Help 4 months done & feeling very low again...whats happening?

[nsd_user663_6991]

I'm just over 4 months now and I am starting to feel pretty low again (feel like crying, stressed, restless) this last week. I had it (depression) at the beginning and wasn't surprised then but it's back and I feel really sad. I have been taking St Johns Wort 425mg and I exercise and I only drink decaff tea/coffee and have a fairly healthy diet. I don't want to go down the medicines route as I tried it at about 5 weeks quit and it really scared me so I got off it pretty quickly. Has anyone got any other ideas? Did this happen to anyone else and did it go away again? I had been feeling fine and was just starting to feel quite good about all this major life change and desparately looking forward to feeling better still, given some of the 5 and 6 month postings. I'm not contemplating smoking again, I just want to feel happy again so any advice gratefully received particularly from women who've quit CT.

Amanda

[nsd_user663_4786]

I am your girl, I quit CT and I am a woman! I have had some real ups and downs with this quit thing, I think I posted at a few weeks in that I had it sorted and then a few weeks later that I was at the end of my tether. I don't know whether I am just imagining it, but at that time of the month I do seem to be even more touchy than I was before.

I do feel that I am on a rollercoaster, there are some wonderful highs, and so fairly bad lows.

All I can say for sure is that each low has passed, and that I have just moved to the six month room and I am feeling really good.

Whatever you are going through you know that a fag will not help, so please stay with the quit, you know it is worth it, and feel free to PM me if I can be of any further help.

Sending you a huge hug, and my best wishes.

[nsd_user663_6991]

Thanks Bev & Chrissie for your support. And Bev congrats on your 5 months! I am taking a cocktail of pills to see me through at the moment, B Complex, Kalms, Acai Berry and St Johns Wort. All was fine until the beginning of the week. Its not hormone issues as Ive been through that this month (never good on the mood front) this seems to be different. It must just be all the unresolved problems in my life. Historically nicotine helped me put up with things that I knew I wasnt happy about but was unable to resolve. All of this is pretty mad considering I am/was a very confident driven happy person. Hopefully I'll be back on fighting after good nights sleep.

[nsd_user663_5598]

I'v been saying there's been 2 things I've lost alongside my quit. The first one was my starting block....where I had a ciggie before I started doing anything. The second one was my buffer....when something was really annoying me, I would go outside for a ciggie to calm down. Now it takes me ages to start doing anything and hubby is now my buffer, I just take it out on him.

I'll give all these mood swings 12 months to pack up and go. Everyone who I have spoken to who have quit have all said they didn't feel right for about a year.

The trouble is, I have had nicotine in my system since I was 15, over 40 years, so I don't really know how I should be feeling without it :confused:

[nsd_user663_6673]

you certainly are not alone with this.

i was shocked how my quit got worse as the months passed,2-4 being the worst.

i had awful awful mood swings,tears,depression,truelly scary and overwhelming but im glad to say the last 2 weeks i feel much better.

i wish i could give you a date when you will feel better again,im at 5 months and 1 week and im still not right,i am getting there definately though so in my experience (thats the only one i can give you) there is light at the end of the tunnel.

the best advice i can give you is be patient and realise that this feeling is not permanent,even though it feels that way.

[nsd_user663_4016]

Amanda, I quit CT and I am a woman. I had the same thing at the beginning of the 4th month. I was an emotional wreck. Totally unlike me, I'm usually very calm and lay back. Lasted about 2 weeks. It is scary! It will get better. Just hang in there! Jody

[nsd_user663_6991]

Thanks you so much for all your support. Isn't it mad how people caring about you can make you cry. I will as I have up until now, keep pushing through the bad days in search of those elusive good ones. Hugs to everyone else having a tough time right now, and trust in the wonderful people who have been there before us.

[nsd_user663_7469]

Wow this has just blown me away as 6 weeks down the line and I thought weeks 3 and 4 were as bad as it gets with feeling down angry anxious

etc etc etc etc etc too numerous to mention, and then started to pull round and was feeling sooo much better and now I think if I have to feel like that again I will smoke eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee LOL

I can honestly say though that befor I quit I still had bad days and days were nothing seemed right and I would light a cig and all the worries and woes would go away Yea if you believe that you will believe that the streets of london are paved with gold and that you have all six lottery numbers for tonight.

So I realy hope you start to feel better again but its a miserable dark month and if the sun was shinning ( no cause if the sun was shinning right now at quarter past six I would deffinatly be smoking cause I would think the end was nigh LOL ) you would feel better hang on in there and let me know how much better you feel for chatting xx

[nsd_user663_4026]

Hi. I got diagnosed with severe depression at about 4 months. I had counselling. I learnt i'd lost my buffer. The thing I did to walk away from any situation. Also i'd been using the smokes as my time out from my children! And I started smoking at 14. At 41 I didn't have a clue who I was without a fag in my hand. I learnt to do one nice thing a day just for me. It was a good lesson. I got through it quite easily. Good luck! X

[nsd_user663_3755]

Hi. I got diagnosed with severe depression at about 4 months. I had counselling. I learnt i'd lost my buffer. The thing I did to walk away from any situation. Also i'd been using the smokes as my time out from my children! And I started smoking at 14. At 41 I didn't have a clue who I was without a fag in my hand. I learnt to do one nice thing a day just for me. It was a good lesson. I got through it quite easily. Good luck! X

Wow! I have been suffering with really bad depression for a few weeks now, and never associated it with smoking! But what you said about the 'buffer' thing may be something to think about. Wierd.

Amanda, I started on St John's Wort about 4 weeks ago, and it is really just starting to kick in now. I have had anti-d's before but do not like them (makde me feel very 'separate' from other people, like I was in a bubble), so did not want to go down that route. I do think the SJW is helping, I do not feel anywhere near as 'black' as I did and am able to see life a bit less grimly. But, it is slow going and is still a major struggle. Best of luck to you