Originally Posted by
gregjones
I bought into the "three days and the physical need is gone" crap myself. I was an OTR truck driver........sit, look out the window and drive all day when I quit. I had most of a pack when I stopped smoking and just left them on the dash.
Everything was fine...........until day 21. I was in North Bend, WA. I cussed, screamed, rocked back and forth, yelled and did everything EXCEPT smoked. I don't know how I made it. Day 22 was as bad........I know I made it through the day because I had survived the day before. That was it for the real hard stuff. I went a year or so wondering if I would EVER stop thinking about smoking. Then, somewhere along the line I forgot that I ever did.
I haven't had a puff in over 2 years, but it was not a tour of the pie factory getting here.
Well done. I was also trucker at the time I quit 35 years ago. (Still am for that matter.) I had quit at least a hundred times before, and never made it past the second day.
Then, on April 1, 1977, I woke up with the first thought of the day being that today, I quit. I had spent the night at the facility I was to load at in the morning, and the first thing I did was give 2 brand new unopened packs of cigarettes to the kid that loaded my truck.
Surprisingly, I found it easier to resist the urge while driving than I did over the second cup of coffee at a restaurant, so I simply removed myself from the situations that made it hardest to resist.
I had people give me a hard time for not lingering to visit, but I just knew if I didn't drink up and get out of there, I was going to bum a smoke off somebody, and then buy a pack on the way out.
I never relapsed, not even once. I think it was about two years until I felt I had truly conquered it.