Have To Start Somewhere Part II

[nsd_user663_3855]

Despite a fairly negative first post starting into week 2, I have made it into week 3. To be honest, besides a bad day on the day I found this forum, it really has been easy enough. One thing that has made it particularly easy for me(up till now at any rate), is that I just never smoke when my child is around, and haven't done for a long time - so all the pressure and internal nagging to smoke disappears in the evenings and weekends and in a sense makes the rest easier as well in that I know there is light at the end of the tunnel with regard to getting rid of the awful urges during lower periods.

Maybe some that pass through this stage and are beaten later on (and lets face it, most of us are. No shame in it, just bounce back stronger next time) might keep this in mind. Having established a safe haven makes things incomparably easier compared to my previous attempts without it. Maybe others will know the best way to go about doing this and how long it would take, I have to admit mine was established without any consideration to permanently ceasing smoking. In a sense it was just a natural evolution, with accidental positive benefits.

The most negative aspect about this early stage of quitting is the feeling of wishing your life away. Or day counting. Sort of exacerbated by this forum, although to be fair, very hard to get away from. Of course you're not really wishing your life away, quite the opposite, but on low moments the demons within can chose to interpret it thus.

Anywho, thanks for the words of encouragement last week and best of luck to all those passing through this stage.

[nsd_user663_1733]

Well done Mel 3 weeks is great. Just gose to show alot of this smoking lark is in our head if it gose out of your mind at times you never smoked. xxxxxx

[nsd_user663_3728]

well done on getting to week3 you are doing great keep going

love margaret

[nsd_user663_3679]

Hi

Your doing an excellent job.. you should be proud !

[nsd_user663_3738]

well done mel on 3 weeks,..OLD SAYING. smoking is a deadly habit,and it will kill you given the chance ..it has nothing of valve to offer you ..nothing at all,,.just keep the faith tony

[nsd_user663_3816]

Well done Mel, you must be so proud of yourself

Denise

xx

[NicFirth 10 Years Smoke Free]

Good going week 3 is a real achievement!!

[nsd_user663_3855]

Sometimes it's not that hard.

I know I've read a topic on the subject, but I can't find it so I'll just post on home ground, as it were.

I've tried giving up smoking more times than I care to remember. Sometimes lasting weeks, sometimes, literally, lasting minutes. On this occasion I did it wrong according to the textbooks. I had no intention of giving up. I happened to have a badish chest infection. Whilst smoking the last in a packet of cigarettes, I coughed, felt stupid, and decided not to buy anymore. No preparation, no enjoying the last one, no psyching myself up.

The start of the second week I found difficult for a couple of days, but, fingers crossed, I can't say I've even had anything that could be seriously described as a "craving" in the last two and a half weeks. I mentioned about the "safe haven" being helpful, in the previous post, but I've had that on previous attempts and failed miserably. I don't know why this time is so much different.

Obviously there is a long way to go before I can say with any confidence that I've cracked it, but I can't help feeling, tentatively, with a small squeaky little voice, that, maybe, I just might just manage it this time.

Apologies to those who are suffering. This isn't meant as a gloat. Maybe an encouragement to those thinking of trying again, that the suffering experienced in previous attempts may not necessarily be repeated the next time. I would imagine, like myself, people can look to this type of forum for support, even self-support, during a tough time and maybe readers can get the impression that giving up smoking is all about suffering and strained wills. While acknowledging that I could be a trembling wreck this time next week (or banished from the forum as an ignominious failure), sometimes it really can be a piece of piss (to use an uncouth term for emphasis).

[nsd_user663_2863]

Brilliant!

Hi Melendez,

It's good to hear from someone who'se having it relatively easy.

It does happen.

As long as you know there WILL be a moment when you're going to be tempted and use the present to keep reaffirming your commitment to quit.

Good on yer,

Bill

[nsd_user663_3855]

I was just scanning through the tips forum.

Now I'm not saying it made any difference, personally I can't believe it did, but I decided at the start of the year, coinciding, although unrelated to quitting cigarettes to have breakfast in the morning, to substitute for the usual 3 fags on the way into work.

My breakfast of choice was porridge, which I've had virtually every day this month.

nosmokingday.org.uk/forum/s...

As I say, I'm not a believer, the claims have to be, at the very least, overstated, but it's a nice tasty breakfast anyway with a spoon of honey, and it can't do any harm to your quitting prospects.

[nsd_user663_3881]

Well done Mel,

I'm just about at the same level of quit as yourself and like you I found it a piece of p*ss to start with, couldn't understand what all the fuss was about quitting. I'm doing it with my friend at work and whilst I am CT she is on NRT patches so I was feeling oh so smug that I was finding it easy and she was finding it harder. Just as I'm starting to feel relaxed about the whole thing along comes that bar steward of an overwhelming desire yesterday to have a cigarette. Common sense and experience tells me a cigarette is not going to make you happy so why am I suddenly so miserable without a ciggie. God, I hope this passes tomorrow - I am becoming a bl**dy nuisance to myself, let alone my work colleagues!!