For the last couple of weeks, I’ve been dealing with some mind chatter urging me to smoke. It’s not an oral thing. It’s not about hand to mouth movement. It’s a matter of fact type of statement I’m hearing; “Why don’t you go on and have a smoke? You’ll feel normal” or “Why don’t you have a smoke so things will go back to normal and you’ll know what to do?”
I had problems motivating myself to “do things” while I was smoking. I know my normal isn’t something I really want to return to. I want a new normal. I want to get up off the couch and do things. I want more life in my life. I know smoking isn’t going to help me create the life I’ve been telling myself I want and can have “If I would just stop smoking.”
I am 100+ days into my quit and I’m battling this mind chatter. I’ve been an ex-smoker 0.7% of the amount of time I smoked. I figure I have to give my body and brain a chance to recognize I’m no longer smoking.
I was prepared for the discomfort in the initial days of my quit. I wasn’t prepared for this. The last time I stopped, it was the mind chatter I couldn’t handle and eventually gave into. Sometimes distraction works. There are many things I need to tend to. Being active and engaged is an issue I had before I stopped smoking. I’m wondering if this mind chatter is a gift; If I need to keep busy in order to stop the chatter then I just might become the active engaged person I say I want to be. It doesn’t matter how I get there as long as I arrive safe and sound. I’ve taken advantage of the unseasonably warm weather. I started walking. I’m averaging about 1.5 miles a day. It’s what goes on when I’m home that I really need to address.
When does it subside? Does it ever subside? Is mind chatter the ex-smokers kryptonite?
Exactly 135 days. I'm kidding, of course. But I'm at 149 days today, and the last serious crave, mind chatter, or whatever you want to call it, was on day 135. I hope yours subsides sooner than that. If it makes you feels any better (or more normal), I was seriously thinking of giving up my quit around the 100 day mark. I'd had a good run of barely thinking about cigarettes from about days 85 to 90. I thought I finally had it beat, and then just like you, I had a lot of mind chatter, craves, and reaching for phantom cigarettes every day again. I felt beaten, like it was never going to go away. I feel your pain Michele . I wish I could make it stop for you now, but it will stop.