I breezed through my fourth day yesterday with very few cravings. They felt manageable. Then, I got home and my husband had been having a rough day. We have a great relationship, but of course the person with whom you feel safest is going to get the brunt of your bad mood. In past quitting attempts, arguments with my husband send me directly to the tobacco lane. Not to spite him, just "I can't handle this stress."
So, I wanted to buy a couple of my favorite Belgian beers to take the edge off. I was walking out to the car and remembered that drinking leads to me smoking without fail. Thankfully, I'm a light drinker and can easily refuse alcohol. It lowers my inhibitions and always causes me to buy smokes, so I went back inside my home. I chewed a piece of nicotine gum and went to bed early.
So I made it through the worst of it. Or, so I thought.
We're having a lot of downtime at work today. I could smell delicious smoke from over a hundred feet away when I was walking outside. Hey, my sense of smell is coming back! But the boredom of downtime today is making me itch for that sweet smoker section under the majestic, cicada-filled trees. I feel that the increase in chewing nicotine gum is just going to increase my cravings for nicotine.
Those are my top three triggers: boredom, arguments, and alcohol. But I made it anyway!