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

Share your quitting journey

Time to put this concept out there again for people who haven't started yet (Delay VS Denial)

JonesCarpeDiem
0 3 10

I believe many people think that by cutting down a certain number of smokes per day to ZERO is a good way to get to the start of not smoking. What do you think?

Eventually in that process, you are going to come across the day when the nicotine receptors in your brain are going to say "NOT ENOUGH" and then YOU'RE IN WITHDRAWAL. You start looking at how many you've had that day and then you are focused on what you are giving up, what you can't have. Then if you give in and go over your alottment, you feel like you failed yourself and your plan before you've even quit. So consider DENIAL MAY NOT BE A GOOD WAY TO GET STARTED. It can put you in a weakened place before you even quit..

VS

Delaying Smoking

Delaying smoking  is not supposed to be hard. You never let it get to the place where you feel you are denying yourself. In other words you let it happen, you don't force it. Just put the thought in your head "I'll wait a little longer" and don't let yourself get desperate.

It's a much more relaxing way to enter a quit. The plus is learning you actually don't need to smoke every time you thought you needed to. You don't build fear and anxiety about a quit date because you are learning about your addiction and habit by putting a little control on it. This builds confidence, knowing you do have some control and, ,it sets you up for a better beginning.

When you get down to around 5 cigarettes a day might be the point to either quit all together and start your NRT aid or just get through those first three days when the physical withdrawal symptoms are the most difficult.

Remember, the first 2-3 weeks are the most difficult for EVERYONE no matter how you get to your start because your mind and body go through the greatest readjusting. \

It's not such a mountain if you don't make it one.

PS I did this over a 4 week time period before I quit and I was never thinking about a quit date.I never built any fear or anxiety. The only way I actually knew it was working was because I started going to the store less and less over those 4 weeks.

3 Comments
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.