Welcome to our community!
Ah - No Mans Land! 2-4 months quit. Your friends and family seem to think you should be "over it" already - and you do, too. The excitement of the first month is fading, your are more comfortable in your new life, and the craves have become more manageable. And THEN, the mother of all craves can hit you and seem to last forever. You are surprised,not prepared, and therein lies the problem! Expect it might happen, and be ready for it with the tools you found worked in the early days of your quit. Take a walk, play a computer game - change your mind's direction. It WILL pass, but it will require some effort on your part. This part of the journey WILL end - its length varies from person to person. My most difficult day was around 108, I think. I had a few spells, and then they stopped as quickly as they came. This site prepared me for it, so I was able to navigate it successfully.
The important thing you can do right now is to educate yourself on what nicotine does to your body and mind. To that end, I highly recommend Allen Carr's “The Easy Way to Stop Smoking.” This is an easy and entertaining read. You can search for it online or at your local library. Here's a link to a video here on the site which describes nicotine addiction: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IpWMgPHn0Lo&feature=youtu.be.
You should also read the posts here and perhaps go to the pages of folks who you think might be helpful. You might visit whyquit.com, quitsmoking.com and livewell.com for the good information contained there. @https://excommunity.becomeanex.org/groups/best-of-ex has lots of blogs written by members of this site with their experiences and guidance You can search for No Mans Land with the magnifying glass in the upper right hand corner and find tons of good information and peoples' experiences with it.
The idea is to change up your routines so the smoking associations are reduced. Drink your coffee with your OTHER hand in a place different from where you smoked. Maybe switch to tea for a bit. If you always had that first smoke with your coffee, try putting your tennies on right out of bed, going for a quick walk, then taking your shower and THEN your coffee! Rearrange the furniture in the areas you used to smoke so the view is different. Buy your gas at a different station. Take a different route to work. Take a quick walk at break time where the smokers AREN'T.
You need to distract yourself through the craves. You can take a bite out of a lemon (yup - rind and all), put your head in the freezer and take a deep breath of cold air, do a few jumping jacks, go for a brisk walk or march in place, play a computer game. Keep a cold bottle of water with you from which to sip. Don't let that smoking thought rattle around in your brain unchallenged. Sometimes you need to quit a minute or an hour at a time. You will need to be disciplined in the early days to distract yourself when a crave hits. Get busy! Here is a link to a list of things to do instead of smoke if you need some fresh ideas:
https://excommunity.becomeanex.org/blogs/Youngatheart.7.4.12-blog/2013/02/25/100-things-to-do-instea...
The conversation in your head in response to the "I want a cigarette" thought needs to be, "Well, since I have decided not to do that anymore, what shall I do instead for the three minutes this crave will last?" Then DO it. You will need to put some effort into this in the early days, but it gets easier and easier to do.
Stay close to us here and ask questions when you have them and for support when you need it. We will be with you every step of the way!
Nancy
