Can't tell if I want food or a smoke,

[JulieT]

I quit smoking back on Feb 7, 2007. I used the patch, which was very helpful. My problem has to do with "wanting something". sometimes I just want something I can't tell if it is food I want or a cigarette! I honestly can't tell if I'm really hungry or not.

[Orphalie]

I so understand this. I am the same way. The sad thing is if I give in nothing seems to sadisfy the "want" feeling.

[JulieT]

In my search I found this, thought someone else might benefit from it.

That "Empty" Feeling

The whole lesson that needs to be learned on a quit is a simple one: To accept the emptiness. At the very core of life, and the sum
of it all, is just that. Emptiness is what IS. Emptiness is at the center of all human experience.

We smoke and drink and spend money we don’t have and pine for things and people and days gone by and worship our idols to escape
from it, but it’s always there. Emptiness. Nothing left to do or say. “What now?” we ask. “How do I replace what’s lost?” we wonder.

We quit this deadly habit because it’s killing us but we secretly want to return, not so much because of the craving and the nicotine rush but because we hate the empty feeling we have without it. We leave abusive people and returned to them, or someone like them, for the same reason. We don’t like prison (depression, guilt, our addiction to nicotine, alcohol, sex or our low self esteem) but it’s the only reality we know.

To deal with emptiness is to confront our demons and see them for what they really are. Nothing at all! Emptiness is just the flow of life and reality as it really is. Times change. Relationships end. Jobs are lost. Loved ones die. Old lifestyles change.

Our children grow up. Addictions are broken. We move on. We have to. To not accept the emptiness is to stagnate. To look back is to turn to salt like Lot’s wife. The lesson to learn is to “Let it Be” as the Beatles said. To let go does indeed cause grief and suffering. We cry for awhile and time passes and things improve. We look back after a few years at what’s lost, and though we still feel a pang of grief, we see that we did manage to
move on despite ourselves.

Life is dynamic! Like a river it constantly moves on. We can sit at the river’s edge and watch it flow while we cry, or get a canoe and jump in it for the ride. Imagine what all you’ll see on the journey! “What’s next?” we ask now with eager anticipation...

[Doggygirl]

JulieT, thanks for posting that. It really goes to the heart of what for me anyway, is sort of the emotional side of quitting. And that emotional side is HUGE for me - cigarettes were my close personal daily companions through my entire adult life.

I do also think a feeling of emptiness has a physical component. There are SO many changes and adjustments going on in our brains right now - WAY past just the 3 days it takes to flush any remaining nicotine out of our systems. Many of our body parts are busy healing and talking to us.

Another question out of curiousity - you mention you used the patch to get quit. Are you still wearing a patch? If not, when did you quit the patches? Because that's when your nicotine withdrawl really begins - assuming you used the patches daily until you stop or stopped. Those restless feelings - gotta have....SOMTHING...now were the worst for me in the early nicotine withdrawl phase. (but they still happen - this is not a 3 day only process as never smokers like to make it sound like.)

Congratulations on your quit!!!

DG