Fearing the Crave

[Jenny]

Cravings are the most feared in a quit and we all know they can be uncomfortable. It's this fear that keeps many of us from even attempting to quit smoking. The fear of being uncomfortable.  We feel this way even though we know that smoking related disease is probably not terribly comfortable either.....addiction is so not rational....

 

The addiction wants to manipulate you into believing that there is no way you could ever survive quitting.  No way you could ever get through a minute, hour or day feeling like you want to smoke and not give in.  

 

Seriously.....Pffft.  We're tougher than that.  It's all just hype designed to keep you smoking.  A crave is not a command to smoke.  Just because you feel it, does not mean you need to act on it.  Acknowledge it and move on.  As time goes on, those craves will fade away and in it's place will be a person who stood up and took control of their life.  There is no greater feeling than that.  No greater feeling.

[El Bandito]

The craves!

 

The craves are the signal that you have triumphed over the addiction.

 

The crave comes because you have refused to smoke.

 

You ignore it and it goes away.

 

It comes less and less.

 

Welcome the crave - it means you are getting it done.

[beacon]

This was the first time I ever tried to quit. I did not know what to expect. I used to joke that I would need to be hidden away for awhile so I would not scream and rant. When I did quit, I went about my life as it was before. I was not in the bedt of moods but I did not turn into domething I could not control. It sucked but it was foable and worth it to be done with smoking.

[Jengelsnew1]

I crave life

Smoking sucks

[action]

In the beginning I tried to watch a lot if videos about smoking, and smoking related diseases... That made it easier to tell myself to 'man-up' when I got a crave - what is worse; 3 minutes of mild discomfort every so often, or a (shortened) lifetime of misery from a terminal disease caused by smoking...?! No contest!

[Still winning]

I have had some craves, holiday triggers. I chose nope, sadly my mum chose a now second deck of cigs. My informed choice was not difficult. A crave is simply an auto pilot response and you always have the choice to say yes or no.

[Doreensfree]

Craves are just thoughts....

When ever I have a crave....I try and turn a negative in to a positive....

I'm feeling like this at the moment..because I'm ridding myself of a poison...repairing my poor neglected lungs....

As time goes on ...the craves get lesser and weaker.....

[babs609]

nobody every died from a crave

 

plenty die as a result of giving into that crave...over and over again.

 

 

great post miss jenny jenn! :)

[Tink]

Fear has a lot to answer for, before I quit it's the one thing that stopped me from jumping on a quit sooner, fear that i just won't be able to do it, the reason more people are not quit is not because they can't it's because they won't, fear is holding them back

 

Don't be afraid nothing to fear but fear itself

[Colleen]

Fear is what prevented me from quitting for so long. Once I faced the fear, it became ridiculously easy.

[Sazerac]

I didn't fear quitting....frankly, I rarely, if ever, thought about quitting.

Then I quit and took a day at a time as usual.

 

I didn't fear craves

they were a minor annoyance.  OK they were a horrible annoyance for a while.

 

I didn't fear relapse.

If my quit didn't stick, I would quit again or not.

 

Fear didn't figure into my equation.

I have fears just like everybody but, not about quitting or staying quit.

 

I was riding on quitting on a whim....let's quit for a year and see what it feels like.

You can always go back to smoking.

Edited September 20, 2018 by Sazerac
clarity

[MarylandQuitter]

I would guess that the overwhelming reason that most people don't attempt or delay quitting smoking is out of fear.  They fear that withdrawal is unbearable.  They fear how hard it is because others told them it was.  They're afraid because they think they'll be unable to cope with stress, enjoy alcohol, a meal, a night out with friends, morning coffee and the biggest one, the fear of ditching a familiar friend.  Of course we all know that these are all lies but until the lies are exposed and you experience how much better life is after quitting, these fears stop a lot of people from taking the plunge.

 

The Fear Of Success

This video explains how many people are fearful of attempting a quit because they realize that they may actually succeed. The attached videos examine the reasons for this fear and will help smokers to understand that the fears they have of their lives being ruined are based on the false assumption that cigarettes were helping them to live as opposed to recognizing that smoking was ruining their lives in many ways.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHhWSOsWoBE&list=PLCDB8BA311D538113&index=9

Related videos:
Resources explaining interaction between nicotine and stress
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHbpX...
Quitting smoking can make you calmer, happier and healthier
http://youtu.be/7K038NtxO6o
"I'll never be as productive again if I quit smoking"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8awQ...

 

The Fear Of Relapsing

Video explains how many people are fearful of even attempting a quit because they are convinced that even if by some miracle they succeed, they will likely lose the quit at some future point in time. This video explains why they may have this fear and what resources we have to deal with it.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IoWuSG8W_2E

Related videos:
Complacency
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZSkt...
Lost long term quits
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJeHt...
I know I will quit again
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tHp8y...
Past successful quits
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39An4...
If I relapse I will smoke until it kills me
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCRLo...
Smoking a cigarette will help me to secure my quit
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YY6tA...

[Jenny]

That is awesome MQ!   Something I had not thought of is the fear I would succeed and then how could I go on without my "best friend".   Arghhh.  So happy to not be living that life anymore.

[babs609]

_{for me...it was all about FEAR}

 

 

_{Fear that my life wouldn't be complete without my "friend"}

_{Fear that I will never stop craving}

_{Fear that I would fail...for the umpteenth time}

_{Fear that i wasn't strong enough}

 

_{all fear based}

 

_{I even feared that if I quit....then I would get cancer cause I shocked my body...so silly}

[Sazerac]

I knew I wasn't looking deep enough.

I wasn't skeered until my last hurdle !

Look what I found in my blog, 

 

"Now, at Ten months and change,
craves are strange little thought bubbles that don't belong to me,
EXCEPT
when I try to paint.
That is what I 'do' and it is being a real bugger.

What if I can't paint without that junk ?
It feels so weird to hold a brush without a smoke.
Plenty of Fear (oh, JOY) to shut down
on this last (or current) no-smoking snafu.
I will buck up, quit my special snowflake whining and just get on with it FGS.
This week, I will.
Yep, this week."

 

and with encouragement from y'all,

that week passed and by three weeks fear was a distant memory.

Amazing how quickly I forgot !

Love that.

S

 

(edited to add)

If I hadn't been able to jump that hurdle

I would have gone back to smoking

but, by that time it was just breaking a silly habit and the my quit had a life of it's own.

Edited September 20, 2018 by Sazerac
punctuation

[Nicole Diver]

I was scared to quit, but terrified not to.  Scared to fail-but even more afraid to succeed as I thought that would mean I would be unhappy forever.

Everything used to be scary when I was a smoker.

 

I am so glad I was wrong on so many counts.

[Doreensfree]

Bump

[Boo]

 A crave is not a command to smoke.  Just because you feel it, does not mean you need to act on it.  Acknowledge it and move on.  

 

Realizing this made all the difference in my quit.  I stopped fighting and won the battle.  Since then it has been, to borrow a phrase, easy peasy.

[Sazerac]

bump

[c9jane29]

I've never liked the word "craving" when I quit. To me, a craving means something I want...I did NOT want to smoke.

They were only memories. My dying addiction reminding(begging) me that I used to smoke at certian times. 

Just NOPE and find something else to do.