Day 6 - 72 hours without tobacco

It would seem that I am over the hump. As of about 1:30 am Friday morning I quit chewing. The idea was supposed to be Thursday evening but it turned into Thursday night and then I fell asleep at the desk as usual and it turned into Friday morning. What’s done is done and here we are. My last entry was not one of my clearest moments. I had a daughter ask me the next day if I was high. I laughed at her and then explained the obvious, to which she replied “oh yah… that’s right.” To be honest I have considered several times either cleaning up that entry or deleting it but I think it’s a good dose of reality. Especially when you factor in that I don’t really remember even typing it.

        In a lot of respects, more so than most might realize, coming down off of tobacco is like coming down off of cocaine. There is research out there that suggests that Nicotine affects the same receptors in the brain that cocaine does, and thereby causes the brain to produce a lot of the same chemicals that are produced when taking cocaine. So it makes sense why people go through similar stages of withdrawal when quitting tobacco as when people go into detox for cocaine. Now I’m not going to sit here and purport that I’m going through the same thing. As I have never done cocaine or crank or the like.

I can tell you that the last 72 hours have been hell and if not for a certain friend I might have gone a different direction with this. As it is I have seen the effects illicit drugs can have on people and on their lives. I can only imagine the amount of pain and suffering they might have endured giving up something that controlled their every move, their every waking thought and probably most of their sleeping ones as well. I can only imagine the amount of commitment it must have taken to give up a controlled substance. If for no other reason than that of her only child. I would imagine this pales by comparison.

        I have made it through the withdrawal phase. This phase is where you would make a deal with the devil just for a dip or a drag. I went through about 10 packs of Altoids, total. One of my triggers, I discovered was just the sensation of pain in my mouth and jaw. If my mouth or jaw would start to ache I would develop a huge desire to put in a dip. However, if I ate enough Altoids the resulting sensation would circumvent the trigger.

        This coming week will be more of a matter of conviction, and determination. As well as discovering other triggers and recording them. I'll be watching my caffeine intake aswell because caffeine and nicotine go hand in hand for me, I don't usually have one without the other. Sleeping after quitting nicotine is difficult to predict before you quit. Some people sleep alot afterwards. Some people can't sleep at all afterwards. I am going to need more sleep than usual, but if I don't watch my caffeine closely I could end up being awake several days straight. I would rather avoid that scenario.