Quomen

[Gary A]

My Thai doctor is now putting pressure on me to quit smoking. He was not so concerned before my last check up. Now he says he can hear problems in my breathing. He says I still have time to quit before serious damage results but I must do it soon.

About a year ago I quit for three months but the craving was as bad at the end of the three months as it was at the end of the first week. I actually got depressed because I wanted a cigarette so badly. Needless to say I started back up.

The doctor prefers that I quit cold turkey but that if I can't quit that way there is a drug called Quomen that should help. It is the generic match to one called Zyban. Has anyone had any experience with this drug?

[ProThaiExpat]

My hat is off to you if you can give up smoking. Nicotine is a drug and clearly you are a drug addict. It is far more easy to give up alcohol than a drug, as the physical addition to a drug can last as much as a year after quitting. Alcohol is out of the blood stream in a matter of days. Both have mental issues that need to be addressed, but clearly this may well be the greatest challenge you face in your life and any help you can get, get it. It took years of advertising and reinforcement in the media to help in getting addicted to nicotine, includung peer pressure in the teen age years. So "going it alone" just doesn't make sense. Peer groups, drug therapies and gradual withdrawal all help.

Things you can do for yourself before laying down your last cigarette I learned from a friend who went through smoke enders. They don't have you stop smoking until five weeks or more into the program. During the first five weeks, they have you do the following:

1. Get up and change position before lighting a cigarette.

2. Paper and pencil in the pack to record how many you smoke.

3. Smoke only with the opposite hand you usually use.

4. Change brands every week, reducing the nicotine ocntent, if possible, with each change.

5. Break the smoking without thinking syndrome, by making the lighting of a cigarette a ritual and stop all other activity when smoking and just sit elsewhere and try to enjoy it as they number will decrease with time.

6. Of course use a patch if they work for you.

7. Collect all your cigarette buts and ash in a jar and just before you quit for good, put water in the jar and smell the result. Every time you want a cigaette, smell the jar first.

From the web:

Yes. You may use the NRT (nicotine replacement therapy) of your choice while on bupropion hydrochloride, also known as Zyban®. NRT's include products such as:

* nicotine gum

* nicotine patch

* nicotine inhaler

* nicotine lozenges

* nicotine nasal spray

It would appear that the physical addiction withdrawal symptoms can be reduced by taking Quomem as it affects the brain in a positive way, it is used to fight depression as well, while you physically withdraw from the nicotine by reducing the amount of it over time. Using the NRT's help stop the "habit" of cigarette smoking as it gives you nicotine by a method other than the leaned habit of the mechanics of smoking.

Smoking is such a "habit" in addition to being a addiction, that anything you can due to break the "habit" helps. A habit is leaned behavior often done without thinking.

Good luck. I have broken some addictions in my time but to me smoking is the most difficult and fortunately I was not afflicted by that one. The foregoing is my informed opinion, nothing more.

Edited December 17, 2007 by ProThaiExpat

[cm-happy]

Agree with ProthaiExpat completely.

It's a habit AND an addiction, but in my case more of a habit.

So many times, while am sitting at the computer going over TV threads, I find myself lighting up another, only to find I've still sitting in the ashtray a half smoked one still smoldering. HOW BAD IS THAT!!

[jomtiened]

Hi Gary,

I tried Quomen a few years ago and I hated it. It made me feel very uncomfortable and I always had a strange feeling in the pit of my stomach.

I have been smoke free for almost 3 years now. I used the nicotine patch and I highly reccomend it. There are three strengths and you gradually go from the strongest to the weakest. With the strongest and the middle one, I had no desire to smoke. When got to the lowest level, I had some small urges. Now, I use nicorette gum occasionally when I get urges.

Good luck with whatever approach you take to become smoke free.

[amexpat]

Hi Gary,

I used the nicotine patch and I highly reccomend it. There are three strengths and you gradually go from the strongest to the weakest. With the strongest and the middle one, I had no desire to smoke. When got to the lowest level, I had some small urges. Good luck with whatever approach you take to become smoke free.

Same here. Spend the money for the real NicoDerm patch. I tried a store-brand and found it did not deliver like the original.

People who have a "habit" as well as the addiction may need something to do with their hands, for example, but for pure nicotine junkies like I was, the patch made it surprisingly easy to quit.

It also helped to avoid the term "quiting". You are not giving up anything worth keeping, are you?

Instead, focus on where you are going and what you want to become. Free, healthy, non-reeking, all that positive stuff.

G'luck.

[simcity]

My Thai doctor is now putting pressure on me to quit smoking. He was not so concerned before my last check up. Now he says he can hear problems in my breathing. He says I still have time to quit before serious damage results but I must do it soon.

About a year ago I quit for three months but the craving was as bad at the end of the three months as it was at the end of the first week. I actually got depressed because I wanted a cigarette so badly. Needless to say I started back up.

The doctor prefers that I quit cold turkey but that if I can't quit that way there is a drug called Quomen that should help. It is the generic match to one called Zyban. Has anyone had any experience with this drug?

Gary, I did ! June 2007 was my last cigarette ! Quomen .. I did get it in a wholesale chemist ear Tawet market , i think 1600 the box, i could get confirmation on it !

I follow the prescription information, was not too hard!

Side effect YES ! Awake very early morning...

I bought a box for a Asian overseas friend, who hint he want to stop, he did not !

[Naam]

smoking is not only a nicotine dependance but also a habit connected to our early childhood (breast feeding, thumb sucking). i am a heavy smoker and when no smoking flights were introduced i panicked. chewing gum and patches were no help. then i discovered a surprising remedy. i fly and smoke "cold", i.e. putting a cigarette between my lips and change it whenever saliva has wetted the filter too much. i even sleep like this on an aircraft.

unfortunately it does not work at home where nobody stops me smoking. to reduce my consumption i make it a habit to hold the cigarette unlit in my hand for up to 15 minutes and suckle on it several times before i light up. my daily consumption went down from 60 to "only" 40

[LaoPo]

My Thai doctor is now putting pressure on me to quit smoking. He was not so concerned before my last check up. Now he says he can hear problems in my breathing. He says I still have time to quit before serious damage results but I must do it soon.

About a year ago I quit for three months but the craving was as bad at the end of the three months as it was at the end of the first week. I actually got depressed because I wanted a cigarette so badly. Needless to say I started back up.

The doctor prefers that I quit cold turkey but that if I can't quit that way there is a drug called Quomen that should help. It is the generic match to one called Zyban. Has anyone had any experience with this drug?

Never heard of Quomen but that doesn't say anything of course.

Check this if you wish, about Chantix/USA or Champix/Europe/Mexico/Canada from Pfizer:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varenicline

My doctor gave me a special Champix/DVD with all kinds of brochures some 6 weeks ago and...........................I didn't look at it; will give it back to him in the morning when I see him.

The reports are positive for this medication and maybe you should try it but it's probably nothing for me. I need another kind of approach for myself to quit smoking....

BUT, I stopped smoking completely 1 month ago. I have been a heavy smoker all my life.

I went to a specialist Acupuncturist in my own home country and with just 1 treatment I stopped completely. The first 10 days were heavy and difficult and I 'warned' my wife for my behaviour....which was necessary so to speak....

I was irritated and 'nasty' at times which are obvious addiction related behaviour expressions.

I have to say that I stopped with alcohol 1 1/2 month before the stop-smoking thing and maybe that helped a bit. I stopped alcohol because I wished to slim down a bit so it was not smoking related.

One week after the first acupuncture treatment I asked for a second one to be sure.

I'm totally 'smoke-free' since the first acupuncture treatment on Nov. 15th. and my wife (and I myself) is extremely happy and proud of me

I have to be honest to say, however, that my body and mind still need quite some time to fully recover and that it will take time for my body to get completely clean.

I was not an inhaler to my lunges but of course it was bad for my throat and blood stream, a.o.

To say that I feel much better now would be a lie since I do NOT feel much better now; sometimes I even think: 'on the contrary' but I accept that as being in the process of the Dry Cleaners so to speak.

It would have been silly to think that I would feel much better after I stopped smoking; the body and mind need time to feel better...and so do I

But every day is a day I won over my addiction and that's a positive feeling.

Wish you good luck, whatever and whenever you try !

Just do it, because once you did it, you will feel so fcucking proud of yourself !

LaoPo

[bkkrox]

My Thai doctor is now putting pressure on me to quit smoking. He was not so concerned before my last check up. Now he says he can hear problems in my breathing. He says I still have time to quit before serious damage results but I must do it soon.

About a year ago I quit for three months but the craving was as bad at the end of the three months as it was at the end of the first week. I actually got depressed because I wanted a cigarette so badly. Needless to say I started back up.

The doctor prefers that I quit cold turkey but that if I can't quit that way there is a drug called Quomen that should help. It is the generic match to one called Zyban. Has anyone had any experience with this drug?

I took quomem for a couple of days and found it to be awful! I felt nervous and edgy and could not concentrate for longer than a few minutes. Sleeping was so difficult and I woke up really early. Needless to say I stopped taking it and read the book "Allen Carrs' Easyway to stop smoking". Somehow it worked for me and I only struggled for 3 or 4 days (the time it takes for your body to clean out the nicotine)and now it has been over a year since I quit.

Would really recommend trying this book first it is alot cheaper than all those nicotine replacements and pills.

Good luck mate,you can do this...you are much stronger than a dried-up,rolled-up leaf!!!!!

[WaiWai]

Was a very heavy smoker and quit cold. Support helps. But it was really not as nearly asd ifficult as I thought it might be. First few days are a bit rough, Make a deal with yourself to have a reward when you quit, so you have something to look forward to.