I haven't left the house in about a week, now.

Bipolar Joe

Seriously, people, how God damn long is it gonna take until the feeling of an impending panic attack stops? Tomorrow will be a week to the day that I've quit and today especially has been really damn hard. I know that as soon as I leave the house, I'll buy a pack. I have slightly above zero will power, the only way I'm managing it now is because I forced myself broke and made sure that the only reason I would have to leave the house would be to buy fags. I got food and so on, but it's not gonna last longer than a couple of more days. I am actually at my wit's end.

bigbadbear

Why would you be panicking? you just gave up cigarettes should be the be happiest moment of your life!!

Bipolar Joe

Every sixty seconds or so, I get this niggling feeling in the back of my head, almost like a voice or a memory of a voice, saying "Dude, go have a smoke, go on sure it'll be grand" and no joke, I move involuntarily, as if my body says "OK!" like a dip ****. I sit on my bed, scrunch my face up and chew on my pillow for what at first seemed like half an hour, until I realised a couple of days later it was only about five minutes each time. You know what it's like? It's like that thing where you're at the airport, just at the gate and all of a sudden you wonder to yourself...........


Did I leave the cooker on?

Then you think, oh ****, I think I left the cooker on and it's in your head and you can't get this idea that you may have left your cooker on out of it. It's embedded in there. Now, we all know, that cooker is well and truly off, but the thought is right there, and you panic and stress out. I'm fairly certain I am going insane right now.

Feelgood

The physical addiction should be well over now after a week. All thats left now is a mental game of chess with your brain.

The easiest way to stop thinking about smoking is to start occupying your head with something else. Just stop thinking about what you are missing and think about what you are gaining.

Go for a run, read a book, play Xbox. Keep yourself occupied, it gets a lot easier.

Bipolar Joe

I've been trying to play video games for the past few days, but it's impossible to concentrate. I just want to sleep from now until the feeling goes away and I want a God damn hug.

cbmonstra

You need to get out of the house, and go do something that will take your mind off the cravings...

I know where you are coming from, I'm 10 days off myself, and I was actually afraid to go into a shop for the first week (still a little bit!!), in case I give in and buy them.
The last time I quit, I actually bought them by accident! Was outside the shop when I realised they were in my hand. It was just a reflex to ask for them at the counter.

Seriously, I don't know what you can do, but crawling up the walls in your house is not going to help those cravings in any way.

Are you going cold turkey? You could try gum or lozenges for a while, to take when you have a bad craving, and it might help you get over that 5 minutes, and before you know it, it will be an hour later and your craving is gone!!

Bipolar Joe

I'm chewing regular gum. It doesn't seem logical to get over nicotine by taking nicotine. I'm just shovelling food into myself, biscuits, apples, seeds, raw spaghetti, feckin' everything. That idea of all of a sudden having cigarettes is rotten, that's exactly what I've worried about. I spent a lot of last night tearing my bed sheets up with my teeth.

DeVore

When I quit (and I tried and failed many times), i actually left 2 almost full packs in my apartment. Sounds crazy but if you are only giving up because you cant get access to them, then you aren't likely to succeed IMHO.

Remind yourself you are giving up because you want to see your kids grow up and be able to run more than 3 steps with them or whatever your reason.

I totally understand if you feel you need to lock yourself in, I'm by no means berating you or suggesting you do the same as I did but that "voice" in your head is the voice of a parasite you've been carrying around for far too long now. Those pleas for nicotine are its death throes.


Kill the nasty little fecker, cos he's trying to kill you!

DeV.

Bipolar Joe

Cheers for the encouragement, lads. My reasons are entirely monetary, it's too feckin' expensive to have the habit, especially when I'm saving up for other things. I spent the day just strumming on the ukulele, blasting Headgear and chewing gum. I know that once I get my first item I'm saving for, that'll solidify everything.

mud

Keep it up! The first 3 days are the worst as the nicotine leaves your body. Then the next milestone is 28 days when the habit itself will be broken.

Keep telling yourself that you can do this, that you want this.

Instead of staying in the house, why don't you go out without any cash at all and just get walking/running?

Believe me, you don't want to pile on the weight just to give up the fags as this could make you feel very down and inclined to smoke and so the vicious cycle continues.

I am in the process of giving them up myself, I have 140 cigs in the press that someone brought me from their holidays. I couldn't care less about them as I know that I just do not want to be a smoker.

The very best of luck with the rest of your quit. It gets easier I swear .

DeVore

I found the break through for me was when I was smoking at my laptop and trying to type and I tipped ash in my keyboard which hugely annoyed me. I simply decided I didnt want to smoke and that was that. Cant count how many times I gave up before that.

You'll truely have quit when someone asks you and you tell them instinctively "no, I dont smoke". Its a lovely feeling


Plus, by now you are 100-200 quid up depending on your habit before. by next week you can afford a holiday. a holiday ffs!

DeV.

Bipolar Joe

I'd LOVE to put on weight, I'm a wee runt, I'm looking forward to that aspect.

Oh_Noes

You could maybe go to the bank and get €10 worth of 50 cent pieces and leave them somewhere. Then every time you want a smoke, go get one of the coins and put it into a jar or something (when it gets to €10, swap the coins for a note and put the coins back in the place you were keeping them). Maybe even beside the sink so you can have a glass of water or something like that that has a health benefit every time you deposit your 50 cent.

So you can actually see the money being saved from every single cigarette you would have smoked, plus you do a tiny bit to improve your health every time you do.

(I know it would be more like 43 cent a smoke or so but you could balance it out somehow).