@Sarahw13 Welcome to the Ex and congrats on your desire to quit. Cravings and being emotional are part of nicotine withdrawal. When you quit, you're not only eliminating nicotine, but additional chemicals. Your body is going react to loss and respond in various ways. Some are physical and some are psychological.
There are lots of things you can do for cravings. Quitters choose different options. I used sour patch kid, chewing on straws, keeping busy, walking, video games, etc. The list is endless. For most quitters keeping moving and busy distracts from cravings.
As for the anger, again go for a walk to refocus your thinking and get a boost of lost dopamine which will improve you mood. And deep breathing exercises work great to ride a crave and deal with emotional moments.
Nicotine was designed to give you a temporary high so you need more in a short period of time. That's how you and all of us got addicted. Understanding nicotine addiction gives you the power to overcome it's hold on you. Having a plan with how to cope with cravings and withdrawal symptoms, puts you in control.
This is a great link place to start
https://www.becomeanex.org/guides/?cid=footer_community_linktobex
You reached out, so that must mean you want this for yourself. I found this site by accident almost 5 years ago . We have to give ourselves credit for quitting, but I doubt that I could have done it without the daily support I received here.
So don't give up. Prepare a plan for your quit date. You only have to do this for one day. I know you can do that. Before you know it, you'll be looking back at many of those one days you've accomplished.
Stick around. We'd love to celebrate your milestones with you.
Barb
I felt-angry too when I quit in 2013 in the fall. I was 54, had quit drinking when I was 27 and gone back to smoking because I couldn't stand having feelings at that time. Before I knew it I'd been sober a long time but smoked up a storm in those decades--hardly better than sobering up. But at 27, I thought quitting drinking was big enough, quitting smoking could wait. I waited, and waited and waited and waited. And I excused myself from worrying about the disaster of nicotine addiction. I've been smober 9.5 years now. How sweet it is!!!
You can manage your quit, even if you are more angry than you'd like to be. Is a few months of anger worth what will follow--acceptance and understanding will come. Anger is ok. Not fun, not fun for your husband. But it will pass. It's not that you need to get your anger under control IMO, it's that you need to reaffirm your comittment to smobriety one day at a time. As you smober up, you'll discover what it is that you need to do for yourself to handle your daily ups and downs. Nothing in life requires nicotine in order to accomplish it.
Give yourself credit for your decision, live up to your expectations of yourself regarding your quit.
