Hello Bill and welcome to Ask Joel.  In my own quitting history I too often thought the triggerless weekend looked mighty inviting.   I think almost all would agree that getting started and getting those first hours and first day under our belt is oh so important.   But I'd like to get you thinking about the interesting data reflected in the above chart from a crave episode study.   

 

In that nicotine's half-life of two-hours is pretty much beyond our ability to control, we can be fairly confident that physical withdrawal is going to peak on day three.  But even then if we keep our blood sugar level stable and learn to again properly fuel our body every few hours (as each puff of nicotine is no longer our spoon feeding us stored fats and sugars),  trying to abandon needless fears as you're leaving nothing behind, keep your core motivations on your mind's center state, and follow some of the other advice you'll find at www.WhyQuit.com, peak withdrawal may actually be far more comfortable than you ever imagined possible  

 

But contrary to the above chart, not necessarily so for when we begin to meet, greet and defeat our subconscious mind's conditioned expectations of the times, places, events and emotions that it should expect to receive a new supply of nicotine.   Although totally unproven, I've always had this theory that the primary reason that the number of crave triggers encountered in the above study peaks on day three is that's when the average quitter comes out of the weekend closet and begins to encounter the bulk of their normal conditioned nicotine feeding cues (weekly paper, getting ready for work, driving or traveling to work, stress, breaks, lunch, breaks, leaving work, arriving home, pre-dinner nicotine,  after dinner nicotine,  after clean-up nicotine,  preparing for tomorrow's work.

 

I've often wondered how the above chart would look if we made all quitters commence nicotine dependency recovery on Monday morning as they headed off to work.  My gut tells me it's a mixed bag,  Bill.  It's good to gain some momentum and confidence but I wonder how smart we were for timing peak nicotine detox and our peak encounter with our nomal daily triggers to both occur at roughly the same time.

 

Although time distortion is a very real recovery symptom, if you actually time any crave episode I'm confident you'll find that it's over within 3 minutes.  By the above chart that would mean 18 minutes of anxiety on your most challenging day.   But what if you're not like the "average" quitter from the above study.   What if somehow have established twice as many smoking cues.   That would be about 36 minutes of significant challenge on your most challenging day.   Could you handle that, Bill?   Absolutely!

 

Whenever you're ready we invited you to jump in the pool, Bill.  The water is great.  Do your best not to be afraid.  A crave cannot hurt, cut or kill you.   Much of the anxiety is self-induced by a mind that has convinced itself that enduring a less than 3 minute crave episode is horrible.  It's healing, Bill, and means one more extinguished trigger and one more aspect of life reclaimed.   This is an amazing jourey of re-adjustment and everything you think and feel is a required part of reclaiming your physical, subconscious and conscious mind.  Celebrate the process as you're going home to a wonderful sense of mental quit and calm that you have not known since nicotine took control

 

Once started there's just one guiding principle that guarantees success to all who follow it ... no nicotine just one hour, challenge and day at a time,  Never Take Another Puff!  

 

John  -   Free and healing for six years, six months & 22 days