Posted by gary (208.133.221.137) on February 04, 2000 at 14:44:38:
In Reply to: Drinking posted by Bob P on February 04, 2000 at 13:25:39:
30 years now as clusterhead
1st 13-14 years of CH as a drinker
1st 23-24 years of CH as a smoker
by age 33-34, CH had worsened to chronic with very frequent & severe attacks;
GOOD NEWS:
summary of last 16-17 years:
quitting drinking made a HUGE improvement in the length of clusters (MUCH shorter), and in the frequency & severity of attacks (fewer attacks, much less avg intensity)-
ON AVERAGE, over a long period of time -
recent years averaging 4 month cluster each year in fall/early winter (occasionally skipping it altogether), with more frequent shadows but far fewer attacks, and much less severe attacks
(I guess that means just as many attacks per day, but so much milder on average, and many of them don't go past "precursor" or "shadow" stage)
quitting smoking not as clearly dramatic results,
but things were already MUCH better when I quit smoking, so the potential for further perceptable improvement was less to begin;
the improvement trend has continued though, so it certainly didn't hurt...
PLUS - for me oxygen is an absolute godsend - the "miracle switch" that turns CH attacks off like a light - why cancel that out, or reduce it by smoking, which blocks oxygen absorbtion ?
( THAT might be an interesting group question - how does success of oxygen as attack aborter relate to whether or not person is a smoker ? I never tried it while a smoker, so don't have the personal experience of both ways)
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and i GOTTA tell you -
the last few years I was smoking-
I had come to realize it is a nasty, filthy, revolting, disgusting, destructive practice that repelled friends and family, and severely impacted a lot of the things I wanted to do, and places I wanted to be -
it was worth quitting just to be rid of that negative self-image;
my feeling is that if we have CH, then ANYTHING we do that makes life easier and more rewarding is WELL worth doing - if it doesn't help direcly with the CH attacks, than it will provide an addition to the positive balance in our lives
if you don't feel that way YET as a smoker - OK - don't worry about quitting - you probably wouldn't succeed anyway;
but I promise you - the time will come when you DO feel that way..
THEN go for quitting for all you're worth - it will be a tremendous improvement in your life
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BUT WATCH THE WEIGHT GAIN WHEN YOU QUIT SMOKING !
Nobody told me that if you keep eating the same you gain weight -
I knew people gained, but always thought it was because they ate more to compensate for not smoking
WRONG !!!!!metabolism changes, and same diet produces weight gain !!!
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if any of this helps or encourages you -
GREAT, it's REAL, and that's the idea
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for those of you who will predictably object strongly to any negative comments about recreational substance consumption - (nobody in particular, experience proves there are ALWAYS a few in that category)
I'm not judging you or criticizing YOUR behavior -because I'm personally only concerned with & "talking to" the folks who are here to deal with their CH - and MEAN IT
so if you're more worried about defending your self-destructive behavior (when nobody's even talking to you) than you are working on collective relief from CH -
this just isn't for or about you,
so don't worry about it