I used the nicotine gum. That helped a lot. After a month, I didn’t need to chew it anymore. Being around smoke doesn’t even bother me now.
Withdrawal symptoms are getting somewhat better, and I am feeling much more closer to normal than I have been for quite some time. My throat is still really sore though, and that’s a bit uncomfortable, especially as the new academic quarter begins for someone who talks for a living.
I also made it through three job interviews this past week without any cigarettes, a fact that I am particularly proud of. I’m not sure how well I did at the interviews because I may have held myself back from being as assertive as I should have been, for fear of stressing myself out, but maybe not. It’s more of a fear than anything I believe I’ve observed.
Being back in my old stomping grounds from my trip back to Chicago for the holidays has not been as difficult as I thought it would be. There are some new triggers coming up, but it seems they go away once I acknowledge them. (Such as when I pass the old convenience store, I get an urge for a cigarette, but it goes away once I realize, “Why wouldn’t I have an urge here? That makes perfect sense.”)
So, things now are pretty good. I would like my upper respiratory system to clear up, but I suppose it already has to some degree. I think it might clear up a bit faster now, though, now that I won’t be going up and down on airplanes for a while. I think the weirdest thing now is that I’m generally tired when I wasn’t before. I think I might have to start taking little catnaps in the afternoon, but maybe not.
I think I’m through the worst of it now, but as always thanks for reading my little testimonial. Being around smoke bothers me a lot right now. Leaving the airport, now that I think about it, has got to be one of the most-dense-smoke places in the country. Especially on the arrivals level, which has less ventilation. I didn’t like being there all that much. What I find surprising is that I’m less than ten days from a month without nicotine now. I don’t know if it seems like longer or shorter than that.
Here’s the current counter. If you’ve been paying particularly close attention, you’ll note that I changed the average number of cigarettes I smoked daily. It seems I gave a bit of an overestimate before, and I’ve corrected that (33 cigarettes a day rather than 35).
I stopped smoking on Sun, 18 Dec 2011 02:45:00 GMT.
It has been 3 weeks, 1 days, 21 hours, 48 minutes and 56 seconds since I quit.
I have saved $ 226.8 by choosing not to smoke 755 cigarettes.
More importantly, I saved 0 weeks, 5 days 18 hours 35 minutes of my life!
I got to work today, hit the button for the elevator…and then the smokers walked in from outside and started waiting for me. I let them take the first car, and waited for the next one so I wouldn’t be stuck with the smell in a small room.
While I was waiting, I thought of you, RadicalPi. I was going to dig this thread up and check in on you.
Happy to hear you’re still with it.
-D/a
Good on ya! Stick with it. I promise you won’t be sorry.
The physical symptoms of nicotine withdrawal are pretty much over. There’s still a bit of my sore throat remaining, but it’s faint and I only notice it now and then. Breathing is a lot easier, too, and that’s nice. It’s also true that I can smell and taste things a lot better now. But, it seems that I find many of these new sensations unpleasant. Ketchup, in particular, does not taste like it should. There’s an extra something. Other than that, I’m pretty much at normal, as far as I can tell, except that it’s easier than usual for me to get irritated at things. I’m not sure if it’s because of withdrawal stuff or if it’s because in the past when I was irritated, I would go have a smoke and calm down. I’m not sure what I should do now. I don’t think I can tell people, “You’re pissing me off, so I’m going to wander off for a while as I gather the strength to deal with your idiocy and/or incompetence and/or innocuous comment that just rubbed me the wrong way.” Other than that, I still feel some unexpected fatigue, but that seems to be fading.
Right now, I’m spending a lot of time getting used to not having cigarettes at times I used to have them. It’s weirdest for me with “preparation” smokes, that is, cigarettes that I would have before doing something, again as I gathered the strength or mentally prepared myself for what I was about to do. For example, I’m used to getting to my classroom about ten minutes before class starts because, (1) I like to get there early, and (2) so that I could have a cigarette. Now I still get there early, but I just kind of wander in circles for a while. It seems strange I used to smoke after these kinds of things were finished, too, but not smoking then is not really all that difficult for me.
Since that weird experience on the plane, I haven’t really had any overwhelming urges to smoke or any significant self-doubt that I would fail to successfully quit smoking. This lack does make me a bit nervous that I won’t be mentally ready to say no should one of these urges arise. I feel I should be preparing for this in some sense, but I can’t really think of anything to do except to remind myself that I can do whatever I want, except the smoking. I’m not sure if others who have quit have or have had similar fears.
Thanks for thinking of me. I’m a bit flattered.
I can’t hear this enough. Slowly it gets easier. Perhaps in the future it will be easier still.
Anyway, here is the current counter. As you can see it has been a whole month since I last had a cigarette, (it is currently 3:29 on January 18, 2012 UTC), and I’m up over four digits in cigarettes not smoked:
I stopped smoking on Sun, 18 Dec 2011 02:45:00 GMT.
It has been 4 weeks, 3 days, 0 hours, 44 minutes and 25 seconds since I quit.
I have saved $ 307.21 by choosing not to smoke 1024 cigarettes.
More importantly, I saved 1 weeks, 0 days 19 hours 44 minutes of my life!
Dunno if this has been suggested in the thread before, but one idea is to take the money you would have spent on cigarettes and sock it away rather than spend it on something else. Even half the amount would be good. It’ll really add up over time.
I really wish you (and everyone else who has quit or wishes to quit) every success.
Human beings aren’t meant to smoke. It absolutely isn’t part of our genetic history. No creature on earth with lungs is meant to smoke actually. It’s not what lungs are meant for.
Indeed, I cannot understand, for the life of me, how corporate tobacco is still a legal product. That it still is legal, speaks volumes for how much money talks.
If it helps, once a junkie, always a junkie. If you’re addicted to smokes, you’re a junkie alright - you’re a nicotine junkie. Relapses happen, but all junkies know in their heart of hearts what the solution is - stay away from the stuff.
The addiction never goes away - a part of your brain is permanently hardwired now. You read about people who have been off the smokes for 20 years and one night at a party they light up a smoke and they love it so they buy a pack and by the end of the week they’re back on the smokes again. Amazing.
The good news is that the symptoms and actions of your addiction can go away - you can nail that part of the equation so I wish you every success.
You are doing great. The worst part is well behind you physically so just keep the monkey off your back and you will be fine.
Congrats! You are a non smoker. 
It’s been another month, and I have to say that it has been a lot easier than the first month. Slowly, I am getting in the groove of life without cigarettes and all the little changes that come along with that.
Probably the most difficult is going drinking. Before, the two were very closely connected, and I don’t think it’ll surprise anyone if I say that it was in drinking situations that I started smoking in the first place. I think there’s two reasons that it’s difficult for me. First is that I am very much aware that when I’m drinking my inhibitions are lowered, and second, there are always lots of people smoking at or just outside bars.
The smell is what gets to me the most, but this happens more when I’m hanging out with friends. When there’s only one cigarette around, the smell has a small bit of appeal for me, rather than the onslaught of almost nausea that I get just outside an airport or a bar. This appeal make me feel bad because I never used to like the smell at all. I guess what is happening is that I miss it a bit, even though I also don’t miss it either. This scares me since if I really feel that I miss smoking, it seems that I will likely go back to it sooner or later.
I (mildly) freak out in these situations because I don’t want to be tempted, but I do have to say that for the most part, I’m really not. Cravings do occur in these situations, but they are fairly mild. I’ve also asked myself from time to time when I was drinking if I really, actually wanted a cigarette, and I’ve always answered no. I’ve also inadvertently gotten a lot drunker than I had anticipated in the past month, and I’ve still not had any. I’m proud of myself for that.
What really is getting to me are the dreams of smoking. I do not like these dreams at all. In them, I am either smoking like I’ve never quit at all or I’m reluctantly having a cigarette, and then giving up after a few puffs. When I wake up, I always fell just terrible that I had fallen off the wagon, and that it is time to redouble my effort, but then it slowly dawns on me that it was a dream, and I want to tell my brain to fuck off. The reluctant smoking thing makes me feel worse because in these dreams I know that I have quit smoking, but that I have had a moment of weakness. And that can ruin my mood for the whole day because I feel like I have failed. There was a thread a while back about people getting angry at other people for what they did in their dreams. And I used to think they were crazy, but now I understand completely.
As I think about it though, it might be the case that these dreams are the result of stress. I’ve only had them in the past week, and that week was the week of Valentine’s Day which always sets me off even as I pretend not to care about it. So, maybe that is me getting used to not smoking in (mildly) stressful situations. That hopefully implies that these dreams will fade in time. But damn, do these dreams piss me off.
Other than these things, it’s odd how my life has changed. I go to bed about two hours earlier than I did previously. I don’t know why. I’m wondering if I would while away so much time with cigarettes before that I wouldn’t realize I was tired. It could be that, or it could be something more subtle, or it could be totally irrelevant. I’m eating more often than I used to too, although less at each sitting. It’s gotten to the point where I measure out my food to avoid leftovers. Still, I have put on a few pounds in the past month. Soon I think I will have to take up some type of cardiovascular exercise to avoid having to purchase new clothes.
My reward for quitting smoking has been my new smartphone. It’s the Samsung Galaxy of some type, and it is everything I could want a phone to be. I am very happy with it, and my bill didn’t even go up by that much. Past that, I have been trying to spend half of my savings on myself and save the other half. I figure that seems fair. It’s amazing how much money it is.
Sounds wise. And it is, as we’ve just read, exactly what I’ve decided to do. Perhaps as the novelty of not smoking wears off, I will start to save more, but for now I like the idea that this money is going to things that are beneficial to me rather than to things that are not.
Thinking this way I think would not help my depressive tendencies in the slightest. It’s just way too negative for me. I think a better way for me to deal with the possibility of relapse has been to remember that there is a link between cigarettes and depression and that the cigarettes do not provide me with what they seem to. This image comes to my mind readily:
I remember this sort of people from high school. And I hated them. That seems to help me a lot.
Here is the current counter:
I stopped smoking on Sun, 18 Dec 2011 02:45:00 GMT.
It has been 9 weeks, 1 days, 18 hours, 6 minutes and 32 seconds since I quit.
I have saved $ 641.07 by choosing not to smoke 2136 cigarettes.
More importantly, I saved 2 weeks, 2 days 7 hours 45 minutes of my life!
Keep up the good work, RadicalPi!
Just for comparison. I just bought a 46" LED flatscreen TV as part of my house remodel for $600. You’ve saved more than that already!
-D/a
Excellent news. Stick with it!
I’m going to bump this thread with the announcement that I’ve also quit smoking as of today. The VA has a program where, instead of my going to meetings, the counselor calls me and we do it by phone. My primary care doc prescribed patches which, so far, seem to be helping.
Basically, my reasons for quitting come down to the fact that smoking is now counterproductive. I’ve lost almost 90 pounds, I’m exercising regularly, and I was doing the one thing that could still kill me. I’m also sick of being a slave to the damn things; having to find smoking areas or go out of my way to be able to smoke just got annoying. So I’m quitting!
Good for you! Welcome to life as a non smoker.
Good on you! Again, the first month is the hardest. Aim for a month, then go from there.
Good..um…WITH you!
But seriously..congrats on taking the big step! Talk about it here. Keep us posted. Let us pressure you. 
-D/a
Well, let’s see, good of you!
I can attest to what Siam Sam said, the first month is not going to be pleasant, but past that, it’s kind of nice. One of the reasons that I keep posting in this thread is so that I can remind myself of what things were like before, and I am amazed at how differently I felt even a month or two ago. So, don’t be too distressed about how you feel now. It won’t stay that way. Also, keep us posted on your progress, and best of luck with not putting things in your mouth and lighting them on fire!
As for me, it has been, as of about an hour and a half ago, one hundred days since I quit smoking, and I regret absolutely none of it. There are pangs every now and again, but they pass rather quickly, as I remind myself why I quit. Also, the dreams of smoking have stopped as well, which is very, very nice since smoking in my dreams makes me feel bad. I must admit, though, that, unlike before, I have now become a bit ambivalent about the smell of the smoke. I still don’t like it, but now I also kind of do. The smell of cigar smoke is just as unpleasant as it ever was, though. I’m hoping that that will pass in time, because I don’t want that to be the reason that I go back to smoking.
Other than that, this past month or so has been very stressful. My ex-girlfriend and her (or perhaps our) continuing drama has been a bit too present in my life, and that is something that I just don’t like. I’m torn about it since I care about her to some degree, but she also cannot fail to piss me off whenever we communicate. Also, I have been very overworked, often staying up past three to get things done, which has included finishing the grading for my classes, preparing and presenting at (and actually going to) a conference, and dealing with the academic job market, which sucks even at the best of times. The grading and the conference are over, and the conference went really well, so that part of the stress is over, but the job market is a continuing problem.
I’m not saying all this to vent about my problems, but to say that the thought of smoking hasn’t really occurred to me at all, except as a reminiscence. (That is, I said to myself several times, “You know, before, this sort of stuff would make me smoke like a chimney.” ) I am very proud of that. Especially, the grading and the ex-girlfriend, which used to be two huge triggers. Also, less significant but still important to me, one of my flights this weekend arrived about 45 minutes early, and they didn’t have space at the gate for us, so we sat on the tarmac for about half an hour. That was not particularly pleasant, but before I know that I would have been jonesing and jonesing to get off the plane and run to the smoking lounge.
All this stuff convinces me more and more that I’m not going back to smoking, that I’m pretty much done. It’s odd that I feel confident about something, but I really do.
Thanks as always to everyone who reads this and who has offered me support, D/a, Siam Sam, NAF, and the rest, including the newest ex-smoker in our midst, MsRobyn. I think it’s weird that that person is not me, but I guess time marches on.
Here is the latest counter:
I stopped smoking on Sun, 18 Dec 2011 02:45:00 GMT.
It has been 14 weeks, 2 days, 1 hours, 48 minutes and 42 seconds since I quit.
I have saved $ 990.75 by choosing not to smoke 3302 cigarettes.
More importantly, I saved 3 weeks, 4 days 5 hours 27 minutes of my life!
That’s excellent news, RadicalPi. Congratulations. Better health and better finances – can’t be beat.
As an ex-smoker myself, I say"RadicalPi , good job !"
When you feel weak, reread this thread!
Glad to hear things are going well for you, RadicalPi!
I’m in my third week of ex-smokerhood. The patches are still helping a lot; that my family is still alive is proof of that. I’m also feeling the physical effects of Not Smoking. My lungs hurt a little as they clear out, but so far, I haven’t had much of a cough. And the best part is that the smell of smoke is now making me nauseous, so there’s some built-in deterrent.
BTW, where did you find that counter? I’m curious to find that information out.
Stick with it. Would hate to see you smoking in Philly next month.