4 days and trying not to count!
Hi All!
This is the first email group that I have belonged to in 4 years! WOW!
I had my last cigarette last monday. I smoked every day for 44years
and really never wanted to stop! I love it!….I miss it like crazy
sometimes! I am using Nicoderm patches and trying to shift the
longterm old habits…like i’m eating licorice, instead of smoking,
with am coffee, etc….any suggestions, or feedback would be
wonderful!…it’s amazing when the desire for a smoke shows up out of
the blue, isn’t it?
Redsilvr
August 28th, 2004 at 1:25 pm
Hi there,
I’m one of those who believes that there is no difference between
eating and smoking if the eating is being done as a response to some event
or physical sensation. Sure you’re not smoking, and that’s great, but it’s
not a lesser of two evils issue. If we’re feeling some compelling need to
respond to some sensation, and that response takes the form of ‘anything
that will fill me’ regardless of the appropriateness of the action, then
there is no difference between smoking a sensation away or trying to eat it
away.
There is always a reason why the desire crops up. It’s either a chemical
issue if we’re still using NRT, or it’s because we’ve got an automatic
association between some event and how to respond. There’s always some
reason. That we’re not consiously aware of why a particular smoking
thought has cropped up just now is only an indication of the extent to
which we’re unaware of what we are feeling on a moment to moment basis.
Red, have you tried keeping a log of the smoking thoughts you get
through a day? (Same as a list of ‘reasons why I smoked’.) When, where, why
if you can. Often recognizing when and where gives a clue to the why.
Maybe it’s close to a meal time and hunger is an issue. Maybe it’s fatigue
or boredom and a break is advisable. It takes practice to be aware. The
more you practice, the more aware you are.
Cognitive quitting is about bring a particular level of awareness to how
you get through your day. It’s an awareness that’s focused specifically on
why we smoked and how to stay quit.
just a few cents worth,
Steve