I will lessen your fear that suddenly you're going to have strong cravings, because you won't. There will be some, but that's just because the nicotine is leaving your body and those nasty nicotine receptors in your brain are dying off. /blogs/crazymama_Lori-blog/2016/07/21/the-more-you-know is a blog I wrote that has a link to an article that has some very useful information in it and on that site. You will have ups and downs but it's all part of the process and part of NML. These are the links to the weekly blogs about it: No Man's Land Weekly Blogs. during this time, use that search function at the top right of your screen or go to Relapse Prevention and read a lot there.
You will find yourself in a lot of those articles during this time. Suddenly around six months you're going to have the thought of oh, just one won't hurt. I've been quit this long, I'm good. Let those sirens go off. it's just the addictive mind tricking you into believing that. /blogs/Giulia-blog/2008/10/12/wise-words-that-helped-me-when-i-first-quit is another bookmark I have that I refer to from time to time when life throws me a loop.
Just have the mind set that this is a science experiment and you are the subject. experience each day and learn from it. You're going to have days when you cry at the drop of a hat and other days you're just fine. it doesn't last long. Every month you're going to notice that they become less and less. use the search function and type in nicotine receptors and you'll learn how those little buggers like to hang in there for the longest time. Mine seemed to hang around forever, but I had 43 years of building them up. So it makes sense that it would take a while for them to die down.
After six months, the urges out of the blue are usually an association with something you've done in your life that you smoked your way through for many years. Those associations are there because you never replaced them with anything new. I always think of my brain as a huge filing cabinet. The first year is basically me purging through the files and replacing the old yellowed nicotine stained pages with fresh new ones to take its place. you're in the period of rebirth, rejoice ~!!!!!
