Hi @tam66, I'm glad you are here. It looks like this is your first post, so welcome to Connect and congratulations on making your first post!
Oh, @tam66, I feel your despair!! I really do!
Even now, after six full years of not smoking, I still have the cravings. They just got better, and I got better about dealing with them.
I'm not sure you read my post? I smoked for over 42 years. Everyday. I was dedicated to my cigarettes. I knew I did not like what they were doing to me, but I felt powerless to overcome their control over me.
Then I read the Allen Carr book, Allen Carr's Easy Way to Quit Smoking. There is only one way to quit smoking, and quit for good...the way that works for you!!
Here's what I liked about his book: He got into the psychology behind the addiction and boiled it down to the little monster that lives in your head. That little monster is the thing that is making you think you need a cigarette. We need air, water, food, shelter, love, but we DO NOT NEED CIGARETTES! Not to live. The withdrawal is so mild compared to like heroin or alcohol, that physically it's a little annoying. That's all.
Think about smoking.
We smoke when we are happy.
Smoke when we are sad.
Smoke when we are excited, mad, anxious, want to calm down, want to think better, want to enjoy the moment we are in. But the cigarettes do not add a single thing to our enjoying the moment or getting us through. We only think they do. Cigarettes lie.
They are liars!!
The truth is they take time away from enjoying those moments. I remember thinking "How am I ever going to enjoy going to a party, a wedding reception, a game, any function at all...without being able to smoke?" I truly thought and believed with all my heart I would never enjoy life again without my little friend. But my little 'friend' was trying to kill me. And I was letting it. I took control on Jan 8, 2018, and never smoked again.
Now don't get me wrong...the first two weeks were terrible. But I was committed to quitting as much as I had been committed to smoking.
I was in control. Not the stupid little object.
I don't know if this will help you or not...I KNOW it's not easy. But if you WANT to do it, you CAN do it!!! I went to the Dollar Store and got a couple bags of hot cinnamon hard candies and every time I wanted a smoke, I had one of those. The truth is, the craving last about five minutes. If you can distract yourself for that long...you can go a day. Then another, and another, and pretty soon, a week, a month and a year!!! I would straighten my sock drawer, the pantry, the linen closet, my shoes...anything to distract for about five minutes. I walked everyday. I asked God to help me find discipline. I didn't need Willpower, I needed Won't power!
I finally knew I made it when I thought to myself "hey...I haven't even thought of a smoke and it's been two days" Now weeks go by and I don't think of them. It's still a process, but one I am not going to lose. Check out the Allen Carr book. I got mine on Amazon.
How long have you smoked? What is the scariest thing about quitting you can think of?