You've made it through the toughest week of your quit - Congratulations! Please review the program and the tools available to you..........it is important to lay down strategies on how to deal with the triggers. Prepare also for unexpected stresses...........as you said "smoking 2 packs a day is only one puff away."
Good to have you back, BGH. You know how the programme works and you know how important the preparation is. make sure you are ready for all those cravings and always stick close to the site for Help! whenever you find yourself sailing too close to the wind.
Patrick
My Milage:
My Quit Date: 1/18/2008 Smoke-Free Days: 235 Cigarettes Not Smoked: 5,875 Amount Saved: $2,643.75 Life Gained: Days: 43 Hrs: 16 Mins: 7 Seconds: 8
First let me give you a big CONGRATULATIONS FOR MAKING IT THROUGH HELL WEEK. That is something we celebrate around here since it is the hardest to get through. Next week should be a little easier, and then the week after that... I am so sorry you had a rough patch today. It was the n.d. (nico daemon) last big try to bring you back to smoking. By now all the nic should be out of your body and the thing you are fighting now is the mental addiction. Think about it, every time you lit up a cig, you got what you thought was relief from nerves, anxiety, relaxation, etc... But all you were really doing was calming down the addiction and bringing yourself back to a normal feeling. It was the addiction to the nic that cued your brain, "it is time to feed the monster NOW" and so you obeyed. every time you lit up you reinforced it in your brain that ooh this feels good, I like it a lot. Well yeah you did, you fed the addiction and brought everything to a more normal way of being. So you did that 35 to 40 times a day for how many years. That is a lot of powerful reinforcement.
You really are doing great! I am sorry I really could not be of much help. I am using NRT patch. I started on the 21 mg. and am already down to 7 mg. Just that it really does get easier. Good Luck on your journey, it is quite an awesome experience.
Always,
Pupikat
My Milage:
My Quit Date: 7/30/2008 Smoke-Free Days: 41 Cigarettes Not Smoked: 1,148 Amount Saved: $301.35 Life Gained: Days: 4 Hrs: 20 Mins: 8 Seconds: 42
I quit smoking cold turkey a week ago. I used to smoke 35-40 cigarettes a day. So as you've probably figured out, I was a chain smoker. I really want this quit really badly. I've been struggling to quit since the beginning of summer. I struggled with the choice to use NRT or go cold turkey. I found that NRT doesn't work for me, because I still crave nicotine and NRT, especially the patches were not giving me enough nicotine to keep from having bad physical cravings. After starting and stopping a few times, I decided that the easiest thing for me to do would be to go cold turkey. I figured at some point I'd have to give up the NRT anyway. When going cold turkey, just remember to breathe through the cravings and exercise.
Triggers! Well, one of the problems with being a heavy smoker is that every situation presents a trigger. Waking up is a problem, relaxing is one, so are anger, celebrations, boredom, parties... Hunger can bring on one also.
What I need to learn to do is not get into a conversation with Nicodemon. What Nicodemon says is usually senseless, and I've decided that Nicodemon and I have grown apart and that Nicodemon is cruel. I no longer want to be friends. And I know, even through the cravings, that I no longer want to smoke, because there is no safe way for me to do so, and because I can't manage it: smoking two packs a day is only one puff away.
My Milage:
My Quit Date: 9/2/2008 Smoke-Free Days: 7 Cigarettes Not Smoked: 245 Amount Saved: $89.43 Life Gained: Days: 0 Hrs: 17 Mins: 55 Seconds: 59
