Here is a brief timeline on how my quit is going, I'm not sure if it's helpful or not but I made it for another new quitter and he seemed to like it.
"3 days is something to be proud of. The nic is out of your system so it's all fun and games now...right? Well F...guess what? Your body is use to living with nic and now it's mad and is about to really fight you.
The good news is that you understand how to use your tools and you have some good fight in you. The better news is that it gets so much easier very quickly. Now, I realize that "quickly" is a very relative term- as when you are suffering minute to minute, 5 or 6 weeks seem like 100 years. In reality, 5 or 6 weeks is not a very long time.
Keep in mind, I am no expert and I am just going off of what I have experienced the past 268 days. My "suck scale" looked something like this:
Day 1-3: bad fog, my brain didn't work at all. Very little sleep and couldn't take a dump to save my life. I wanted a dip every second of each day.
Day 4-10: Pretty much out of the fog but bad, bad cravings and headache every second of the day
Day 11-14: My cruise control days, I didn't think about dipping much and craves were few and far between. Sleeping good but too much.
Day 15-21 Starting to get my energy level back up. Craves about 2-4 per day and short. The first thing every morning, I started to get an empty and sick feeling in my stomach when I thought about not being able to dip. Started losing my temper easily.
Day 22-25 No real changes, cruising along but feeling a little depressed. I started learning how to hate my addiction and was really mad about it.
Day 26- 30: Wow, I was starting to gain a lot of weight. Weird how I replaced Cope with Ice Cream and cake. I don't even eat sweets but here I am 10 lbs heavier. I don't care, I'm not dipping and the craves are mild.
Day 31-38: Freaking fog was back, some nasty craves and my temper way out of control. WTF!
Day 39-60: The roller coaster days. Mod craves followed by no craves, bad temper and mild depression. A difficult time but I was not giving up at this point.
Day 61-73: The best days by far. Seldom think about dip, temper is way better, sleeping like a normal person and just feeling pretty darn good. I am stacking up these good days to recharge my batteries and prepare for the next round of fights".
Day 74- 85: Really good days. Strong cravings when I have too many drinks so I have been careful with drinking. Normal days are now 0-1 crave. My temper has been completely under control for 2 weeks now.
Day 86-99: Zero craves, zero dip dreams and temper under control. The strong craves when I drink are also gone. I am disgusted when I see someone dip. Proudly watching my group hit HOF one at a time; which is just how we quit, one day at a time. My guard is still held high as I know the fight is far from over.
Day 100-135: I am on a high as I have reached my first goal. My guard is held the highest it has ever been in because I will not disappoint all those who have helped me.
Day 136: Zero, I mean nadda, zip, nothing as far as craves go. My cardio recovery time is amazing on the bike now and I just donÂ’t dip. I told my wife last night that this is the first time I have ever truly quit. Sure, I stopped for 262 days once but it didnÂ’t feel like this.
Day 137: Rough patch at work this week. Just found out that we are closing our Sleep Division (I'm in Medical Sales). I make about 50% of my commission in sleep so I have no idea what I am going to do.
I took my wife to a nice dinner and explained it to her. We are both freaking out. I also drank about 6 Martinis and for about a 5 minute period, I told myself I was going to get a can on the way home. Who cares at this point...right?
I got up, went to the bathroom, got my tools in order and said fuck off Nic Bitch....I may be willing to screw myself right now but not everyone who has helped me. I put my big boy pants on and went home.
Minny and his 1+1= 2 theory kept ringing in my head.
Day 138-145: Guard held high and in for the long run. Weird dip dream last night. I just remember feeling panicky because I needed some SM and couldn't find any at any store. I woke up and was fine. It is funny as I haven't used SM since my first week of quit.
Day 146-268: Everything has gotten so much easier. Zero cravings but guard is still held high.
