1 week down

[VldNene]

Well it's been 1 whole week since I went cold turkey and gave up cigarettes. I wonder when I'll be an official non smoker.

2 weeks or so ago I found out my niece has an addiction. I read everything I could get my hands on about addiction. I sent my niece a letter and some information and hope she'll figure it out. At some point in trying to learn about her addiction, I found the courage to deal with my own.

Granted, my addiction is nicotine not oxycot or pot and pills, but one that can kill me just the same. How can I tell my niece to deal with her addiction when I"m not strong enough to deal with my own? I'm not a hypocrit by nature!

Even worse is that I've seen the negative effects my habit has had on my son. His colds turn into coughs and his coughs last longer than they should. He's begged me to quit smoking before and I've always patted him and said I would one day.

I figured if folks on these message boards and testimonials I read could deal with harder addictions, I could deal with my nicotine addiction. So after reading messages one day I told myself, "Ok let's just go 1 hour without a cigarette". That one hour turned into 2 hrs which turned into 1 week.

It wasn't easy but it wasn't as hard as I had always anticipated. My son and my mother have been great support. My still smoking husband has basically been nothing but an pain in the hiney. The dog, cat and bird are all lucky to have survived my moodiness from withdrawls.

I knew I could do it for good when my husband comes to me at day 2 and says we have a 10am meeting with the irs and have to have all the tax papers ready in less than 8 hours. (Stuff he should have done weeks ago and neglected to tell me we needed.) I survived that night without smoking to his utter shock and I think somewhat his disapointment.

Since that didn't thwart my attempt to quit smoking he resorted to just argueing with me over anything. You would think he's the one going through withdrawls instead of me he's so grumpy. At first I thought it was just me, but even my mother and son have said something to me so I know I"m not going nuts.

The withdrawl symptoms are slowly going away. The worst part has been the insomnia and the indigestion.

The first few nights I tossed and turned, woke up every hour and was the first one out of bed every morning. Now I can sleep through the night only really waking up if there's a noise.

The indigestion I wasn't expecting and has been my biggest hurdle to becoming a non smoker. I have never had such constant indigestion. My stomach feels full all the time and my dog even runs and hides when my tummy starts gurgling. I'd gladly continue to have insomnia if the indigestion would go away. Nothing helps, not drinking a gallon of water, not pepto or any other gas medicine, not fasting, not eating crackers. I had an intestinal parasite once that didn't make me feel this miserable.

The good part though! Now that I've quit I smell better! My breath, my hair, my clothes, my house, my son, everything smells better. I can smell things more accutely also. The stinky fish my husband brought home last night, the gardinia tree blooming outside my window.

I'm not spending ungodly amounts of money on cigarettes anymore! $30 in smokes goes a long way when you spend that $30 on new clothes instead. I even took my mom out and treated her to coffee. I'm not budgeting for cigarettes ever again!

Even though my husband still smokes he will quit when he's ready. At least till then he's smoking outside and the 3 of us living in the house can breathe easier. As a result he's actually smoking less than he normally does.

There was no trick to quitting, no patch helped me, no real "plan" other than to take it 1 step at a time. I just kept thinking of my health, my son's health, my pocket book and just how flat out gross smoking is and I did it. I stopped lying to myself and finally admited that I had an addiction.

Nene

[Lovemykits]

That is wonderful! The first few weeks were tough for me but it's been a little over 10 weeks since I kicked the nicotine habit. You have the right attitude and I am thrilled for you! Janice