Side effects
Hi Zammy.
Your doing great! get through today hour by hour. Use your Deep Breaths, Drink lots of Water, Distract by moving around. Do some knee bends, call a friend, I left my housework undone for something to do and keep my mind and body busy for my quit. Tomorrow will be a better day Zammy. Just hang in there. The nicotine withdrawal only last 3 days. I am glad you are pleased with yourself, that is a sign that you want this quit. We are all here to support you emotionally and to share our stories so that you can use what you learn to aid your own quit. Don't forget to drink plenty of water, not just as a distraction, but to flush the nicotine from your system faster. You will feel much better once the nicotine is gone and you can concentrate on your life as a non-smoker. .
What quit method are you using? I smoked 45 years pk/day and so glad that i quit cold turkey. I don't take an aspirin unless i have to . So what the heck was i thinking putting all those poisons and chemicals of a cigarette into my body? We shake our heads now to our stupidity, but would any one make a conscious decision to do that? We most started as teenagers to fit in. Choke the first one down. A month later repeat and try to look cool this time. you thought, ugg, taste awful, no way im gonna get hooked. BOOM. That first one is all it takes. Why then does it taste so good later on, why is it the first thing we think of went we sit down with our morning coffee (if we wait that long). The point is no one wants to be addicted to the cigarette but it happens fast. Every time you put one out the withdrawal starts again and builds. We have dealt with constant withdrawals for all our lives if you think about it. We only think that smoking makes us feel better but it doesn't. It is the cause of our low in the first place. The nicotine alters the dopamine and fooled you into believing you needed it., enjoyed it. The dopamine is the part of your brain that senses pleasure. Even when another part of our brain tells us we are fools, we just can't admit that we are addicted. We have all tried to walk away and quit upon this realization but of course it is hard to do. We were much younger and think, not yet, its not hurting me.
Remember today when you get a craving, just how much it cost you for all your pain and suffering. How stupid it makes you feel. How it controlled you all these years, set your schedule, things you may have missed because you had to sneak off for a smoke, Places you didn't go, or events you didn't attend because you didn't think you would enjoy them if you were denied your smoking privileges. Remember how panicked you would be when you realized you only had that 1 left in the pack and would have to wait for morning to get more. See what a slave you became to it. How often did he stand out in the rain, snow storm , a blizzard even. Anything for the almighty cigarette. Today, if you are getting cravings, then think how the cigarette negatively affected your life.
Tomorrow, when the physical withdrawal from nicotine have passed. redirect your thoughts to positive ones. How glorious to no longer be a slave. How fresh you will smell, how your nails wont be brittle , your fingers tarred , teeth yellowed , how your skin will glow. Keep taking deep breathes. Your lungs are healing already and you can feel the difference. Oxygenate your body to help it heal faster. If you feel stressed, just think that the non-smokers manage to do live life and managed just fine. Admit how jealous you were than the weren't chained to the devil. Be thankful you have a chance to be a non-smoker as you were before picking up a cigarette.
By concentrating on what you do want, to be a non-smoker you will be reconditioning the dopamine. Just as you alter your routine as to replace times that you associated with a cigarette, so do you change the thought process. This is the mind-set you hear people speak of. If you are embracing the though of moving forward and become a Non -Smoker , relish the thought of having the freedom of a Non-Smoker, then you have freed your brain to accept it too. If you no longer desire being a Smoker you won't crave having a cigarette. Why would you? Why crave something that you do not want?
You got this Yammy. I did it . Red-67 did it. I believe Robn did too. I am sure many others have too, but i am new here and those are the stories i have been following. Believe and it will happen. Open your minds, Welcoming the change to becoming a Non-Smoker and you will become a Happy Non-Smoker. I promise you it will be the best decision you have ever made.