Hi I?m new here!
Hi and welcome aboard. I wish you success and a good experience on this journey you are beginning.
Your post raises so many thoughts for me. Hopefully, I don't get too long-winded. (I've always been that way, but I suspect I've got even more wind these days, since I've quit smoking.
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First, an answer to your question ("did any of you feel the same way?"). Yes, I absolutely felt the same way. I had a very deep behavioral/ psychological attachment to cigarettes that I feel was much more complicated than the physical addiction. I had a great deal of fear, anxiety and even sadness/ grief over letting go of that "last cigarette". Even now, I would say that the psychological attachment took me much longer to break; it took me 4 months to work towards that last cigarette, whereas it only took me 3 days to physically detox from nicotine at the end. (The physical detox will not take any more than 3 days with you, either. Once I learned that fact, I was much less upset about going through it.) Honestly, I would also say that I'd still be smoking if I thought I could do it without consequences. However, as you progress in your quit, you will find many positive consequences to quitting. You will very quickly notice improvements in your senses of taste and smell, skin condition, your own odors/ smells, breathing quality, etc. And the long term consequences in terms of life and quality of life add up quickly, too.
I used nicotine replacement therapy (nicotine lozenges) while I was working on the mental and behavioral changes. In fact, I worked at it one "trigger" at a time, replacing certain cigarettes with lozenges for a few weeks before moving on to the next set.
This method is very much NOT recommended in anything I have read, including the inserts on the boxes of lozenges; you are not supposed to smoke while also using the nicotine replacement products. However, I had so much fear about losing all my smokes at once that I did it that way. In retrospect, it would have been physically easier to quit all at once. But I don't know if I would have been able to handle that big of a behavioral transition at once. Either way, I'm quit now, so it really doesn't matter how I got here. (Someday, you will also congratulate yourself for getting there, regardless of how you go about it.
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So, here are some suggestions to help you get ready for your quit:
1) Read about different approaches and methods. We all do this a little bit differently. You need to find an approach that will work for you.
2) Check out the other tools on this site. There are areas to to read and learn.
a) There are "milestones" to complete. These are to be done as you progress through your quit. Right now, you could read through the first one, which I think is about getting ready to quit.
b) There is also an area where you can blog (either publicly or privately) about your feelings about the quit.
c) The cravings diary is also a tool I have found to be very useful. I wish I had started it earlier than I did, so I could judge my progress better. I do know that it really helps with my perspective to see how much and how rapidly the desire to smoke has gone down.
d) Look at other peoples' quit meters. Notice how much life they are gaining and how much money they are saving. Start looking forward to that day when you set your own quit meter and get to watch those numbers add up.
There are some very good and supportive people on here right now. I'm sure they will also jump in with more insights and ideas. Good luck to you. I look forward to seeing you around.
