A different quit..questions

[jess]

Hoping y'all can help here. This quit is like no other. Was easy 1st 4 days, day 5 started craving. Tired all the time, cravings I think over but miss the deed..you know, just finished something..smoke break,the thought comes out of no where. I certainly don't plan on smoking but this quit is so different. I feel sick, then fine, tired then okay, nauseated.....just curious if anyone else felt this way.

[Sirius]

I don't believe my quit was quite so physically bumpy.

 

Of course, when your brain is missing something it's been relying on the side affects can be quite varied.

 

During this period of adjustment I could tell you to drink plenty of fluids, etc, but whatever gets you through 

this time is exactly what you need. 

 

Hopefully this won't include bulk level consumption of Haagen Dazs ice cream bars (my personal weakness :wub: ), 

but if it does, then you do what you got to do.  

[jess]

Im testing Malibu and diet coke right now.....

[Sirius]

Not a bad combination.   :)

[Nancy]

Hoping y'all can help here. This quit is like no other. Was easy 1st 4 days, day 5 started craving. Tired all the time, cravings I think over but miss the deed..you know, just finished something..smoke break,the thought comes out of no where. I certainly don't plan on smoking but this quit is so different. I feel sick, then fine, tired then okay, nauseated.....just curious if anyone else felt this way.

Jess, the fact is that you have never quit.    You have abstained for a period of time.  It will never be the same each time.  You just have to decide to never smoke, regardless of the symptoms.  Yes, we have all felt exactly what you are talking about...but we made the final decision....NOT ONE PUFF EVER!

[Doreensfree]

Hi Jess..

My body was all over the place for a while...sleep deprived too...the early days and weeks are hard for most of us..

Our bodies are going through massive changes..

It does get easier ..all we can do is ride it out..do this anyway you can..

Scream shout,ect..it doesn't matter..I had a punching pillow..it became my best friend..all my emotions were punched out.

This is normal..tell yourself your amazing..your cleansing your body of all those chemicals that are killing you..

Look at it as a positive ..not a negative..

[Boo]

Those first days of a quit offer up a lot of peaks and valleys, but there's level land ahead.  Just keep with the forward progress and you'll get there.

 

Proceed.

[jess]

Jess, the fact is that you have never quit.    You have abstained for a period of time.  It will never be the same each time.  You just have to decide to never smoke, regardless of the symptoms.  Yes, we have all felt exactly what you are talking about...but we made the final decision....NOT ONE PUFF EVER!

Nancy, Im sorry but I look at it a bit different. I had a real true quit a few years back. It wad a real quit and led me to my sticky quit. QT has us list our quit date, right? It may just take some of us longer to have our sticky quit. I suppose look at it that I abstained for awhile...but isnt that what we are all doing? Arent we all here because we are all addicted to cigarettes and really just one cig away from a habit?

Abstaining / quit, semantics I suppose?

[ChRiSpY]

The "High" of quitting is wearing off and now reality is setting in.

 

Buckle up and move forward... onward and upward.

 

Keep on keepin on.

[Doreensfree]

Let's make this your last sticky Jess...

Take smoking of the table ...no matter what..even if your arse falls off....

You can do it...make it happen ....

[babs609]

i felt exactly like you described Jess....it gets better...but then some days...it's worse again...not the whole day of course...but you can be 6 weeks in and BAM!  a crappy time.  But the good news is...eventually....gradually....those moments are further and far between and you will have longer happy moments in your day.  

Patience...hang in there.  Embrace the suck (sarge's words)  Enjoy the journey, love!  You are doing fantastic!

[Reciprocity]

I think our quits are always very different, even for the same person who might quit a number of different times. Getting over the craving is only one aspect of smoking. I think the biggest battle is training our minds to function normally without smoking. That's what the real challenge has been for me anyway. The physical symptoms you mention can happen to anyone during the first month in particular. Those symptoms are almost too many to name and vary from person to person. The good news is that, given time, they all go away.

 

Getting the quit WELL established is Job 1 during the first months of quitting. How many months? Well, that too varies from person to person. For me, it was about 5-6 months before I felt pretty much completely "safe". Now, that doesn't mean I was struggling a lot during all those proceeding months - no! It just means that after 5 to 6 months, it would have taken a truly bizarre event to make me stick a cigarette into my mouth and light it up. I think you will find that the concerning physical symptoms you are feeling currently will start to resolve themselves fairly soon or at least start evening out a little.

[jess]

Hard day.. having conversation with people that shouldnt have to have...ready to retire... can't..heavy heart

[Reciprocity]

The struggles we all face some days in our daily lives makes the early quit that much more challenging but we also must realize that those struggles would be there regardless of our smoking status so, now that you have quit smoking, that's really probably the best part of your day yesterday. Adding a potentially deadly activity onto a crappy day just doesn't make sense. I know we think that a smoke would relieve our anxiety and our general crappy mood but you know that's not true. It just relieves our bodies quest for a nicotine fix and relieving that just starts the cycle all over again so Jess, you are way ahead of things now as a non-smoker :)

 

Hope you enjoy a little down time this weekend and recharge your batteries. Stay strong regardless of what challenges come your way. I know it's not easy so early on in your quit but it will get better as your mind adjusts to life as a non-smoker. You need to do this so that when you do retire, you will still be healthy enough to enjoy it. I'm in the same boat. Wanted to retire the past 2 or 3 years but always something comes up to derail that. Now that I'm no longer filling by body with toxins all day long, I'm hoping I will be still in good health whenever I do get to retire.

[Doreensfree]

Keep positive Jess...

Non smokers have crappy days too...and I'm sure many of them feel like retiring...

Hoping things will look better ,when your over the hard few months...

[Still winning]

I'm going to do my whole let's keep this real thing. It's always gonna suck to release addiction. ALWAYS! The simple facts it's about how we choose to face down the journey. I think we can all empathise with the up and down scenarios of a quit as we are finding new ways of coping with normal life without the crutch that we have always used for everything. The addiction is insidious and we wove it through the entire tapestry of our life. Need a break, smoke. Feeling stressed, smoke. Out socially, smoke. Having a beer, smoke etc etc. WE wove it in and it's up to us to face down those thoughts and triggers to get it out. 

 

So if that was a bad day then that sucks. But it's not a bad quit, that's your brain trying to take you back to what it knows! You can do this, it can be euphoric in parts and dark in others. Just keep plodding, one foot in front of the other and get through the bad times whilst looking forward to the good behind it. xx

[jess]

Gotta love a beautiful fresh air fall day without one thought of smoking!

[MarylandQuitter]

Gotta love a beautiful fresh air fall day without one thought of smoking!

 

We can't control what thoughts pop into our heads but what we can control is how we act on them.  For me, when I think of smoking, it's not a craving - haven't had one of those in a long, long time.  I see a massive difference between thinking of smoking and craving a cigarette.  Early on, thoughts of smoking can lead to cravings but as time moves forward, those same thoughts will no longer lead to cravings. 

 

I never have and never will forget that I was once a smoker.  I feel it's this very thought that keeps me grounded and not operating in a place of complacency where I risk entertaining thoughts of "just having one" and the many other junkie seeds which almost always lead to a relapse.

 

Yes, the air is great without a plume of poision engulfing us.  What were we thinking?  :)

[Doreensfree]

I agree with MQ...

I too still have smoking thoughts..mostly horrible ones ,when I come in close contact with a smoker YUK !!!

I hope never to get complacent with my quit..and want to remember the nightmare smoking was and always will be...

We carnt control what thoughts we get during the day...but we can control how we react to them...

Well done Jess ..keep marchin..

[jess]

I will always keep in mind , Im just one puff away from being a smoker. Nope

[Sirius]

Yup, you don't ever stop quitting.  Its everyday, day after day, till the end of your days.

 

So keep on quitting, for as tough as it is, it's a lot tougher ending your days with emphysema.

 

Also, it gets easier the longer you work it.   ;)

[jess]

Not going to smoke, that would require buying or borrowing..but damn the feeling feelings

[Doreensfree]

Some days in the beginning of my quit. ,screaming NOPE a million times a day was not uncommon...

I was told Jess ,it's OK to wobble ,just make sure you don't fall over...I have remembered this ...

Of course you are going to have thoughts... Just don't act upon them...

Smoking is not on the table ...EVER...x

If you follow these .. The magic will happen...

[Cristóbal]

Nancy, Im sorry but I look at it a bit different. I had a real true quit a few years back. It wad a real quit and led me to my sticky quit. QT has us list our quit date, right? It may just take some of us longer to have our sticky quit. I suppose look at it that I abstained for awhile...but isnt that what we are all doing? Arent we all here because we are all addicted to cigarettes and really just one cig away from a habit?

Abstaining / quit, semantics I suppose?

 

Abstaining from cigarettes is not the same as quitting.

 

 

 

Abstaining means you close the door, walk away from it but keep on looking back at it, keep the key and simply do not use it for awhile.  That is not a sticky quit.

 

Quitting means you have closed the door forever on the addiction, threw away the key, and walked away from it forever. That is a sticky quit.

 

 

As long as you keep some romance about the addiction - believing there is some benefit from smoking - you will be abstaining, and not be completely quit.

 

Only when you recognize that there is *NO BENEFIT* at all from smoking, is when you will find your sticky quit and your complete freedom.

 

That is why education about nicotine addiction, and the process of quitting smoking, is so critical to growing a healthy and permanent quit.

 

Once you understand the addiction and process of quittng, is when you will find your real and complete freedom.

 

 

Cristóbal