The greatest temptation to smoke

I'm close to day 40 after having reverted to being a non-smoker. The usual cravings have either disappeared or weren't triggered at all by what I thought would trigger them.

The past couple of days have been frightening, though, because my body thinks I'm still a smoker and is producing massive amounts of mucous to replace the mucous dried out by the smoke. Only, there isn't any smoke so there isn't any shortage of mucous and I now have phlegm filling my lungs and sticking to my vocal chords.

My voice is my life and this is creating tremendous anxiety. I can't sing. The darn notes get smothered by the phlegm. When I go basso in a reading or a voice over, it comes out as a croak. The famous, "Deepak Morris resonance" is absent because there's a bucketful of phlegm clogging the pipe and barrel.

The temptation to return to the demon tobacco just to get my voice back is strong.

I need to ride it out. Sooner or later the body will learn that the poison no longer enters the system and counter-measures are no longer necessary.

Deepak

Day 23: Taste buds return and all is salty

Regardless of whatever mental games I'm playing with myself by, "reverting to being a non-smoker" rather than, "quitting smoking", the fact remains that 28 years of smoking have more or less killed the majority of the taste buds in my mouth and nose.

After 21 days of non-abuse, these taste buds apparently re-grow and throw your whole eating and drinking experience out of gear.

My favourite beer tastes salty.

My favourite chicken dish tastes salty.

There's too much salt in just about everything I'm eating and drinking.

One more aspect to contend with in reverting to non-smoker status.

Deepak

Day 22 of reverting to non-smoker status

It has been surprisingly easy to stay smoke-free.

One thing I've realised that the triggers I thought were operational in getting me to reach for a cigarette weren't the real triggers. Stress wasn't a trigger. A glass of beer wasn't one either. A spat with a loved one wasn't. All the messages I had been getting as to why I smoked were patently false.

The trigger for me, surprisingly, was boredom.

I'm not considering habit, which isn't a trigger at all. Habit doesn't create an urge to smoke, the hand just automatically reaches for a cigarette at certain intervals or in certain situations.

I was forced to sit in the dark for 3 hours with no TV and no Internet one night and that turned out to be the toughest night of all in keeping away from a smoke. The sheer boredom of having nothing to do (I quickly disposed of the two books I had been reading in parallel... I read VERY quickly) tempted me again and again to go buy a ciggie. Even so, it wasn't that bad. Just recalling the awful taste of that tentative puff after reverting to non-smoker status was enough to keep me from one every time the urge hit.

I may be onto something here.