little hard of hearing and the cashier had to ask about 3 times. He finally understood and he mumbled something to the cashier that I couldn't understand, showed him his ID, finally completed the transaction and went on his way.

I move up and set my purchase on the counter and the cashier (young guy...maybe 20) is intently watching the elderly gentleman walk towards the exit. Then the cashier looks at me and says, incredulously, "That guy is 98 years old". I said, "What?" He says, "Yeah, when I asked him for his ID, he told me he couldn't understand why I needed ID 'cause he was 98. I didn't believe him til I looked at his ID, but he is. He's 98 years old."

When I walked out, the gentleman was about 30 paces in front of me, moving a little slow but not too bad. He was by himself so he was apparently driving and if I hadn't been in a bit of a rush I would've stuck around to see him drive away...for no other reason than he was 98 years old.

Maybe he lit up a Lucky as soon as he got in his vehicle.

runamok

Smoking Lobby Sponsor Joined: Dec 20, 2004 Posts: 1288

by Pete Gatti on Sun Jul 05, 2009 1:15 am

libertarian99 wrote:

I found a little program you can run where you look at video clips of family members being interviewed about their smoking behavior, and then you guess which genes they inherited. As you go along, you build a little family tree based on smoking behavior.

It's sort of interesting, if you want to look at it:

http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/addiction/genetics/pi.html

I'm wondering how much cig tax or grant money went into making that piece of cleverly disguised anti-tobacco crap.

Sorry Lib, but here are some red flags that went up for me.

1. They could have chosen almost any other behavior traits to demonstrate inherited genes but they chose smoking and nicotine addiction.

2. Even if you choose a wrong answer the program corrects you. So in essence, they are cleverly walking you through an inheritance tree they could have simply given you outright.

3. Why do they do this? It allows anti to spoon feed you all the dirt on smoking for many of the characters. Elizabeth called tobacco evil cause it kill her husband Ken.

4. When I got to the identical twins Todd and Alex, it was a nice touch when both popped nico-gum together as if on cue.

5. Then there's Jennifer who doesn't smoke cause it killed her dad describing her bad seed sister Joy who smokes and disappeared after dad died. There is obviously an association there between kids who run away from home due to hard drugs and Joy on hard nicotine.

6. More of the same as I plodded along but Tess the 16 year old and last to be interviewed is a bad actress. Smile

Gotta watch those anti's, they can be very sneaky.

Pete Gatti Enthusiastic Smoker

Enthusiastic Smoker Joined: Mar 26, 2009 Posts: 218 Location: Dade City, Florida

by libertarian99 on Sun Jul 05, 2009 3:58 am

Pete Gatti wrote:

I'm wondering how much cig tax or grant money went into making that piece of cleverly disguised anti-tobacco crap.

So, the part where we pay to be ridiculed is a sore spot for you, I take it?

Pete Gatti wrote:

They could have chosen almost any other behavior traits to demonstrate inherited genes but they chose smoking and nicotine addiction.

The main Web page is actually "The New Science of Addiction: Genetics and the Brain." They do talk about some other things besides smoking. Here's the main Web page:

http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/addiction/

Pete Gatti wrote:

Even if you choose a wrong answer the program corrects you. So in essence, they are cleverly walking you through an inheritance tree they could have simply given you outright.

It's sort of funny to see how someone reacts when their hackles are up from the beginning of the slide show. Sorry, I didn't realize you would find the site offensive.

Pete Gatti wrote:

Why do they do this? It allows anti to spoon feed you all the dirt on smoking for many of the characters.

So you suspect the university of Utah has been taken over by the antis? Are you sure it wasn't just a group of sheeple?

I'm not doubting it's a piece of anti-smoking propaganda, but nevertheless, the subject of brain chemistry, genetics and behavior has always interested me. I think whether a person smokes or not is highly influenced by their individual body chemistry and the way their brain is hard-wired.

Some people like my mother don’t get any positive reinforcement when they try smoking, so there is no incentive to keep doing it. I, on the other hand, experienced a happy little rush right away and knew I wanted to repeat the experience over and over.

Last edited by libertarian99 on Sun Jul 05, 2009 12:24 pm; edited 1 time in total

libertarian99 Enthusiastic Smoker

Enthusiastic Smoker Joined: May 01, 2009 Posts: 453

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