One would think that, if you are having negative physical symptoms that are caused by the psychology of your brain, you would be able to stop it by being aware of it. Not so from my experience this week. Wednesday AM, I took my patch off, got in the shower and realized I had forgot to put a new one on. I planned on putting a new one on when I got out of the shower but I forgot again. That was at 9:30. At 3:30, I was driving home from the gym and went to scratch my are (the patches cause me minor itching) and realized the patch wasn't there. I checked my other arm-no patch. I was amazed that I hadn't felt the effects of no nicotine all day, and I decided to leave the patch off, Sure enough, once I realized I was not getting nicotine, the cravings got pretty tough. I kept telling myself it was all in my head but it didn't help. I finally put a patch on because I was afraid I would give in to the cravings and smoke.
I had the worse craving that wouldn't stop at the infusion center today. I didn't give a 2nd thought about preparing for the clinic because, usually over the past 26 days, when I'm in nonsmoking situations, I do better, but this was a huge trigger.Then I realized that, over the past 2 yrs that I've been getting these infusions, that I've always had a horrible time as a smoker. I'm there between 4 and 5 hours, craving the whole time. When it was over, I would immediately go across the street, waiting for my husband to pick me up, and smoke 2 cigarettes back-to-back. When I realized what was going on at about 11:00, I kept telling myself that it was all in my head. Didn't help a bit. The craving finally left at about 4:30 and now I'm fine.
Moral of the story, triggers can happen anytime, even when least expected. Be prepared always!!!
God Bless and have a good smoke free evening,
Connie
