on Dec 29, 2019If you are like me, you tried many, many times to quit. I tried different physical supports to quit, Chantix, patches, gum, and more. Nothing worked for me until I changed my frame of thinking. Please share your successes/tips/suggestions on how you quit. Here's mine;
I credit my quit with many things (my resolve, support from quit communities, and more)
But, I quit this time because I did something different. I started viewing the craves as something good instead of something bad. By doing that, I stopped fearing the cravings and I started embracing them as they came. In a manner of speaking, I looked the devil in the eyes and tried to understand him.
From this I learned, at first, the craves came every 20 minutes, lasted approximately 2 minutes. When they came I "experienced" them. I was willing to ride the wave of the crave so to speak. I didn't try to run away from them, I ran to them. Talk about sucking the power out of those craves, that thinking certainly did.
I have been smoked free for 933 days. I view myself always as in recovery from nicotine and I never underestimate the power of nicotine. I give it (nicotine) its due as a very formidable force, nothing to play with. I can never, ever have just one, there is no such thing for this nicotine addict.
Please share some of your mental gymnastics of how you quit nicotine.
That was so smart! It's our brain that makes the difference, how we think about our quits and never giving ourselves permission to smoke again. Hooray for you! I convinced myself I was just too lazy to go to the store to buy cigarettes, and then laughed about it!