Hello Hopeful2 Great question. Here's how it worked for me. The first couple of days turned out to be not as bad as I thought they were going to be. Along came day 3 and wham ( hit me like a ton of bricks ). The psychological compared to the physical was by far the worst because it was so long , drawn out and relentless. It was a learning experience as I had to learn how to do everything that I did with a cigarette without one and that left a big hole in me. I've been basically over the psychological part of it for a couple of years now but situations still occasionally surface that I haven't experienced as a non smoker yet. The first few weeks I couldn't differentiate between physical or whether it was in my head as all I knew it that I was hurting and had a hole in me that couldn't be filled. I never want to feel like that again and if I don't return to smoking won't ever have to. In a word it was tough but has been so worth it. We're hopeful 2. We're here to help you with your struggle. Some people find quitting relatively easy and I hope you're one of them. Excellent for you. breather
I don't know that either is necessarily worse. They are just different for me.
Physical withdrawal is about my body having certain symptoms. It is also very intense, in comparison to psychological withdrawal. The skin crawling feeling that you described in a another post was definitely part of my physical withdrawal. That stopped the minute all nicotine was gone from my system. I can literally remember the "ah" that I breathed when that finally happened. The beauty of physical withdrawal is that it is very clearly over when it's over, and that happens in 3 days or less.
I'm still going through psychological withdrawal. It's more like playing chess with my own mind, which, when idle, can scheme up some pretty wild reasons and rationales for returning to an old habit. No skin crawling. More like a little devil who needs to be told to move on when he starts whispering in my ear.
From what I have read on the support group each member's experience is different. I have read many members in great physical discomfort when they quit while others don't have it too bad. Some members feel quite down or have trouble "breaking up" with cigarettes while for others this doesn't seem to bother them. The important thing is that you GUAAT (Guard Up At All Times). Research and prepare as much as you can. The more you put the work in now the easier it will be to manage when you quit. So keep asking questions! You're off to a great start.
For me it was definitely the psychological, anxiety and what I would call "out of body" experiences i.e. feeling a certain detachment, inability to focus and concentrate. From the physical perspective it was the sweet cravings and just generally wanting to eat everything in sight. What I found helpful for the psychological is planning to keep myself very busy and distracted as well as excercise. The excercise also helped counteract some of the weight gain. I also tried as best as I could to be conscious of what I'm consuming.
