Cognitive Quit Smoking

… when it was time to smoke?
How did you know? Did one of your kids say, “Gee mom/dad, you haven’t
had a cigarette in about an hour. Aren’t you due?” And did you say,
“You know what? You’re right. It is time for me to smoke.” Did some
friend call and remind you? Did you pencil ‘time to smoke’ into your
day timer so you’d get through however many cigs you smoked in a day?
Did you look at a clock, do a bit of calculation, and just figure you
must ‘need’ one? Or did you use commercials breaks on TV to remind
you to smoke?
What signal or signals alerted you that it was time to smoke? How did you know?

Just popping my head in to say hello to all the new quitters here in the group.
I’m Pam, and I quit cognitively almost 6 years ago. I’ve been very absent in
recent months, mainly due to some ill health and not being comfortable sitting
at the computer - hopefully that will all change.
The key to becoming comfortably quit is to follow the program Steve has
developed over the past almost 11 years since he quit. During that time he has
helped countless quitters to discover some simple yet quite profound information
about themselves - how they react to life in physical terms, and how to
disconnect the smoking associations associated with those physical cues. The
only way to reach that state is to do some work at identifying the physical
cues, and practising alternative and more appropriate responses.
I’ve been reading all the posts in recent weeks, and have yet to see anyone
saying ‘right, I’ll give this a go - it’s a new angle that’s worth a try. If
nothing else, it might get me more in touch with myself’ Doing the timer
exercise isn’t even work - its a quick body check once an hour, taking less time
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I am feeling petulant, wondering why I wanted to stop smoking. It’s
still early enough for me to go out and get some cigarettes. I feel
like I’m “pretending” to do this, and it’s all a big show. I can hold
my breath just so long. There seem to be no rewards for anything.
When is the nicotine out of my body? When is the chemical dependence
over?
Fran

I guess I had my first real withdrawals today. before when I quit smoking
my blood pressure went up. I battled it for a while and went back to smoking.
Blood pressure returned to normal. This time I checked pressure a few days into
being smoke free to find it was good. Tonight I got lightheaded and felt a
little dizzy. Pressure was up a little. Now I have my 10 days in so how many
days is it until the body adjust to being free from smoke
Irma

Kinda spacey today. Walked twice with dog, went to PT for broken arm
rehab, cooked hamburger and leftover mac-n-cheese. Afraid to go into
grocery store where they have cigarettes. OK at home w/o them. Wanted
them driving, after PT. Could have gone to store for some, but didn’t.
Still breathing through my fingers, deep breaths, blow it out like it’s
smoke.
Fran

My whole day has been affected by not smoking. The TV seems boring, I
actually folded the wash, I took out both dogs, separately, for a walk,
I don’t feel hurried. I’m deep breathing, through my index and middle
fingers on my right hand, as if I held a cigarette there. Seems to
help. There are absolutely no cigarettes in the house or the car, and
it’s a long way to go get them.
Fran

So Iam 3 days into this… or you could say 78 hours and 23 minutes.
The first two days were okay. This evening I am having a very hard
time, in the past I would have given up by now.
I am able to determine many of my triggers at this point (pretty much
any event that is occuring in 20-35 min intervals).
I need to figure out a new relaxation activity.
I don’t miss the smoking at all, I miss the feeling of being relaxed.
I used smoking as the great escape at work, at home, everywhere.
Not having that is strange, also my mood is not the best these days
and I am sure I seem a tad unfriendly. Oh freakin well….they will
get over it, if not ….
I decided to quit because I just turned 30 and I have smoked for 18
years now. Yes this means I was twelve when I started. Truth be told
I start counting at twelve because that’s when I had finally mastered
the art of inhale.
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… on ’staying busy’
“Stay busy” is a commonly dispensed bit of quit advice.
Get a hobby, join a club, find some sort of activity that will occupy
your mind and hands and you’ll be too busy to smoke. On the surface
that appears to make sense because most of you can remember a time or
two when you were so immersed in some activity that you either smoked
much less than usual or not at all. However, that period of busy-ness
didn’t exist all by itself like some smoke free oasis in a sea of
cigarettes. Being busy was usually part of a package that included at
least two cigarettes,
- one that you smoked so you could get started being busy
- and another that you smoked just as soon as you were done
being busy.
So is staying busy an effective and reliable tool to avoid urges? I
wouldn’t put too many eggs in that basket. But you should check it
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I forgot to add that I can smell more LOL!! I didn’t think that my light smoking
would have caused me to have a dulled smell sense, but it did. I can smell
things more strongly (even with a cold!) than I have.
Heather

Hi All,
I have made it over my problem hump time I think. I did quit earlier, would last
2-3 days and slip. Then I would have one or two cigarettes, and try again. This
was a hard and continious cycle. The kicker was that even though I didn’t have
many cigarettes when I slipped, I still went through this heavy craving cycle at
day 3. I had tried (again!) and did good for the first 24 hours, then I got
sick! Caught a chest cold no less. That of course has brought me past my 3rd day
point because frankly, there’s no smoking when your hacking your lungs out. I
know my family has been sick, but I’m the only one with a chest cold. I can’t
help but wonder if I would have not even gotten sick if I didn’t smoke.
I told my husband that I can not put myself through this again. I can not keep
putting myself through the up and down of quitting, then getting all whacky,
then doing it again! It’s like putting your hand on a hot stove and when it
heals, doing it again!
I have been practicing my breathing, started Yoga for stress relief, bought the
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