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NOPE! Or else...

Nope!

Aww @notsmokinjo thank you for wishing me in Hindi, that gif is perfect!!! It is absolutely correct. And yes, each month, each time I'm on QT, it's because of you and all my other friends here...taking time out to show the way to others. That's exactly what motivates me too... Trust me, I had a lot of triggers this past month, including another friend of mine smoking (one who had quit with me), I did stand with him urging him not to, however not for once was I tempted to have one puff...at all. Now each time he even thinks of smoking, I smack him on top of his head, that resets his brain :p naah, I just ensure he doesn't smoke. So thank you for getting me past the 3 month mark. I will be celebrating by having meself a nice lunch and treating my team to ice cream as well. For all my QT friends, thank you and I do hope to be able to celebrate in person someday...

Nope

Nope

NOPE

NOPE not today no ashtray mouth for me!!!

NOPE NOPE NOPE

Hi Sean, I was in almost the identical situation myself until very recently. I am only 3 days into my quit using nicotine patches but I feel like I'm going to make it. I smoked about 1 1/2 packs a day since 1978 or 79 (the exact year escapes me) and have wanted to quit for years but I was always convinced I would fail and I could always find some excuse, No matter how thin it might be to keep on smoking. This past week I finally made up my mind to take the plunge. I ordered the patches from Amazon, stocked up on gum, hard candies.fruit juice, pretzels etc. Threw away the ash tray I kept on the back deck and didn't buy any more cigarettes. My last day as a smoker I nervously counted down the remaining cigs in my last pack and I admit to having mild panic attacks at the thought of running out of smokes. Finally, That night I smoked the last remaining cancer stick in the pack. I immediately walked back in the house, Took a shower and brushed my teeth to get the smell and taste of the cursed things off me and put on a patch. I went to bed early that night because I feel like the time I'm asleep It's an 8 hour or so vacation from the quitting process. I'm not saying it's easy but I know it can be done. I can do this and so can you Sean. Read the stories that folks have posted on this site and decide on your own best strategy and go for it!

Nope! Not this again ...... ever!

NOPE!!!!!!!!!!!

Nope!

NOPE... none for me..

As we can all relate, I used to hate flying. It was basically an exercise in torture. Remember how you couldn't wait to get out of the airport to smoke? Or God forbid you had a layover and had to play "Security roulette". You know, when you would gauge the time you had until your next flight and run out to have a smoke and pray you could get back through security and make your flight. How ridiculous! But the saddest place I can recall was the "smoking room" at the Atlanta airport. Don't get me wrong, I was over the moon that it even existed, because that meant I could smoke without having to deal with security, but at the same time, it was so depressing. Just a bunch of smokers, sitting in a room, not talking to each other. Just sitting there wallowing in stink. And man, did it stink! No amount of ventilation could ever mask the stench. And of course, all that smoke permeated your clothes, so you reeked like smoke (more than you would normally). Oh, bless the people I had to sit next to on my flights from Atlanta to Sacramento. They never said anything, bu they had to be repulsed. I feel ashamed, but at the same time so happy that I'll never have to sit in that room again. NOPE

#NOPE

Gday count me in NOPE C

Hi Benson. I used patches and lozenges in my quit and I would not be here at 10 months quit without them. I was only on the patches for around three weeks but I remember prior to coming off them asking the same thing . I felt very dependant on them. But then my pal who was also using the patches said if I'm on these patches forever, so be it, I'm not smoking! And I thought, he's right. And low and behold a week or so later I stopped them. Don't panic about being on them, how long you'll be on them, or how you'll get off them. You are not smoking and that is the main thing. My coming off them just happened naturally, I had the odd day that I totally forgot to put one on. And when I realised that I was like wow!!! Maybe I don't need these as much as i thought. Once that happened a few times I decided to try without and I've been without since. The lozenges were great, having them there 'just in case. I've not had a lozenge for many months but I actually found a packet of the lozenges stuffed in my life jacket recently. It made me smile as that's where I used to stash my fags. Times change eh ? 31 days is amazing, well done you! And just keep going!

Still hanging in there and ready to put day 3 in the win column.

NOPE!

NOPE!!

NOPE from me... Happy 3 month quitaversary @Tammy? Happy 1 month quitaversar @MwBenson? Fantastic to have you here ?

Hi Allen, though I'm only 4 weeks in... I'd still like to comment. My irritability is almost back to normal proportions (but if a bad mood hits... chances are I blame quitting again, while that's not the case!!). I don't experience any heavy cravings, but I do have a lot of smoking thoughts during the day. They truly are just patterns that I need to get rid of. And yes, sometimes they annoy the sh*t out of me. And they do scare me at times. But, whatever. I'm smarter anyway. Cravings, irritability etc. fading into the background is not something that happens overnight. They just... fade. And return. And fade further. And suddenly return. And then... wow, didn't have a real craving for three days now! Etc. As much as you'd like a time frame for that, I personally haven't heard of one yet. Each day you encounter new triggers. Together these moments build up and lead to a stronger you, which eventually should lead not only to a 'normal' you again, but to a healthier and more balanced you. When I quit for over three years, I fully experienced this new normal around my one year mark, but on my way there I had lots and lots of 'new normal' moments. This morning I thought, 'wow, how disgusting to smoke in your car. So pleased I'm not doing that anymore'. It wasn't a forced happy thought to push away craving... it was a honest, genuine thoght. Woohoo, normality is on it's way!

NOPE - I don't smoke anymore.

NOPE!

NOPE!

NOPE!!!!!!!!

NOPE... none today thanks ?

NOPE!

^^^ Nice one TobacNo!! See, you are giving back already to others looking for inspiration to quit and you know what? That will actually help solidify your own quit too - you'll see

Welcome Sean, hopefully coming here will help you to take the leap to fully quitting. The best advice I can give, besides just tossing the smokes away, is to research this site and educate yourself about this addiction. You can overcome this, after 44 years I was able to quit -- not easy but at 8 and 1/2 months I am doing so much better..

NOPE!!!!!!!!

Welcome Sean, you really only have to WANT to quit MORE than you want to smoke. I thought of it as something I had outgrown like other things in life. I used to dirt bike ride, go on amusement park rides and smoke. Now I don't. Although I quit cold turkey more because I needed to than wanted to, some of us find using NRT's the way to go and have been very successful using them. Maybe this is something you want to look into? If not than you just need to toughen up and go through that first few days/weeks saying NOPE. You'll find that each time you don't give in you get stronger and the craves get weaker. I promise

#NOPE

NOPE!!!!

NOPE!!!

NOPE !!!

I don't remember how long I was irritable after I quit smoking but heck, I'm still irritable and it has nothing to do with nicotine. After I accepted that getting to the point where I no longer would think of smoking 24/7, I was going to have to put in "the time". Once I understood that the more time I put between my last cigarette, the less I would think of it. A lot of the cravings after a certain point are mental, but nonetheless are still cravings and IMO, just as powerful and if not more. However, they're very manageable because you have control over how you act or dwell on thoughts when they enter your mind. Trust me, the more time you put in, the less you think about, much less consider smoking. Remember this is going to take some time because for a long time, everything we did revolved around smoking. Everything.

Congratulations @MwBenson for being 1 month smoke free and welcome to the quit train. Well done on being 1 month smoke free. That is the hardest part of the quit journey over and done with. What a fantastic achievement you should be very proud of yourself. So, rewards are important so you need to do something special to celebrate your first month of freedom, give yourself a small treat or do something special because you deserve it.

Congratulations @Tammy for being smoke free for three whole months. Well done Tammy. Three months is a big one, it can be tough but you are in for the fight, you know that NOPE is the way to go. Its great seeing you on the boards and being around to support everyone, those ahead and those you are leading the way for. So 3 months is big because it is 1/4 of a year that you have not smoked. You are officially a 25%er, you have kept your quit through the hardest part of that first year journey, and you have done it with style. So make sure you reward yourself with something special and

I have been trying to quit all summer. It took a little while to realize that I needed to change my life more than just quitting. I was a 2 pack a day smoker at that point. I began volunteering and tried to pick up new hobbies such as sketching and clay modeling. I got down to a pack a day. However I just cant seem to get any lower than this. I need help to do this and I am having a hard time finding it. So this site is my next step. Any advice on what to do would be a greatly appreciated.

no, the smoking lounge is not the saddest place, standing outside a hospital is the saddest place

NOPE Happy Friday, everybody!

Sean, this is a good start - finding this site. There is so much information and support. Start watching the videos, reading the posts and become apart of this awesome group of people. You will find that you have the power to do this.

2 packs to 1 pack is better for your lungs but if you want to quit just one puff is too much. What you need to do is start educating yourself about addiction and nicotine addiction . This is a great book that many have used https://www.theeasywaytostopsmoking.com/Book

How long is a piece of string... I'm only 9 months along so I have a fair way to travel yet... the totally irrational anger and short fuse ready to blow if someone even breaths too loud... that was starting to ease of for me around the 4 week mark, the fogginess a bit further along...the changes are gradual so its a case of one day you just realise, hey I haven't had an NRT chewie (my quit method) in a few days, lets just stop those then and get rid of them... or that was a crave and yep now its gone, haven't had one of those for a few days...woohoo... So I still have moments where I would love one but they don't last long and it isn't the gnawing ache it was in the early days. I can honestly say I have not had any real thought of smoking, one that I would have acted on that is, in over a month, I know it will come but not for a while. So today I dragged out an old bag looking for something and there was a pack in there... no I haven't touched this bag in over 18 months so it was an old couple of smokes.... so I shook the box, oh a couple in there... I opened the box to find 3.... and I screwed them up and tossed them in the bin... there was a tiny flicker of a thought, just one drag.... but it was gone as soon as it entered my head... I know its not over, I know I will have bad days but in a way I am lucky I was tested early in my quit and if I could get through the curve balls life threw me in my first 3 months quit without a smoke then I can get through anything. (touching of multiple wooden surfaces, making the sign of the cross and offering a prayer... dear God and Fate I have not tempted you to proove me wrong, I do not need a challenge). Edit to add: Until about the 3 month mark if someone around me was smoking I would breath deeply and revel in the smell... now the smell of someone smoking makes me feel like I'm gunna loose my lunch, I can't stand the smell.. I think I did a post (on another site) to the effect that I walked passed my bus stop one night so I could continue to smell the person walking in front of me smoking... I just don't understand anymore how I could have done that, let alone wanted to.

Yes, but once you spray you can't go back over. I've never used them on canvas so not sure, with good watercolour paper they don't need fixing. So here is yesterdays, watercolour on paper....

Eating the ricotta tart and feeling really charged about the new influx of quitters and our current newbies. It makes me really happy to see people quitting smoking. It is such an exciting, life changing event.

As to "how long" each person is different as you can see. After decades of smoking I am not looking for normal as in before, I am looking and embracing the new normal -- looking at each day quit and rejoicing in that (this, besides daily NOPE, has been my biggest motivator). Everything gets better with the passing of time but really just focus and celebrate each day and before you know it -- those cravings will be so easy to ignore.