Its been 3 months almost and I still have a very strong desire to smoke. It just comes out of nowhere and I can taste the cigarette and feel the feeling of inhaling if I let myself think about it too long. I have quit smoking many times before for a month, 3 months, even 6 months and I always have gone back. I quit for 3 months , messed up after having the last panic attacks and smoked for 3 weeks, then quit again and I am still not smoking. Its hard tho, very hard. I dont want to start again, they just cost too darn much but a part still wants to smoke and I am afraid it always will. It would be nice to know that if I just hang in there, these urges will stop. Anyone out there who has been quit for a long time that can tell me that?
Sunday, July 25, 2010
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7 comments:
It isn't easy but it can be done. I went from almost three packs a day . I was so bad that I would light a match then realize I had no cigarette in my mouth. The worse was in the morning when I had a cup of coffee. IT GETS BETTER!
I am around smokers-no problem. I could even light a cigarette for my dad in the nursing home. It takes time to get over that addiction.
Now I couldn't afford to smoke and am so glad I stopped over 25 years ago. Hang in there.
Good luck. I have never smoked so I don't have any advise.
It is tough. I started smoking when I was 17. I went from Cigs to mini cigars (primetimes) It can be very hard, especially when it has become your consistent emotional support and you know that it will instantly have that relief for you. For me It has been all about finding a replacement behavior. In my life that comes in the form of working out. I smoked largely to handle my anxiety but find that working out on a daily basis and being responsible about my eating has greatly reduced the cravings. I still have them, and think I probably always will since it was such a big part of my life for so long, but as time passes I have been able to give those urges less and less power.
Stick with it raine. And just because you slip doesn't mean you cant stand back up and go at it again. Its a lifestyle change, and that is a hard thing. If it was easy we'd all be skinny, non smokers ;-)
I smoked very long (more than 20 years) and stopped 1.1.99. The first three months were not easy, but I found fear a good motivator. I had no more craving or desire to smoke until I started the night shifts as security assistant. Slowly but steadily it came back and I had in the end four or five cigarillo a night, depending on where I worked and what I had to do. Never smoked on daytime. I quit the work and stopped smoking 1.1.2010. I smoked since then only a handful of selfmade cigarettes (maybe six) in emotional stressing situations (after an argument f.e.). There is no longing for it any more and I think I will not begin serious smoking again. I can have coffee or a cold beer and have no need, no urge to smoke. I very rarely dream about it.
So, in a nutshell: It gets better. Add some light training, you'll feel better.
Our neurobiology is so strong and has a long memory.
This is a question about habits, habit-forming and changing habits, I think. Somebody once told me that it takes two weeks to change a habit, but offered no corroborating evidence to support that claim! So much for that.
I find it easiest to change a habit if I have something to substitute for it, and this approach works best when I actually know why it is that I'm doing the thing I'm trying to change (ie, I'll seek to achieve the same objective, but with a different behaviour). I smoke, but I don't know why, and I'll be honest and say that I'm afraid to find out, just in case it's because I'm secretly trying to kill myself, albeit very slowly!
So, I tell myself that it helps me think; and then I go and roll myself another cigarette, which keeps the cost down a little bit!
Matt
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