We're Sure Glad You Found Us!
Whether you've just found us or you're already on your way, there is absolutely no reason why you can't successfully
navigate this temporary journey of re-adjustment called
"recovery." Years of chemical dependency upon nicotine falsely conditioned each of us us to believe that it's harder being free than it is
staying hooked. It was the biggest single lie that we each fed ourselves!
You will probably find this hard to believe right now but here is a simple truth - it is work keeping your blood-serum nicotine level elevated high enough so that you avoid sensing the onset of the early anxieties and mild state of depression that begin arriving when you neglect it. It is not work spending the rest of your life never again having the physical need to replenish missing nicotine.
Your brain's dopamine and anxiety pathways we're fooled into believing that nicotine was as important as eating or quenching thirst. They have conditioned you to fear ending nicotine use. Try hard to relax and not to be afraid as contrary to what your brain is telling you, coming home to entire days where you never once think about wanting to use nicotine is good, not bad. The comfort awaiting you is deep!
Recovery is a temporary period of adjustment. It's a short period of transition from the needs of the endlessly feeding addict who has occupied center stage in your life, to the relaxed and comfortable you, who occupied your mind and body prior to becoming nicotine's slave.
Do you even remember who you were before climbing aboard and for the first time riding nicotine's endless roller-coaster of dopamine highs and lows? Do you recall the constant sense of contentment that filled your mind immediately before experiencing that very first nicotine generated dopamine "aaah" sensation, or before waiting too long, depleting your nicotine reserves, and riding the coaster to the emotional bottom, where you desperately needed another big puff of nicotine? - "Where are my smokes!!" "I need a cigarette!!!"
The real you never ever needed nicotine. You were fine on your own. The real you probably resided in a comfortable location about mid-point between the nicotine "aaah" of a new fix and the tremendous anxiety of badly needing one. What if you never ever needed to smoke nicotine again? What if your mind was once again itself, filled with a constant sense of calmness and getting its dopamine releases the natural way (great food, big hugs, cold water, a sense of accomplishment, love and/or sex). Would that be good enough for you? If so, join us!
Forget about quitting smoking "forever!" It's the biggest psychological bite imaginable. If the only time you can celebrate complete victory is by quitting forever, be sure to include a provision in your Last Will & Testament for your surviving family members to throw a quit smoking celebration party without you. Instead, throw the party yourself, join in our daily parades here at Freedom, and let each and every day of healing be a total and complete victory in and of itself!
Instead of sitting down to the dinner table feeling the anxiety of thinking you need to eat an entire cow, why not have one nice juicy steak instead!
Just one rule - no nicotine -- not even one puff -- just one day at a time! Develop the patience needed to achieve complete victory today. Within 72 hours your blood will become 100% nicotine clean, the anxieties will peak, and then begin their gradual decline. To "cheat," "slip," or reward yourself with "just one" means that you have RELAPSED and you now have to do the most challenging part of chemical nicotine withdrawal all over again - the first 72 hours of chemical withdrawal.
We each have sufficient energy and strength to go the 72 hours needed to allow our brain to begin bathing in 100% nicotine free blood serum. Just one hour and crave at a time if necessary. Very few of us have the strength to relapse at 72 hours and then immediately go through the whole blood cleaning process all over again. To think that you can smoke what may be the world's most captivating substance at the exact same time you're breaking free from it, is just plain stupid. I hate that word (stupid) but in this rare case its use seems justified. Just one puff of new nicotine and it's all over!
Unless multiple cues are encountered, it's unlikely that a cue triggered crave anxiety attack will ever last longer than three minutes. But keep a clock handy as time distortion is nearly a universal recovery symptom and the minutes may seem like hours. The number of craves experienced by the average quitter peaks at six on day three (72 hours). If true, can you handle the 18 minutes of serious anxiety that the average quitter senses on the most challenging day of their recovery? Sure you can! We all can!
Two things to keep an eye one early. Drink natural juices for the first 72 hours (cranberry is excellent). Nicotine fed you with each new puff via adrenaline releases of stored fats into your blood stream. The juices will help both stabilize your blood sugar level while giving your brain a chance to resume full control of blood sugar production. This should also help with any concentration or mind fog type symptoms you've had with prior quits.
Also, don't skip ANY meals but then don't eat more food either. You don't have to give up anything when quitting except for nicotine but don't allow food to become a new crutch either. In that nicotine fed us stored fats via adrenaline releases, you may have been able to skip breakfast and/or lunch during the entire time you smoked. If you try skipping meals after quitting, your blood sugar will take a nose dive and you may experience lots of unnecessary symptoms including difficulty concentrating, a dizzy sensation or fatigue. We don't need even one calorie more of food but many of us do need to learn to spread our food intake out more evenly over our entire day. Don't skip breakfast!!!
Also, if you were a big caffeine user (more than 750 mg per day) then you need to know that nicotine users need roughly twice as much caffeine as non-users in order to get the same sensation. Yes, nicotine somehow causes caffeine to be metabolized and depleted by the body at twice its normal rate. If you are a big caffeine drinker and fail to reduce your daily intake by half after quitting smoking, you may find yourself experiencing tremendous anxiety, climbing every wall in sight (the neighbor's walls too) and possibly not being able to sleep.
Baby steps! Just one hour at a time, focus only on here and now, and soon you'll have your first complete day of victory! Today may be easy, it may be challenging, but it will be a complete victory, and the glory will be all yours!
This is your life and that is your body. They were never meant to be imprisoned for life! It's time! Lots of deep breaths and nice cold water!
Breathe deep, hug hard, live long!
John - The Gold Club
John - The Gold Club
Caffeine 
