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Hey activeonly and welcome to the forum! Congrats on your quit! How are you doing now? The first week is the hardest. It's a bit of a shock to the system to quit, not only physically but mentally as well. You have your habits with cigarettes and it can feel daunting to think you would ever enjoy those things without smoking. I remember feeling anxious at the thought of waiting for the bus without smoking! Turns out it was totally, fine, I had just made those situations bigger in my head than they were and associated smoking with them more than I needed to. I remember that all of the situations I dreaded in advance were actually absolutely fine in reality without cigarettes. I had put smoking on some sort of a pedestal before. Hang in there and I promise it will get easier

This is a great reminder and this could easily have been any of us. Like you, I am so grateful I quit and don't have to worry about this about my own health anymore. Such a shame though, I hope he will quit. Sadly, so many never do.

Yeah, don't start thinking you're no longer an addict!

It's a she, I'm female Yeah, the subconscious mind is an interesting one. I really don't feel that my mind is at war at anything about smoking, my quit is extremely secure and it's completely out of my mind when awake. The dreams don't happen often, just every now and then and there's no risk of a relapse at all. But it is interesting how it still features sometimes after all this time, the subconscious mind definitely works in a different way than the conscious mind! The good news is I'm always appalled in the dreams about blowing my quit, which I absolutely would be if this somehow happened in real life - obviously it won't. Great thoughts Nana20!

Yes, this is what I’m thinking too, just shows how powerful the addiction and constantly feeding it used to be. I am not worried in the slightest about my quit just to be clear, just curious about as to why this happens even after 8 years in.

Well done Nana20, two weeks is a really long time! The hardest two weeks you’ll ever have.

Thank you everyone

Happy to have reached 8 years without a single puff! Two more years and I’m in double digits!

Not at all! I don’t think about smoking when awake, have no cravings or desire whatsoever to smoke ever again. I’m not at any sort of a risk to go back to it. That’s why it’s weird it features in my dreams even after 8 years of not smoking.

I've posted about this before but I occasionally have dreams where I smoke like nothing has happened! I always think in the dream that huh, how the F am I smoking, didn't I quit? Then I think I must have thought I quit but obviously haven't and keep smoking away. In reality I've not smoked a single puff in 8 years, I have no cravings or yearnings or anything whatsoever and never think about it when I'm awake. Why do I still dream about it every now and then? I always wake up confused and it takes a few moments to realise I've not actually smoked, my quit is real and all is well. Are these dreams ever going to stop? Is this the power of addiction?

I disappeared from one forum where I was when I quit and I did wonder if people thought I had relapsed! I was just busy and doing well and didn’t get around to posting anymore. I hadn’t relapsed. I hope this is also the case for more people than we think

11 days is an eternity. Well done!!

I remember being so inspired when I first quit when I heard about other people’s success stories. It definitely gets easier with time, after some time you forget abut the whole thing, well, apart from when you have some celebrating to do!

Welcome back Lilley and congratulations on deciding to quit again! I also stuffed up a year long quit - twice - before I actually quit for good. I let myself get a bit too comfortable in my quits before, thinking I've somehow now conquered the addiction and can now control it instead. Big mistake! This time around I accepted from the start I am an addict and therefore I will not smoke again. Hope you are feeling alright about it and keep posting/reading on here

Well done JohnQ, on one of the best decisions you'll ever make! I also quit deciding I would never ever smoke again, regardless of what happens. I had a couple of failed attempts earlier, mostly due to my own cockiness about smoking/addiction and this time I decided this is actually it for life, I will never smoke again. And nearly 8 years later I can say it's worked for me. Some of us just have to totally close the door on it for good. If I hadn't been so black and white about it I'm pretty sure I would still be a smoker - the failed attempts were all the proof I needed.

This is great JohnQ! Now that you've played golf once without smoking, you can definitely do it again. The first time is always the hardest, now you know you can do it. I so remember similar things from when I quit, dreading in advance I wouldn't know how to cope in those situations without a cigarette. But of course I did and before I knew it they became the new normal way of being. Now I can't believe I ever smoked in those situations! Well done on your first week, it's the hardest week of all!

Amazing quit Abby! Thank you for the encouragement to everyone

Hey everyone, It's been a while since I've last posted. How are you all doing? Hope you've all held onto your quits! I'm getting ready to celebrate 8 years of freedom soon, very excited about that!! Hope we have many new quitters onboard too, going to catch up on the posts now.

Hey Nana20, congratulations on your quit!! How are you doing now?

Yeah for sure, luckily just a dream! For me they feel very real at the time when they happen and I'm always confused for a while upon waking up as to whether I've really smoked or not. Always great to realise it was only a dream!

I had these dreams from the start. They are less frequent now for sure but they still do happen after all this time. Even at the start I was always relieved when I woke up that I hadn't really smoked and I remember being annoyed and confused at myself for smoking in the dream in the first place. Goes to show how strong the addiction is when even now I sometimes have these dreams and I'm far along in my quit.

I've been successfully quit for well over 7 years and it's safe to say I am very good. I will never smoke again, I have no desire to, no cravings or no active thoughts about it. Every now and then I still have dreams where I smoke. I always feel really guilty about blowing my quit during the dream after I've already smoked. Or sometimes I'm confused as to why am I holding this lit cigarette in my hand. These dreams are usually followed by an extreme state of panic/confusion upon waking up about whether I've a) messed up my quit and smoked b) ever actually been quit for this long or if it's all a sham I'm always extremely relieved when my brain catches up and I realise it was just a dream and I've actually not smoked in all this time. This probably tells me how I'd feel if I relapsed.

Don't worry about the weight gain, you can normalise this later. Cigarettes tend to speed up the metabolism (well, it is poison!) so it's common for that to slow down for a bit when you quit. This will normalise pretty quickly as long as you don't start eating more or replacing the cigs with snacks etc. I didn't replace it with anything so I gained no weight. I remember my metabolism taking a little knock back in the beginning but I just rode it out and all was back to normal in no time. TBH, a little weight gain is MINOR compared to smoking god knows how many cigarettes a day.

Hey @Sos77! Sorry to hear you relapsed but the main thing is you've quit again! So congratulations on that. I found a lot of help in reading about addictions and how they work, psychologically especially, I had already quit until I started reading about it, properly. I found it really did something great to my brain, I was already ready to quit but it gave me an extra insight into what I was dealing with. Reading about addictions just reinforced that I will never smoke again under any circumstances. There's a lot of material on this site so hope you'll find it helpful.

Catching up on the posts now. Wow @mightyboosh that is big! How are you doing and feeling now? How is your quit going?