Hi everyone. If you are reading this you might be expecting some ridiculous scheme to con you into buying a plan or system but it is not. Quitting smoking is a lot more simple than some would think. My parents both smoked my whole life. I smoked from age 13 to 24 and managed to quit cold turkey with no stop smoking aids or replacement therapy.
The first thing you need to understand is that before you had that first cigarette years ago you did not have a craving to smoke. Can you remember a time when you were a little boy or girl that had those constricting feelings in your chest or the cold sweats and nervous/anxious feeling? Of course not. When we were kids we felt great. It was only after that first cigarette that you felt any different.
That first head rush and dizzy feeling that relaxed you so much. That is what hooked you. But we chase that feeling with another and another and another smoke... It never comes back as strong as the first time.
After a while the coughing goes away when you smoke and you become used to the cycle. But something odd happens after this phase.
Now that you have become a full fledged smoker the coughing and sick feelings come after you have not smoked for a while. This is the trap.
At this point most smokers have forgotten what it feels like to be normal and healthy without smoking. Now when you don't smoke you feel sick, nervous and anxious to get to that next smoke so you can go back to feeling the "normal" that you now know.
As it goes on you feel more and more and more sick. Your lungs will feel awful after a while. Running will become near impossible in a few years depending on how heavy you smoke. And you will have to choose between buying cool new things and food or buying those damned cigarettes.
So how did I do it? How did I quit cold turkey? It wasn't easy but this is the exact thing that helped me.
I learned that:
-The sick feelings of coughing up brown stuff and blood.
-The nervous and anxious hell that faced me when I didn't have one for a couple hours.
-My body cold sweating and fevers.
-My nose running and eyes watering with stress.
-My chest feeling like it was about to implode and explode all at the same time when I didn't have a smoke.
These were all symptoms of my body beginning to heal itself.
The worst part about escaping the smoking trap is understanding and accepting that you need to feel like absolute sh!t before you will feel the same as before you started.
Don't get me wrong it is extremely hard. BUT it only takes around 4 days of feeling like this and you will be done forever.
This was my experience.
The first day:
-You will feel nervous
-Stress will begin to set in
-You may feel overly tired
The second day:
-All symptoms of day one
-You may become irritable and lose your patience easier
-The craving will grow
-You may end up with runny nose or watery eyes
The third day:
-All symptoms of day 1 + 2 x 100
-One of the worst days of your life
-Downright anger
-Loss of clarity toward your goal of quitting
-Excuses why smoking isn't as bad as everyone says it is
-Coughing up stuff non stop
-Pulsating cravings in chest every 2-5 minutes non stop...
The fourth day:
-Everything seems to calm down
-Breathing becomes easier
-You start to feel better. (not good yet but better)
-The cravings space out to longer periods of relief in between.
-Clarity returns to your mind
-You realize that you have not had a smoke in 3 days and that it would be absolutely retarded to put yourself through this again
-You understand that going through these feelings are the best possible thing you can do for yourself
-You realize you are no longer a smoker
After these 4 days you are set and the only way you will fail is if you light another smoke. If you even have 1 puff the whole process will start over again. The head rush will come back and you will feel so relaxed and so much better than what you feel on the fifth day but you will slowly be sucked back down into the hell that is smoking and you will begin to feel sick again later.
It is not only a 4 day process. It will take months for your cravings to go away. But they are not the same as before. Over those 4 days you will become used to them and they will have grown to be a normal feeling. The same way smoking became normal to you. It will also be normal for you to deny those cravings and all you need to remember is that you have gone so long without one that you don't need one anyway.
With every day that goes by you will feel better and better and it will get easier and easier. Eventually you won't even remember what it feels like to have one or even think about having another smoke.
Just remember that those sick feelings are your bodies way of telling you that it is healing itself.
You CAN quit. But you need to WANT to quit. This is coming from an 11 year smoker who got up to the point of 2 packs a day.
Goodluck!!