The Egg wrote:
Keep at it JC, keep looking at that picture when you feel the desperate urge for a fag. The cravings last four about five minutes at a time, yes they're a fucking horrible five minutes but they do pass after a few days, after that it'll all be down to habit.
I gave up (cold turkey) four weeks ago today. I do feel better for it, but blimey it's been tough. I've had to try and break habits, I spend about 4 hours in the car most days, perfect smoking time and by far that's been the hardest.
But it is paying off,
I went walking on the weekend and managed to keep up without ending up wheezing or collapsed in a heap.
Stick at it chap, if you want some support gimme a shout. Not sure how well I'll do mind, but like you I'm determined that this is the last time.
The hardest part for me to beat is the habit. Not the nicotine, not the taste etc but the habit. I have terrible, literally incapacitating at times OCD due to my bipolar. When I get a manic kick I start obsessing over things. For about 15 years of my smoking I smoked hand rolled. The other night I turned on my wireless headphones, set a track I liked to repeat and went downstairs to roll a ciggarette. Then I realised that I didn't have any ciggarettes and I had given up smoking two months prior.
That may not seem all that strange but I only owned the wireless headphones so I could take my music to the garden with me to smoke. Ever since I stopped smoking they have been completely redundant. I literally performed a five minute ritual without even snapping out of it, it's almost embedded into me. I did exactly the same in the USA for the last 6 years. Set the PC to repeat on a few songs, turn on the wireless phones and roll a cig and go outside and smoke it.
The last two weeks have been the hardest. I have more nicotine on tap than I can wave a stick at. As I said before my nurse wanted me on a full strength 24 hour patch aswell as sucking down 6 inhalator carts a day. However, that made me really feel sick so Ive been sucking on the carts but only three a day. But lately I have been really craving.. Not smoking and certainly not nicotine, but the fact that my brain has finally realised my entire life and world as I knew it has changed.
Crazy really.
Still, I'm going to beat it. When I am determined I am invincible. If I truly decide to stop something I can.
Oh, and I have a 4 pack of XXX here
Thing is, as you stop smoking they get fucking stronger man. I used to be able to throw two of them in my mouth and hardly taste them when I smoked. Now? fuck me they blow my sinuses to bits haha.
BTW. Be careful on the peppermints. The oil is really bad for your insides.
EDIT. One more thing. The black and brown cack? It wont happen all the time your lungs are still dilated from smoking. Give it time and soon enough you'll start bringing up all that fucking filth that you've put in there over the years. It's a bit messed up at first but god, every time I do it now I think about another nice pink healthy section of lung reappearing from under the cack.