Ciggyfree Blog & Gov Alert

After about eight and a half months of quitting, I find that I still have some cravings for a cigarette, but I am able to get through them much easier. There is one major reason I have not succumbed to the temptation to light one up, which would lead to ten thousand or more lit up. That one reason is I have not been fantasizing about smoking even when the cravings were real bad.

Early on, I read some posts in a support group, and talked to a friend of mine, about not letting myself dwell on thoughts of smoking. I used to fantasize about smoking on all my other quits. I could see in my mind all those smoking memories from any place I ever smoked. I would daydream of smoking, and how it would make me feel to get a hit of nicotine again. This time, I did away with all that crap.

Now, when I really want a smoke I think not about a cigarette, but about amputation. Thatâ€™s the end result, according to my doctor, of a combination of smoking and my specific medical condition. That puts smoking into a whole other perspective.

Someone, I donâ€™t remember who, first introduced me to the phrase â€˜romancing the cigaretteâ€™. Thatâ€™s exactly what I used to do. But no more. Itâ€™s so important to stay focused on the real impact of smoking. Not enjoyment, but deterioration of a whole bunch of subsystems in your body. All at once. When you keep that in mind, you can just put aside the visualizations of smoking, and get on with other stuff.

It gets easier to do that with practice. I know now that the craving will sleep if I ignore it. Concentrating on something else for just a few minutes will banish cravings back to whatever lousy place that spawns them. Then you are good to go until the next one.

After a point, it gets to be automatic. I recognize the feeling of craving, and donâ€™t even visualize smoking at all. Itâ€™s just like a reflex now. I really increased my chances of staying quit when I developed that habit. The key is to keep at it until you make it a habit.

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