justfortoday
168 posts
Registered:
12 Aug 2019
01 Oct 2019
in reply to
mommy2two85
Hi mommy2two … love the name by the way …
I'm four weeks into my quit, and on the Patch as well. I totally feel your frustration and I too had huge cravings the for the first two weeks even on the Patch. Overwhelming, right? Like you, I tried to distract myself at work, but holy cow … I just sat staring my computer monitor thinking about smoking … seriously, for a week, that's what I did.
For me, the patch eased the cravings (I tried cold turkey and that was a huge swing and miss for me), which allowed me to focus on the emotional dependency. You will get a lot of great advice here, but here are a few things that helped me, and maybe will help you as well.
I read a ton about what exactly was happening to my brain (became a kind of researcher) during my quit. This did two things; The more I understood about what happens to the "addicted" brain, the more I was able to tolerate the cravings. Think of it this way … I hope I'm not overstepping here, but I suspect you have kids? When a woman understands why her body is contracting during labour, the more she can tolerate it. The other reason learning helped me is that it empowered me with knowledge, and learning something new actually triggers dopamine and endorphins the same way nicotine did. Make sense?
The other thing that worked for me to get over the worst of the cravings was to splash cold (as cold as you can handle) water on my face. This is actually a method I learned several years ago during Trauma therapy. It shocks the brain and sends the focus to the sensations, and decreases anxiety. Some days I repeated this process every half hour in the early days of my quit. Tip … don't wear make-up ! :)
The best advice I got on this site was this. Hang in! I PROMISE, it does get easier.
And be proud of yourself because you are doing this!
Last modified on 01 Oct 2019 13:51 by justfortoday