So week 2 has started and I'm both confident and nervous in turns.
Confident because cravings and feeling dodgy seams to have gone already. I know that I'm lucky in this respect and probably I'm benefiting from only have three years smoking memory right now after 10 years freedom before that.
Nervous because while I know that constant craving for a cig is not my main worry right now, I am still in danger from the sneaky, lightning crave attack that comes out of nowhere, in fact that is now my main enemy.
You know the type of crave, your feeling complacent and in control, you have a few beers or a nice meal out and someone offers you a smoke and bamm! without even really considering it the crave hits and it's easy to lose it without due consideration because of the situation.
So now I'm looking for strategy to fend off that kind of bad moment and thinking that being more aware that it could happen gives me an advantage when it does.
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I'm interested to see replies to this as a lot of my friends are still smokers. Very glad to hear you're only getting the odd crave - gives me some light at the end of the tunnel.
I've had an awful afternoon - had the stong urge to scream in the face of a small child who was wailing for a good 5 mins in the shop while at the same time listening to the cashier moaning that she hadn't had her fag break yet!! ARRRGHHH!! :rolleyes:
Good idea to keep vigilant Rubicon. I'm feeling strong one day then cravefull the next! It's good to be in week two though and have a head start for No Smoking Day tomorrow?
Vesper, I've felt a few screams coming on and would dread to go through with it, I'm doing a lot of deep breathing!
I'm having the worst day today since quitting - I thought it was all going a bit smooth. Today I don't know whether I'm about to throw things or cry and I keep thinking about how I'd feel better if I could just HAVE A FAG....JUST ONE!
The only thing that's keeping me from the shop over the street is an entry I read on whyquit - about fixating. Check it out. Might help you as a strategy for your sneak cravings if you get them..
Drinking and not smoking was one of my biggest hurdles. Again, you have to do it until you are used to drinking without smoking! Don't drink too much to start with or just have drink at home. I am very pleased to have mastered the art of drinking without smoking! At one point i thought i would have to give up drinking too, and that woulda been pants!
It has been 1 week, 3 days, 9hours, 37 Min's and 8,9,10 seconds since I quit.
I have saved £93.61 by choosing not to smoke 312 cigarettes!
As nice as the money is, it is nothing to the benefits you feel from staying off the weed even after such a short time. I feel like a changed person on so many levels, it's really very good, worth all the suffering without a doubt.
I was reflecting this morning on how we slip up (I have been there before so I know how it goes) and how silly it is that we choose to forget how great we feel from stopping, we forget how crap we felt when we did smoke, we forget how awful 99% of the cig's actually were and we only remember some unreal nirvana of smoking that one great cigarette. We forget reality and lust after some fantasy of smoking that is never real and only leads us back into the addiction trap.
I just need some way to bottle the above thought, to bring it out when ever I get one of those un-real Nicodemon attacks and stupidly think that just one cig would be really nice and can't hurt me!
Hi. I employed the policy of embracing the crave. When they hit I would post on here but with the knowledge that each time I won regarding that particular trigger, the next crave would be less. It seems to have worked for me. Holidays, deaths, wii games (trying to kill the bear on tomb raider was a dreadful smoking trigger for me!), marriages, stress, early mornings, children, mardy friends...... All been faced and triggers beaten... Well done on your terrific quit!!
Hey fiona thank you for that post it's really helped me this morning- I have been gritting my teeth through the craves and hadn't thought about it as a positive thing. I'm going to try embracing them today!
Anytime! I know I harp on about this one too, but employing the HALT thought helps too. Sometimes a crave can mimic something else. So you're not really craving. To be able to employ a logic to that wriggly worm crawling feeling you get in your belly and act on it can help avoid horrible panics. So: Hungry (eat chocolate!) Angry (kick a door) Lonely (log on here) Tired (have a sneaky snooze). Then embrace the crave if thats what it is! Good luck!
Fiona that's a really good strategy. When I first quit I used Gillian Riley's book as my method (including lugging around an open 10 pack of cigs for 6 months without ever smoking one of them :eek: ), Her method really stresses the importance of embracing the crave and accepting it willingly, in fact you activly seek the craves out! It's powerful stuff and worked a treat on me for a long time, I was off the smokes for ten years using her method before being stupid again through sheer complacency.
This time I still retain a lot of that method, I certainly see craves as a good thing, I for sure do not fight myself by saying I have no choice. I realize that it's is my choice whatever I do, it's my free will and I can chose not to smoke.
But then I have also failed before using this same method. All hangs on your mental solidness and support.
I guess the difference in this quit is this forum, it helps me get stuff down in black and white and that seams to make it stick for me better than just thinking it. Also trying to encourage others helps to keep me focused on my reasons too.
My epiphany came when a poster called reddlyon said to me early on, that the key to staying quit was posting support to others on this forum. That continually reinforces your quit, why you quit and the reasons and how to deal with the quit. Supporting others keeps you mentally in the zone. Its all very well quitting. Its learning how to stay quit too.
I sort of liken it in my head to being an alcholic who goes to the AA. Thats all about mutual and ongoing support. Or in my head it is anyway!!
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Day five will be make or break...
