Doing the "Pat Down"

[bassnut]

Has anybody else found themselves absent-mindedly reaching for their non-existent smokes while reading and writing in this forum? Patting their shirt and pant's pockets for that familiar bulge? (not that one!) fingers mindlessly searching desktops and ladies reaching for purses etc.

This has got to be better than doing the Macarena.
Somebody please make a video!
Remember folks. You heard it here first.

Tonight my hands found a matchbook and tore off a match only to find that it didn't have a cig to light...and then I woke up and found my passthrough....and life was good again.

I'd guess this probably goes on for years.

 

[keyzygirl]

9 months later and Im still feeling for my lighter.Old habbits die hard.

 

[PaulCincy]

No, not any more....But, I do wonder why I still keep a pack of analogs in my car glove compartment, when I have been analog free since Feb 11 and have no real desire to smoke....I forgot I had them in the car, till yesterday when I went I looked in to see if I had any breath mints...Go figure.....Also, a lighter was there....

 

[CES]

No, not any more....But, I do wonder why I still keep a pack of analogs in my car glove compartment, when I have been analog free since Feb 11 and have no real desire to smoke....I forgot I had them in the car, till yesterday when I went I looked in to see if I had any breath mints...Go figure.....Also, a lighter was there....

I have an emergency pack in my glove compartment too. I bought it early last December and never opened it. Now it surprises me when i see it. "what's that? is that mine? Oh, right..." but I still haven't tossed it.

 

[martha1014]

Not anymore. After almost a year I finally only reach for my ecig. I don't even know how to hold a cigarette anymore. Just try to put one in your hands and hold it. It has a weird feeling.

 

[MacArthurBug]

Very occasionally. It's actually more likely when I need a lighter for something else that I do the all over pat pat. I was bar-b-qing the other night and even though I knew I didn't have any lighters on my person I kept absent mindedly patting my pockets. Just in case.

 

[lightinup]

I still do it quite frequently! Yes, old habits die hard!

 

[Firegrl]

The only thing I've noticed I still do is cup my hands like I'm going to light a smoke, even though I have my ecig in my mouth. Keep catching myself doing it lately since it's so windy here in the spring. I'll put my ecig in my mouth, cup my hands like I have a lighter and going to light my cig, then realize that I'm being a ......!

 

[Col. Gaunt]

Actually no, now my main concern is PV, extra battery and juice!

 

[lizdj0618]

I started with the Blucig, and used to catch myself trying to ash it!

 

[Rosa]

I still have a lighter in the bottom of my purse. I can't seem to make my self throw it out! I keep having this conversation with myself:

"throw that thing out, you don't need it anymore!"
"but...it's a lighter."
"yeah, but you don't use them anymore."
"it's a lighter, what if I need it?"
"here, I got one of those household lighters for the bbq, throw that thing out!"
"but....it's a lighter!"

It's like I still think I'm going to have a crappy day if I leave the house without my lighter. What's wrong with me?

 

[frequentflyer]

I had to throw all of my lighters out after I grabbed one one morning and started to light my 510 - lol. Probably not the best idea. I am on the page of making sure I have juice and PV in my "pat down" though.

 

[bornagainst]

A year later, and I still do. Old habits die FREAKIN' hard.

 

[Laurie Oldfield]

I still have a lighter in the bottom of my purse. I can't seem to make my self throw it out! I keep having this conversation with myself:

"throw that thing out, you don't need it anymore!"
"but...it's a lighter."
"yeah, but you don't use them anymore."
"it's a lighter, what if I need it?"
"here, I got one of those household lighters for the bbq, throw that thing out!"
"but....it's a lighter!"

It's like I still think I'm going to have a crappy day if I leave the house without my lighter. What's wrong with me?

ZOMG I had that same conversation with myself. It's even hard for me because me and my husband were constantly stealing lighters from each other...Not a single lighter laundered since my PV

 

[bassnut]

4 weeks without an analog and I'm still slapping my pockets looking for matches or lighters. God forbid that I should actually find one. I could ruin a perfectly good bat so easily.

The funny thing is that this only afflicts me when I'm logged on to this forum! I'll have my PV in my left hand with the right hand on the mouse. Periodically the mouse hand will reach up to my shirt or down to my pants pockets absently searching for means to make fire. In times like this an auto-bat might be the ticket.

 

[thinblueline36]

I was downtown, early, 20 minutes to kill before an appointment so I decided to clear my car of all lighters. I couldn't believe how many were stashed in there. Glovebox, the box between the seats (I don't know what that's called), under the seats, in the truck. Nearby was some poor homeless dude with a hat on the sidewalk. He was scrounging in the gutter for butts to empty into a zigzag. I dumped all the lighters into his hat. He looked at me like I'd just given him a month's stay in the royal suite at the Empress Hotel.

The only "habit" I have left is more a feeling than an action. If I don't vape for a couple of hours, a voice in the back of my head says, "Oh, hey, now's a good time for a cigarette." A couple of puffs on a pv and that voice goes away.

TBL36

 

[jumpy]

Glad to hear it's not just me. Keep fighting the good fight.

 

[Chiqa]

For many of us those habits might be 20- 30 years ingrained, it will definitely take time.

 

[irwink]

Speaking of lighters - last night the power went out in my neighborhood. My immediate thought was grab my lighter and find my flashlight. Then, "oh damnit! I don't keep a lighter close anymore!!"

 

[Kirssstens]

Sometimes I feel I should go outside, then I'm outside and I think "why did I come out here". Then I remember it was to smoke.