Stress, the Holidays, and Your Quit

[Penguin]

During the holidays, it's completely normal to feel the urge for a smoke. Changes in our routine cause stress, which can be good or bad. Humans are creatures of habit and routine, and any time our routines get disrupted for any reason, the result is stress. For all their intelligence, our brains really struggle with differentiating between good stress and bad stress at a chemical level, so even good changes in your life can bring about an urge to smoke.

 

Once you know why you have that sudden urge "out of nowhere" to light up, it may be easier to deal with. You can address the specific stressors instead. Maybe step away from the kitchen, or the family gathering, or the obligations you have. Maybe you need to confide in trusted friends or family that you're feeling the urge to smoke, and you need their support. Instead of jumping straight into satisfying the immediate craving, work through it to resist indulging in tobacco. Personally, I work to avoid even oral fixations or stimming with straws or other cigarette-shaped objects, because that's not something I want to be dependent on. I recommend you do whatever you need to do in order to avoid using nicotine, even if that means satisfying the oral fixation or tactile stimming.

 

If you didn't know, now you do: you're not weird or broken for feeling cravings during the holidays, even if it's been a long time since you quit. Those cravings can pop up for countless reasons. The good news is, every time you win against a craving, your brain takes that experience and catalogs it. Eventually, when those reasons you used to smoke crop up, your brain will look and see that you've dealt with those situations for a long time without tobacco, so the cravings will become less and less powerful over time. It gets really tiring fighting the cravings at first, because they don't ever seem to end, but it's like grief: it's a constant pain at first, and everything reminds you of what you've lost. Eventually, though, the discomfort diminishes.

 

It might help if you give yourself space and permission to be cranky, lazy, or whatever else you need to be. Certainly you don't want to burn bridges in your relationships, but if you can surround yourself with people who will understand why you're irritable and who can help you to process your emotions in a healthy way, that can make dealing with the cravings easier. It's more uncomfortable when you've got to deal with a craving and everyone around you expects you to be joyful and calm and to carry on as though nothing is wrong. I'm a believer that nicotine withdrawal is a medical condition, and it's one for which people should have empathy. Certainly, we chose to smoke, so yes, we've done it to ourselves, but that doesn't mean we don't deserve human dignity.

 

I hope this helps you during the holiday season if you're really struggling. Stay strong, and keep your focus on the calm light at the end of a thorny, uncomfortable tunnel. It will get better!

[Doreensfree]

Great post …

Keep that precious Quit no matter what

[Reciprocity]

During my first year quitting I quickly learned there were times where I would be triggered to smoke. As you mentioned, holiday gatherings were certainly one of them but even simple things like racking the leaves in the fall or the first lawn cut in the springtime were all trigger times for me. Learning to anticipate those times was key to being prepared to avaoid the trap of caving to the urge to light up. I also found that once I'd been through one of those trigger events, the next time the same thing rolled around, I no longer felt triggered because I'd already dealt with that once before.

 

The times that almost made me cave were those unexpected moments of stress to something that happened that was not expected or within your control! Those were tough for me.

Edited November 28 by Reciprocity