cancel
Showing results for 
Show  only  | Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

Share your quitting journey

NEWBIE? HERE'S WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW-BIE (repost from 12-24-10)

JonesCarpeDiem
0 1 5

The most important thing is to not create unnecessary anxiety by stressing out about

quitting.  

Do not base this quit on past tries.  If you do  you may fall into the

“I couldn't do it before and I can't do it now” mentality.

You need to start fresh without misconceptions or ghosts in your head.

 

Quitting is about deciding to quit and honoring that decision nothing more.

You will be uncomfortable for awhile.

You cannot smoke and quit.  It’s one or the other.

Our smoking created things called nicotine receptors in our brains.

When nicotine hits these receptors they trigger the brain to release dopamine

This is like self made heroin. the “runners high” etc.

Every time you smoke after you've quit  you re-awaken the receptors.

That’s the physical part of the addiction.

Now The Hardest Part

The memories and emotions connected with every cigarette you ever smoked are rolling around up there in your subconscious mind. This means you need to relearn living without smoking so that those old memories get replaced and don't  drive your desire  to smoke anymore.

It takes a good 4 months of no smoking to be in a place where you don't think about smoking on any type of regular basis.

That's pretty much the whole process.

It isn't as hard as you think when you understand this and don't let it fluster you.

I didn't even want to quit.

My best friend suggested it. I mulled it around in my mind over the next month and

began  to say, "dale, wait a little longer"  I never deprived myself, I was learning the

power i had over it so when I did quit, I  already had some confidence.

I used the patch for a short time

I started laughing each time I had a crave and that made me catch them  before they

festered into pure temptation. They would dissipate after a few minutes and i would

figure out what memory had triggered the crave.

This is how I beat it. You can substitute your terms for mine but, in the end, we pretty much travel

te same road to succeed.

Don't make this more fearful than it has to be.

You Can Succeed!

dale

5 1/3 years nocotine free!

1 Comment
About the Author
Hello, My name is Dale. I was quit 18 months before joining this site and had participated on another site during that time. I learned a lot there and brought it with me. I joined this site the first week of August 2008. I didn't pressure myself to quit. HOW I QUIT I didn't count, I didn't deny myself to get started. When I considered quitting (at a friends request to influence his brother to quit), I simply told myself to wait a little longer. No denial, nothing painful. After 4 weeks I was down to 5 cigarettes from a pack a day. The strength came from proving to myself, I didn't need to smoke because I normally would have smoked. Simple yes? I bought the patch. I forgot to put one on on the 4th day. I needed it the next day but the following week I forgot two days in a row I put one in my wallet with a promise to myself that I would slap it on and wait an hour rather than smoke. It rode in my wallet my first year.There's nothing keeping any of you from doing this. It doesn't cost a dime. This is about unlearning something you've done for a long time. The nicotine isn't the hard part. Disconnecting from the psychological pull, the memories and connected emotions is. :-) Time is the healer.