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The thing that I noticed most when I quit was just how foul the smell is to non-smokers. Once I got the odor out of my own clothes and hadn't smoked myself for a few weeks, every time I came in contact with a smoker there was this invisible cloud of reek that permeated the air. I am sorry for all those I offended with my own cloud when I was a smoker.
Thanks. Freakily enough, BTW, at work a beefy dude in a mets hat and shoulder-dusting blond hair, a beard and glasses passed by. I thought is was the wino, and yelled the Wino's real name loudly twice. The dude turned around. It wasn't him.
If I even hear a rumor that you are considering smoking a cigarette from here on out, my cadre of mecha-zens and I are all hopping planes to Astoria to wag our fingers vigorously at you.
msali: my mind has resolve, but my body seems to be considering having a cigarette even 10 minutes. Oddly, one thing that helps is if I inhale really deeply and then blow it all out my mouth, I guess that makes my body think it's smoking.
That deep breathing thing really does help. the "10 minutes" thing is definitely a phase - just keep distracting yourself, delaying any consideration of smoking. I remember deciding to, like, delay the idea of smoking until I had folded all the laundry. Then after that I would delay it until I had alphabetized my CDs. And then until I had sorted and thrown out all the junk mail. And so on. Pretty soon you'll find that a half hour goes by before you think of it, then an hour, and so on. It wears off pretty fast.
I always liked reading about how this is really overcoming your own brain. The brain was trained for years to expect a specific input, and so whenever your energy flags or boredom sets in, the brain sits up like a hungry dog and says "Need my snack! Need my snack!" It just takes a while to retrain the brain. Not even that long, considering how long it took to train it into addiction.
I've actually heard a couple people say (maybe even here?) that they suspect one of the addictive things about smoking is that it's an opportunity to take time to breathe deeply, and that simply breathing when they're craving a cigarette does often make the craving go away.
Good luck jon. I know a few lifelong smokers that have quit over the past few years, and all of them did it cold turkey. It seems like they all tried quitting half-assed in the past, but finally hit a point where they really wanted to quit and just did it. It sounds like you're ready to commit to quitting.
One of my friends made a deal with his wife that he could use the money he used to spend on cigarettes on CDs, which she happily agreed to. I asked if he missed smoking and he said that when he sees people smoking he wants one enough that he'd "smoke a cigarette from a bum's ass". But then he followed it by saying he'd never go back, which he seemed really confident of - and I believe him.
I've had some bouts of irritablilty, but beer, coffee and snacks (snacks, especially. I ate an entire 8.5oz can of ranch flavored cashews last night) keep bringing me down to earth.
Good for you, jonmc! The mental blocks (and, yeah, the irritability) are the biggest hurdles. You can do it!
if I inhale really deeply and then blow it all out my mouth, I guess that makes my body think it's smoking.
Hey, I had that experience when I quit! Is that common? I thought it was just me.
I ended up buying a tiny tube of bubble-juice with a wand; I kept it in my handbag or pocket, and when my friends stepped outside the restaurant for a smoke break, I'd join them and blow bubbles.
Remember, Run - 10 days is all it will take for you to completely lose the irritability, cravings, etc. A lousy week and a half! And you're nearly halfway there already.
Just tell Pips now that you are going to suck, as a person, for a few days to come. You are going to be just miserable to be around. She might want to plan some outings with friends or to the movies or whatever. The thing is, you have license to be a total ass for a little while - cranky, mercurial, emotional, irritable, snarky, down-at-the-mouth: you will be anyway, so why not enjoy it?
She'll know it's not the Real You. It'll drive her nuts anyway - but it's temporary.
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