Going to start with: I am so proud of myself for reaching 60 days of freedom.
Going to follow with: my first few days on the Step 3 patch have been rough.
Going to counter with: I am already experiencing the good things I was looking for by quitting, and it's only going to get better from here.
60 days! What a mixed bag.
I've come so far, saved so much money and time, and I love the freedom I've gained. I love not planning my day around the availability of my habit. I love that I've saved more than $500 in only two months of not vaping. I love that I am not sneaking around anymore and that my sinuses feel better.
These rewards are so worth any discomfort. I have no designs on abandoning my quit, but I am having a miserable week so far since stepping down my patch levels and I need to vent a bit.
I've been on edge since Saturday, my first day on Step 3. I feel cranky and anxious and sad and mad and the cravings have increased in frequency and intensity. I know it's just withdrawal symptoms again. The receptors in my brain are feeling short-changed by this new, lower nicotine level. Still stinks.
I am grateful that when the frustrations or cravings hit, that my first thought is "I wish I'd never started smoking" instead of "I wish I had a cigarette/juul." I seem to be doing a pretty good job at retraining my brain, at least.
I think the toughest part of this step down is that it makes me nervous about the next step -- taking the training wheels off and ditching the patch entirely. To deal with that, I'm going to start building a phase 2 quit plan: restocking my quit kit and deciding what my emergency kit looks like. I know part of it will be to come here for help, but I'm thinking about buying another box of step 3 patches and keeping one in my wallet at all times, just in case it hits the fan.
Any NRT quitters with advice for the Final Step? I'm sure I'm over-worrying, but planning for the worst and hoping for the best has worked for me so far!
