I'm 68 yo and been a smoker for 40 years. I nearly quit last fall using mindfulness training and was down to 4 cigs a day until I went through selling my business. The anxiety was just too much and I started smoking again. My quit date here on becomeanex is in 9 days. Although I have been successful in acheiving most of my life goals and am generally optimistic and confident, this time the notion of quitting has me filled with both fear and a lack of confidence that is foreign to me. I don't have phobias, don't worry much, sleep well, and am generally happy and rarely bored. So this sense of FEAR that I have about quitting - well, I don't have any coping skills to deal with it, it seems. I need help ramping up to the quit date. Every time I consider quitting (as you know, it's mostly all day long) I wonder will I be unbearably irritable, not sleep, want to jump out of my skin, restless, run out and play in traffic blindfolded. But mostly I feel afraid and am having trouble with it and no real experience dealing with it.
I have lived long enough to know I am not so unique as to think that there aren't many many of you on this site who haven't experience the very same sense of dread. It's just I'm not used to it and am hoping I can get some tools to deal with it and support from all of you folks on this site who have already passed through this stage of quitting.
Thank you in advance for any support you can give me. I will most assuredly return the favor to those who come to this site and are in my shoes.
mdmd4448
