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Hello, I am on 1st day without cigs. Cold turkey. No patches or whatever else. What i wanted to share, a thought, here it goes, friends: Its going to be very inquisitive, get ready and dont take it wrongly. *** Here it goes: Isn't it a contradiction that smokers that want to stop smoking think "i cant do it" and yet they still insist on quiting? like me, I think "I cant do it". Ok. Nevertheless I am " doing it" (quiting). if a person thinks they cant do something, why do they try doing it? Maybe its a contradiction
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Hi Everyone, I'm new to the site, but not new to quitting! My quit date was 25/11/18 so my last fag was Sunday, well until 30 minutes ago. I have attempted to quit so many times before I have actually lost count. Each of my quits vary from 1 week to 12 months. Each break in quitting always comes back to handling stress or anxiety. This quit is based on the east way and Jason Vales app. I have found this week really quite easy, one of the easiest yet. But today I have been faced with a stressful task a t work where I can't see a solution to a problem, so I have really craved. I used the SOS videos, went for a walk, did some deep breathing had something to eat and drink but still gave up and went to the shop. Now I have 20 fags (well 19 now) which I don't want but I know I will end up smoking! I keep coming back to both of the above methods and their comments that we don't start smoking because we think it will help us with stress...BUT I did. When I was 12 years old (now 26), both my parents were very heavy smokers when I was growing up (one still is) and they always use to say 'I'm stressed I need a fag' so when I was 12 and in a state (of what I thought then to be) of stress I thought that the only was that I could get through it was to smoke and I genuinely thought (and still do, to some degree) that it stopped my stress. So now each time I am in a stressful situation I just don't seem to be able to get a handle on my emotions and smoke! Does anyone have any advice, please!? Thank you and sorry for the long post!
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Longtime lurker, first time poster. :P I've been smoke-free and nicotine-free for 18 days. I've been on the fence about joining the forum and posting, but I've found all of your posts really helpful over the last few weeks, and I'm so grateful for that, so I figured it was time to jump in and participate. I'm looking forward to getting to know you better and learning my way around this forum! I started smoking in my early 20's and have been smoking for approximately 20 years, on average 20 a day. For the last 5 or so, I really, really hated that I smoked. But I kept smoking. A couple of years ago, I read Allen Carr's book - three times. But I kept smoking. Despite that, the book was the first time I framed smoking in terms of the nicotine addiction. For some reason, I never really thought of it like that. That led me to more research. And I found Joel's site, and video library. And I found these boards and forums. And I read. And I learned. And I smoked. And I hated myself for it. But I kept smoking. I was scared of quitting. I was scared of never smoking again, as silly as that may sound. I wasn't sure how to live my life without a smoke in my hand. At the same time, I was tired of beating myself up over smoking day after day after day. I was tired of treating myself so badly. That kind of negative talk really puts a dent in your self esteem. Enough. So, I picked a quit date out of a hat. March 19th. I wrote it on the blackboard in the kitchen. It was about a month into the future at that point. I kept smoking right up until end of day March 18th. But, every day, several times a day, I would see that big date looming. And a funny thing started to happen. The closer it got to March 19th, the less I smoked. Day by day, it felt, mentally, like cigarettes had a weaker hold on my brain. By the time March 19th came, I was ready to go cold turkey. I wiped the board clean, and wrote "Smoke-free days" on it instead. At the end of each day, I make a little mark on that board. And they're adding up. Each day is a victory and a greater freedom. Each struggle is a reminder to keep pushing forward. The nicotine is long gone - now I'm retraining my brain. But I am a nicotine addict. And I always will be. So each day is another pledge to NOPE and a big YES to life. And reading your posts these last few weeks has shown me that it's possible and it's worth it.
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I was scared of Hell Week. I prepared myself as best I could. I took the week off. I stocked up on junk food, thinking I'd probably just eat my way through my first week. I expected to be gorging on cookies, chips, chocolate - anything and everything that was probably not great for me in abnormally large doses. As long as it kept me from smoking, I was ok with it, figuring I could always ramp up my workouts when I was ready. I was right about one thing. I ate. Though eating is probably a gross understatement of what I did. :lol: I ate constantly. But, what really took me by surprise was, I didn't eat cookies, or chips or chocolate. I had absolutely no desire to touch any of it. I wanted tangerines. And snow peas. And sugar snap peas. And tuna. And chicken soup. Not one or two here or there either. Oh no! I ate three bags of tangerines that week. Three! Two bags of snow peas, three of sugar snap peas, SIX CANS OF TUNA! And bowl after bowl of chicken soup. I thought I would explode. :wacko: But I couldn't stop!! I generally eat a pretty healthy diet, but it's a far more balanced and moderate approach. This was so weird. But I figured my body must have some kind of a need for this stuff, so I went with it. Much of what I ate had a high Vitamin C content or other antioxidants. I also take a cranberry supplement with vitamins c and e, and I kept up with that. At least I wasn't smoking, right? I developed an aversion to my beloved coffee and drank cup after cup of green tea. I drank so much water, I was sure I'd drown. Every time I had a craving, I would grab another handful of sugar snap peas. The crunch of these was somehow super satisfying. I watched a lot of Netflix. I read these forums and I ate. My strongest cravings were near the end of Day 2. I came so close to going to the store to buy a pack. But, honestly, I was feeling way too full and, as a result, lazy, to bother going! I held on and I ate. I figured if I could just make it though three days. Just three. If I couldn't manage past that, I would get a pack. On Day 4, I woke up and I didn't really want a smoke upon waking. Which was so strange to me. I think that was the moment that I really committed to my quit and realized that there could be life after smoking. Also, I really didn't want to go through the first three days again. I wanted to see what came next. From that point on, there were some strong cravings for a cigarette. But none as strong as in the first three days. And they weren't constant. They felt more like "I could really go for some cake" type of thoughts. And, as long as I kept myself distracted, they went away. By day 10, my food cravings went back to normal. I'm back to liking coffee, but I'm down to only one cup a day. Not my usual 5 or 6! I still drink green tea and a variety of different herbal teas, as well as a lot of water. I'm back to eating a normal, for me, diet that includes a wide variety of vegetables, lean meats, and whole grains. Also, chocolate. And cookies. And, while I still love tangerines and peas, I no longer eat double my body weight in them daily. :D Progress.
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Sadly, that's not a euphemism for anything fun. -_- At the end of Day 3, and leading up into Day 6, I was itchy. Actually, literally, physically...itchy. It actually makes me itchy now, just thinking about it. :o My upper chest, neck, face, especially around the jaw, and head came down with a serious case of THE ITCHES. It came out of the blue, it was sudden, and it was really annoying. Like dealing with multiple mosquito bites. There were no bites, no bumps and not even a hint of a rash. The skin, unbroken, looked normal. I went through a mental checklist. Did I change my shampoo, soap, laundry detergent, lotion, anything? No. Did I eat a food I've never eaten before? No. It wasn't cat allergies - those make my eyes red and itchy and they make me sneeze, but they also make me really red and blotchy. And that wasn't happening. Also, my cat allergies only get that bad when I groom the little buggers. So it wasn't that. I do shower regularly. LOL So...what changed? The only thing that was different was that I quit smoking. And when the itching started, the nicotine was almost out of my system. Maybe my body was trying to expel some chemicals? I don't know. All I know is, I spent several days scratching. Ugh. Nothing helped. Not lotion, not Benadryl, not anything. But I got through it. And by the middle of Day 6, it stopped, just as suddenly as it had started. Haven't had an issue since. But now that experience serves as another great reason to NOPE. If I do, I will be right back to Hell Week, and THE ITCHES. No thanks. NOPE. That's not the kind of itch I want to scratch. Never again. :blink:
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Posted 02 June 2013 - 11:39 PM Hello Everyone! I'm new here and I've picked my quit date to be tomorrow. I've decided to jump the bullet and quit tomorrow. I've actually a job interview tomorrow and am excited to interview not smelling like a smoker. The real kicker will be the long drive into Boston, but I've got bags and bags of Twizzlers to keep me busy. I removed my ashtray and cleaned the windows and dash. I am really nervous though. My patches are ready to go and I have been taking Zyban. Would it be better to put the patch on at night or straight away in the morning? A little bit about me - I'm nearly 38 and been smoking since mid-teens, much too long. I keep trying to cut back, but every time I do I end up smoking more. I suffer from chronic and acute sinusitis as well as exercise induced asthma. Recently I was diagnosed with the beginning stage of COPD. About six weeks ago, I had a Septoplasty, Turbinate reduction, Concha Bullosa resection and sinus surgery Ethmoid & Maxillary. I thought I would quit after the surgery, but I was in a lot of pain and the cigarettes helped me through it, or so I thought. I have been on antibiotics for most of the time since the surgery, due to a staph infection and yep another nasty sinus infection. They say that smokers are more susceptible to sinus infections. I hope quitting will help the sinus infections. Thanks for listening! Posted 03 June 2013 - 02:10 PM Thanks for the support. I am seriously doubting quitting today, tomorrow would have been better. Is shaking normal? Will it pass quickly? I feel this strange nervous energy as well. I'm afraid to take any decongestants like this. Instead of having my coffee in the basement, I took my coffee up to my bedroom instead. I was actually ok for the first hour or so and then when I was in the shower, the shaking started. Posted 03 June 2013 - 08:18 PM Well, I made it this far into the day. Longest I've gone without smoking, 18 hours now. Still shaky/jittery and a new symptom nausea. What is motivating me at this very moment is the fact that I don't want to relive this day ever!
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Well Hello there! A strangely familiar feeling about this place :wub: Very happy to have discovered it. I have been quit a couple of months - but still feel the inner junkie lives inside...he is quiet for the moment, but not dead yet... so its a NOPE from me :ph34r:
