Hi Oxana,

That's wonderful!   Well done you, and and I'm really glad you're feeling better.    I'm on Day 6 now and it's amazing how much better my lungs feel already, and my cough has almost gone too.   It's pretty miraculous really - the hard bit is remembering that when the cravings strike.   But if we keep plodding on, one day we will be free of it.

Good luck, and talk soon.

Suzy

Hello everyone,

  I am back. I hope to see some familiar names as I try to reconnect. I have been doing alright on my own but not altogether off the nicotine. I will go two or three weeks and then have 5-10 ciggies and stop. This process repeats. I want to stop altogether. As I write this, I just passed my 8-day mark. I hope that adding this forum back into my quit regimen will help me get through the times I pick up. My triggers are being fatigued and arguing with my 24-year-old daughter who lives with me. I am doing better with the arguing trigger, but the fatigue one is hard as I tend to use nicotine like caffeine. I have a hard time seeing when I am in the moment doing this behavior because, well, I am tired. : ) Seriously though, I don't realize this is the issue and think it is other reasons until the gift of hindsight is given most times.

Anyway, I am glad to be back. I believe it has been 2-3 years. I hope to meet everyone and make some support friends. I live in Oregon now but was born and raised in New York. I love mysteries and watch many PBS ones. I also like reading and crafts. 

Debbie

8 days

 Welcome! We are glad that you are here! Eight days quit is Great!

I am sorry to hear that you are losing your quits to what sounds like stressors in your life. The fatigue will pass and is normal for most quitters. Nicotine is a stimulant, just like caffeine. But your body will adjust to not having it over time. Just try to give your body the rest it asks for. I know it is not always possible to rest when you want, so just use whatever time you have to rest.

We all have stress in our lives. But smoking will not help that stress. Your mind might be telling you that a cigarette will relieve your stress, but your being lied to by that nicotine monster.

Your quit is more important than being comfortable right now. You will be quit and comfortable, if you just hang in there.

I wish You Well!

Jeff

This is heated tobacco product

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heated_tobacco_product

It seemed better option than normal cigarettes at the beginning, but sometimes it's even worse, because it doesn't have bad smell and it's easier to smoke in the places where you wouldn't smoke normally.

Hi Suzy, congrats on your day 7 now?! I am on day 3! But it would be hard without this forum. Today I had another trigger finding out about some issues of my brother, nothing really bad, but made me stressed. Then I came here and read that you had similar kind of stress lately and didn't give up, this helped me a lot, thank you for sharing.

Nope62 said:

We all have stress in our lives. But smoking will not help that stress. Your mind might be telling you that a cigarette will relieve your stress, but your being lied to by that nicotine monster.

Saving this for myself 

Good morning Oxana, what a beautiful name by the way!

Glad to see you still here! You are doing a very kind thing for yourself and you deserve to be an ex smoker. You’ve had plenty of time as a smoker, as we all have who are here, and now it is time for a 180° degree turn toward a healthier, brighter, likely longer future. For some reason thinking that earlier on helped me. I’d get a tsunami crave and close my eyes and take a deep deep breath and see myself in my minds eye slowly turning toward the beautiful sunshine and going in the other direction. I’d stop at 180° and stay there for a moment, basking in the sun, soaking in the sounds of life and breath and thank myself for allowing myself the kindness, and above all for giving myself the gift and the chance to carry on, leaving the old way behind. Visualization helped. Actually stopping in the moment and reigning my mind back in from the tangent that it at times was quickly starting to go off on, and seeing it as just that, an irrational tangent that one small piece of me was feeling a need to fill. I’d tell it that it couldn’t have the nicotine for fulfillment and that this wasn’t deprivation, but a choice and I gave it other choices. Perhaps nice cold water drank slowly and focusing  on the feeling of the swallowing, perhaps a quick hand rub which kept my hands busy, sometimes a little whiff from a bottle of essential oils I carry, sometimes brushing my hair and focusing on how nice it smelled smoke free...something that stimulated one of my senses. Sometimes just walking and taking in all the shades of green, the color of life and growth, noting the shades and subtle differences and likening them to myself; my moods, my renewing body. 
Yes, there are moments we can work ourselves into a snit and quickly become overwhelmed with a false feeling of deprivation. Each and every time you walk through that and don’t smoke, each time, we get a slight bit stronger. At first we don’t feel that or notice. But trust yourself! You above all others. Believe you are doing it because right now you are doing it. You’re living it!  Don’t focus on hoping to, or that you want to, or anything...just focus on that moment, on what you ARE doing, riding this big strong wave and there you are, right on top, head always above the water, riding the wave in to shore. All waves end at the shore somewhere. All of them. Some become part of a bigger wave, and that’s how they make it in, but...they all land on shore. In that moment...you are just riding the wave in, all along knowing the destination. We all know how to do this, we just need to allow ourselves to do this. Give yourself permission not to smoke to make it. Keep walking with yourself. One foot in front of the other, one at a time. We are walking with you on our own parallel journeys. Let the momentum build....

Meant to cc you on the above as well...

Good morning Debbie, welcome back!

Nice to see a fellow Oregonian here. I’m in lovely Portland which seems to be just bursting forth these past few days with a beautiful Spring of a week, yes? So many things suddenly bursting forth with their new colors and growth, just like you! Yay! 

Hi,

Nice to meet you. It has been beautiful.  We have had a helluva winter so I am welcoming the lovely weather with open arms. Are you born and raised in Oregon? Good to know you're right down the road so if I start yelling and pulling my hair out you might hear me and help! Lol. I get a bit emotional time to time when quitting.