Check out the Johnny Cash version of NIN's Hurt.....its pretty powerful. As for the book, yeah it addresses the physcology of smoking and helps you to understand the fear.  Its what helped me to finally quit.

My Milage:

My Quit Date: 7/1/2009
Smoke-Free Days: 74
Cigarettes Not Smoked: 1,850
Amount Saved: $555.00
Life Gained:
Days: 11 Hrs: 3 Mins: 1 Seconds: 15

Well it is like the book says, we know it is bad for our health but that never makes us stop. I think that book is very insightful. It has a way of making you realize that smoking has zero positive gains. It also tries to convince you not to worry and just quit, that it is not difficult. I still think the book could use some work in that regard. I think it stops short there. Yeah, it really is easy in many ways. Withdrawal pangs really are not painful. They are not even strong. All they do is create a feeling and emotions are something I've had plenty of experience dealing with. When you have a bad feeling, the best thing Ÿou can do is just acknowlege it and sit with it till it passes, or acknowlege it and then move on. The book never really addresses that very well. It is too bad. I think it would be even more effective if it really took the time to talk about what happens after that final cigarette. Anyway I am very glad you recommended the book. I really love how it addresses the psychology of smokers. I found it very enlightening. As for Trent Reznor, I am glad you know who he is. I will be a fan for life, but not like I was when I was a teen. I mostly listen to electronica and some other bands, typically from the UK like Portishead and Polly Scattergood. I also love Bjork but she is from Iceland. I really don't know anyyhing about Johnny Cash. I always thought he was a lot like Elvis? They are from the same generation, are they not? The only bands from before my time I like are ABBA (especially songs of theirs that were never famous), Pink Floyd, and Bob Dylan. :-)
My Milage:

My Quit Date: 9/8/2009
Smoke-Free Days: 3
Cigarettes Not Smoked: 60
Amount Saved: $23.16
Life Gained:
Days: 0 Hrs: 9 Mins: 10 Seconds: 14

My Milage:

My Quit Date: 7/1/2009
Smoke-Free Days: 71
Cigarettes Not Smoked: 1,775
Amount Saved: $532.50
Life Gained:
Days: 10 Hrs: 17 Mins: 6 Seconds: 34

Hi, Carlos.  Thanks, man.  Honestly, that post doesn't really do much for me.  I'm not married and I'm not worried about my health.  I don't even have a family to worry about me.  I haven't talked to any of them in well over a decade.  The only thing that motivates me to stop smoking is to improve the quality of my life.  I think it is a filthy thing to do that does not fit the self-image I have of myself.  I was actually thinking about that today.  I drove by a car that had a NIN bumper sticker.  It was really interesting to me, because I live in Kentucky and that is something you just do not see every day (they are hard stickers to find).  I used to have one when I was a teenager.  In case you don't know, NIN is short for Nine Inch Nails (a band).  Well, when I was younger, I was deeply into their music; a very depressed kid, going against the grain of society, and smoking for me was partly about self-image (a statement that I could do what I wanted, rebellious, whatever).  When I saw that bumper sticker, I realized that at one time, that bumper sticker could have "defined me" (who I was and what I was all about) but that it no longer applied, that it didn't even come close.  I'm a different person than I was back then.  Smoking just isn't for me any more, just like NIN isn't.

My Milage:

My Quit Date: 9/8/2009
Smoke-Free Days: 2
Cigarettes Not Smoked: 40
Amount Saved: $15.44
Life Gained:
Days: 0 Hrs: 8 Mins: 33 Seconds: 40

Gidday Samuel , 48 hours in and a lifetime ahead of you. Hows the hiking going!! Good to see you are back in the game my man. Check out the thread by Pen re "smoking is easy". Puts everything in perspective.

My Milage:

My Quit Date: 7/1/2009
Smoke-Free Days: 71
Cigarettes Not Smoked: 1,775
Amount Saved: $532.50
Life Gained:
Days: 10 Hrs: 17 Mins: 1 Seconds: 41

My Milage:

My Quit Date: 9/8/2009
Smoke-Free Days: 2
Cigarettes Not Smoked: 40
Amount Saved: $15.44
Life Gained:
Days: 0 Hrs: 8 Mins: 28 Seconds: 37

Hello its nice to met ya, you have the right attitude you will make this quit, just hang tough, keep reading  Tresa
My Milage:

My Quit Date: 8/8/2002
Smoke-Free Days: 2586
Cigarettes Not Smoked: 62,064
Amount Saved: $10,861.20
Life Gained:
Days: 335 Hrs: 22 Mins: 14 Seconds: 2

Thank you, Brenda.  I really appreciate your thoughtful and very thorough response to my question.  I've read many posts from you where you've researched things and you've clearly learned a lot from it.  I had never heard of cotinine before.  After reading Allen Carr's book, it was clear that every time you smoke a cigarette, you are restarting the chain reaction.  He also suggests many times not to avoid other smokers, but that felt to me like a contradiction because it seemed to me that secondhand smoke could restart the chain reaction just as easily.  Perhaps nicotine does so but cotinine does not?  That would certainly make it easier for me to be in the presence of smokers and not feel like I'm giving the addict in me something to feed on.

Nicotine withdrawal peaks between 48-96 hours. There is conflicting information about whether nicotine actually is cleared from the body during that time or if peak clearance just occurs during that time. I have to admit that I think peak clearance occurs during that time, because I generally had a tendency to trip at day five. I felt like I was still withdrawing five days into it. (I was a very heavy smoker.) Plus, I actually believe that there is a lot of propaganda on both sides of the smoking struggle, or whatever you want to call it. Those who want us to quit smoking also wants us to believe that the pain diminishes in just 48-96 hours. That can backfire. I know when cravings... all lasted longer than I was prepared for, I always failed. I wasn't psyched for a longer battle. I think because I have "quit" and started so often now I know not to have much in the way of expectations. This time I expected to still have chemically based cravings for at least a month this time. It was only after I had been off the nicotine gum for 42 days did I feel like I was free from the chemicals. (Some of that may have been psychological, but not all of it.)

Cotinine, a metabolite of nicotine, which is used to measure the grade of tobacco smoking, is typically detectable for several days to up to 10 days after the use of tobacco. The level of cotinine in the blood is proportionate to the amount of exposure to tobacco smoke, so it is a valuable indicator of tobacco smoke exposure, including secondary (passive) smoke. People who smoke menthol cigarettes may retain cotinine in the blood for a longer period because menthol can compete with cotinine enzymatic metabolism.[1] Gender and race seems to also play a role in how long cotinine stays in the body.

But even after the nicotine clears, your body still clearing the other thousand poisons from your body for quit a while. Besides the nicotine, the other chemical that I feel the withdrawal effects from is carbon monoxide. (I probably feel others that I'm not aware, too.) I get bad vertigo. Carbon monoxide, and the other chemicals, aren't directly responsible for cigarette cravings, but the stress of the withdrawals can contribute to people smoking again.

We just have to tell ourselves that we are quitters and, therefore, we have all the time in the world to quit. Doesn't matter how long withdrawing takes.

(I used experience and a number of Web sites to write this post.)


My Milage:

My Quit Date: 5/1/2009
Smoke-Free Days: 123
Cigarettes Not Smoked: 3,444
Amount Saved: $1,334.55
Life Gained:
Days: 13 Hrs: 10 Mins: 9 Seconds: 40

Josie, Health Educator