This final quit journey continues to fascinate me. It is so different than all the other times I quit. I'll take that as the sign that this is truly my last quit.
On day 14 of this quit (after continuously reducing the patch time and mg) I decided that I had enough of the NRT's. Risky, I know, but this felt right to me. It came with lots of research and soul searching. My disturbed sleep patterns and other side effects were not worth it. Since I was feeling fairly confident in my trigger and craving control strategies, I ripped off that last patch with a smile on my face - and timed that right along with the reading the last pages of the Allen Carr "Easy way to stop smoking."
"I don't do that anymore" self-talk along with breathing exercises have worked beautifully for the mild and infrequent craving attacks.
But even after 5 days of NRT free life, I'm feeling not "myself." Often still close to tears, sleep is still a bit disturbed, and I'm not my usual happy-go-lucky self. Some of it is likely related to some other health and work issues (midlife crisis anyone?). Life sometimes just all happens at the same time. And that's ok. It's part of my journey. I'll be fine.
I just hope that others around me will be fine as well. I may be wearing some of them out with my quit vaping journey stories. I'm extremely lucky to have wonderfully supportive people around me, and I do not want to scare them away with narcissistic behavior. I've decided to get out of the "me me me" mode next week to assure that I'm left with friends once I'm a "real" ex-smoker a year from now 🤣
I'm already looking forward to my 4 week quit reward to myself: subscription to a paid TV service to watch a show I've wanted to watch for years.
And I continue to be thankful for this community. Everyone's input, stories and advice are incredibly helpful!
