Well, it's been over a week and so far the not-smoking thing is going shockingly well. After all the previous failed attempts, no one is more surprised than I am.
And contrary to the image with this post, there seem to be no side effects, at least so far.
The first couple of days I swore I was having heart palpitations and checked Google maps to see which third world hospital was closest, just in case. But it either passed or was just me being a hypochondriac.
And there's been no sign of the rumored suicidal depression, at least nothing more than the usual you find living in Bakersfield.
Also, there's been none of the anger issues that doomed earlier attempts, when we threw in the towel when it became obvious one of us would end up in a hospital and the other behind bars.
So... so far, so good.
I have to give a shout out to the drug companies, because this Chantix seems to work. It completely eliminates the physical cravings which was always the highest hurdle to overcome. It appears to eliminate ALL cravings - I haven't thought of peanut butter in over a week either.
I still think about cigarettes all the time, but I'm sure that too will pass.
When we first moved to Bakersfield I used to think about our former lives all the time, the home we lost, the career I loved, the freedom of having an income. But now I rarely think of any of those things at all, and when I do it's as if it all happened to somebody else. Hopefully, I can soon add "smoking" to the list of things that are gone forever.
