Thank you Cindi. Like I said, I feel pretty good. I do see a psychiatrist who prescribes medication for my bipolar disorder. The anxiety is not so much illness based, but due to my relationship life. I am seeing a relationship counsellor soon. I have a consultation tomorrow morning. I do need help. Closing the door temporarily on a relationship that was causing the amxiety has helped. Going for walks has also been therapeautic! Day by day. This forum helps me a lot too. Thank you again for your kind words!

Ginger, I’m so happy to hear cross stitch worked well for you! I do hope it both gives me something to do with my hands and keeps my mind off unhelpful thoughts. I had carpal tunnel surgery in August on both wrists, so this will be my trial run for how good my hands are. I wouldn’t have even been considering trying it 3 years ago, so I’m excited! I got everything set up yesterday and will start stitching today  

Jenny

Jerthie, thank you so much! I’m always happy to see your messages. I love that I can come here to get a pat on the back when needed. Emotional stuff is so hard when quitting, since anything can be an excuse to give up. My quit last November had me try to use the excuse of my lasagna noodles being over cooked. I had to laugh when the thought occurred to me, so I wasn’t really in danger over it, but it sure reminded me of how much I can use cigarettes as a comforter. 
I hope your day is going well. 6 lozenges is so much less than 12, so I hope you feel some amount of victory with that!

Jenny

Paul, thank your for that reminder. Today is day 4 and I’ve definitely thought of getting a pack a few times already. I plan to stay home today so I’m less tempted. Getting it out of my system will definitely be nice! I was pretty cranky the other night when my daughter decided she was decorating for Christmas.

Jenny

You'll have fun and accomplish a work of art. Here's something that might keep you from starting up again. What they say about cigarettes causing WRINKLES is true. Too late for me but not you

That's awesome!  It's great that you are just taking care of YOU!  My daughter is going to school to become a psychologist so she is opening my world a bit to being more informed about our therapy options.  Keep up your great work.

You are doing great!  The first week is truly the hardest!  It's really hard to understand other people's reaction to our quit and we really can't change that or even get upset about it.  There is a VeryWellMind article that I will try and dig up about how others react and handle our quit.  It's buried deep in my brain somewhere.  Stay tuned!

I think this is one of the articles I was thinking of:

Verywell Mind

How to Tell Friends and Family You're Quitting Smoking

Deciding to quit smoking is a big step and it can be challenging without support. Learn how to tell your friends and family you're quitting and what they can do to help.

Read more from Verywell Mind

Right on! You Go girl!!! Stay with it -  you are doing great.

Its true I noticed that some people around me had no reaction to my quit.  In fact, I noticed most people I know didn't react to my quit until I was several months and some not for a couple years into it.  I guess maybe they thought, oh sure, we will see how you are doing in months/years time.  After all, it aint much good if you don't quit for life.  

QUITE for LIFE - now that is good mantra.   

Cheers