I really liked smoking. I started when I was 15 and smoked for over 13 years. Let me tell you, I'm one of those addictive personalities. Part of it is genetic, I'm sure. My father is a recovering alcoholic, sober over 20 years now. Most of women in my family are compulsive overeaters. If it feels good, I'll get hooked on it. A lot of my friends started smoking when I did, but some were just chippers - only smoked a few times a day, or could go days without smoking. My best girlfriend is still a chipper after smoking for 13 years. For me it was love a first puff. I was up to like a pack a day in no time.

I would still be smoking if it weren't for my husband and my son. They just wouldn't let up - nagging and making me feel guilty, I finally gave up and quit about six months ago. That may have sounded easy - I quit smoking six months ago - but I had tried to stop many times. I tried nicotine gum and the patch, but I still felt really tense. I felt like I was walking a tightrope and at the first stressful test, I fell off the wire.

I'm a nurse, so we like talk about drugs all the time at work. The doctor I work for suggested I try Zyban. - said it had worked really well for a lot of people. So I did and I kid you not, within a few days, I didn't care that much about smoking anymore. When I did smoke, I didn't seem to get the same satisfaction out of it. Awesome, right? Sure, but now I don't want to give up the Zyban. I can honestly say that I can see myself taking this drug for the rest on my life.

Come to find out smoking was like a medicine for me. I can see now, looking back, that I was borderline depressed most of my life. Like, duh, what teenager isn't depressed, right? The link between nicotine and depression has been known since the late eighties, not long in scientific terms. Nicotine stimulates the production of two brain chemicals - dopamine and norepinephrine. The short story is these chemicals make you feel good and combat the depression. So smoking is like a way of self medicating, a way of treating undiagnosed depression. This also explains why people get hooked on nicotine gum.

Antidepressants like Prozac and Zoloft are not successful as nicotine replacements because these drugs help the brain create serotonin, another feel-good brain chemical, but not the same ones that nicotine produces.

Zyban (as well as WellbutrinSR which is the same formula) stimulates the production of dopamine and norepinephrine just like nicotine does, but hopefully with less dangerous side effects. Zyban should not be used by severely depressed teenagers. Suicides have been documented for this class of drugs. Also these drugs can interact with many other prescription drugs, so make sure your doctor knows what else you're taking before he prescribes Zyban or WellbutrinSR. Finally it's not cheap, $100 a month. A generic, called Bupropion, is available, and it will run $35 for a month supply. Still, it costs less than cigarettes and your loved ones won't be on your case.