I wrote this on my blog today.

 

Today is the fourth day of my quit. I am just trying to keep track of my feeling for the first week. I'm told that the nicotine is now gone from my body and I have reached the peak withdrawal from it. I'm not sure what that means. If the nicotine is completely gone, why would I still be going through nicotine withdrawal which I'm told could last 3 months.

Lately I have been having urges to reach for a cigarette. I have decided that instead of trying to ignore it, I just tell myself that I just had one. I am really very convincing and I actually think I just had one and therefore I don't want one anymore. lol Unfortunately, this is not my long term plan of action. The longer I tell myself I just had a cigarette, the more I will look at my self as a smoker. NOT GOOD. It does help with the first few days though.

The physical withdrawal is done by day 3-4 HOWEVER the physiological  withdrawal lasts longer there is no set time for you to say I have retrained my brain but I assure you it does happen as each day goes by then a week a month. Yes you will still have thoughts and urges but they are nothing like they were in the beginning. Your are doing great. Distraction is the best remedy what I did in the earlier days was I would say ok not now but if you really want later you can smoke first off I made sure there were never any around. But by saying to myself ok you can if that is what you want, but just wait to later or after work or tomorrow and you will be surprised you get busy distracted and later doesn't happen that was my trick. I still do that if an urge is really strong. I tell myself you are free to do what you want but not right now.

I wrote this on my blog today.

 

Today is the fourth day of my quit. I am just trying to keep track of my feeling for the first week. I'm told that the nicotine is now gone from my body and I have reached the peak withdrawal from it. I'm not sure what that means. If the nicotine is completely gone, why would I still be going through nicotine withdrawal which I'm told could last 3 months.

 

Lately I have been having urges to reach for a cigarette. I have decided that instead of trying to ignore it, I just tell myself that I just had one. I am really very convincing and I actually think I just had one and therefore I don't want one anymore. lol Unfortunately, this is not my long term plan of action. The longer I tell myself I just had a cigarette, the more I will look at my self as a smoker. NOT GOOD. It does help with the first few days though.

Anything that helps you get through Hell Week, I say go for it!  You are doing great!

Keep at it Breathless!!!!!  You are doing awesome!!!! :)

Agree with all the above... Do what you have too...you ARE doing brilliant..

Your junkie brain has to catch up with your body...this takes a little longer...

Day by day..you leave this addiction behind...x

Ok, Dorren.

 

I like you. You're sexy and you seem like a pretty nice person, so I'm going to lay this out for you. No Mr. Nice Guy and no fluff. You're on Straight Talk with Jim Hannoonen.

You've made a choice to not smoke anymore and that's awesome, but remember this.

No matter what you do, no matter how many patches you put on your body, how many pills you take or wads of nicotine gum you shove in your mouth, none of these things are going to be a cigarette and none are going to make you feel ok. You're gong to go through some gnarly sh*t over the next few months and you know what? That's ok.

You're going to be walking down a dark and dismal road for a while and you're going to be scared and angry. You're going to feel alone and miserable. This is going to really, really suck for you at some point. Anyone here can tell you that. This may be one of the hardest things you've ever done and you're likely going to question why you're putting yourself through it.

But with all that said, you will deal with the cravings. You'll take those deep, cleansing breaths and get past them, just like so many others here have. You'll have some of the worst days you've ever had. But you'll work through them.
You're going to find that you're a lot stronger than you thought you were. That you're capable of dealing with a lot more than you thought possible

You'll post insane rants that seem like they don't make any sense to anyone, but they will. They'll make sense to everyone here that reads them, because we've all been there.

Then you'll have a good day. And then another. Before you know it, most of your days are good and you find you're not thinking about smoking 24/7.  You take a deep breath and notice just how much deeper it is compared to before.

Sure, every once in a while, you may have a bad day, but just like when you started this journey, you'll take your deep, cleansing breaths and work your way through it and you'll smile when you think about all the friends you've made on this forum and the relationships you know are going to be with you for a long, long time.

You'll do all these things because that day you decided you weren't going to smoke anymore, you make a promise to yourself and you must keep that promise no matter what.

i did use little mind tricks to play with in the beginning of my quit...like talk to the crave like I had a little monster inside of me that was dying...and it was trying all sorts of ways to get me to weaken and feed it.  I would say...oh you sneaky SOB...nice try!!  haha...

 

another trick I would do would be to take 3 deep breaths...holding in my breath longer and longer and by the third one...held it in as long as I could...by the time i would blow out that last breath...my craving was gone.  No different than if I had actually smoked a cigarette...only, if I actually HAD smoked a cigarette...the nightmare cycle would NEVER end.  

Some days were worse than others...I would do the 3 deep breath trick 4 times in an hour sometimes maybe more...gradually...slowly some days...the need to do it decrease :)

 

another "trick" I would use was always having a bottle of water with me...take a nice gulp...most of us don't drink enough water anyway.

there are many tricks you can do to ease your immediate discomfort but it really is dangerous to romance the cigarette in any shape or form...I am proud of you in your quit so far though....but make no mistake...the cigarette is the enemy and you don't want to continue to make yourself believe you just had one.  On the contrary...you want to repeat to yourself mantras like "there is no such thing as 1 cigarette" or "i will not be a slave to nicotine" or my favorite "I'm a non smoker...why would I want to smoke, silly?"  

Keep at it...keep reading and watching videos...keep posting.....and NOPE!!

Different Strokes for different folks...everyone's quit is different... the 3 day... 3 week.. 3 month thing might not be your digs.  Don't put too much stock in it.  Just keep driving forward... think about how much it would suck to have to got through it again.  Plus the guilt of failure.  No Bueno.

 

It sucks right now...and it will for a while.. but you will come out the other side smelling like roses.  Keep pushing...keep fighting and don't give up.  It is soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo worth it for many reasons.  Probably stated above but I am literally too lazy to read everyones posts.

 

Keep on keepin non