I've noticed several people struggling with thoughts of smoking well past the initial withdrawal time period. It's definitely frustrating, it's tiring, it can be so discouraging... and it's completely understandable.
[quote]
Nicotine is so addictive because it becomes "paired" in your brain with experiences and cues in the environment. Each time you smoke after eating, while drinking, after waking up, with a cup of java, or to relax, your brain forms an association that causes a strong craving for nicotine when you are in any of those situations in the future. A pack-a-day smoker experiences about 70,000 pairings a year resulting in Pavlovian cravings for nicotine. Even if you're just an occasional smoker, you can experience 50-100 pairings in one evening out, which is why many occasional smokers don't remain occasional for long.
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70,000 pairings a year...up to 100 in a single evening. Should you still be thinking of smoking at 3 months? 6 months? One year? More? The longer you remain quit, and the more you replace those pairings in your brain with something other than smoking, the fewer and fewer thoughts you'll have. This takes a conscious effort sometimes...and takes patience with ourselves. That's why you'll see so many say to go through all 4 seasons, to experience the different things in each one.
Will we ever completely stop thinking about it? I personally can't answer that. I see that we've had members celebrating 2 or more years recently. Maybe they can give us some input. I can tell you, in the beginning of my own quit, the constant thoughts made me crazy...but now at 18 months, the thoughts are totally manageable. They're not constant, battering, exhausting thoughts. I can go very long periods of time and not think of smoking. So, please rest assured, those annoying phases really do pass and things improve.
We just need to know that, understandably, we're going to have smoking thoughts. Always be prepared with your coping skills. Whatever it takes to push those thoughts away... do it. Trust that eventually, you'll break down those 70,000 associations and your brain will quit bugging you so much. :)
N.O.P.E.
[B]My Milage:[/B]
[B]My Quit Date: [/B] 2/2/2005
[B]Smoke-Free Days:[/B] 548
[B]Cigarettes Not Smoked:[/B]
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Quit Meter
$19,430.55
Amount Saved
-
Quit Meter
Days: 717
Hours: 14
Minutes: 49
Seconds: 13
Life Gained
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Quit Meter
4995
Smoke Free Days
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Quit Meter
99,900
Cigarettes Not Smoked
