What a roller coaster ride this is turning out to be! Oddly enough, I 'knew' before I started this attempt that this time - it would work. I don't know why & I've stopped asking - it just supports what I've heard from a great many people: "You're ready when you're ready & not a minute before."
I'd never gone 24 hours without a cigarette & that was the key for me. Once I passed that milestone, I knew I was going to do it. Don't get me wrong - this is far from easy; I can't believe the nasty places my mind wants to take me. It's exhausting & exhilarating, a source of pride AND humility both.
It's terrifying to realize how much I have to 'relearn' about myself & life. I've never NOT smoked & now that the 'honeymoon' phase is passing, the hard mental graft starts - finding new ways to cope with just about anything without lighting up.
I'm learning a great deal by reading posts here since I found this site this afternoon. I expect you all have a great deal more to teach me.
Very quick background - I'm female & 51. I've smoked almost 38 years. I've quit many times, sometimes holding out for hours & hours...LOL. I'm using Champix this time & while the side effects are annoying, to say the least; I'm coping & most important of all... I'm NOT smoking. I've always been a walker & earlier this week, I added some very gentle jogging. Might as well take advantage of the positive changes even if I can't feel too many of them yet.
Hope everyone is staying smoke free this evening.
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I am on day 45 today with the help of patches and lozenges but have had a tough couple of weeks. Each day I go to bed without a ciggie is another day achieved lol. Down to mid strength patches today so expect to feel a little out of sorts but have woken with a humdinger of a cold so maybe that will help mask it
The mind games are always the hardest but after 38 years of smoking you nedd some retraining lol. I am the same age and smoked for probably the same length of time. It is doable and the support you will find on here is second to none.
One of the very long term quitters who occasionally posts on here defines the process of a successful quit as 'ongoing mental realignment'. I think that really sums it up.
So many of us trip up because we labour under the misapprehension that once the nicotene is gone the war is won - whereas it's really the first battle. We have to retrain ourselves over time to cope without lighting up under all sorts of circumstances. Sometimes that just means a fleeting thought of a cigarette, sometimes it means a day of grinding teeth and hitting things and swearing a lot. But as time goes by it genuinely does get easier and easier and there's so much to be gained from it. So keep fighting.
First few days were relatively dreadful & then I felt like I was riding an emotional high. Might that have been some sort of honeymoon phase?
Funny - I'm not getting cravings today but life seems awfully flat & dull. My brain knows cigarettes won't help that but it keeps trying to lie to me. I made the mistake of 'looking ahead' at January, February... ugh!
I suppose bad or good, it's best simply dealt with one day at a time?
Sometimes it's hour by hour......but it does get better.....and you're feeling flat because you are grieving a 'cigarette friend' good bad or indifferent we reached for a fag....it takes time to undo all that :eek:
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Hello, newbie here.
Hello, Newbie here!
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