I am a quitter. I smoked for 35 yrs. and have had enough.
I may need some help in the next few weeks to be strong and fight the
cravings. I want to start the new year off as smoke free. I can smell
and that is good start.
Some one in a chat room suggest that I visit this site. So that is how
I got this website.
If you smoked, you were addicted to nicotine. That means simply that at
some point soon after you put out a cigarette you’d begin to feel symptoms
of nicotine withdrawal. The first symptoms are physiological i.e. general
muscle tension which could be tension in neck and shoulders and/or
abdominal tension that might feel like the sort of ‘almost nauseous’ that
Pamela was talking about earlier today and shallow breathing. These first
subtle physical sensations triggered urges to smoke. Most smokers/quitters
are aware of this primary physical connection and take steps to address it
when they quit. This is the area of NRT or cold turkey or alternates such
as hypnotism or acupuncture etc.
However, there is a secondary physical connection which includes all the
reasons why you feel general muscle tension and/or shallow breathing that
have nothing to do with a fluctuating nicotine level. Reasons like anger,
fatigue, hunger, anxiety, boredom, etc provide the body cues that are the
‘why’ behind most of the cigarettes you’ve ever smoked.
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When I first met Steve online, when I was looking
for inspiration to quit smoking, we chatted in the
cog chatroom. I had some ideas about myself –
ie, that I had to do this quit “in my own way.”
It is the way I am.. I like to learn from everyone,
but ultimately figure things out for myself, find
my own way. I thought it would be the same way
with quitting smokes.
Steve asked me if I used recipes when I cook,
and I said no. Not only don’t I use recipes, I
rarely cook; and I like to make it up as I go.
But come to think of it.. I thought.. I have used
recipes on occasion; and when it was a good
recipe, and I followed it exactly, the results
were excellent, delicious, successful.
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This is my first time trying cognitive quit and trying to post a
message so please be gentle. LOL. I’ve read the information and it
makes a lot of sense. I know too I have to actually do the work. Am
now printing out the timer sheet and will do today. My question is can
I still try to quit tomorrow or do I need more time using the timer.
I’ve quit about 10 times in the last year and before that, my longest
quit was almost 2 years. I am apprehensive. I really do want to quit
and need all the help I can get. Thank you for whatever support you
can give me.
Maureen
I am going to throw away my cigarettes 00.00. o´clock 01.01.2006.
The begining of the year and my bio-chart all line up. So now its time to do it
for good. My
stars line up to….what ever it takes…!!!
……have joined in the past week! Please - jump in and introduce
yourselves, tell us a bit about your previous quit attempts, and ask
any questions you’d like about cogquitting. How many of you are
building up to that ‘jump off’ position for a January 1st quit?
Otherwise I’ll feel compelled to tell you all about my boring Christmas
presents or how I get rid of my unwanted visitors (mice) ……
yours hopefully
Pam
I’m hoping our new quitters and lurkers are surviving the festive
cheer and the ‘ho ho ho’ and are directing your quits in a cognitive
way. I personally like Steve’s use of the word ‘horridays’ I think
this is the year when I feel old, judging by the number of woolly
scarves and gloves I was given as presents - I’d have much preferred
a nice little silky slinky something or other (use your imagination
there….)
I’m guessing there are more than a few lurkers who are thinking
about making January 1st their quit date and are wondering how to
get started on a cognitive quit. Why not post and tell us a bit
about yourselves.. make yourselves comfortable, and lets get to know
each other. Lets see some posting and sharing our quit
experiences. Lets hear from our cogquitters who enjoy life
comfortably quit, and give our new folk some encouragement.
Meanwhile .. who can I give those woolly scarves to?
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You guys are amazing. So quiet so much of the time, yet when you do
post…. such depth and substance.
It’s coming up on 10 years that I’ve been involved in quit smoking sites
and in all that time I’ve never seen one with people like you. My heartfelt
thanks to all of you.
I’d also like to take this opportunity to wish all of us a healthy and safe
holiday season.
Steve
Steve wrote :
Its almost 5 years since I became cognitively quit, and I’m forever
grateful to have found both Steve and cognitivequitting.com. This is
something I wrote when I was around 2.5yrs quit - on rereading it I
recalled the excitement of finding a quitsmoking method that worked,
and enjoyed keeping a quitsmoking diary. I’m re-posting it here - I
hope you can sense my ‘quitting state of mind’ all those years ago.
To the new quitters, thankyou for sharing your experiences - its hard
for we ‘old timers’ to sometimes remember the excitement and joy of
becoming comfortably quit.
**************************
I first started experimenting with smoking when I was about 15 or 16
years old. Lots of girls at my school were trying it out, and it
seemed like a pretty cool thing to do. I remember that I didn’t even
like smoking - they tasted pretty unpleasant and made me feel sick.
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