Now that I don't smoke, I find I cannot handle stress.
 

Wholy shat batman, I am a miserable mf'er. When I used to get pissed, or something would go wrong, I would just take a 5 min brake, have a smoke, re-focus and go back at it. Now I go from slightly annoyed to raging lunatic in .002 seconds, and it will sometimes consume me for half the day, until I get settled again.
Tell me this will go away . One would think that after almost 3 months without a smoke, that I would be over the physical, and mental addiction thing by now.
FWIW, I have zero desire to smoke, I am not jonesing for one, and I cannot believe that I was ever a smoker. at this point. I have maybe gained a pound or two, but that is about normal for me this time of year, as us northerners start spending more time indoors .

congrats...

do you exercise at all..
if not..
drop and give us 20..
it works..

Rika

It does get better, trust me. I have been smoke free for 4 years this month. Sometimes I still have to take a break and walk away, I just don't have a smoke (a smoke free "smoke" break if you will). You coped with stress before you smoked, you can do it now too. Best of luck.

You will find a way. It is different for all of us and you will figure out something that does work for you. Give it time. :)

Congratulations! This is a great accomplishment. I admire anyone who quits smoking, as it can be a tough habit to overcome. (I quit in 1978)
Your brain will probably adjust in time. Do you believe it is the ritual of smoking or the drug that settles you down?

Crap! I haven't had a smoke in 37 years and that happens to me...

Just kidding, not a smoker - never understood it.

Congrats on quitting that can be quite tough.

Nicotine itself is unlikely to reduce stress. Taking the break, doing the habitual ritual, feeling the effect hit you is what gives you time to settle your mind. Find something else that mimics the same ritual awareness. Flip a coin five times, do Rika's push ups, whistle a tune - whatever is appropriate to the place and situation.

With time you will realize that smoking doesn't make you feel good - it stops you from feeling bad. Once out of your system, cravings gone and 'rehabituated' you will have a happier baseline to work from.

Congratuations and good luck!

The drop and give twenty is better advice than you think...

Before when you were irritated, you stepped away, had a cigarette, chilled out, your head cleared and you got back to it.

It's not a magic formula, but it is a formula. When you take the smoking part of the equation away for stress elimination, you need to replace it with something else.

Try a 20 minute walk, a ten minute jog, 20 or 30 pushups. Repeat as necessary. It will reduce the stress (replacing smoking as your stress reducer of prior choice) and improve your health.

Plus, if you absolutly do find it necessary to kick the living poo-poo out of someone, you will be able to chase them down quickly! They can run, but they can't hide. :D

angela

I think there's a little more to a cigarette than nicotine. Never smoked, but I married one that quit the day we married. Now and then when really, really stressed, she'll buy a pack and smoke one.

On the raging lunatic thing, I used to be that way and for most of my life. I think it goes away when you're finally beaten down to a pulp with life and age.

Guess you better drop for 20.

Toothpicks, the good ones, cured me.

I keep a box handy.

Stress relief is a ritual, a go to, a habit.

Munching a wooden cig replaced the smoke.

Keep in mind a toothpick, used as designed, is a birth control device.

A lot of these bad habits help us deal with stress

here's some ideas for some smoking substitutes

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Just take a large shot of Vodka, that will help.

At least you realize the problem is there. That is the first step to figure out how you can get through the problem.

Good Luck.

Hey Fred Congrats on your success in quiting the habit. If you were able to get that behind you , I'm sure you will be able to find the answer to this new challenge !!
Lots of good ideas above.

Happy for you
Richard

Great advice. I also do the break thing and grab a stick of gum. It really works for me. Toothpicks are a choice as well.

I have been off the damn things for 6 weeks tommorrow.

I also have a cheap chin up bar that I use. I can almost do one now! My goal is five. Sounds goofy but it works.

Also heard that after a few months the lung linings can release tars and that these may contain nicotine that can make one irritable???? Docs would know if that is true but if it is true maybe that explains it.

Good luck with it all!

DanB

Stress gets you nowhere but faster to a grave. Doing something right away about what is stressing you will relieve it immediately.


Stress is what you make it, not what makes you.

Meh, giving up smoking is easy, I've done it loads of times :)

As others have said, part of that is stepping away and clearing your head.

In my experience, flipping instantly into an unreasonable psychotic rage is just baggage from giving up smoking. Not everyone suffers from that/as badly, but if you do, it does pass.

It'll be a distant memory pretty quickly - just be mindful of it when driving, that hair trigger combined with regular bozos going about their day can turn into some high-octane road rage in a heartbeat if you let it take you by surprise.

Found this, which you might find interesting: WhyQuit - Nicotine Withdrawal and Recovery Symptoms

Hell, if I did 20 push-ups every time I got irritated I would be ripped. Good idea!

I've never smoked but my best friend quit 2 months ago.

Learn to play the guitar. I did, and it's a great stress reducer! I find it just difficult enough to enable me to concentrate on one thing, yet not so frustrating that I get angry.

The more I'm stressed the more guitar I play.

Al

What made you pick this site? It is actually my employer with a page telling us we are about to surf onto a site that is not allowed.

I found when i quit smoking a year and a half ago, that i did change in the way i work/think.

I used to be extremely good at multitasking and jumping around 10 different problems at a time.
No more. those days are over.

At first that gave me stress, but i've adjusted and now i just work different, i still pull the same load, but i have to focus more on something before i move on to the next.

And i have become more sloppy in my emails and writing, more spelling mistakes, or rewriting a text and then forgetting a word or a sentence.

It's more a fatigue thing, cause right now, i'm just up and i don't have the issue.


Either way, without nicotine, your brain is out of tune.
It will take some time to re-tune, be self aware, don't be to hard on yourself, find ways to take a break from time to time (you used to have smoke breaks, replace those with something else).. Make sure to not overload , find new ways to destress (exercise, new hobbies) and reward yourself now that nicotine no longer does..

It's all manageable, and well worth it to be free of cigarettes.

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