There's lots new on this site tonight! I've spent almost two hours reading and responding to the blogs, so this one may be kind of short! We have a lot of new quitters here, too, and now I'm starting to feel like -- okay -- a senior newbie. I am so close to the time when I was trembling at the thought of giving up my smokes, the time when I was 35 hours quit and thought I would kill for a cigarette. When I was 7 days in wondering if I could even do this. But throughout those thoughts, I've had the learning and the support of this community, and I can honestly say at Day 26 (to all you people under a week) it hasn't been as hard as I thought it would be. I've had bad moments, and I had one whole bad afernoon. Other than that they have been little waves that wash over me and go away. Remember I was the smoker of all smokers -- when I could do it everywhere all the time that's exactly what I did and I smoked over 3 packs a day. When it got more restrictive I smoked less, but not because I thought it was a good idea!
My point is that I know I had a serious nicotine addiction, but I also believe I have had every psychological tie to smoking it's possible to have after 50 years of smoking. My triggers had triggers. But the fact that 26 days have gone by and it's getting easier is wonderful. The fact that I am doing this quit with so much more self-awareness than I ever had before is wonderful. The fact that I have not felt deprived for more than 2 minutes in 26 days is a wonderful miracle. (I would like to say that I haven't felt deprived at all, because I know I'm not, but I've probably had a total of four pouty moments that lasted about 30 second each. We're only human).
So, brand newbies, this is especially for you. I, the woman who (stupidly) pledged to be the last smoker on the planet, who extolled the virtues of smoking to a ridiculous degree, am 26 Days quit, and I am HAPPY. The anxiety I experience, the craves that come over me, the recollection with a jolt of how I would have been smoking in this situation before -- all of that is okay. . It is what it is and it will diminish.
Please work on knowing in your head and your heart, that quitting smoking is giving up NOTHING. You desperately wanted to quit while you WERE smoking, so that has to tell you something.
There's a wonderful blog on Acceptance in the Best of EX Group here on this site that blew me away,and I would suggest it's really worth reading.
Okay, my blogs are never short.
