Days 4 & 5 - Trials of Fire

And we thus get to day 4, which happened to be a Thursday before a holiday Friday - scary. I was waiting for this moment anxiously, knowing it'd be one of the hardest moments in my new non-smoker career taking into account what friends and relatives used to tell me. They had actually scared me to death with the idea of: "Just wait until you have a drink and see if you can avoid smoking." Ha! Have friends for that! :-)

Okay, so they were wrong! And it actually felt much, much easier than I had foreseen. I would have sworn some form of irresistible force would drag me back to smoking as I'd gulp down the first drink of the night, but hey! Much on the contrary! I was staring at the smoking people, and thinking: "I don't really want this. I don't feel the need for it." The thought came naturally, and I didn't have to resist as much as I would have thought. Yay for me. That's another day without cigarrettes, and it makes day 4!

Now, my mood is still somewhat irritable and I feel grumpy at times. I know - I have read - this is part of the withdrawal process, and should be seen as normal, but of course people around me don't specially like me grumpy! So I do my best to control that, knowing that its only a temporary feeling, and that it should go away fairly soon.

Day 5 presented itself with a large family meal, the point at which it was harder to resist, but was uneventful otherwise. You know, one of the good things about this quitting is that you feel prouder of yourself every day that passes without a cigarrette. You just feel great, you're happy with yourself, and you are more motivated to move on to the next day.

Other friends of mine however which did one single cigarrette during the withdrawal process, however, are back to smoking now. It is true that you can't allow yourself even a single smoke; it only feeds your body with new nicotine and your withdrawal symptoms last longer. I wouldn't attempt that unless you're dealing with nicotine chewing gums, in which case and in theory the physical addiction is gradually brought to a minimum.

Which reminds me, I think I've quit smoking the worse way there is according to pharmacies! - that is, without any sort of treatment, and drastically. I know some people who have done it this way with positive results, so I decided in my case I was going to try such approach too. Perhaps different people need different ways to quit. I find the way I've chosen tremendously hard for the first two days, and there is no exaggerating in this - particularly if you're a heavy smoker.

I'll keep you posted!