Day 5 or some time..

I think probably the most difficult thing about giving up smoking, are the fears. The fear that you are going to morph into someone unrecognisible. The fear that you have been defined as a smoker for almost ever, and that you will lose your identity, or at least a large part of it. There is the fear of judging others by your own new standards of behaviour. The fear of losing the cool unexpectedly, in a situation where otherwise you would stand back to ponder while lighting a cigarette. The idea that smoking is a crutch used to get through situations, that other people would face head on, using some other more healthy psychological tool to work it through.
These are things I want to be aware of as I go through this withdrawal. It is not as simple as physically withdrawing from nicotine. There are the psychological aspects and how long a person has been smoking also has to be taken into account. For me it is a long time, and I admit to being scared of being a non-smoker. It is a different world for sure. But I need to do this. For me.