4 weeks in 3 days and i NEED a cig! Help!

Firstly, deep breaths.

Do you have any free time this morning or are you at work? If you have some time maybe you could go to the gym or go swimming, get the endorphins going. Or a walk, as long as it's not near any shops. Take yourself away from temptation as much as possible - maybe an early show at the cinema?

Distract yourself - call someone, clean the oven, wash the car, whatever will take your mind off this for a bit until it passes.

You know this will pass, as all the other cravings did. This won't be any worse than those you had in the early days, it just seems it as it appears to have come out of nowhere. This is your addict brain's last efforts - get through this and you'll be sailing.

Yoyoyo, the cravings are all in your head. Your body is not craving nicotene. Do you have a list of all your reasons for stopping? If so, look at it now and if not then sit down and make one. By the time you get to the end of the list you won't be wanting a cigarette any more. Besides if you had one now after going so long without it would just taste so disgusting - trust me on this one!!! How bad would you feel if you caved after this long??? Stay strong!

Thankyou for your help

I found this on another part of the forum and have printed it off ...

Do you feel like there is something missing?

Change your way of looking at it. You're not losing anything, you are gaining soooo much! Your health, your money and a sense of achievement that only we understand - people who have never smoked would have no idea how difficult this is and people who continue to smoke feel guilty about their own habits and sometimes dont want us to quit. But what are you losing by stopping? Really - nothing. Smoking does nothing for you. The only thing a cigarette gives you is the desire to have another cigarette.

Just one won’t hurt, I’ll go back to quitting tomorrow!

Think about it...... If you have a cigarette, are you telling me that you won't try to quit again? You know you'll try to quit again like all of us serial quitters. We all wish we could be free, so we try try try again. Be strong and don't give in or you'll have to go through it all over again and I'm sure that you don't want to be struggling to quit for the rest of your life. Wanting is better than having - if you lapse and have that cigarette you will feel like shit. You know this is true. You will not only feel sick and dizzy and short of breath, your heart will race and you will stink. But after the short term effects wear off all you feel is guilt and a sense of depression that u have wasted all your efforts to date. And of course the bloody killer is that you will want to have another cigarette. And you probably will. If you keep trying to climb to the top of that mountain and ignore how much you ache, when you get to the top, it will be easy to walk down the other side. If you let go now, you'll fall all the way back down to the bottom and will have to start all over again, and you'll keep feeling that aching again and again until you reach that peak when you don't have to struggle anymore.

I'm speaking to people who have not smoked for months/years and they still say how hard it is to not smoke - once a smoker always a smoker I am told!

When people hear stories of people still thinking of cigarettes years after they quit, they worry that they will crave cigarettes for the rest of their life the same way as when they first quit. I personally don't think you'll ever not think about it as you'll always going to remember what it was like to smoke and the feeling you got from it. The only way to never think or not crave a cigarette is to of never smoked in the first place. The thoughts become so infrequent that the only reasons we’ll think about cigarettes is because we’re thinking 'Oh I haven't thought about cigarettes for a while' (I see alot of you scratching your heads! And of course when we’re on the forum it is hard not to think about it, but thats in a good way because we’re thinking 'I'm glad I'm not smoking anymore!'.

I’m feeling stressed

We managed to deal with stressful sitiations before we smoked (even though most of us were probably in our early teens when we started) and non smokers deal with stress everyday without smoking, so how does a cigarette relieve stress.

It helps me relax

One ****ogy that springs to mind was that of wearing shoes that are too tight all evening. By the end of the night, your feet are killing you. You are so relieved to take off those shoes and your feet feel so good. However, if you had not put those shoes on in the first place, you would not have sore feet. In the same manner, smoking does not relax or calm you down – smoking merely relieves the situation that smoking created in the first place – the need for nicotine.

Not a single puff

Because we used to be proper smokers (not casual or social smokers) if we want to stay smoke free then we have to accept we can NEVER EVER EVER have another drag on a fag - not even one. Ever. If we do we probably will end up smoking full time again because we are on the top of a very slippery slope.

Remember this from last time? just as you think it can't get any worse you turn a corner! Just promise yourself another 24 hours, you deserve that much after all you have done to get here. If in 24hours nothings changed, then reaccess your quit, bare in mind, what ever you do, you will always be on the

road to wanting to quit,the rest is up to you.

You don't need a cig

Drink freezing cold water, lots of it and the craving will go away. Keep coming here these people are great.:)

Yoyoyo

Quitting is like losing a lover. Initially, you don’t know how to survive. Smoking is the first thing you think of when you wake, then there is that terrible sorrow that it has gone. It pops into your head throughout the day and reminds you of its attributes over its flaws. But, after time, you learn to live without it, to push it from your thoughts. And, eventually, you wonder what the hell you saw in it in the first place. On my last night, someone asked whether I now hate cigarettes. “It’s not hatred, more indifference,” I explained, and that’s the best mindset of all.

These are not my words but the words of a post that I saw on the internet. I believe it to be true, at least for me. Dont give in...it is much harder to get quit than to stay quit...you're on the right path - just hang tight!! Besides, you already know how you will feel if you give in..

yoyoyo

I do hope you have managed to not have a smoke.I dont know if you have children but a woman I know has resently had to tell her 13yr old son that she has lung cancer and not long to live.I am on here quitting like you so I dont have to tell my 12yr old the same because he hates me smoking and would say you knew the risks why didnt you stop.Hed have a point. Day 2 of week 3 now. please try and hang in there and good luck to you.Chrissie xxxSorry to be depressing only trying to help.

Quitting is like losing a lover ....

Initially, you don’t know how to survive. Smoking is the first thing you think of when you wake, then there is that terrible sorrow that it has gone. It pops into your head throughout the day and reminds you of its attributes over its flaws. But, after time, you learn to live without it, to push it from your thoughts. And, eventually, you wonder what the hell you saw in it in the first place ....

D'you mean a bit like ...

Whoa! My love, my ciggy,

I hunger for your smoke

Alone. Lonely time.

And time goes by, so slowly,

And time can do so much,

Are you still mine?

I need your smoke.

I need your smoke.

God speed your smoke to me.

Lonely rivers flow to the sea, to the sea,

To the open arms of the sea.

Lonely rivers sigh, wait for me, wait for me,

I'll be coming home, wait for me.

Whoa! My love, my ciggy,

I hunger, hunger!, for your smoke,

For love. Lonely time.

And time goes by, so slowly,

And time can do so much,

Are you still mine?

I don't need your smoke.

I don't need your smoke.

God speed your smoke from me.

Only for the first two months