Yesterday saw this post on my main blog. Today is Wednesday 30th of May so here we go. No more smoking: Day 1.
I haven't tried out a nicotine patch yet, but I do have bubblegum. So far, my cravings are only ritualistic. It's strange to skip the cigarette I usually have on the way home from dropping my daughter off at playschool. I'm not entirely sure what non-smokers do during morning break time either. I have gone many a morning without smoking though so it's nothing new to me.
Most people are encouraging, which is nice, but one stupid git whined that I'm "making excuses" instead of "just quitting". I love how people are. The moment someone wants to quit smoking there's always one person who'll tell them they're quitting smoking wrong and should do it this way instead. In fact, there's usually more than one person doing that. There's also generally a good deal of non-smokers who can't understand why quitting "that disgusting habit" is so hard for smokers. I've also noted many times that quitting time tends to be when people decide to pick fights with you. There's no medicine out there that really helps either. And then everyone sits around wondering why you started again when something snaps and you have that damn smoke.
I have gum as a substitute for when I'm driving, (I've been smoking while driving since before I got my license - driving without smoking is going to be an adjustment of note) but I'm going to have to work on a good substitute for when people irritate/upset/annoy me. It hasn't happened yet, but it will.
Or I could just give everyone around me permission to do this:
A good plan. I'm going with it.
Good luck. I quit heroin, so I think its highly possible to quit nicotine ... allthough I know first hand (hah) that its worse. Far worse.
ReplyDeleteProps for doing it though. I'm inevetably postponing it myself. Maybe next winter.
Hey Laura (and Glenn)
ReplyDeleteSmoking is worse than anything else. I don't know first-hand, because I only smoked heroin, and crystal meth, and once, crack. And a lot of coke. But never cigarettes. See, as scary as the drugs are (and they are!) they lack the socially acceptable part of the addiction. You may argue that smoking is no longer socially acceptable but you can still buy cigs at the shop, and won't be arrested kighting up outside. Try smoking meth in public. What I'm saying, in a hugely roundabout way is that because a drug addict has to hide his habit, it is easy - or easier - to forego the drugs because the triggers are far fewer, far less noticeable, and far less frequent (that sounds a strange three word combo "far less frequent") than the triggers and the temptaions a smoker deals with. Millions has been spent making cigarretes addictive, drugs are that naturally, so naturally easier to patiently wait as the body weans off drugs in a matter of days (21, and no more - the rest is ritual) than a smoker, who has weeks, months of toxxin purging happening. Let no one disabuse you of the notion of the mountain you climbing, and let no one rob you of the pride you rightly feel with each new successfully un-smoked day (*wry smile at my own bad grammar*)
Let no situation, let no other person infuse your mood to pick up that ciggie again - you're worth more, and have more power, than the situation and the person. Am so very proud of you, joining on the journey back to YOU, and back to life. (cue melodrama and a shining light, and a glut of metaphors...)