Quitting tomorrow

That freedom is within sight, just keep going.  The mental part was the most difficult to me as well - at times it felt like there was a little General in my brain shouting commands, and it felt very challenging to ignore him and move on with my day.  For me that was the key, though - MOVING ON WITH MY DAY.  The tough times were when I debated with it, or with myself, or tried to use argument or logic to tamp it down.  It's like I made it angry, lol.  Just ignoring it, as if it was a child throwing a little temper tantrum that had nothing to do with me or my day, made it easier to walk away.  And the good news is that my brain got the message relatively quickly!  Within a couple weeks the little nicotine monster had realized that *I* was in charge now, and the cravings started to quickly dissipate.  Cravings turned into thoughts instead, which felt a lot less threatening and therefore even easier to deal with. That's where I'm at now, and the thoughts continue to decrease in frequency and importance every week.  You can do this.  Might as well keep this one going, right?  No point jumping ship just to have to do all of this again next week or next month or next year.

Tired of Stumbling, Quitting in a Few Days

2.5 years since last quit

Hiya Thisisme - are you still at it?

Tired of Stumbling, Quitting in a Few Days

Post anywhere, but I really like following the storylines of quits, so to speak, so I'd be super excited to see you use this thread you started as a kind of quit journal. And here's to August 23rd as the big day. Only don't treat it like a big day - it's a day, just like any other, only that day you won't smoke (this kind of mental trickery and reframing helps me a lot, but you find your own groove.... and then write about it!!).  One day at a time has served me very well in other addictions as well.  If freedom exists for us elsewhere, then it can exist here, too.

June quitter

Day 62 - and I got my lower braces put on today!  They had a cancellation appointment so I jumped on it.  And next week I head out on my vacation in the woods, and this will be my very first long-distance hike without smoking since I was 16.  I have attempted to quit on past hikes, and it never worked.  This time, I am SO EXCITED that I don't have to drag my habit around with me all vacation long, and I know I can get through the long drive easily.  It's finally over,  I'm no longer "trying to quit." I've been relieved of that particular misery.  Trying to quit is the worst.  ACTUALLY QUITTING is the best!

Quitting tomorrow

Tired of Stumbling, Quitting in a Few Days

The menial tasks thing is a really great quitting tool.  I used knitting at home or mindless busy-work at work to occupy the time.  The absolute worst thing I ever did in my quit attempts was dig in to the smoking thoughts and set up shop.  I would wade in, roll around, and panic.  Conversely, the best thing I ever did was learn how to immediately dismiss any and all thoughts that encouraged smoking, and get busy doing something else. I really found that minimizing what smoking "meant" to me was helpful.  As was reading here about the first few weeks of other folks' quit, to see that I was simply passing through normal phases.  My addiction wanted me to believe that I was in trouble, that depression and restlessness and whatever else was going to be too much to handle.  Once I could see it as a temporary bit of weather I was passing through and nothing more, I could detach from it more easily.  Sunny skies lay ahead, trust me.  I also reminded myself repeatedly that I was sick of quitting.  I didn't want to do it anymore, and the only way to not have to do it anymore was to stick with it this time.  I look forward to your posts, I am on here pretty often :)

Quitting tomorrow

What made this time different for me?  Honestly, I was just sick of myself, pure and simple.  I had yet another plan to quit on this certain date (when my chain-smoking partner would be away), and it just sort of dawned on me how pathetic I was making myself with all these grandiose attempts and ideas about *some day* when quitting would suddenly be easier.  I had been telling myself the same old story, and falling in the same old holes, for years. I was sick of quitting.  I was sick of myself.  And I realized that I either had to resign myself to smoking for the rest of my life and let it go, or I had to just quit and stick with it for once and for all.  Doing the back-and-forth dance was too much bullsh*t for one brain to deal with.  Sh*t or get off the pot, as my grandma used to say.  So about a week or two before that Big Quit Day, I ran out of smokes at bedtime.  And I didn't buy any the next morning, because I simply ran out of excuses to justify putting it off.  There was never going to be some magic opportune time, there was never going to be a day that it would all be easy, I was never going to magically grow out of the habit; I had to put my foot down and just stop the nonsense.  This quit really began with a whimper instead of a bang.  One night I smoked the last cigarette in my 20-pack, and the next morning I decided that I wasn't going to buy another pack. And it was super uppermost in my mind that if I had one cigarette, I would be drawing this out for another day/week/month/year. I wanted this whole phase of my life (this "I need to quit smoking" phase) to end already.  And Sparrow, it gets SO GOOD!  It's finally over for me!  Now I'm just ironing out the kinks in my thinking, so to speak. The hardest part is long behind me.  It really does not take that long to get through the muck of it, and the residual stuff is very manageable in comparison.  But the only way to do it is to simply do it.  There's no short cuts or magic beans.  It's finding that inner resolve (which began as simple resignation for me, but it grew into resolve!) and keeping my eye on the prize but my mind in the present: right now, in this moment, I am choosing not to smoke.  Moments add up.

Tired of Stumbling, Quitting in a Few Days

Hi QFG! I had the same experience in all of my quits - the mornings were the easiest part to get a hold of, and they were also the most magical in terms of my gratitude and exuberance regarding how it felt to NOT be smoking.  I would remember those thoughts and feelings during times when I felt like smoking - how awesome it felt for a few minutes to feel free of it.  I looked back in my quit thread here, and it looks like I also went through a period of depression that coincided with my quit.  I actually used it to my advantage, haha - I was too depressed to bother going out to buy smokes, so it must have been a pretty severe brain upset.  Plus I knew if I smoked I would then have two problems instead of one.  Complain or gripe all you want here if it helps, I promise I'll read it!  A positive mindset is the best tool to have, but if that's not available on any given day then vent it out and borrow someone else's positivity.  I seem to have it in abundance right now so I'm willing to give it away :) Humans are pack animals and designed to support one another.

June quitter

Day 65, and yesterday my chain-smoking partner returned from his month overseas.  He lit up indiscriminately, of course, and I almost instinctively asked him for a drag.  That was my absolute favourite way to cheat on a quit - it doesn't *really* count if it's just a couple drags off his, right?  RIGHT?! Hahaha.  Anyway, my brain totally recognized the opportunity to do its job by repeating the pattern, and I found my hand lifting up on autopilot as the thought popped into my mind.  I was disturbed for a microsecond, and then I had a good little laugh at myself and went on with life as a non-smoker.  So that's another big milestone in my quit: The guy came back and I still did not smoke.  I'm so glad I decided to quit just before he left, though, instead of waiting for him to be away.  I already had a bit of practice not smoking around him in the memory bank, and so it didn't feel like a Huge Deal when he returned.  After that initial, "Can I have a drag?' impulse, the rest of the evening was a piece of cake and in fact I didn't have a single other thought about smoking the entire time, even though he smoked consistently.  I felt glad it was him, not me :/  He's talking about quitting now, but we'll see how that pans out.  It's nice to know that whether he quits or not, it doesn't impact *my* quit.  I really used to think that I would never be successful as long as he continued to smoke, but that was just another story I told myself to justify my smoking and make it seem too hard to stop.