HI Steve,

Have you visited Why Quit.com at all? The articles on there are REALLY GREAT! Joel, the founder of the website, talks a lot about having the right perspective, Nicotine addiction and how to combat the psychological side effects of quitting smoking. I would highly recommend it.

You have come a long way, celebrate that accomplishment, take a deep breath and realize that you are freeing yourself from a life sentence of poisonous addiction.

Remember as cheesy as it sounds ATTITUDE IS EVERYTHING! I know that you can do this. Just hang in there!

steve, just carry-on brother! Trust me... dont back track unless you HAVE to! I know your pain... I was a B!%c# for a while.. not even a smile unless it was afer I cursed at someone while i was driving! LOL! I was a bit evil!
If you get toooo mean, hell, just join a support group for that! LOL! But dont smoke! And keep that damn nicotine away from your body! You are almost thru it! Its like QUITTING AGAIN!! Have I said taht a milion times... LOL! Well, chin up buddy... You can do this! And if they offer you a cig again... FIRE THEM!! Just dont smoke!

Keep up the great QUIT!

REYNA

well this cheered me up a little bit i sacked one of em lol

Well it's been over 7 months for me and I'm still bitchy. OMG, will these feelings ever go away???

Steve, at this point going back to the patch would be just a tad bit better than going back to smoking. You would be reintroducing nicotine back into your system and restarting the addiction.

One thing about addiction is it stunts our emotional growth. Instead of learning to deal with life on real terms, we learned to turn to the addiction to smother our problems. For alcoholics it's beer or booze. For junkies it's heroin or cocaine. For tobacco users it's nicotine. Even though our drug of choice didn't "fix" anything, it at least gave us a little time to "gather" ourselves when something came up that was unpleasant. It gave us a moment to calm down.

Now that we've quit, when something like that comes up two things happen: First, we react to the something as we always did. Second, we want to smoke as a response, but since we've quit we can't. This adds to the emotional burden. Add them together and toss in our stunted emotional development and we go into an adult version of a temper tantrum. I know I've done it and I bet a lot of others on this site have, too.

Also, a lot of people use tobacco to manage depression, anxiety, anger management issues, and a host of other emotional/psychological challenges. For me it was depression and anger management.

I suggest you take a few minutes each hour through the day and use them as a "decompressing" time. Go to where it's quiet (if possible) and you won't be interrupted (the bathroom works very well). Look at how you are feeling right then and how you've felt through the past hour about various things. You can be brutally honest with yourself - only you will know. Analyze how you reacted to things, what reactions may have been excessive or inappropriate, and discover how you could alter the reactions to be more appropriate responses.

If something really tweaks you and you find yourself reacting or on the verge of reacting, STOP! Take a deep breath, hold your hands up to ward the person off if that helps, and if necessary, leave the scene. Walk away with no explanation. That can come later when you are back in control.

Above all else, do not listen to the guys at work. By suggesting you have a cig, they are demonstrating either their lack of understanding about quitting smoking or a lack of concern for you.

Peace, strength and wisdom to you, Steve.
Shevie
Quit May, 2005

Wow, great responses here, and Shevie, you've hit another home run out of the park. I will be reading the entry you made here over and over and probably referring people to it, because this is a topic that comes up from time to time, and you addressed it so well. Steve36, I think Shevie is exactly right. Many of us smoked instead of actually feeling our feelings. Our feelings literally went up in smoke with every puff. So now we don't have the cigarettes and we are actually feeling our feelings. Takes some getting used to. Plus you're cranky because you want to smoke and you can't. All of that takes some adjustment time. You are going to come through this better and stronger. You just have to get through the adjustment part. I think Shevie's suggestion about taking some time to look at your feelings is a good one, as is the idea that if you feel yourself starting to become too big of a jerk, give yourself a time out, walk away, and come back when composed. Hang in there.

Hey, Steve, I just bumped up two discussions articles for you - one is by Shevie and is called Rewards, Nicotine, and the Brain (or something like that) and the other is one I started called Little Rewards. Shevie's article helped me so much to understand why I was such a CRAB and it helped knowing there was a scientific, physical explanation. It also helped to know there was something I could do about it (little rewards) to help, and I've been doing it ever since. It works! I agree with everything Shevie wrote here as well. I have found the longer I go not smoking, the more honestly and openly I deal with emotion. I can't just blow it off anymore, I do have to deal with it, but sometimes that can be creative in itself. I remember one night feeling so angry, I finally just went outside and walked back and forth and back and forth on this little stretch of sidewalk until I started feeling better. I've been known till yet to stomp out of my office, fling open the outside door and breathe repeatedly until I feel better! Also, I've been jacking with the thermostat quite often! Getting on here and posting helps a lot, too. I would try to resist the nicotine if possible, especially if you've been off it for 42 days. Have you cut down any on caffeine? I have been surprised what an effect it has on me, when I drank it for years when smoking with no obvious effect. Hang in there and keep up the good quit. To heck with the guys that work for you, they are just wanting you to fail, possibly they smoke and have been challenged by your quit.....?

ok its day 43 defo feeling a dam site better than yesterday got up this morning feeling great went down a little as day went on but still feeling good away to gym again thank you to every one for the support last few days where murder and i know im probably not out the woods yet but couldnt get any worse than last few days thanx again every one

Steve,
I am glad you are doing better. Get some of that anger out at the gym.(or sack someone else...LOL) Stay with us my friend.
Shevie, you sooo rock in your wisdom and words. A writer maybe??? I love reading your posts as they make me feel soo comforted.