I gave up smoking a while ago. Again. And it is a misery.I try to tell myself how noble I am, and how good it is for me, but it doesn't seem to help much. I don't know why it's such a terrible addiction, or how it gets hold of you so badly, but it's certainly hard to shake.
No hypnotism, no tranquilizers, no nicotine gum or patches; I just stopped one day. I figured the worst part is getting up in the morning and having that first cigarette - it sets a pattern for the day. So one day I got up and didn't have that first cigarette. Later, I started chewing gum before I started gnawing on a table or shredding curtains.
The minutes and hours that crawled by turned into days, weeks, months. And I still have odd moments when, for no particular reason, just out of the blue, I absolutely crave a cigarette. Those moments are hard to resist, but so far, so good. Believe it or not, it helps to keep some upstairs in a freezer just in case; not that I intend to smoke them - they are my safety net, as it were.
Now I have such vivid dreams about smoking at least I'm enjoying a few nice cigs in the dead of night deep in my head.
Maybe someday I'll stop eating everything in sight. But it doesn't look promising. Guess it's true, you get rid of one addiction, and you replace it with another.
At least, as far as I know, popcorn doesn't cause lung cancer, although the medical community is bound find something lethal there, too, sooner or later.
But I'm not giving up popcorn, hell or high water.
6 comments:
There are many funny stories about quitting, like one woman in town who took up knitting. She'd knit these little things every time she wanted a smoke. They took ten minuted to knit, and she sold them and gave the money to some cause. I never bought one because the kind of looked like knitted tampons...
they were cigarettes, I think, guy.
They looked like tampons...I'm just sayin...
Yup, can see where knitting/crocheting would help, but would think knitting cigs would only aggravate things! Did crochet one time I quit years ago, but think it was hats. Wrists are too snarky for that now. And carrot sticks till I thought I would turn orange. Heavy sigh. This time it's popcorn.
There's a Smoker's Anonymous meeting @ Seaside Library on Weds. nites at 6:30....it worked for me..
No gum, patches, knitting, carrot sticks-no lingering doubts or second guessing, either. Went from a pack and a half a day to 0.0 cigs in one day and have not had one puff in five months. The first few days were sort'a jittery...but the physical craving goes away.
What the heck? You're gonna get the craving whether you smoke or not, so meet the challenge and dont yield to it. Seek out other recently ex smokers and seek their support and give them support too. You'll be surprised how much it helps. Drop the negative terms that set you up for failure, like "I'm trying"..that implies there is a risk of failure. Remember, "Trying is dying" Dont "try"-- just "Do".
After you get through the first week or two you are detoxed from the nicotene-but, the psychological addiction is still there. That is where positive mental and intellectual reinforcement is needed.
You're lucky, Anon, it's been a year and 3 months, and the craving is still with me. Not all the time, but it just hits me out of the blue sometimes. No surprise there, been smoking on and off about 30 years.
And I will make it simply because I have to. Can't afford cigs any more! Or the bump in medical insurance payments I'd have to cough up ('scuse the pun) as a smoker.
Glad the group helped you. Like they (whoever "they" are) say, whatever works!
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