Hey everybody! Thanks so much for all of your cheering -- man, what a lovely group!
Well, I have managed (with the help of the patches -- I guess the Wellbutrin won't kick in for a little while yet) to go an entire 24 plus hours sans cigarette.
This is a huge deal for me -- it's been years -- decades, even -- since the last time I managed to do this.
Am fighting a fair amount of cravings, but so far, I'm managing to stave them off.
It's interesting -- I'm realizing how much of my addiction is a psychological one -- I'm still getting nicotine, so that's not what I'm craving...it's the sensations, I guess -- the dopamine pop, the stepping out, the little moment of reflecting and withdrawing that happens when I stop to have a smoke. I miss the inhaling! (Isn't that ironic -- since it kills your ability to inhale.)
Found a helpful forum through about.com --
http://forums.about.com/n/pfx/forum.asp ... uitsmoking -- a virtual nicotine anonymous, essentially.
Mouschi -- you might find this helpful, too! So far, I've just been reading, but I may actually join and post there.
One helpful hint (for me, at least) was this definition of when cravings were likely to hit (and it amused me as a horsey reference): HALT. Translated to when you're Hungry, Angry, Lonely (or bored), or Tired.
I think that's true. And of course, the only other time a craving is likely to hit is when I'm conscious...
So far, the biggest thing that's helping me is finding things to do that really pull my focus. If I get into something fully, an hour or two can go by and I don't think about them. If I'm sitting on the edges of things, not having to concentrate, I'm at the "can I have one now?" phase pretty much moment by moment. I was laughing (bitterly, but laughing
) last night as I was reading that cravings only tend to last about 5 minutes...this may well be true, but when they're coming every 5 minutes and 30 seconds, it's pretty exhausting!
Also found a fun little tool:
http://www.quitmeter.com/index.phpthat spits out, based on what you enter, how long it's been since you had a smoke, how many you've not smoked, and how much money you've saved.
Karen, I did have some cool dreams last night -- I don't tend to remember my dreams (the despair of all of the dreamwork people I went to grad school with) -- something long and involved with Stardust, my vet/farrier, my new doctor, and some other guy I knew well in my dream but doesn't, I don't think, exist in my real life. It was very meaningful! At least in the moment...
And I'm discovering after just one day of not sucking on the vile things (am trying to convince myself that they're vile!) that my sense of smell has snapped back into action. Wow! I can smell the stale smoke in our house now -- couldn't a day ago, and friends who visit have assured us that house doesn't strongly smell of smoke -- perhaps they were just being kind, as I can smell it, bigtime. And it smells yucky! (Though I'm still jonesing for the flavor of one...man our minds play tricks on us, don't they??)
Anyhoo --
As I write this, I've gone one day, six hours, two minutes, and 39 seconds since a smoke. (I'm amused by the seconds delineation..). I've not smoked 25 cigarettes that I would have smoked, and saved myself $5.25.
Am patting myself on the head. (I need the correct C/T rewards! So far, the peanuts I've been shoving in my mouth aren't cutting it -- I need a seriously good jackpot treat...maybe chocolate covered cherries...???)
Thanks for listening to me babble!
Leigh