Great opener Sao, thank you! Congrats on shotgun MB!
once you can really get your head around the fact that cravings are just a bit of broken neurology it does make them easier to dismiss.
So true! I think the thing that's helped me (outside of the no excuses mentality) is remembering that as pissy and irritated as I feel during a craving that it will not last forever. It's now been 10 days since I've had a cigarette and it amazes me how a craving is a craving is a craving. Doesn't matter if it's alcohol, drugs. nicotine. food. or what it is. It's a learned reward system. I was really amazed at how my mind will follow that pathway at certain times and I forget that I am not a smoker now. In the morning with coffee, after a meal, after a task has been completed at work. I even had it down to a stopping point on a list of invoices I create weekly. There was a specific client I'd get to in the list and that would be cig time. I never realized just how much time smoking sucked out of my day.
Just like I learned with alcohol the removal of that reward system may start out as a source of irritation but with some extreme commitment it turns into freedom!
I don't have to worry anymore things like if I had to find a new job how many breaks they allow and how often. I actually shied away from applying at certain places knowing they have a smoke free campus. I now get to work earlier in the morning because I don't spend half my morning on the front porch smoking. Finally, and I know how bizarre this is going to sound, I am no longer concerned about doing my 3 days of alternative sentencing next year. I had no clue how on earth i was going to make it through three days without a cigarette. I am actually looking forward to giving back to the community for those three days now.
Ok, so back to the alcohol. It's the same result. You start out scared and worried about how you'll ever live your life without alcohol. How you're ever going to have any fun, how it feels like life is going to be over.
Completely untrue, if you do recovery right you'll find that it was alcohol that was keeping you from living life as it's meant to be lived. You will experience REAL joy.
Have a great weekend everybody!