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How long did it take for you to feel better?

12 years ago 0 +0 / -0 823

Thank you so much for this thoughtful post Petya! The replies here are so inspiring - each individual travels their own path to freedom, but the many colored threads that bind the fabric of this collage together weave a collective message of hope, strength, honesty and ultimately - success! I'm so glad you came here to find these thoughtful insights and support.

You are doing Great and I bet you're feeling better all the time : ) IF you stick with NOPE (Not One Puf Ever!) you will succeed - and one day will realize that you've been feeling back to normal for a long time . . . that's how it snuck up on me : )

12 years ago 0 +0 / -0 153

Hi Petya,

Much like Jim my finally "I've had it with smokimg" moment was when my mother was told this June that she has high grade invasive bladder cancer as a result of 60 years of smoking. My mother was otherwise a very active, healthy and robust person all her life. This nasty product finally caught up with her. I just spent 7 weeks of going to the hopsital with her daily for radiation treatment and watching her strength ebb away. We won't even know if this traetment did anything until her CT scan in December.

Was stoppimg smoking hard at first? Absolutely. Are there still temptations and difficult moments? Absolutely. However, it's so worth it. I wouldn't even know where to begin as to the number of ways I feel better. I can also tell you from dealing with another addiction (alcohol - sober for over 3 years now) that there comes a time when your substance of choice will hardly enter your mind and ever more fleetingly. Hover, regardless of how many years I don't drink I will always be an alcoholic in recovery. In other words, I can't change the past. I have to forever be vigilant and guard my hard earned sobriety. I can't imagine it will be any different with smoking. In other words, we will NEVER be like someone who has never smoked. Does that mean we should just keep smoking then? Or I might as well drink? Absolutely and unequivically NO!!!! The more time goes on, the more benfits I realize from dropping these addictions. As Working On It said, what a freedom it is not to be driven all day long (and some times at night too) by the desire to smoke!

Stick with it!

12 years ago 0 +0 / -0 12

Hey, I just got home and was a little upset because I had to be in a crowd that was not very supportive about my quitting. So i decided to log in and just read your posts. Thank you very much,they really gave me hope :) I see why you guys are so happy to be here and why this helped you so much :)))))

12 years ago 0 +0 / -0 2778

Hey Petya,

I don't think that I could explain it better than my buddy Workin', but this is sort of how it went for me. I smoked for over 37 years... Even longer if you want to consider the experimenting that started before I reached the age of 10. I tried quitting in my 20's, 30's, 40's and finally succeeded in my 50's! Earlier on, I never thought that I could quit, but I tried. Those early decades were like exercises in futility. I, like you, never thought that I could, " wake up one day and never think of cigarettes."

Well, I knew that I really needed to quit after my father died from lung cancer. I did NOT want to go through that agony. I found the right NRT and I found this site and the my smoking life became history. I wanted this quit more than anything else in the world and I chose to do what ever it took to gain my freedom. It WAS the hardest thing that I ever did in my life! I went into this quit without doubts and without fear, because I felt that this may be my last chance. I was determined to win every battle against the nico-demon and win the war!

I didn't have a whole lot of anxiety and dread, as you are experiencing. I know I did on previous quits! I developed a Positive Mental Attitude and always told myself that I CAN do this! I had the support of a whole bunch of new quit buddies here and they always told me that I could do it! Heck, if they can do it, I can do it! You can do it to, Petya!

I know you don't realize this now, but if you keep on taking it one day at a time, one hour at a time or just a few minutes at a time if you need to you will succeed! Like Workin on It says... Slow and Stead DOES wins the race! Pledge to yourself every day that you will not smoke today... what ever happens! You have done it for over 2 weeks, and you can do it for another day! That's how to do it in the beginning!

Then, keep looking forward to the weekly anniversary of your quit day! Celebrate it! Reward yourself and look forward to making it to your next week's celebration, one day at a time. Then Celebrate and reward yourself. Heck, in the beginning I rewarded myself and celebrated daily! It was something Positive I could build on and I looked forward to the next day so that I could celebrate another smoke free day! This is how I made it through the tough first days, weeks and months... one day at a time!

It's not easy in the beginning, but you need to figure out what makes it easier for you in the beginning. If it takes rewarding yourself 20 times a day over the first few weeks and months, so be it! Do what ever you have to do to protect your quit! If you need support, log in, post, read and read and read some more! I lived on this site the first few months for the distraction, the education and support I needed. Stick close and keep on posting.

The whole quitting process is a learning process. Learning how to deal with cravings, learning how to deal with those voices in our brains, learning how to exist without quick shots of serotonin our brain received from the nicotine. You really do learn something new every day when you start this journey! One thing that I have learned is that you WILL wake up one day and not think about smoking for the entire day! It happened to me, and many others who quit! And if you are offered a cigarette you will NOT want to smoke that cigarette! You will not need to, you will not want to and you will decline the offer.

Have hope, Petya! One day at a time and N.O.P.E. You CAN do this!

Jim

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12 years ago 0 +0 / -0 1140

Hi Petya,

I think I know what you're talking about with this statement: "don't you feel afraid that you'll never reach this state of mind of a nonsmoker ? This sounds to me like a life full of torture... Yes maybe it gave some kind of lessons that's nice,i think of smoking in a different way also but nevertheless it still sucks this thought."

The short answer is: "Yes, I believe I have experienced the fear and anxiety that you are describing, and no, it does not go on forever."

And now, the long answer. Before I began my quit process, the thought that terrified me the most was that "torture" that you are describing. The idea that I might spend the rest of my life craving cigarettes every day, needing/ wanting one when I saw another person light up (even in movies), having to perpetually fight those urges.... Well, it just seemed totally overwhelming and awful. In fact, the word "torture" would be a very good description of what it seemed like. Even during the quitting process, with each reduction in nicotine, I went through a some of it again. And even in the 5 months since I totally detoxed, I've had some demoralizing days in which I wished that random mental chatter about cigarettes would just shut the ---- up. (I think I may have told those voices to shut the ---- up a few times, too. 'Course it's always wise to use that strategy while alone, or folks might think you're crazy.

)

However, there is a light at the end of this tunnel. Some days it is more evident than others, but over time, the trend is towards more and more freedom and light. I go whole days without thinking about cigarettes now. That is something that I couldn't even imagine a year ago or even 6 months ago. On days in which I do think about smoking, it is usually 2 times or less. That is way better than the 20 times/ day that I thought about them when I smoked. The urges are also way less intense and pass very quickly. Only rarely (maybe once a month) do I even take it to the next level of thinking about actually smoking. Instead, it's just kind of a ghost of an old thought ("I want a cigarette") just blowing through and moving on in less than a minute.

When I compare these minimal mental disruptions to the intense mental demands for a cigarette that I experienced 20+ times a day, every day, for 25 years, it's not a big deal. (Like you, I was also rated as "highly addicted.") I feel way more free and unburdened than I have in years. Yes, the little nagging voice can be annoying, but each time you tell it "no," it gets weaker and stays away longer. That voice is at the level of being occasionally annoying; it is no longer a source of frequent torture.

One more thing. In case you haven't used this tool, try using the crave diary from the tools here. That was extremely helpful for me in terms of dealing with the anxiety that "I might never stop craving cigarettes." When I was able to see how the craves were on a downward trend over time, I began to have more faith in the process. And having more faith in the process actually helped to reduce those anxiety-driven craves. For the first month or so, I had some high level cravings and they happened several times a day. But I started looking at the graph and seeing how they were tapering off. I now have several months worth of graphs where I can see very clear progress, and it makes me happy. It also reminds me that I don't want to go back to those high-crave states that happen at the very beginning. And as long as I don't smoke, I won't need to.

You can get through this, and it will get better. I have faith.

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12 years ago 0 +0 / -0 816

Petya Excellent question. To be honest I struggled for a long time. It took me a good 2 years to start to really feel good physically about being a non smoker. As far as being like someone who has never smoked I don't think that will ever happen for me. At nearly 4 years smoke free there are still situations that happen that used to be cause to light up , situations that I haven't experienced as a non smoker yet. I think the thing is that I worked so hard for this quit that I won't easily give it up. There was no " easy way " , it was a struggle with small victories on a daily basis. So it was hard and still is sometimes. To my way of thinking being able to stop smoking is one of the best things that I've ever accomplished. I maintain that it isn't about only stopping smoking but learning how to live a new way of life and being happy with that new life. Although I may never feel like someone who has never smoked I'm happy and will settle for being someone who isn't systematically killing themselves today. Excellent for you for not smoking. breather

12 years ago 0 +0 / -0 12

Working on it that was really interesting but don't you feel afraid that you'll never reach this state of mind of a nonsmoker ? This sounds to me like a life full of torture... Yes maybe it gave some kind of lessons that's nice,i think of smoking in a different way also but nevertheless it still sucks this thought.

Actually I changed my way of thinking about smoking when I read Allen Carr's book " Easy way to stop smoking". I 've heard that many people stopped smoking only after reading it. I read it twice and I can say that changed smoking a little for me but not enough to stop smoking "easy". I don't know if I have mentioned until now but I smoked only 5 years in my whole life and sometimes when i read some statistics for example I seem to have been strongly addicted.... I guess this doesn't depend on the time through which you were a smoker.

In fact I am not sure if I am realistic but my dream is to wake up one day and never think of cigarettes. And if someone offers me a cigarette and I even smoke one,this event to be irrelevant and when I smoke it not to feel any good.... Maybe I want so much but honestly i've heard people who were exsmokers to say things like those I just described....so either they are lying or it is possible to be an exsmoker who feels like a person who never smoked in their whole life.

12 years ago 0 +0 / -0 1140

Hi Petya,

This is an interesting question. I have felt different types and degrees of "better" all along the way. I began to feel improvements in my breathing as I was reducing the number of cigarettes and waiting longer between them. Knowing that carbon monoxide levels in my blood had returned to normal after 12 hours of not smoking was very helpful mentally, as well. I was on NRT lozenges for a while. Detoxing from the nicotine altogether made me feel pretty wacky--with blood sugar fluctuations, stomach cramps, etc.--yet liberated at the same time. I remember feeling abnormally exuberant through those 3 days of detox. The blood sugar weirdness (feeling hungry and shaky, sometimes even right after eating) seemed to finally settle down after I'd had all nicotine out of my system for a couple of weeks.

Once the physical symptoms had subsided, I started on the process I am still in now: experiencing life without cigarettes. I'm a little past the 5 month mark now, and it's been a matter of gradually decreasing desires along with increasing feelings of gratitude that I have quit. Like today, when I went to do my cravings diary and realized that I hadn't completed it in a few days since I hadn't had any cravings in a few days!

Or when I see someone smoking and feel glad that I don't have to do that anymore...and glad that I don't have to go through detox again (unless I forget what it was like and choose to light up again.). I do still have occasional craves (more like desires, since I am no longer physically addicted), but they pass relatively quickly. I have never managed to time a crave (as some will recommend) because I get distracted by life activities and forget to check the end time. (I guess I just have to accept the general wisdom that craves last about 3 minutes max.)

As far as getting to a point where it's like it never happened, I don't know. I'm not there yet. I suspect that I will never have quite the same feeling as someone who never smoked. Instead, I carry the deep wisdom of an addict. I know how powerful physical addiction can be. I also know how powerful I can be, since I managed to escape from its clutches. At this point, I kind of take pride in that. It did happen. It taught and changed me. And that's OK with me right now.

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$23,597.30

Amount Saved
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Days: 638 Hours: 7

Minutes: 49 Seconds: 33

Life Gained
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4582

Smoke Free Days
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91,640

Cigarettes Not Smoked

12 years ago 0 +0 / -0 12

Original Post by: Josie, Health Educator
petya,

The search feature is in the forums area, so take a look there and let us know if you can't find it. This is always a great topic to share with one another as we can all learn from the experiences of others.

Please do share with us and post often!

Josie, Health Educator

Thank you ! :) And I am sorry that i didn't see it,maybe because it wasn't on it's usual spot. I have no idea. Anyway if someone wants to reply to the topic I will appreciate it.

12 years ago 0 +0 / -0 12049

petya,

The search feature is in the forums area, so take a look there and let us know if you can't find it. This is always a great topic to share with one another as we can all learn from the experiences of others.

Please do share with us and post often!

Josie, Health Educator

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