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Phillip Burns
Quit Date: April 13, 2004
Posts: 21 Location: Atlanta, GA
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Posted: May 11, 2004 4:22 PM Post subject: Two Questions ?? |
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Hopefully some of you that have had your quit longer can give me a little insight on the following:
1st Question is regarding cravings. I am 4 weeks into my quit, my rational brain says that the nicotine is long gone but I continue to have cravings or what certainly feels like cravings. They aren't particularly strong at this point but they are there and they surface frequently. At what point do you notice that there are few or no cravings tugging at you ?
2nd Question is regarding constantly thinking about smoking or rather not smoking. This seems to be in my conscious thoughts about 98% of the time How far along in your quit do you start to notice that you aren't thinking about it constantly ?
Thanks
Phillip |
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jahunta
Quit Date: -
Posts: 1129 Location: Silicon(e) Valley, CA
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Zuzu
Quit Date: -
Posts: 962 Location: Marin
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Posted: May 11, 2004 7:52 PM Post subject: |
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Phil and Margaret-
The million dollar questions, eh? I don't have perfect answers but I have a perspective. I stopped smoking only a shy bit over four months ago...
QUESTION 1: At what point do you notice few or no cravings tugging at you? Where I'm at I'd say that I have few cravings... I go days on end without a craving and occasionally one will hit me out of the blue. They're not like they were the first few weeks, however... and they're much more like a whisper than a screaming "feed me!" craving.
One of my bosses stopped smoking over two years ago... when I was talking to her about my quit she noted that she hadn't thought about a cigarette or had a craving for at least six months. I know people who have relapsed after having been quit for over six years... so that tells me that occasionally there may be cravings indefinitely - or at least the propensity to relapse remains a concern...
When did they lessen in frequency/severity?? I had a really tough week at the two month mark... really tough.. things had been getting better and better and better and then I hit a week - yes, count 'em SEVEN days of almost relentless cravings.. and then.. BAM... they dissapated, overnight, and things got enormously easier.. (it felt like the addiction was having a big mardi gras, trying to get me to succumb.. and when I failed to give in it was like a break in the storm... and wow.. it really got leaps and bounds better. It continues to get better and better and easier and easier.)
QUESTION 2: How far along in your quit do you realize you're not thinking about it constantly? Oh man... that is really the absolutely WORST part, isn't it!?! Thinking about smoking and not smoking... AMAZING isn't it?? It totally sucks.
Honestly, I think this is a choice we make and it stops when we chose something else... I'm not there yet. I do NOT think about smoking and not smoking 98% of the time anymore. I remember at the one month mark I started keeping a calendar and writing on the calendar the first time I thought about smoking in the morning. I remember I celebrated when I'd woken up at 8 am and I hadn't thought about smoking or not smoking until 10 am. THAT was accomplishment.
It was shortly after one month that I started finding other things to think about. That's still a challenge for me. I'm excited for the first 24 hour period that goes by where I don't think about smoking or not smoking. At this point I likely think about smoking or not smoking about four or five times daily. That's down from 98%... it's manageable... by I'm waiting for a whole day... won't that be grand!?!
I had a friend who was a sex addict. He was in a recovery program. We went to lunch one day and he asked me, "Zuzu, what is there to think about other than sex? What do YOU think about?" At the time I thought he was nutty, I told him, "lots of things.. books, ideas, movies, poetry.." And at the time I thought he was crazy for asking. I remembered that conversation when all I could think about was smoking or not smoking.. I mean.. what else is there to think about besides smoking or not smoking!??! It sounds like a crazy question.. and on some level it IS a crazy question.. and it's sad that I understand it.. heh.
I looked for (and found) activities that took my mind off smoking and not smoking. When I get a massage (which I use as a reward) I find myself lost in thoughts that aren't about smoking. When I walk on the mountain or write I rarely think about smoking. Now when I garden.. not a thought of smoking crosses my mind. For me the trick is/was to figure out things to do that took my mind off smoking and not smoking and doing those things as gifts to myself.. you need the respite and I know how after a month you feel so wearied of thinking about it. So try a few things.. try going for a hot tub.. getting a massage... going bowling.. just keep trying things until you find some things that you do that takes your mind off it...
As I say this.. be prepared... You probably think about smoking (or not smoking) less now than you did when you were a smoker. Maybe it's still the same, maybe it's a bit less... the kicker is that you're suddenly, now, responsible for deciding what you're going to think about when you stop thinking about smoking - this is the important part about what you're going to be instead of a smoker... you spent your time before smoking... then you spent your time quitting smoking... as you give up thinking about smoking 24-7, what ARE you going to think about? Who are you going to be? Who do you want to be?
And see there you have it.. module EIGHT... the really exciting stuff.
-Zuzu
Last edited by Zuzu on May 11, 2004 9:18 PM; edited 1 time in total |
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Pamela
Quit Date: -
Posts: 3542 Location: Gardiner, NY
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Posted: May 11, 2004 8:01 PM Post subject: |
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Hey, Phillip. Congrats to you. Hmmmm. I'm almost 3 months quit. One week shy of 3 months. I am obsessed with thinking about smoking. I would say, now at almost 3 months.....I think about not smoking about 80% of the time....versus 98 % of the time. Craves....I would like to define craves. Mine are hardly ever physical...they are mental. I "Want a cig" crave.
Everyone is different. I have to tell you... month 2 was more difficult for me than the first month. It's going to take time...lots of time. If anyone tells you....after two, three months you'll be completely "Cured"..not think of smoking or not smoking anymore...forget it.
it does get easier...it does....but not in a month...not overnight. Just go one day at a time Phillip! _________________
FIVE + years of freedom and loving it! |
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kevin Site Admin
Quit Date: -
Posts: 9538 Location: cincinnati, oh
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Posted: May 11, 2004 8:21 PM Post subject: |
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there were some really good points brought up here, Phillip, one of the most important (at least, to my mind) being: if you're anything like me, you used to use smoking to cover up a lot of "stuff" - as a smoker, there were a lot of issues i never had to deal with, because if they threatened to surface, i could always just smoke them away (i.e., i could always bury them by getting a fix)...
in the early days of my quit, i used to write about how i was digging deep, and i encouraged other people to do the same; to look for those things that we used to cover up with smoke, to take them out and look at them in the light of day, and decide what we wanted to do with them before they had a chance to sabotage our quits.
i seems to me that, at about a month in, we're in a prime spot for issues like this to start surfacing; we're far enough along in our quits that the physical addiction is pretty much a thing of the past, and we've run into many of the triggers that used to send us looking for a cigarette in the past and successfully dealt with them, and so, our (usually) overactive minds need something else to occupy them.
so they start digging. all by themselves. and some of the stuff they dig up is not pretty, and some of it subconsciously triggers the urge to smoke (because that's been our coping mechanism for so long). the good news is, we don't have to respond to them by smoking. we can make a different choice, if we remain vigilant; if we're conscious of what's going on for us in each moment.
the short answers to your questions are: i stopped having regular cravings probably around three months in, and rarely if ever have them any more. i also rarely think about maintaining my quit (although i still remind myself every morning that i'm a nicotine addict, that i can't afford to feed that addiction, and consciously choose not to smoke today), or being an ex-smoker, but i couldn't really say with a great deal of accuracy when that happened; probably around 9 months in.
your mileage may vary. _________________
keep choosing life!
kevin
the zen of the quit |
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Mindy
Quit Date: -
Posts: 1074
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Posted: May 11, 2004 9:59 PM Post subject: |
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These things all happen at different times for different people....How nice it would be if there were a certain time we could expect to not think of having a cigarette and not get craves and urges. The most important thing is that you know how to work through the craves and urges. Always remember your resolve and that the crave/urge will always pass whether you smoke or not! |
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law_girl_1969
Quit Date: -
Posts: 626 Location: Freeburg, Illinois
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Posted: May 12, 2004 9:35 AM Post subject: |
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Phillip, those are two great questions and I think you've gotten some great answers already. I just wanted to reemphasize that it's different for everyone but the only way to get to where they aren't always your thoughts and to where you aren't craving (or having thoughts that feel like them) is to continue to choose not to smoke.
It does get better, slowly but surely, and I do mean SURELY!! _________________
Lynn
"There are those who think they can and those who think they can't and they are both right." Henry Ford |
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