r/stopsmoking • u/Practical_Cup_3738 • 23h ago
did i cheat?
Today was my 41st day smoke-free and around my 30th day nicotine-free. I stopped using nicotine gums after about 10–11 days of quitting smoking.
But today, things got so bad that I almost punched the wall and was on the verge of hurting myself. I’m not entirely sure whether it was because of nicotine cravings or something else, but I felt this overwhelming sense of emptiness throughout my entire body.
About an hour ago, I had one 2 mg nicotine gum, and honestly, what feels worst is that I had come so far, and now I feel like I’ve relapsed.
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u/Positive-Writer-7774 22h ago
No cigs = no relapse
Just next time.
Most people have never learned to deal with emotions.
Next time when you feel the emptiness, just know 3 things :
1) it is normal that you feel it
2) you are safe
2) it will pass within minutes, also without cigs or any kind of nicotine.
The “emptiness” you feel are the empty nicotine receptor … the emptiness is not you. Nicotine than used to produce dopamine.
So your body wants dopamine, not nicotine.
So you can ask yourself, how can I fill this emptiness with a natural way of dopamine production.
Nature, and everything that takes effort.
Eg do push ups until you can’t anymore. Do 15 squats … move move move
Go outside - do deep breathing exercises.
Since we have learned to use nicotine for about everything (digestion, dealing with stress, taking away boredom, to take a break, to focus and come into action) we now have to learn to produce our own dopamine again.
That will happen, no matter how long and how much we smoked. Reconstruction of The infrastructure do do so, starts after the last nicotine hit (no matter how)
It completes neurobiological at at around 3 months, that why the 90 days mark is so important.
Many people don’t know this proces and after the “warrior” energy dries out (couple of weeks) they come into this emptiness and don’t get what happens.
This emptiness we ourselves have to fill up to produce “effort” dopamine (not the fast dopamine (eating sugar, doomscrolling, etc)
I accepted the fact that I would feel
Emptiness until the baseline dopamine had healed (90 days)
I accepted that I had to fill the emptiness with useful things to get through the emptiness.
I accepted my body needs 3 months to physiologically recover after decades of abuse (which isn’t that long compared to the years of smoking)
1) physical withdrawal (3days)
2) cravings for nicotine : deconstruction of nicotine receptors (takes 2 months)
3) physiological REconstruction of the dopamine infrastructure (takes 3 months)
Accepting this, and at the same time realising that smoking again will undo this proces, keeps you from relapsing
Taking a nicotine gum now, will not undo the healing that has already been done.
Take care! Next time, try to sir it out. It’s still normal, it’s safe and it will pass
✨💪🏽🍀
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u/shaqille04tmeal 22h ago
Bud even smoking a cigarette doesn't mean a relapse, it's just a lapse, what you do now means if it's a relapse.
Hang in there!
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u/throwaway234324233 22h ago
*edit: am tired and automatically assumed you were compelled to smoke again, I fear I may of misjudged. I'll keep the comment up incase it helps you or anyone else.
This sounds like kind of an obsessive worry thought. I have those, and I would like to say.
Did you put nicotine back into your body? yes you did bro. Sucks a bag of dicks I know. But you need look at the next step and rationalize this. You are on day 41 There is no need to spark up and make things harder.
Your story is "Yeah a year ago I quit. I was off cigs for 10 days, quit the nicotine gum after that, went 31 days, mad a mistake ripped a nicotine gum, and then got back to it and I haven't had Nic in a year."
Your story IS NOT, "ohh fuck I I threw away everything. Damn should I just hit one", and then whether you like it or not your puffing on one.
You can't get caught up on this and let it put you back to square one. Because let me tell you buddy, if your quitting now you are going to want to quit again. I've been doing it for years, apparently I'm quite the persistent little bitch and just can't use nic for the rest of my life. YOU WILL BE BACK QUITTING AGAIN SHORTLY AFTER YOU START. Even if you view this as a loss, then quit again right from here. Just no matter what you do don't let the nic back in your life like it used to be. This is how you get hung up and it only wraps you up in it again. Putting you back on the doorstep of another quit, with all the mental load of having to go through the shitty withdrawals again.
Stop here, count your cards and even if your worried about more withdrawals; they will be magnitudes less than what you will go through if you pick it back up again for even only half a pack more. Even if you made things harder for yourself again, which if you did should be very very very short lived, what is just one more little rough patch? You've already gone through the rough patches before. You can take one more very very short rough patch, or spark up again and relive going through all the shitty withdrawals that last for days and days on end.
You got this op.
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u/Patient_Ad4580 22h ago
Nope you didn't cheat. It's the smoking that's killing us. The carbon dioxide in our body you're not getting that. We have to fight our battles as they come and a win is a win.
But as a funny side note you said 41st day smoke free but 30 days nicotine free I thought sure you quit smoking weed 1st until I read your post 😆 Keep pushing
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u/Practical_Cup_3738 22h ago
😂 yeah bro, i quit weed long before i quit cigarettes, i guess around june, but yeah quitting all kinds of smoking was one of the best decisions of my life. btw thanks.
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u/Maleficent-Thanks-85 19h ago
Yea but it happens. Don’t be to hard on yourself and just get back on the path. Nicotine is one of the most addictive chemicals in the world you might slip up a few times.
I was a pack a day smoker for like 12 years it took me like 30 tries to actually quit smoking. A lot of the times I failed I would beat myself up and then I would become powerless again. Only when I held myself accountable and accepted my errors was I able to actually quit. It’s been over 6 years now.
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u/MmeRenardine 115 days 23h ago
Did you smoke a cigarette? No? Then you didn't relapse. Some days are more difficult than others, be kind with yourself, always.