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Share your quitting journey

my focus for you

JonesCarpeDiem
0 5 0

My focus for you is to get you through No Mans Land before you give up on yourself.

After almost eight years of participation, I long ago realized that the first 4 months is the time most go back to smoking.

Why? Because they think the craves should be over after the first month.

There is a study stating that people actually get stronger craves/cues to smoke in the 3 month period after their first month quit than they had in their first week.

Craves after the first month are often UNEXPECTED and can persist over a few days. Add to that a bout of depression or a few drinks and people often go back to smoking.

When you get a crave say "I don't do that anymore" and say it out loud.

Don't give up on yourself too early. You smoked longer than 130 days. Give it the time it takes to unlearn it.

5 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.