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Share your quitting journey

Triggers Bring Memories / Memories Are Triggers

JonesCarpeDiem
Member
6 8 88
‎01-11-2021 11:33 AM

      I bought some of those 8oz snack sacks for $1 last Friday. One of the selections was Animal Crackers.

      Their shapes aren't as defined and it's not in the box with the string handle with the circus wagon on each side, but, the taste took me back to the time I was still riding in the shopping cart.

      Our mom used to give us each a box when we got in the store to shut us up and keep our hands busy. 

That taste. This is how memories are triggered!

      Memories connected to experiences when smoking will surface, especially the first two years.

Conversely,

      New experiences without smoking these 2 years builds your quits stability and, the relapse rate drops from 94% to 4-6%.   Yes, 94% of people fail in the first year.

Let's get you through the first 4 months, the riskiest time.

8 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.