55 days smoke free.. the last 3 have been the hardest it's been all along. I don't know why but the craving stays with me 90% of the day. It's so weird after having done so well for so long... discouraging, but I'm trying my best to keep the quit.
I think it ebbs and flows, I can be cruzing areound real good and be fine just chewing my gum and then bam out of nowhere I am jonsing like afiend, I have 16 months , I am suppose to take antidepessants but dont' like th eside effects, I smoked for the dopamine rush that made me feel better. I hve had the blues and thot "man a piece of nicorette gum would sure be nice now" but I gave it up. I have to find other ways to get some feel good chemicals,
Ichoose exercise, I get epinephrine,endorphins and BDNF (centurians have more of this , it comes from deliberate exercise)
I swa on an old ex advertisement and the man said everytime he had an urge he did a pushup. tht's the attitude that will help with this. Try it, take awalk , lift some wedghts, do something physical. Get your chemicals going.
Join our group :everyone who wants to quit and aslo get fit" you can get there from mypage.
fran after awhile it does get easier.the cravings go away and dont last like but like aztec said.keep busy go for walks( i need to do that but weather hasnt been corporating to much)and plus i havent been feeling well.need to get motivated i will but my cravings are pretty much gone.:)you can do it will get easier
Here's what I believe: You've conquered the physical addition. That demon inside you has already been starved. You've won that hard fought war. YOU did that! Now comes the physcological part. Somehow you have to reverse whatever you have told yourself for all of the years that you smoked that made you believe smoking was something positive. There is nothing positive about smoking.
Hi Fran! I'm at 55 days also! I hate that you are having those cravings but I do know that exercise really helps. So does changing up the environment or doing something with my hands - crafts or whatever. Hang in there. You've come such a long way. Be proud of yourself and just say NOPE. We are here for you.
Fran, I went 4 months without one cigarette. One day I wake up and just like you, I was obsessed with a cigarette all day until I finally gave in and bought a pack. It is psychological, but it is also your unconcious mind that is playing games with you. They are terrible cravings and almost consume you. Anything you can do to get your mind off it, do it. If you can break the chain once, you can break it again. I wish that I had this site when I was 4 months along. Stay strong, cry if you need to, but know that 55 days is a helll of alot of days. You can do this and yes we are here for you. Liz
You don't say how you quit, so it could be something completely different. However, for cold turkey quitters, something like you are experiencing is almost a sign that they have been rocked by a "first time trigger" and allowed it to become a fixation. That doesn't really happen if you understand first-time triggers and how they are a good thing, in fact an essential step in becoming a comfortable ex-smoker.
"Triggers" are learned associations with smoking. Using nicotine causes a dopamine release which is the brains mechanism for teaching us to "do whatever you just did some more". Because we use nicotine all day, every day, for our entire lives, almost everything we've ever done is a learned association with smoking.
The only way to break these trigger associations is to experience each one, respond by not smoking, and relearn the association. That's why running from triggers dosn't work. You have to exerience them. In the first two months, you've experienced a relearned a lot of your day to day triggers and made a lot of progress. However, there are many triggers you can't have experienced yet. Your first Thanksgiving dinner without smoking. Your first Christmas morning without cigarettes. Your first football game of the fall. Your time raking leaves without smoking. Each one of these seasonal events will trigger a thought of smoking.
If you understand what is happening, you can just laugh it off. If anything, it will strengthen your resolve to kick this drug addiction that controls your life in the butt, for once and for all. If you don't understand first time triggers, you can freak out. OMG, all this time, and now I'm still crazing a cigarette. OMG, it's gonna be like this for the rest of my life. OMG, I can't stop thinking about smoking. OMG! Right?
The more you understand the trap of nicotine addiction, the less chance you'll get rocked on your heels and let yourself get fixated by something that is just a normal part of the healing, relearning process.
Now, if you've been on the nicotine patch for 55 days and stopped wearing it this morning, then file everything I just wrote away for future reference, because your cravings today are caused by physical drug withdrawal!
Oh, and BTW. I highly highly doubt that the last three days have really been worse than the first three days without smoking. It may feel worse because you were starting to get used to not thinking about smoking 24/7, but I doubt that it was the kind of craving we experience on day two.
I've told this story before. After I had been quit for 4 months, I was getting really comfortable as an ex-smoker. I really didn't think about smoking at all during a normal day. I did a solo 7 hour car drive, each way, and didn't want a cigarette. Then, I went clothes shopping and walked out on the sidewalk after an hour in the store. I watched in horror as my right hand literally went up to my shirt pocket for a cigarette. It was like Dr. Strangelove.
First time trigger. I also smoked immediately after leaving a store, right? I hadn't been clothes shopping. I stood there and laughed. I didn't want a cigarette, but how strongly we have been enslaved by this damn addiction. Now, if I had learned to expect first-time triggers from Joel's podcast lessons, I could very well have just freaked out.
I did exactly the same thing at about 3 months and it was scary. I had worked so hard and stayed smoke free and then was totally obsessed with smoking thoughts. I just kept talking to myself and toughed it out. There was no way that I was going to go back to square one and I had enjoyed the benefits of being smoke free. Hang tough.
Just reading all the wonderful things you all write brings me back to reality and the realization that I am not alone here. If I talk here at home about wanting a cigarette, I see panic in eyes.. saddness.. fright. My sister died in 2005 an awful dealth related to cigarettes. She suffered terribly was on dialysis, extreme heart problems and she just couldn't stop.. They and I see her form of death coming to me and we're all scared.. When all of you rally behind me when I start falling over.. you stand me up straight and I can go on... Thank you, thank you!
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