I quit smoking — 7 yrs ago last Wednesday ☀
dawnowar wrote:
Someone mentioned 9/11 at work today and I started telling the story of how I quit smoking and I was a crazy mess for the first week and then, the second week, the twin towers fell down…..
The whole world was just as stressed out and disoriented I was so there was no point in starting again.
Then I remembered I forgot my 7 yr Quit Anniversary completely!
Hard to believe. Because it was a long hard road to get here let me tell you!! A lot of stuff has happened between now and then.
So let me give you my advice in case you’re quitting or thinking about quitting.
I went in to the quit (my 4th) thinking it was worth trying out the patch cause it was cheaper than the cigs and if I stayed on it for a few weeks and started again, I saved some money so why not give it a shot?
“How did you do it?” people always ask. I did EVERYTHING. I used every possible crutch. Switched between them all frequently and constantly tested out new ones. I became obsessed with my own quit. I blogged it too. I spent hours designing my pages and taking photos and documenting my quit. And I discussed it in graphic detail at the Quitnet.org quitstop forums. Which I highly recommend.
Eventually I was able to do other things besides quitting.
I know cause I forgot it was my 7 yr anniversary.
I’m awfully proud of that!
For me, October will mark 10 years free from cigarette smoking. Give or take a few months as the exact date eludes me, as I think I ingested far too many chemical substances (in an past, younger age of more irrational exhuberance and recklessness).
I attempted quitting many times but finally, went “cold turkey” and though it was tough — especially because at the time most everyone on my team at work smoked and we did quite a bit of work while puffing away outside.
Oddly, shuffling a deck of cards helped me quite a bit, as it gave me something to occupy my hands with, which was just as important as overcoming the physical/mental addiction ordeal.
It seems it would be so much easier to quit in today’s non-smoker oriented culture. When I attended college and even at my first job post-graduation, you were able to smoke in class (and in the dorm and bar and everywhere else on and off campus) and/or at your office desk. I worked at a steel mill and everybody smoked, and mill foreman puffed on cigars while others smoked - it was HELL for a non-smoker as it made for one hazy smoke filled conference room.
Nowdays you can’t even smoke in a bar (in Arizona at least, no smoking anywhere indoors, except your own private residence) and can’t even smoke in most outside public places — the only opportunity to light up is in your car or at your home.
As to advice for anyone wishing to quit? The first month or two is a bear, and it will be a test of your wits (and patience of your friends and family). After that, it gets easier, but the strong urges can still strike you at times, and it may be an unconscious tug. After meals or walking to my car leaving work I would find my fingers reaching into a shirt pocket for non-existent cigarettes that I didn’t smoke anymore! And for a couple of years I was haunted by vivid dreams where I would be just smoking away, wake up with sadness that I failed in my non-smoking quest yet again before the elated relief that it was just a dream.
I was a heavy smoker that started at a very young age — I believe I was 11 or 12 when I started — I snagged cigarettes off my parents, smoked in school, on my paper route, while waiting for the school bus, etc…. For over 20 years, I endured the nasty habit that fluctuated between a pack and two packs a day.
While I don’t miss it whatsoever (but I do enjoy an occasional Macanudo cigar with a ice cold frothy beverage) I’ve always envied people who could hold their habit to 2 or 3 cigarettes a day, or confine it only at social drinking events.
