Start Day Tomorrow

Hi There, Red-67 has made a fair point above, BUT.

If your smoking was calming you? Filling your time? Stopping you from fidgeting? Relaxing you? Starting a conversation with another smoker nearby? Helping you socialize? Reducing you eating too much? Easing the craving for another puff? You might need to learn a bit more? You might need to plan your Quit to make yourself more prepared for those early days or weeks of discomfort?

I call these things the 'void", that the halting of the smokes creates.

I wanted to write a post along those lines and titling it "The Void" or something similar.

I'm heading for 600 day's of freedom now and probably wont write it,so, I hope someone else could pick the thread up and do a post like that?

Who know's if it would help someone? It could be a pessimistic story, although, for somebody, it might allow what to expect in the early stages of a Quit?

You will Quit when your good and ready!

Oh. Sorry Norah. That wasnt meant to go on your post,. It was meant for somebody else yesterday!

I remember typing it, unfortunately didnt delete it.

Sorry.

If you put your mind into the Quit early and get a few day's without a single puff. The Quit becomes relatively easy after that.

All good puffnomore (great name by the way) Thank you for support :)

Thank you Leeann really appreciate your support

Thanks Murrumbidgee Norah, . I did feel embarrassed when that got sent off at first, It was meant to go to someone else yesterday.

Too much cabin fever with this extended "lockdown"

All the best...

Welcome Norah.

I hope that you have been reading our stories and comments for some time now and have learned that stopping smoking is not just about getting over the nicotine addiction. There is a change of attitude and how we think of smoking that goes along hand in hand with it.

You might as well be comfortable with a higher dosage of nicotine while you wrap your head around other ideas. After all NRT stands for Nicotine Replacement Therapy, but the mind also requires rewiring. We have been brainwashed for years and defended our addiction because we didn't think that we could escape it.

Seeing others start out afraid just like you and then opening their minds to the new concept and latching on to these new ideas and winning their freedom is so hopeful to the newcomers. Quitting smoking is achieveable and there is plenty of proof here. Whatsmore is that we all love it! So why are people afraid?

They may be afraid of failure.....but practice makes perfect....and persistence pays off. If at first you don't succeed, try , try, again. There is no greater reward than gaining our freedom. Treating yourself with little rewards along the way , or saving for a trip are all great ways to show that your money can bring satisfaction in other ways, and satisfaction , pride and happy things raise our dopamine. We miss the hits of dopamine nicotine delivers so we need to find other ways.

Nicotine causes us to light up to alleviate the cravings which it causes. That is why we only think that we enjoyed smoking. We timed it so that we felt very few. We started to use it as a reward...before, after and even during a chore. In celebrations and in sorrow, before dinner because we were hungry and after because we were sated. We used every excuse.

FEAR.....Forget Excuses/Accept Reality

The reality is that nicotine made us addicts and that smoking and the delivery of tars and chemicals along with it poisons our bodies. Nicotine itself is not that harmful and it can be weaned from. Smoking is just a bad habit and hard to break. It is a psychological challenge and takes some time.

We can quit smoking when we WANT to and when we BELIEVE that we can.

We did and you Will! Welcome to the Winning Team!

Hi Norah and a BIG welcome to you!

Congratulations on your decision to break free! You are smart to replace the bad behavior with a new behavior. Keep repeating the new habit until it becomes routine. You need not be nervous, perhaps switch that thought to be "excited" instead. It's all in how you think.

To Happiness - you never cease to amaze me!! When I think you must not have any more words of encouragement to write, you come up with more. Sometimes I find myself on shaky ground and I too need a dose of "Happiness" and am always eager to read your comments. I find what you say to be very helpful, inspiring and educational as well. Thank you Happiness, you are a great lead!

Back to Norah: Norah, stick with this site and you will get a lot out of it. So many seasoned non-smokers here in this community volunteer their precious time to help out people like you and I. Yes, I am still a "newbie" and I appreciate dearly these people who have already found their freedom but come back to hold our hands.

Try to pop onto this site on a daily basis Norah. I do, in fact I think I NEED to pop in, in order to keep focused, even if it's just to respond to a post to encourage someone else. Being eager to help others kinda becomes contagious.

Keep as positive as you are and stay focused. The more non-smoking time you have under your belt, the easier it gets and the closer you are to FREEDOM! You can do this! Keep us in the loop Norah, we are behind you all the way. Best...

Hi Norah, I got through my first full day yesterday without any prior planning. I woke up and said today is the day, maybe it was not the best strategy but here I am. I went to bed the last two nights listening to "The Hypnotist" he does podcasts on unlearning the habit for me it is not the addiction its the brain training. My only strategy at the moment is anger, how dare cigarette companies plant this addiction in the brain of a child and then steal my money, my health and eventually my life if I don't stop. So each time I had a craving yesterday I thought FU you will not control my brain any longer, I am not a robot and I will not let you steal from me anymore. I know it is not the usual approach, but well fighting back has worked for me in other things, why not this. Happy to exchange ideas, if you would like.

I really liked your comments Ris,...

Hi Everyone Happiness, Nope2021, Ris and Leeann

Thank you so very much for your wonderful support, it really helps!

I am happy to report I am on my 2nd day of no smokes and feeling proud I made it through the first day without busting.

I know I wont be successful without a plan and importantly a daily plan.

I woke up this morning thinking about all the things I could do to focus on my self care in general, something I havent done for 28 months. I started smoking heavily after being hit by a car that put me in hospital for 4 months and permanently disabled, so unable to mobilise and do minimal exercise. Prior to that day I was very active and healthy. I am strong independent type, so being restricted and having carers look after me wasnt something I liked, but very grateful, eventually I was able to drive and found a isolated property away from traffic because of CPTSD. And if that wasnt enough to deal with, I found myself in a traumatising system, that didnt care about helping me, but instead where they could spend as little as possible to support my injury, what a crazy system!

I now live with chronic pain and heavily medicated to function, but enough though most think my smoking was justified, its a killer and I relate to Ris post. I am full of anger, angry at what happened, the driver was charged but court system (what a joke) let her off with no penalty at all, even though the driver was 100% at fault.

So today is a new day and my plan to is to do the following self care activities, to fill the smoking void.

1. light the wood fire - something I dont do often enough

2. burn incense - hold in my hands whenever a craving strikes

3. make a daily check list - visual of the things that support my self care

4. prepare my dinner by 12pm

5. tidy spare room for wwoofer/carer arrival

6. 15 minutes on vibrogym

7. have a hydrating facial while listening iquit meditation

8. make nutrient dense smoothy for lunch

9. attend 1 nicotine anonymous meeting

10. create a beautiful office space to work in

11. vacuum lounge and kitchen area

12. work on podcast, book, phone app

Thats a plan that makes me happy, but also a guide so I dont have to achieve everything, just setting the intention. (pre-injury I was the over achiever type!)

I would love to hear about the things you do to distract from smoking, especially self care things.

Thank you all again for taking the time out of your day to support me, I can see this will be an important part of my success of being a non smoker :) :)

Thanks Nora for relating to my comment. I am really sorry you have had such a life changing experience it must be so hard adjusting to a new reality. What I will say from hearing your story is that you have a SUPER POWER that will help you kick smoking and that is your fighting spirit and resilience. Hope you acknowledge that you are a force to be reckoned with, that is evident because your track record proves you have survived and are still fighting. And now you aren't making excuses you are getting in there and saying I can quit, that is awesome just own it. No question you have got this

Touche.

As Ris pointed out you are a fighter. As an over achiever you will ace this challelnge. Nothing can keep you down, not then and not now.

We can look on the negative side of things or find some positives to make our day brighter. Same goes for this change we opted for. It is a wonderful change and I didn't need to do the housework and extras I planned to tackle. I didn't buy rewards. The astonishment on hubbys face when I told him I quit was my inspiration. We had talked about it briefly several times, but of course always put it back on the shelf just as quickly. Joining a quit group really can make the difference. I started to think that maybe I really could stop smoking and enjoy an early retirement. I had a stroke ( from which I am 95% recovered) a year later from inactivity. I am sure the years of smoking didn't help.

I am thankful for quitting smoking when I did, and value life much more. We take a lot for granted.

Kudos to you for doing what you can for yourself. Always think positive and you can excel at anything.

How's your Murrumbidgee going Norah?

Are you behaving and out of lockdown?

Our Wollondilly is running rapidly toward the Sydney Basins fresh water reserve in Waragamba.

Unfortunately, we are still in lockdown.

Oh, I almost forgot Nors, . Have you left those smokes in your past and did you try that two patch system? How did it go?

Hi Norah thinking of you and hope all is going well with your quitting smoking 😊❤️

Hi everyone and Jessfreeof, Puffnomore, Happiness, Ris

I am sorry for delay, I have been in hospital with suspected heart attack 9 days after stop smoking!! I think its the double nicotine patches I've been using, as suggested by the quit line. I am not using any nicotine patches at all today, as I am scared they will be the cause of heart attack. Geez. But good news is, I have not smoked since that day I quit. I am feeling proud of myself. I have been doing nicotine anonymous meetings on zoom, and they seem to be very helpful as well. Its good to be able to say how things are without feeling guilt or shame or both!

And cant believe we are in lockdown again! But glad to be a non smoker in lockdown. I had cravings this morning and got straight onto a NiCA meeting in Kentucky USA 9am our time and didnt smoke or over eat, so thats good :)

Hi everyone and Jessfreeof, Puffnomore, Happiness, Ris

I am sorry for delay, I have been in hospital with suspected heart attack 9 days after stop smoking!! I think its the double nicotine patches I've been using, as suggested by the quit line. I am not using any nicotine patches at all today, as I am scared they will be the cause of heart attack. Geez. But good news is, I have not smoked since that day I quit. I am feeling proud of myself. I have been doing nicotine anonymous meetings on zoom, and they seem to be very helpful as well. Its good to be able to say how things are without feeling guilt or shame or both!

And cant believe we are in lockdown again! But glad to be a non smoker in lockdown. I had cravings this morning and got straight onto a NiCA meeting in Kentucky USA 9am our time and didnt smoke or over eat, so thats good :)

WOW Norah I didn't know there was nicotine anonymous groups. I 🙏 that you have been able to stay off the smokes and your health continues to improve ❤️😊