EX-SMOKERS: Have You Ever Dreamed That You Were Still Smoking?

[arwalden]

Or have you dreamed that you cheated on your promise to never smoke again?

Last night's dream was REALLY strange. In it, I had purchased a scratch-off lottery ticket. I revealed three matching symbols, so I had won the prize hidden under the scratch-off prize box. Hooray!

I scratched off the prize-box and it said "You May Smoke One Cigarette" --- So I did! But when I was done, I knew I would be found out. My clothes and breath smelled like smoke... I felt truly guilty.

I also knew that I had to reset my "brag-o-meter" back to ZERO days since my last cigarette. (I'm quickly approaching the 2-year mark.)

-- Allen

[mouse7]

1. Stopped smoking for 6 mins and wished I was smoking all 6 mins

That was close, right?

[jonnyblitz]

2. at first!

year 6 for me! If I have just one its over..don't even think about it! I almost had a fucking heart attack when I saw how much the cost of cigarettes have gone up since I quit. I didn't pay attention for the longest time.

[oneighty]

3. Several times

a year I have "Awww, I started smoking again dream." I wake depressed.

Also I have my "Back in the Navy dream." Now that dream is funny!

180

[Skittles]

5. hey, I have that back in the military dream too

what's that all about? My last one - I enlisted for another term - at the same rank I left all those years ago. And I had to go through BASIC again! It was crazy!!!

[arwalden]

8. Sounds similar to my "Back-With-The-Ex" Dream... Very Scary.

I keep wondering what it was that went SO HORRIBLY WRONG with my life that I would feel I had NO CHOICE than to return to a disastrous relationship.

It's crazy, and puzzling, and frightening at the same time.

-- Allen

[Skittles]

4. I had several the first couple years after I quit

but they seem to have gone away. I remember feeling the severe disappontment too that now my quit date would have to change . . .

[lcordero]

6. Yup

And they feel more real than any wet dream I have ever had in my teens.

I quit the last time with the help of the patch. I don't go back to smoking because I know that would be it for me. I know if I start again I would never be able to stop.
I haven't smoked since July 2001.

[tridim]

11. Did you have "patch" dreams?

I sure did, and I loved every minute of them. I had to quit the patch because it seemed counter productive to basically be high on nicotine all night long, and wasteful to take the patch off at night (I wore one patch for two or three days strait). The lozenge is working much better.

As for smoking dreams, I don't remember having any during this quit, but I have had them in the past. I think that's a good sign, I don't ever want to smoke again. Going on three months now.

[Intelsucks]

13. I never understood that about the patch...

wearing it at night seems strange. I don't get up in the middle of the night and smoke?:shrug:

[arwalden]

16. My Biggest Incentive Was Not The Health Benifits (Silly Me!)

It was the fact that between the two of us, we were spending nearly $100 a week in cigarettes.

In the early weeks and months of quitting, I was tempted to give up. But then I'd remember WHY I wanted to quit in the first place and I was motivated all over again.

Just keep your eyes on your goal/s. Always try to remember WHAT IT IS that made you decide to quit in the first place.

-- Allen

[lcordero]

19. No, I never did

Putting on a patch was particularly unpleasant for me.
It turned my stomach when I first put it on, and then after that it only killed enough of the craving to take the edge off.

[arwalden]

21. Even The Patch Began To Smell Bad

It also wouldn't stick very well. I ended up wearing it on my ANKLE so that my socks would hold it in place.

It definitely helped take the edge off though. It would have been much tougher to quit without using it.

I used the step-down patches and before the 8-week program was finished, I found that I was literally FORGETTING to put a patch on in the morning. By then I knew I had finished with them.

Conversely, when I first started quitting, I was awake EARLY so that I could put on a FRESH patch, then go back to sleep for another 30 minutes. That way it would be working by the time I was REALLY awake. I hated waiting for them to "kick-in".

-- Allen

[Intelsucks]

7. Every ex-smoker I've talked to says they still miss it. That scares me.

I still smoke. :-( I'd like to quit, but I'm soooo weak.

[arwalden]

9. Oh... For Me It's Not An Endless "CRAVE". I don't LONG-FOR a smoke...

... there are just a few (infrequent) select moments where I'll think to myself "a smoke would be nice right now".

But the feeling quickly passes and I move on. --- Don't let the fear of lifelong "CRAVINGS" scare you away from trying to quit.

You will have physical cravings for the first week... but that passes and then you'll have psychological longings for them. Eventually those will subside too.

GOOD LUCK!

-- Allen

[Intelsucks]

10. My step-dad almost cheated the other night after 11 years smoke free

he smelled mine, and it made him want one. In the end, he resisted.

That's what he always tells me... It's the smell that makes him want one.

[arwalden]

14. The Smell Makes Me Glad I Quit...

... nothing personal, mind you, but whenever I walk by a smoker in the store or on a sidewalk, I often cringe at the odor.

It also embarrasses me retroactively when I realize that as a HEAVY smoker, I also smelled like that.

When I was smoking, I knew my breath and clothes smelled bad, but I didn't care. I just didn't know HOW bad it was until I quit.

Anyway... I got off-track... What I wanted to say was that FOR ME, the smell if smoke and the stale smell of smoker's breath is an incentive NOT to smoke again. I'm never tempted by it at all.

I guess different people have various reactions to 2nd-hand smoke and smoke odors.

-- Allen

[Intelsucks]

15. Good luck staying away from them. Sounds like you have it completely

under control.

[BiggJawn]

17. Not me.

And my girlfriend still smokes. Guess I would get off on "licking ashtrays"...:7

I don't really miss it. March 18 of last year was my quit date and I have not had the "urge" to light up. Indeed, I MUST be in love, because I think every other smoker reeks like a foundry....

[Ms. Clio]

23. not me I don't miss them at all

This month makes 5 years without them and I haven't had a real craving for them for most of that time. Nicotine is actually poison to my body now--I used my inhaler a few weeks ago, to see if it could be a good oral fixation substitute while I was particularly stressed (instead of munching on junk food!), and it made me nauseous and gave me a pounding headache.

I had the dreams at first. But I really never miss the cigs at all, now.

[CanuckAmok]

12. I quit 13 years ago, and still dream about it...

Usually the dream is that I know I don't smoke anymore, but that I'll just have one...and another...and another... and then I'm a smoker again.

If you can believe it, even after 13 years, I get the urge when I'm in a stressful situation. Never fell off the wagon, though. Well, not so far.

My mom once quit for 9 years and started up again. Now she's quit again, 10 years and counting...

[arwalden]

18. That's ONE MORE Thing That Helps Me To STAY QUIT...

I know that if I ever started up again, I'd eventually realize that I needed to quit (again). And that indeed I would quit again.

And that when I quit again, I would have to go through the withdrawal again.

So why would I want to go through that once more just for the sake of "treating" myself to the feeling I got when smoking. It's not a worth the trade. IMO.

-- Allen

[sasquatch]

20. I sometimes dream that I still chew

I've been off of the beechnut for 3 years now. Occasionaly I do get dreams like I still chew though. After I wake up though I have no desire to start chewing again though:shrug:

[Mrs. Venation]

22. I Stopped Smoking in 1989

and I still have dreams that I have started smoking again. They usually happen when my stress level is pretty high. There's always some variation in the scene or specific players in the dream, but the theme is always that I am smoking a cigarette, there is a group of people around, and my thought is, "oh, crap, now I have to go through the agony of quitting again."

I never dream that I will continue to smoke cigarettes (or anything else). After being smoke-free for almost 15 years I cannot stand the smell of tobacco smoke, and it burns my eyes and throat if I'm subjected to it.

[VOX]

24. My tobacco craving is more intense at night...

I haven't smoked a cigarette in more than 15 years. But I do sometimes get that craving, say, after dinner.

On rare occasion, I smoke one of my pipes (very clean-burning, and the smoke doesn't stick in your clothes or the drapes, etc.).