ughH smoking ... ? ! ?

[M!SKA]

giving him hope?

[Joanne]

an old psychology professor of mine told the class about how he quit cold turkey after 12 years of smoking.

he had gone for a checkup, where his doctor told him that he no longer wanted to have him as a patient if he was going to keep smoking. the reason why was because he thought my professor would die if he didn't stop. this doctor was fairly new and had recently had another patient of his die. he felt that being such a new doctor, it would make him look really bad, already having 2 of his patients die on him. this really made my old prof realize how serious of an impact his smoking was becoming to his health.

in this case, fear worked like a charm.

--Joanne :P

[Joanne]

Originally Posted by Goat

sounds like a negative association thing, like kicking a dog when it shits in the house. This method, i find, has more negative attributes then good.

aversive conditioning can work to a certain extent. but the person has to actually make the connection between the punishment and the behavior. for example, the horrible negative reinforcement of drinking cigarette ashes may not necessarily associate with the behavior of smoking. a person will obviously stop drinking the ashes, but not necessarily stop smoking.

however, a really bad experience (i.e. eating some really bad chinese food and throwing up right after you smoke) can make you associate smoking with vomiting and make you want to stop smoking period. then again, everyone's brain circuitry is different.

as for the negative attributes outweighing the good, I can't really seem to think of any negative consequence that is worse than keeping this money-draining, extremely-bad-for-your-health habit.

I'm not necessarily an aversive conditioning fan.. in fact, most studies will say that positive reinforcement works much better for extinguishing or upholding with certain behaviors... however, I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing.

--Joanne :P

[cutienikki]

Originally Posted by {dC!}

Is there anyone who is a passed smoker although had a hard time quiting! I really dont want to / cant afford to smoke. Yet I continue anywayz due to the stupid addiction of it :( I know that there are INFINITE different wayz to try and quit smoking. But I dont really want to go through the trial and error method & having to fail on many different attemptz. blAh! If anyone could give me some good advice that would be much appreciated ... thankz :)

i was a smoker but then i stopped....i dont like the term quit cuz it just makes it sound bad...but if you "stopped" then it dosent sound so bad....the reason why i smoked was because i was bored...so if that is ur case too then just occupie urself with something else...go running...or watch tv..or post on fnk :P

[crookedking]

Originally Posted by M!SKA

I said not heavily! hahaha
I'm a social smoker. So I'd have 1 or 2 during the week by myself, but if I was out with friends it could be half a pack easily. Being a weekday hermit has totally solved that problem! lol

heh. half pack...easily she said LLOL.

[Segued]

i quit for six months and don't ask why i started again, i tried to quite again three weeks ago, but started after a week..my best advise for quiting though, is to cut down gradually.