babs609

Posted February 13, 2015 

Quitting smoking is often referred to a roller coaster ride, and with good reason.  While one minute you are feeling confident and strong that you finally "beat" that sucker.  Thinking.."Yes!  I'm doing it..I'm gonna make it"..only to be followed by feelings of doubt, fear, anger, frustration, sadness, lonliness..and these feelings can change within just moments.  This is the part that would beat me down in prior attempts.  I just was tired of the ups and downs.  I think having the "ups" was actually a deterrent to my quit because it would set me up...when I would feel restless...it would piss me off because I thought I was done with all that.

Please please please...keep in mind...these thoughts that just pop up out of nowhere are not YOU.  Any thoughts that pop in our heads are not actually us.  We aren't controlling them...we are just going about our business and them BAM!  there's a thought.  Now....you have a decision to make.  If you are someone who normally runs with their thoughts...this could be trouble for you.  You actually may believe these thoughts to be true without question.  You give these thoughts power by believing they are true when in fact.....they are a complete lie all made up in your head. 

Being an ex-smoker in the early days or weeks of quitting without truly grasping the reality that your thoughts are not true...then you may be not only heading for relapse but are in danger of becoming a chronic relapser until you change your thought patterns. 

No matter what...don't believe you are a weak person.  This kind of thinking re-enforces to your subconcious that other quitters are stronger and you are weaker and therefore....quitting is harder or even impossible for you.  That's total BULL$HIT.  That just gives the addiction more power.  It's already powerful...more powerful than you.  Otherwise..you would have quit long ago or maybe not even started.  

Although the addiction is stronger than you....it's not smarter. 

"Keep your friends close and your enemy's closer"....that saying couldn't be further from the truth when referring to the addiction.  Learn all you can about the addiction.  Don't just read....absorb it...live it...taste it....feel it...and most of all...believe it.  Learn all the tricks it will try to play on you...learn what fellow quitters have done when faced with these challenges. 

Believe with your whole heart that you are no different than anyone else.  You are not weaker than us...your addiction is not stronger than ours... 

Until you understand that...you will either struggle and continue this fight and give up quitting altogether until illness or death forces you to quit....OR..you will struggle and fight and relapse after relapse after relapse until you either finally absorb the teachings of fellow quitters...wasting months or years in the meantime and just making it harder for yourself than it really has to be.

I wish this could be a post where a lightbulb goes off in your head and you say "aha! I got it!!!  I finally got it"  But that lightbulb moment is different for everyone and that's why I just ask everyone lurking and reading and contemplating quitting...to just keep coming back here...keep reading...keep reading...keep reading.  Lots of posts and video's to help you "undo the brainwashing" that has been planted in your head from the years of being a smoker.  It takes time......it takes patience..it takes re-enforcement... In short, it takes work...but it is sooooooo worth it.

When you finally are ready...and you put down your final cigarette...

Keep your arms and legs in at all times...put your buckle on...and enjoy the ride.  You might as well because even though we enjoy when we feel good...it's the hard times that strengthens you.

ONE DAY AT A TIME>>>ONE MOMENT AT A TIME

Link to original post: https://www.quittrain.com/topic/4460-the-roller-coaster-ride/