@#$% This for a Joke!

[nsd_user663_61866]

I have spent the WHOLE morning thinking about smoking!

Every time the OH lights up , I think to myself "Yea time for a smoke" and then I remember i don't smoke!

I thought this anxious feeling in my tummy , and the irritability had been left behind in the Week 1 room!

This had definitely been the worst weekend of the entire quitting process , I have been sooooo tempted to reach across the table , and take a smoke.

You have no idea how many times I have said to myself , just one smoke and you can carry on with the quit tomorrow, or Just a puff to see what it will taste like, It is like a WAR ZONE in my head with all the voices debating smoke or not to smoke, quit or not to quit!!

I need a holiday from this quitting malarkey !!!

GOD I pray weekends get easier!!!

[nsd_user663_42220]

You need to think about how you view giving up.

From everything you have written, you still see quitting as giving something up. You still see it as depriving yourself of something you love. Whilst you continue to think like that you will make it hard for yourself as nobody likes giving things up they love.

You need to see quitting as a positive process. Instead of giving something up and leaving it behind, look at what you are gaining instead.

Less money being burned, your health beginning to recover, you don't smell as bad, your life expectancy is likely to increase etc.

As for you wondering why you are still finding it hard, what do you expect? You smoked for 26 years, why do you think you can get over a 26 year habit in 2 weeks? You have to give it time as, like many things, time heals. You will start to feel better, but reversing a 26 year habit in 2 weeks? Unrealistic and unlikely.

I love the way you are bartering with yourself to make it seem ok to have a smoke. That is real junkie thinking and something many people have done. Unfortunately, most of them have ended up having one, then two, then a pack and back to full time smoking.

You are currently doing the hard yards, do you really want to go back and have to do them all over again? You were in the military, win each little battle and eventually you will win the whole war.

Laugh at yourself and the bartering. Here's a sketch from a great comedian, who is sadly no longer with us, about giving up smoking and that very subject.

youtube.com/watch?v=7FweG22...(Not working as expected?)

You can do this, many people have, but you need to change your outlook on giving up and stop expecting to turn around a 26 year habit in 2 weeks.

Good luck

[nsd_user663_60964]

Dude, I really feel for you. Days like the one you are having today are pants :mad:.

It has often been said that one you hit week three the initial excitement of quitting has worn off and it's all too true I am afraid. That's the point where you really do have to get your head down and ride out the bad days. You may feel it will never be any better but it will and much sooner than you think (you'll probably wake up tomorrow feeling fine, optimistic and crave-free and as time passes those days start to outweigh the days when you're climbing the walls, want to kill everyone and feel like you're having the worst anxiety attack ever).

It's a cliche but Rome wasn't built in a day and the only way of making it work in the long term is to accept you're in it for the duration and keep plodding on. I know you can do it, Dude- we're all here and we all know what it's like. Just stay with it and you'll be out the other side before you know it.

[nsd_user663_61085]

Mate, sooner or later in your life you're going to quit, or you're going to wish you'd quit.

Once you see it like that, it might as well be now not later.

That way you never have to face the consequences of wishing you did something that is completely achievable, cus it's already done and dusted.

Make this your time,

Best of luck

M

[nsd_user663_61866]

Thanks everyone, it's off to week three , and feeling a little better