A lot of Firsts this past week…
the more I think about it, the more I believe that the
whole ‘healing’ process for quitting the smokes takes pretty much a
year. Although some of us feel pretty comfortable a few months into
our quit, there’s still that nagging urge that hits so many months
and months after we’ve laid down the smokes. I think it’s because we
have to go through all those “Firsts” as a Person Who Doesn’t Smoke.
For example, even though I’ve been pretty comfortable with my quit
the last few (or more) months, I found myself thinking of smoking a
bit more this past week. I think this was due to the fact that there
were a lot of “firsts” - the annual trip to visit the in-laws (Shit-
fire, that’s a good one!!) over the July 4th holiday. This was the
first time I’ve made this trip without smoking like a forest fire
gone awry! BUT, I did prepare myself ahead of time and made it
through the experience without any serious repercussions. My
alternatives? Ensuring that I wouldn’t place myself in the
typical “family quagmire” situations. I stayed away from gossiping
(wow, THAT was hard) and treated every member of the family equally;
this kept my stress level down. Actually, something good came out of
this; I spent more time with a sister-in-law who’s never smoked and
got to know her better - hey, she’s not so bad!!! Also, I spent more
time with the kids - they’re not smokers at 1 year to 11 years and
they kept me busy enough that I didn’t even think about it the whole
time I was with them. Overall, a very good visit because I prepared
myself mentally for those events that may cause a trigger!!!
At any rate, it’s good to be back home and fighting with my
computer.
- Cat
August 23rd, 2004 at 5:27 pm
Good to have you back Cat and yes, it does seem to take a bout a yr to
get through the quit process.