Angry At Day 30

[di-di]

I am proud for my determination to be smoke free, but I am also angry at myself for stopping, does that sound weird? I got up this morning feeling good yeah 30 days, then my son says congrats and I feel like for what. I refuse to start smoking again, but I am mad at myself for stopping. The cravings, I'm getting fat from eating and I am still short of breath. Is this how it will be for a long time?

[hwc]

Yes. It is weird to be mad at yourself for stopping smoking. Would you be mad at yourself if you had a broken arm and it were healing?

No. The way you feel at 30 days is not the way you will feel at 60 days or 120 days or 6 montths or 1 year. It's a dynamic process that just gets better and better. Really, 30 days is just the beginning of the "better and better" part.

It sounds like maybe you are quitting on determination and willpower and might need to beef up your education about your nicotine addiction and how you can enjoy a much better life breaking free of those chains. Go to the Candid Quitters group, click on View ALL discussions, and look for links to Allen Carr videos and online books and links to appropriate lessons at whyquit.com. There's a lot of stuff that will help you get gung ho about moving forward with your quit.

[beth22]

No, it doesn't sound weird....you are just still dealing with the "brainwashing" side of smoking. Instead of seeing smoking for what it really is (nicotine addiction!) you are still believing that the smoking a cigarette actually DID something for you.....it didn't!!!! Everytime you thought that a cigarette calmed you down, you were 1/2 right....it did calm you down, but only because you were feeding the addiction which was making you more stressed in the first place! When you thought you were really enjoying that first cigarette in the morning....you weren't! You had just gone 8 hours without a fix! What's to enjoy about breathing fire down you lungs???!!!! Somehow the brainwashing has caused us to give the cigarette credit for relieving the very thing that it was causing in the first place.....think about it.
Once you get the brainwashing part down, you'll stop eating to relieve your craving, and the cravings won't be so often or so strong. Hang in there.....you have 30 days to be proud of!!!!