Hi Sylvie,
Congratulations on Day 5! You should be very proud.
You asked for ideas....I like you have tried everything too. The best thing I ever did was learn about the enemy. I would quit for days and months...I never quit for a year or more though so kudos for that....So obviously you know you can quit....Now you want to know how to stay quit....True?
1) We missed the great high when we were quit.....When you start smoking it tastes really bad but it's cool to smoke when you start so you force yourself to do it until it finally tastes great....As you move from horrible to great there is a chemical reaction in your brain that sets you off balance....At balanced you are a non smoker....So you get this insane need to smoke and when you do it feels great....When you smoke you return yourself back to normal or to a non smoking state....This tapers off and then you need another....and so on and so forth...It's like wearing tight shoes....When your not wearing tight shoes your in a normal state....When you put on the tight shoes it hurts but then it tapers off...Then when you remove them you feel this high....All you did was return to a normal state but since you put yourself off balance in the first place there's more joy in returning to that normal state....
I'm a marketing major and this stuff has always fascinated me....You walk into a store to buy some eyedrops. You find your brand...The one that's familiar that you know and love....Then you discover eyedrops right beside it...Same ingrediants, same quantity, in fact the colors on it are exactly the same....The only differance is the brand and the fact that the other one is $4 less....Which one do you buy???
Perception is everything....If you perceive your getting a high then you are....If you understand why you feel that way you might not....
There are two bowls of cereal they are exactly the same.......One guy had an ordinary day the night before, woke up, and had one of the two bowls of cereal....The other guy got robbed and had a gun pressed to his head the night before, woke up, and had the other bowl of cereal....Who's cereal tastes better???? Why????
There is a great book on some of this stuff called "Allen Carr's - The easyway to quit smoking." It'll be the best twenty bucks you'll ever spend....I would recommend that anyone who has quit for periods of time and gone back read it....Chances are it's not your desire quit that's the problem, it's the illusion that your missing out on something once you have....Take care and congratulations...
Mr Q
My Milage:My Quit Date: 8/4/2008
Smoke-Free Days: 73
Cigarettes Not Smoked: 1,752
Amount Saved: $547.50
Life Gained:Days: 7
Hrs: 20
Mins: 21
Seconds: 35
