Not Easy - Can't Expect It To Be

I was hospitalised with a chest infection that was made a whole lot worse by some pills recently prescribed and now stopped. Being in hospital for 3 days I couldn't smoke. On day 2 I was feeling antsy so I asked for a patch (which took 7 hours to get). On release I used the patches for 3 days but they kept falling off and I got so annoyed I just stopped them. I was 40 a day for 35 years and have now made it to day 40 without a smoke. Have cravings a lot still and it is impossible to know how much is physical and how much mental. I still think "oh good, time for a ciggie" and even say it out loud on occasion before I remember I don't. Worse time is if I can't sleep or wake up at night.

I guess that I've learned that you just have to be really stubborn and take it one day or one hour or one craving at a time. Who knows if I'll succeed or not but I won't smoke today and tomorrow I'll see how I'll go. Just because I didn't really use any pills or replacement stuff doesn't mean I recommend that. I do think it was best for me but do whatever you think is best for you. Just had to stop writing for a while as really strong craving, but I'll get past this one. I do wonder when they will stop, but I have to assume they will. Best info I could find for a long tome heavy smoker such as myself it could be 3 months. Ah well I'm about half way there. Probably the biggest thing keeping me going is that i don't want to go back to square one and start the process again and repeat the 40 days I've already had.

Anyway, if you get an enforced break from smoking such as a hospital stay or similar, it can be a good way to kick start the process of stopping.