I have figured out through trial and error that a lot of my addiction is behavioural as opposed to the nicotine itself. Don't get me wrong I know that I'm not amuned to the nicotine but when I quit for 3 months, etc I still go back to it telling everyone I like it too much which I know isn't true.
I'm looking for some tips on the psycological side of things (i.e - the need to hold it in my hand while I drive and other situations in which I smoked), which is just about all situations unless I'm inside a building or my house. Any ideas?
I'm on Champ-IX so since the drugs are working on many of the drug sides of things I've decided to jump right into society this time and start dealing with things head on as opposed to my normal routine of cutting myself off from the rest of the world and then caving the minute I think I have it beat and then realize I don't. I figure that most of the regular activities I would shy away from during my quit are ones that I will most likely go back to eventually so I've decided to attack them head on. One example would be I would normally go for a walk instead of a drive. Now I go for a drive, drive somewhere with purpose and say no. At least for me it's the psycological parts of unlearning which are most difficult for me.
Some tips I've done on my own are:
1) Eating almonds in the car while driving to keep my hands occipied. I hear their good for you too.
2) Trying to focus on the pleasures of life and giving in to some other brain demands. Spending a lot of time deciding where I want to go for lunch and savouring every bite along with how much better it tastes. Today instead of going on a random drive I drove to a suit store and got a great pair of sunglasses.
3) Learning that thinking of smoking as a reward for quitting is a dumb prize to shoot for (I'm sure I'm not alone). You know the "I'll quit and every year I'll take a vacation and only smoke during that timeframe." I've matured a little bit on the quitting front and realized that's the nicotine talking not me.
I know I'll go broke eventually from the 2nd tip but for the first few weeks I'm not going to focus on the money. After all I'll save a fortune in the long run. Any tips would be helpful. Thanks.
