How do you plan to spend your furlough?

[many a good man]

Aside from being grateful yer not laid off?

I have five days to take before July 31. Threats of 10 more by year end. I have to take all five days in one week or one day per week in five consecutive weeks.

I'm going to take off a Friday and the following Monday in March to make a long weekend and use it to quit smoking. That'll give me time to recover from quitter's flu. Then I'll take the next three Mondays off. A year without smoking should about make up for the loss in pay. I hope I still have a job by then. My heart goes out to everyone whose lives are upended by this awful economy.

[endless october]

1. glad to hear you're quitting.

consider getting the Allen Carr book "The Easy Way to Stop Smoking." i read it in June of last year and haven't smoked since. just passed the eighth month mark. and most of the quit was as simple as the book said it would be, no NRT, no panics, no envying those who were still smoking. probably the best $15 i ever spent.

[sandnsea]

3. So what's the gist

I've heard of that book and was wondering what the basis of it is. I quit 3 years ago, but it's always good to have all the relapse prevention type info you can get your hands on.

[many a good man]

5. Carr uses cognitive therapy

Makes you realize what a dumb fuck you are for smoking. Blows apart all the self-deception you use to rationalize your habit. It really helps to build your resolve to be a non-smoker once and for all.

[sandnsea]

9. Only an idiot would stick their head in a chimney

and breathe in smoke. You breathe in smoke from a cigarette because you're addicted to nicotine.

Along with all the other rationalizations you use because you're addicted to nicotine, like taking a smoke break, or going to die anyway, or whatever other iodicies you tell yourself.

Something like that?

[endless october]

8. over the course of reading the book,

Carr dissects each of the reasons you thought you wanted to smoke. and in a rational manner, he shows you why the cigarette doesn't do for you what you think it's doing. he outlines the complex trap of smoking, shows you each part of it and how you got ensnared in it. at the end of the experience, you step out of the trap and don't envy those who are still stuck in it.

full disclosure : i went into reading the book wanting to quit, but skeptical that reading it would do much to help. those who told me about the book were almost zealots about it, which made me leery. i gave it a chance, though, and it worked.

[sandnsea]

10. Ah, I think I see

Maybe I got to the same place going from the other end. Working through all that stuff as a figment of nicotine addiction, it just wasn't real and I had to figure out why I was letting myself believe what my addicted mind was telling me. Unravel, move forward.

The only thing I still want to do is smoke and write. What's he say about that?

[endless october]

11. are you saying that while writing, you feel a desire to smoke?

[sandnsea]

12. Yes that, but also writer's block

Maybe it's no different then it ever was. Maybe the smoking took my mind off the process of finding the right words or something. But that is the only time I think about a cigarette now, when I want to dig in and really write.

[endless october]

13. he would probably tell you

that the cigarette's beneficial effect on your writing was only due to you believing it could do that.

i'm not a trained easy way counselor, though. the book addresses most situations like that.

it's pretty good that you only think about smoking in one particular situation, though. you've broken a lot of your own brainwashing on your own.

[many a good man]

4. Carr helped me quit last time

Went nine months smoke free before falling hard off the wagon. I agree the Carr book is great. My recommendation doesn't mean much until I'm quit for good, though! At least I know what's in store. Wish I could say the same about the economy.

[Catshrink]

2. Luckily I won't have one -- but will take an 8% pay cut next year.

It blows. I was going to finish my masters this summer but the scholarship money I was depending on from the state university that has been there for years (because I'm in a high demand area) is gone. It will cost me over $4000 to finish up -- I was expecting to pay half of that.

But I'm lucky to have a job. I don't think I'm in danger of losing my house or car. When I hear the sad stories of others I realize that I have very little to complain about.

[Wickerman]

6. I give up 12 days

Probably do one a month, double up on a couple of months since we got a late start. I'll back end a day one month and front end another month (and pay period) and make a long overdue trip to see some family who are getting aged.

Good luck on the quitting. You'll thank yourself. 9 years now and even though I'm older I can do stuff without getting winded that I couldn't 15 years ago.:thumbsup:

[drmeow]

7. Employees at my job

who have been told that they are being laid off (some 90 days notice, others being told ahead of the 90 days) are still required to take furlough.

For complicated reasons I am exempt from the furlough but will be losing my job at the end of June.

[IDemo]

14. I had to take 7 weeks last year

Wound up losing health benefits and paid time off (for the following year). Which didn't matter, since a bunch of us were laid off in January anyway.

I may have a better job lined up, though. Interviewed yesterday and felt I did very well, and the recruiter will be calling me back Monday. Maybe getting laid off wasn't the worst thing to happen to me..