Saturday, September 29, 2007

Day 3, part 2

There really is nothing to report since I posted earlier today. I went to my friends’ house for dinner and I felt fine. Had some great Polish food and chatted for a while I still had the desire to smoke but it wasn't as strong. I was able to finish dinner and wait an hour or so to smoke and I think it was mostly because of habit. I did notice that I was a little slow with conversation and stumbled on a bit of my words. Other than that, everything felt pretty normal (except that I am exhausted and about to fall asleep right here, right now).

Aside from dinner, I told my friends I was taking Zyban/Wellbutrin and it resulted in much discussion. They cannot believe I am taking a medication to alter my brain with the hope to quit smoking. I cannot believe it myself. If someone told me 7 years ago that I would be taking a pill to help me quit my addiction to cigarettes, I would have laughed in their faces. No Way, Not Ever!!! Hahaha. Funny how easy someone can change, isn’t it?

Once I told my friends the name of the drug, they told me a story that I did not know about one of our mutual friends who had purchased Wellbutrin online and used it for 6 months. Wellbutrin had been faring him pretty well and he was notably happy until one day he had a few drinks and physically fought two of his best friends. He also made frenzied statements about how he would acquire a semi-automatic weapon to take down the cops should they come.

This guy is not at all the type you would expect this behavior from. He is your average, normal guy and would never hurt a fly on a regular day. It’s somewhat worrisome that this happened, but I have to take in account and point out that this person also has a notable drug use problem and consumed alcohol in large amounts that night as well as other mind-altering substances while on Wellbutrin. I would put more blame on the mixture of all of the chemicals in his body than on the Wellbutrin alone.

I decided prior to taking Zyban that I would not consume any alcohol until I completed my program. Stories such as this as well as others that I’ve heard (and the label on my prescription) make it seem like consuming alcohol is not a risk I am willing to take. Also, why bother? If I continue to be as loopy as I have been the past couple of days, it’s almost like being a little tipsy anyway. There’s all ready a party going on in my brain, right?

Also, with regard to alcohol, does anyone know exactly what they mean by “stop drinking suddenly”? This is indicated on a lot of the precautions. Is this for heavy drinkers only? And, if so, what constitutes as a heavy drinker? And, if you’re a heavy drinker, does this mean that you should continue to drink a little while on Zyban or just not take Zyban at all?

Please share your alcohol and Zyban stories with me if you have them.
Wish me luck on doubling my dose tomorrow!

2 comments:

cb1 said...

Morning,
Glad to hear you're still doing okay. Surprised that you double your dose today (Saturday), I'm to take single dose for six days and then take double. I've set my quit date for 4/10 but am worried that it's not going to actually work. Yesterday I was pretty much fine too, but this morning not feeling so great. I've also got a cough, which is quite bizarre because I've never had a cough from smoking before ever, in like over 30 years.
Found a great website yesterday http://www.whyquit.com/joel which has loads of videos re. quitting smoking, and he of course recommends going "cold turkey" which I absolutely and totally agree with, but I really don't think that I can do it.
Still having trouble getting motivated to do anything though.
Strange thing this morning: I only had two cigarettes in my packet when I got up, now normally I would panic at that stage. I'm not panicking yet .. although I still don't seem to have cut down any. The cigarettes still don't taste so good, and I am hating the smell of them in the flat, or maybe I'm just more aware of the smell in the flat for some reason? This whole thing is weird don't you think?
Great to see that there's someone else on here, hope some more join in, particularly if they're trying Zyban and we can all see how everyone's doing.
Anyway, still really enjoying reading your day to day progress. Good luck for the increased dosage today!
cb1 (Chris, London, England)

And so it goes... said...

So, we're almost on the same track. My quit date is suppose to be Wednesday, October 3rd. I am not sure why my dr. told me to only go 3 days as opposed to a full week on a single dose. I know most people go a week but I figured that he's the dr. so I listened!

Did your cough end up being from smoking or are you ill?

You're starting to not appreciate the smell of smoke? When is that going to happen to me?!?