Posted by Caper on June 3, 2004, at 9:42:19
In reply to My Diary of giving up smoking. Day 1, posted by NikkiT2 on June 3, 2004, at 9:20:35
Hi Nikki,
I'm not a smoker but just wanted to give you some encouragement. My father gave up smoking- he was 17 when he started and 40 something when he quit- so I know a little about the ups and downs. (I'm also an alcoholic, so I'm no stranger to addiction!)
I'm going to try to find an old e-mail I once received, about the benefits to your body when you quit. It goes from hours to days to years- how your body repairs the damage done. It's amazing how fast some of the damage can be undone, how fast the benefits of not smoking are apparent. If I can find it I will post it. (Gave it to dad years ago and I think he still has it.)
My older brother also recently quit after 10+ years of smoking. He found the nicotine patches helpful for about the first 10 days.
Good luck to you and keep us posted on how it's going.
Caper
> So its been 3 hours since my last ciggerette. I smoked my last at 12:15pm, and my first session of hypnotherapy started at 1pm, finished at 2pm.
>
> Feeling wonderful. very relaxed and calm and nice.. but just this second the first real pang hit me. It was a more a "right, time for a ciggie" pang than a real "goddamn I need a smoke and I need it now" kind of pang.
>
> I'm fearing a chup chup addiction might come of this.. I couldn't find sugar free anywhere which was annoying.. and I couldn't find sugar free hard sweets anywhere - infact, the only hard sweets I could find were cherry and menthol *pukes* So, I have a pack of fruit flavour hard gums, and 5 cola flavour chupa chups (well, 4 and 9/10's seeing as I am sucking on one now *l*)
> Tomorrow I will go to the supermarket to find some sugar free things.. don't want to get really fat just to give up smoking.
>
> The hypnotherapy was great.. not what I expected.. I was very concious and aware of everything, but had a really safe feeling of well being. I got a strange attack of the shakes about 5 minutes after she'd finished which was strange, but she talked to me and they passed.
> She decided to work on insomnia and smoking at once.. so we shall we what happens there. I go back again in a week.
>
> Also, I couldn't find a "happy place"! You know, the "find a place you have been happy and relaxed".. couldn't do it.. she told me to nod when I'd found it, but it just wasn't coming.. so she talked around it, about colours and feelings, and my safe place was the colour red. Afterward we were discussing this, and I explained it was the kind of warm redness you see in your eyelids when looking at the sun.. she thinks I probably had my eyes closed in the place my brain thinks of as safe and relaxing!! How strange!
>
> Well, this is just a ramble.. I'm going to keep a diary of giving up smoking, and will copy the posts over here each day when I remember.
poster:Caper
thread:353315
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/subs/20040409/msgs/353325.html