Confession: I stayed with a doctor I wasn't happy with for a multitude of reasons (like having me on tripple the legal dose of a medication) because he was counselling me to not quit.
If it helps at all I had been suffering with anxiety (some days so bad I couldn't leave the house and had a rather impressive crying jag at the supermarket when I couldn't find the brand of sauce (ketchup) I was looking for) as a result of trying to ween off a medication I have been taking for a few years. I also have some severe anxiety attached to quitting as a result of a previous failed quit. When I began this quit I was at a stage in my life where I did grocery shopping in the middle of the night to avoid people, I went to work, and I would show up to softball right before the game started, not sit in the dugout and leave as soon as it finished without shaking hands. I wouldn't answer my phone and I was barely functioning. In the middle of that, in the middle of the night I decided to quit. Since my quit date I have had to sudden and horrific deaths to contend with and but emotionally and anxiety wise i am in a much better place than i was when i was still smoking. I'm not going to blow smoke up your ar5e mate, it was hard, that first week I barely functioned, week 3 was insane but I can honestly tell you I am in such a better place now with my anxiety than I was as a smoker. A lot of people here say they are free, meaning they are free of the addiction of nicotine and its controlling hold over us but i have been doubly blessed because I feel that the grip my anxiety has on me is lessening more and more each day and they only thing different is the smokes. I have even gone back to working the bar at softball. Quitting is hard at anytime but quitting with anxiety is actually a balm once your past those first few hurdles.
