Thought about smoking today........

[nsd_user663_5031]

For the first time in weeks, i've really fancied a smoke! Don't know why, not craving it, but just fancied one like I fancy a big mac every now and again. I felt myself imagining the smoke running down my chest into my lungs, taste in my mouth, etc etc, remembering it all with fondness.

I have no idea where the thought come from, just let the thought pass me by, but it came several times, even now actually as im typing!

It just proves after all the PMA stuff i've been posting recently that our mind can still play tricks on us, and we have to be vigilant even into 1 month, 2 months etc.

Rest assured, im really not about to drive to the garage at midnight and buy fags (what crazy person would drive to a 24 hour garage at nearly midnight anyway and buy fags? oh, we all used to do it!) but im a bit supprised to be getting this feeling.

I havent been around any smokers when this feeling came, but if I really think about it, it was when I was having a cup of tea this afternoon doing some paperwork in my log cabin which I used to always smoke in when doing paperwork (it was the last place we allowed ourselves to smoke indoors) and I havent done any paperwork with a cup of tea for ages out there.

So im guessing there is still that brain association there with the cup of tea/log cabin/paperwork/smoke?

Really strange, doe's anyone else get this after 2 months?

Paul

p.s. Let me make absolutely clear im in no danger of smoking!

[nsd_user663_4786]

sorry i just missed you:mad:

i am 33 days today, and posted earlier bout wanting to smoke and i think you are right it is the monster, still there, just over my shoulder, i will not let him/her win is the only answer, my goodness it can be so hard, and sometimes i think what the hell i will can't be bothered any more, but you know what, you and i both know that smoking a cig will not make us feel any better, will not give us what we crave, will not help us in any way, will just make us feel like crap, so today, like yesterday and the day before i choose not to smoke.

with the help, of people like you and me and everybody else around here, hopefully we can get lots of people to make the right choice everyday.

well done you, and yes sometimes its hard even after 2 months.

[nsd_user663_3282]

p.s. Let me make absolutely clear im in no danger of smoking!

Well that's excellent.

Seems there's been a spate of folk going through a certain yearning. Not me...no siree...I'm well and truly done with such foolishness....afterall, 21 months in a few days. Not trying to be smug but showing you that if you persevere it will be you too.

It does get better...it only needs for you to take a few more steps and even though in the moment you think shit its easier to reach for a pack, or how shit life is without cigs. That's all bull manure...tbh it's junkie thinking.

This, in case you haven't seen it earlier, could help:

Before you fall off the wagon and nip off to buy the fags you have convinced yourself you NEED ... please read the following first, hopefully it will change your mind, such a shame to lose a quit just because your mind is in the wrong place at the moment.

JUNKIE THINKING: “One puff won’t hurt.”

RESPONSE: “One puff will always hurt me, and it always will because I’m not a social smoker. One puff and I’ll be smoking compulsively again.”

JUNKIE THINKING: “I only want one.”

RESPONSE: “I have never only wanted one. In fact, I want 20-30 a day, every day. I want them all.”

JUNKIE THINKING: “I’ll just be a social smoker.”

RESPONSE: “I’m a chronic, compulsive smoker, and once I smoke one I’ll quickly be thinking about the next one.”

JUNKIE THINKING: “I’m doing so well, one won’t hurt me now.”

RESPONSE: “The only reason I’m doing so well is because I haven’t taken the first one. Yet once I do, I won’t be doing well anymore. I’ll be smoking again.”

JUNKIE THINKING: “I’ll just stop again.”

RESPONSE: “Sounds easy, but who am I trying to kid? Look how long it took me to stop this time. And once I start, how long will it take before I get sick enough to face withdrawal again? In fact, when I’m back in the grip of compulsion, what guarantee do I have that I’ll ever be able to stop again?”

JUNKIE THINKING: “If I slip, I’ll keep trying.”

RESPONSE: “If I think I can get away with one little ‘slip’ now I’ll think I can get away with another little ‘slip’ later on.”

JUNKIE THINKING: “I need one to get me through this withdrawal.”

RESPONSE: “Smoking will not get me through the discomfort of not smoking. It will only get me back to smoking. One puff stops the process of withdrawal and I’ll have to go through it all over again.”

JUNKIE THINKING: “I miss smoking right now.”

RESPONSE: “Of course I miss something I’ve been doing every day for most of my life. But do I miss the chest pain right now? Do I miss the worry, the embarrassment? I’d rather be an ex-smoker with an occasional desire to smoke, than a smoker with a constant desire to stop doing it.”

JUNKIE THINKING: “I really need to smoke now, I’m so upset.”

RESPONSE: “Smoking is not going to fix anything. I’ll still be upset, I’ll just be an upset smoker. I never have to have a cigarette. Smoking is not a need; it’s a want. Once the crisis is over, I’ll be relieved and grateful I’m still not smoking.”

JUNKIE THINKING: “I don’t care.”

RESPONSE: “What is it exactly that I think that I don’t care about? Can I truthfully say I don’t care about chest pain? I don’t care about gagging in the morning? I don’t care about lung cancer? No, I care about these things very much. That’s why I stopped smoking in the first place.

JUNKIE THINKING: “What difference does it make, anyway?”

RESPONSE: “It makes a difference in the way I breathe, the way my heart beats, the way I feel about myself. It makes a tremendous difference in every aspect of my physical and emotional health.”

JUNKIE THINKING: "I'm bored"

RESPONSE: Smoking is an "activity" or "something to do" only for smokers. I'm really not "doing" anything when I smoke except still sitting/standing there. The rest of the world survives occasional boredom quite well without inhaling life-challenging chemicals.

JUNKIE THINKING: "But they've been smoking on TV and in the movies for years! There are even magazines devoted to tobacco products!”

RESPONSE: That's right. They were on TV for years, I wasn't. I'm still alive; many of them aren't and they departed this vale of tears in prolonged and painful ways. And the smiling faces in the magazines now are risking painful and disfiguring surgery later, at which point they won't be smiling at all.

JUNKIE THINKING: "Its so nice to go out for a 'breath of fresh air' and a cigarette."

RESPONSE: Fresh air? I've got to be kidding. And face it, sunny days are one thing, but how many days do I huddle out in the rain with the rain hitting the cigarette and turning the cigarette paper that disgusting yellow color? How many times is it windy and it takes forever to keep a match or lighter lit long enough to light the cigarette, and then how often does a gust of wind come up and blow the ashes into my eyes?

[nsd_user663_4121]

So im guessing there is still that brain association there with the cup of tea/log cabin/paperwork/smoke?

Really strange, doe's anyone else get this after 2 months?

For sure this was a crave trigger for you, Paul. Happens to most of us...... that's why people celebrate one year with great victory.... we've come full circle and experienced all the special occasions and events we would have normally smoked in. The craves eventually turn into thoughts of smoking, and with time those thoughts come and go so quickly it's not even a big deal.

We smoked for years and years and it does take some time for the brain to reprogram itself (even after a month or two or even more)

So next time this feeling over-comes you, don't worry..... just stick with your game plan You sound like you have a good and strong quit going on!

[nsd_user663_4990]

... but you are also in month 3..

the 3's.. day 3, week 3.. month 3....

Well, it might be that, the 3's might just be twoddle for all we know, but for many it rings true.

It wouldn't be an addiction you were fighting at all if it didn't make you at least think about the thing your' giving up here.

Where one person may not think about smoking, another will, and at different times too, just a matter of being ready for it when it happens to you.

I know you won't smoke, but at least these thoughts made you realise you are still in the quitting process eh!

j

[nsd_user663_4964]

I think we will maybe always sometimes have those thoughts, (but they are just thoughts)after having done it for so long. The body remembers and tries to make us think it would be really fun:rolleyes:

If you have one though, it never, ever is as good as you think it is gonna be (trust me here, if you had one you probably wouldn't even enjoy it- and then you have bought a packet and are smoking again, and it is really NOT GOOD AT ALL, and not even nice.)

[nsd_user663_5031]

Thanks all for the positive comments and advice.

I think it probably was a bit of a trigger, that and a few other things going on in my life right now, like unemployed for 3 months now since my business collapsed (first time ever in my life I might add!), load of crappy jobs out there, change of weather from pleasant to grim, etc.

I know that smoking won't solve those problems though, lol, and I know that im better prepared to deal with them as a non-smoker.

Its worth adding that since quitting smoking, I don't get hardly any downers as I used to get as a smoker, and im more positive a person as a non-smoker.

Over it now though thanks, but yea, its amazing that after the past 4 weeks of not even thinking about them they can just pop into your head like that!

Paul