How can we replace the Crutch of Nicotine

[JackiMac]

Whenever a smoker feels down, depressed, lost, angry, bitter I could go on with the many emotions that we feel in life, but a smoker will always turn to that one thing "crutch" (excuse as we now know it to be) to make them feel better.  Yes Im talking about the nicotine fix, the cigarette, one cigarette will make everything better.  We all know that one thing that stops many people from finally quitting or attempting to quit is the loss of this "crutch".  How will I cope without it.  I thought it might be really good idea to write down what we replaced our crutch with,  As our quit progresses it will be really good to see how our replacements improve.

 

I didnt stop to think of it until today.  Been a stressful few days with my dad and my future mother in law being admitted to hospital and today I reached a point where that thought popped into my head.  I am so stressed out I could really do with a cigarette. OMG!! luckily for me at that precise moment in time I was dealing with phone calls, arranging for someone to take my son to Football practice, trying to move money, so that thought did not grow and I did not allow it to grow.  Keeping myself very busy replaced my desire or need for a cigarette.  

 

Can we share for all those thinking about quitting or afraid of quitting how easy it is to replace the Nicotine Crutch.

 

A Crutch

Think about it :

• Over the years, you’ve learned to manage your life with a crutch...
• This crutch will follow you wherever you go, but will reduce the length and quality of your life by poisoning you slowly, while you watch a small fortune go up in smoke…
• So what’s the point of smoking?
• Do you really believe you can’t experience life without a paper tube stuffed with bits of a plant?
• Most people don’t smoke, and yet they also know how to have fun and deal with hard or boring times. So...
• The sooner you decide to take action, the better your chance of learning how to breathe again without a crutch

[Sazerac]

Great post Jackie and I am so glad you quit smoking and are living FREE.

 

I have found

 

taking a few moments break and a few deep breaths are exactly what my body craves in moments of stress.

 

It is not craving nicotine it is craving Oxygen !

 

Oxygen to feed my brain and enable me to make good decisions in moments of stress.

 

Oxygen.

[action]

(((Jackie))) I hope that your dad and mother in law are OK!

 

My crutch would be... I will buy something! Usually nothing big, but something! A DVD, a bar of chocolate, a t-shirt, a cake... I will just buy myself something as a reward... This obviously doesn't happen constantly, otherwise I'd be broke, but the times when I need a crutch now are so far apart that it's OK :)

 

Of course then there is my support, online, right here :)

[SueBeDoo]

Thinking of you and yours J xxx

Great post hun,

My crutch for the first few weeks were soft mints, I lived on them but they did the job, straight after my dinner was one of the hardest times for me so my soft mints took over the "job" of my cigs, I'd eat a packet of them a day but they really were my saviour and in the evening I would eat pistachio nuts, loved having a load of smokes in ths evening when kids went to bed so the pistachios in the shell really got me through the nights, the mornings were my hardest, I loved my smoke and cuppa before kids woke up, that was the hardest one of all for me, I just ate a good breakfast and would have a shower first thing to help get me through the mornings, I found putting moisturisers on after shower seemed to really help me because I loved smelling yummy first thing so I didn't want to smoke and take the yummyness away. It took about a month to get use to and to cope with not smoking in the mornings but I swear to god I can't imagine having a cig first thing, it actually makes me feel ill thinking about it and I promise with all my heart it is soo much better now, the first 4-6 weeks I would have to drag myself out of bed and not want to get up because what was the point if I couldnt smoke but it got easier each day to now being repulsed at the the smell of smoke first thing, now I really enjoy my cuppa even more due to actually being able to taste it better because my taste buds might aswell have been dead for all the use they were as a smoker.

[MarylandQuitter]

My thoughts are with you and your family.  That type of stress is serious stuff and I'm glad that you recognized it and keeping it separate from your quit.  :)

 

This is a really good question and I've been thinking about it since I read this thread earlier.  Smoking was definitely a crutch for me but I didn't replace it with another.  Before I quit I still believed that smoking calmed me down and all that nonsense so I wondered how I would even enjoy my morning coffee without 5 cigarettes.

 

Once I quit, I never needed to replace that "crutch" because I realized that it was just a false sense of security.  I stopped believing in cigarettes and just dealt with life as it came.

 

Great question.  Some replace it with running and many other things that actually make us healthier (instead of killing us) but for me, I just found life easier to deal with without the added stress that smoking caused.

[natalie_3]

Great post. You got me thinking...I think I´m a bit like Ross on the shopping... and when it´s too much I just sleep, power down and hope that things are better when I wake up. I also drink more tea, to replace the oral fixation. 

I hope you in laws are doing fine. Theý´re in my prayers.

Thanks for a really insightful post. 

 

-Nat

[Jeffrey]

Jackie- Good post and topic..much food for thought. I identify with all the responses before me and

it's why so many before me have mentioned how posting and reading the posts are so helpful.

Someone will write something and it will really strike a chord!

 

When MQ said, "...I'm glad you recognized it and (are) keeping it separate from your quit," it

hit me between the eyes more than ever. The junkie part of my mind wants to mesh life's problems / situations

with smoking as the solution. More plainly put, smoking doesn't have anything to do with anything

but smoking ! 

 

Now pauly boy needs to remember that cause I haven't arrived. It's  a journey like Sazerac says.