at 6 months then, what the big changes that you notice and does it all feel normal now
So whats it like: at 6 months then, what the... - No Smoking Day
So whats it like
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nsd_user663_5010
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It was just after the hundred days that it started to feel "normal", that I started to accept that I was a non smoker now.
By 6 months, it was just a case of life goes on as normal - for me.
I have had a couple of moments since then where I struggled with my own stupid mind trying to trick me - but on the whole it's been quite easy since about 4 months.
Everyone is different and I will be the first to admit I have been lucky and have had a pretty easy ride overall.... but I think that's down to my mindset and the fact that I spent a huge amount of time educating myself against my nicotine addiction.
It was just after the hundred days that it started to feel "normal", that I started to accept that I was a non smoker now.
By 6 months, it was just a case of life goes on as normal - for me.
I have had a couple of moments since then where I struggled with my own stupid mind trying to trick me - but on the whole it's been quite easy since about 4 months.
Everyone is different and I will be the first to admit I have been lucky and have had a pretty easy ride overall.... but I think that's down to my mindset and the fact that I spent a huge amount of time educating myself against my nicotine addiction.
That's good to hear, am away again this weekend and a bit concerned that temptation will rear it's ugly head am on day 81, just re-reading the tales from the quit to bolster my resolve.
Hoping to feel normal soon - at least more comfortable with my quit. Somehow it still feels peculiar - I will be in here one day I hope.
I had an easy start. NRT to begin with. A bit of a rubbish week three and then it was good. A couple of blips in month three, but month 5 brought me smoking dreams, more than ever before. Almost like a niggling nudging 'lookat what you're missing' demon. I have to say, I still get urges but now I have learnt in the main to accept it as part of my normal way of life and they don't interfer. I am an addict. I suspect the craves will always haunt me at some time or another. Sometimes when i'm driving along quite fast and I see a smoker I shout 'loser' out of the window in a most childish fashion and it makes me feel smug and glad i'm not in that prison anymore.
I too feel like I've had a pretty easy time of it. But, around month 4-5, I had a battle with myself and almost lost. My mind kept telling me I should go ahead and smoke. Kept saying that I really wasn't getting many benefits from the quit. After all, no one would care if I started smoking again. The store full of cigs was only half a block away! Just go get them! This nonsense went on for a whole month off and on. Then, it just stopped! Now I'm fine. Don't even think of smoking except when I post on here and that doesn't bother me or make me want to light up. I know I will never smoke again. I don't need it and I never did! I'm not sure what normal is, because I had smoked for most of my adult life, but I think I'm there and I like it!
Hi SM 
I to had a relatively easy ride on my quit very few big craves to cope with just the odd fleeting thought gone almost before it's there
From about 4 months on I knew I wouldn't smoke ever again and now it's feels normal not to
Love
Marg
This post was really good reading. Thanks. I like the idea of shouting "LOSER" at people smoking in their cars. Might give that a try, just for the fun, but will ensure the windows are up and they are going in the opposite direction. 
at 6 months then, what the big changes that you notice and does it all feel normal now
I'm at 6 months right now and it pretty much feels normal...... I get craves very rarely (usually triggered by some change in routine, ie going on vacation).... otherwise I just get thoughts of smoking that literally come and go within seconds.....
No real changes for me (was always healthy/fit and still am) except of course for the fact I no longer spend hours sitting in lethargy poisoning myself...... the biggest thing I am appreciative of is the fact that I am no longer ruled by my addiction...... I hated having to have a smoke every hour on the hour, every day, every month, every year..... on and on it went, fag after fag........ the freedom is worth all the hard moments I had to go through to get to this point.
I'm at 6 months right now and it pretty much feels normal...... I get craves very rarely (usually triggered by some change in routine, ie going on vacation).... otherwise I just get thoughts of smoking that literally come and go within seconds.....
No real changes for me (was always healthy/fit and still am) except of course for the fact I no longer spend hours sitting in lethargy poisoning myself...... the biggest thing I am appreciative of is the fact that I am no longer ruled by my addiction...... I hated having to have a smoke every hour on the hour, every day, every month, every year..... on and on it went, fag after fag........ the freedom is worth all the hard moments I had to go through to get to this point.
Couldn't agree more Bella. It's been a while since I've been on the forum (it was the forum that got me off the evil weed - seven weeks ago yesterday - woo hoo! - once and for all). I have to admit I've had a couple of major wobbles (right down to actually having a cigarette in my hand and about to light it when some so-called friend has persuaded me on a night out that 'just one can't hurt').
Thankfully, I'm still nicotine free (and said friend has been kicked to the curb - it really makes you see people for what they are when they take great delight in trying to get you to pick up your addiction again).
The actual physical cravings have long since gone and the times that I think about having a cigarette are now few and far between (about once every three weeks I get a 'I could kill for a fag' moment, but it passes within a few minutes).
Weirdest thing now is how I view other smokers. I always swore I would never be one of those hypercritical smokers and, while I would never say it to a smoker or let them know what I am thinking, I really do pity them. Just today I walked past two smokers outside a motorway services, grabbing a quick fag in the car park. Did I envy them or want a cigarette? No - I just ran past super quickly because it stank! All I could think was 'addicts - slaves to nicotine'. It's a shame because they were both really good looking and (not that I'm on the look out - I'm very happily attached!) my immediate thought was 'yuk, who would want to date someone who smelt like that?'. Of course that was me eight months ago...
Sometimes when i'm driving along quite fast and I see a smoker I shout 'loser' out of the window in a most childish fashion and it makes me feel smug and glad i'm not in that prison anymore.
LOL at that Fiona, when I'm driving along, usually with my 16 yr old son in the car (I know I know, I don't look old enough to have a son that age) and see someone smoking I shout, "those fags are gonna f**kin kill you, mate" in a shocked and horrified voice. Wee lad seems yo find it ironically amusing???
Yes, my ten and 7 and three year old join in most enthusiastically if they are in the car. Mind you, the 7 year old step daughter went home the other week and told her mum she was a loser for smoking. Andy got very berated by her mum for putting such thoughts in her mind!
I often wonder this now that i've quit..
I've noticed a few things certainly since quitting though, the folk i used to always talk to when i did smoke, seem to not even seek me out any more, its like i'm no longer part of their club, i seem to speak a language of which they do not wish to hear, i wonder if they envy, i wonder if they curse me for breaking free of the chains which bound me to their secret clan.
They do still nod as they walk past, but its like they dare not ask if i'm still quit, and yet as i pass them, I suddenly find myself cutting through a slipstream of spent smoke which they've just exhaled as they've walked along.. they cannot smell it, they are completely unaware they have created that wake behind them wherever they walk.. I don't know exactly when i started to notice this horrible smell, all I know is, i must have made a similar invisible vapour trail whereever i walked and how noticeable it must have been to non-smokers.
I now just as you do see folk smoking in cars, stuck in traffic jams.. bored out their minds waiting for the car in front to go forward half a cars length before they push forward a bit... smoke in hand.. ash out of their window. I now look at them as though they just haven't found their way yet.. a bit like lost sheep on the hillside. One day they may too find their way.. but for today, they are caught in the trap i once was, and for that i do feel pity. Its a costly trap in many ways.
Has anyone noticed how smokers sometimes will do anything to try to tempt you back to their fold too? I've had some chaps even literally wave them right under my nose... who's gonna know? Who indeed? Well me of course.. and they seem truly upset if i tell them squarely.. no thanks, i don't smoke. They are worried almost, and it seems to cut more if i say 'I don't need them thanks'.
Addiction is a strange thing, i'm just thankful that every day i can get by without resorting to my old, old ways.
I always knew I was a loser for smoking, I thought every smoker knew that:rolleyes:
