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NOPE

Nope!!!

Well done, @darcy!! You’ve made it through sone tough spots and are building a really solid quit. I am so very happy that you found us and are riding this train to FREEDOM!!

Congratulations Darcy! You are doing great! 2 months is an awesome quit!

congrats @darcy you are doing it.

Congratulations Darcy! Well on your way to a life free of smoking. Keep it going. Well done and best wishes.

NOPE!

Congratulations, another quality month done. Keep up the great work.

Way to go, @Brioski!!! I love your honesty, your grit, and your sense of the absurd. So glad you are here walking this road with us. Warmest congrats on your first month down… a BIG achievement.

Brioski, Great to wake up an exsmoker everyday, right? Keep stringing the free breaths together...way to LIVE! Congratulations on a month free.

Congratulations on 2 months smoke free, @darcy. Keep up the great work!

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NOPE…

Congratulations @darcy on another month quit! You're doing great and I hope you're treating yourself to something special today

G’day NOPE .....Not One Puff Ever.... (replace Ever with Min,Hour, Day as required).

Thank you everyone for your well wishes and acknowledgements. Stopped by to let you know I am still on the train and saw this celebration. Thanks for lifting me up.

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Congratulations Broski, this is just the first month smoke free of many . Reward yourself today because you deserve it.

Big congrats, keep up the hard work, you are worth it.

Wtg, Darcy!!!

Congratulations Darcey.. 2 months is a great Quit Upwards and Onwards

That's it right there @Brioski and @darcy. I stuck close to home for a month because I was worried I would stop and buy cigs and when I did finally venture out I took my never smoker husband with me to keep me honest. Keep getting your feelings off your chest by posting as it helps not only you guys but others coming behind you. I used to go back and read all my posts each month from when I started my quit just so I wouldn't forget where I came from. Unfortunately that forum imploded and many of us lost our content

@darcy, I’m so sorry you’re having a hard time. I’m not sure how much help I can be, as I’m having a hard time, too. This sucks, but like you said before how it’s great waking up as an ex smoker, I agree except it’s going to bed an ex smoker for me lol. One thing I’ve found helpful is reading about how soooo many people were absolutely miserable, anxious, depressed (sorry people /lol), and having all these big feelings we’re having, so we’re not some broken being, we’re being dragged through the same brush they were too. And they survived. Even tho a cig sounds good right now, the feeling of not breathing, literally flipping off each cig I used to smoke, being in the cold and rain, watching bugs and mice run past me when I smoked in the garage, being anxious, and trips to the hospital for smoking related shit, etc sounds worse. You can msg me anytime, I’m pretty much glued to this board and eating my feelings too (trying to be somewhat healthy but pish posh), even though I’m overweight to begin with prequit lol. I’m actually going to try and take a shower today, wash my bedding, and go to the store. I hope one of those things happen instead of watching tv or TikTok all day. But hey if that needs to happen so be it (I think that’s the first time I gave myself grace recently). Very good on you for getting this far, please keep going, I’m following you gf!!

Well done @Brioskigetting through that first month is so important. You will start getting your life back soon enough. For now, staying quit is the priority and you are doing a stellar job. Sending you some good vibes.

Congratulations, @darcy So happy for your accomplishment. Keep the good times going!!!

Most Excellent!!!! Congratulations of your first month and may there be an incredibly long list of months to follow.

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Big congrats, you are winning and no longer have to live as a slave to nicotine.

So proud of you, Brioski! You fought through it all and won,and there's no stopping you now. Congratulations on one month down, and yes, February counts as a full month (take any advantage you can find and run with it.)

@Christian99, that post is truly special to me. Thank you.

Warmest congratulations!!! Don't be afraid to acknowledge and even to lean it to the difficulties--most people are not "all better" just a week or two into this journey, and the commitment you're demonstrating is truly inspirational. I had a really rough go of it in the initial stages, and I've wondered, sometimes, if those challenges actually contributed to the strength and durability of my quit. I really don't know about that, but what I do know is that they were necessary for ME. And that's my recommendation to you--keep doing exactly what you're doing. You're winning. Christian99

Thank you, friends Is it considered a month though since I quit in Feb that only has 28 days? Lol. Regardless, thank you for the messages hopefully I won’t have too many more tear-filled, dopamine-depleted crazy lady posts, but I have a feeling there’s a few more a-coming! Lol

Congratulations on one full month quit @Brioski! That is AWESOME!!! And thank you for being so supportive of your fellow quitters, it's appreciated

Thank you so much, friends. You all mean so much to me. Even my mom, aunt, hubs, are all thankful for you guys….they tell me how wonderful it is that I have this support from you all. I can’t agree more. I have to say, being the subject of a celebratory post was def cool. hey….any computer graphic connoisseurs in the house? I was thinking for us 2023ers…. “Nic Free in 2023” @darcy, @Molly2310 what do ya think?

This is very interesting, as I’ve kind of stopped and asked myself recently, “why can’t I seem to physically get off of the couch, what do I love to do?, why am I crying multiple times a day, am I depressed?”…..I have never asked myself these questions. Whether it’s a true mental illness or just a mental blip I’m going through, I think learning about it will help me get through it. I found this video today and it helped me SO much (kind of long but it was good):

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Hi, @darcy. I’m sorry that you are struggling and feel alone. That sucks. Good on you for being cognizant of HALT and for posting here instead of smoking, that’s the way to protect your quit. This too shall pass. Like a kidney stone maybe, but pass it shall. And until it does, do whatever seems kind and self-soothing (other than smoking). I personally watched a lot of cat videos in the first few months of my quit. Nothing like a dose of Maru to soothe my troubled soul…

Congratulations on 1 month smoke free, @Brioski. You are doing awesome

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NOPE…… simple

No no clinical diagnosis as I never sought help because I was fully functional, just a nagging feeling of being less happy than I normally am...or slightly sad at times for no reason. I was that way for so long that I forgot it was even a thing. I am glad that has finally lifted!

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Hi, @Angeleek. Thanks for raising this topic. It is something I think about a lot. Like you, I'm not a medical expert, just a recovering nicotine addict who is trying to make sense of my own personal experience. It's especially helpful to hear you talk about your experience of no-man's land. With something as complex as depression, I'm not sure what I think about causal factors. But I can say with certainty that smoking damaged my mental health. I'm still puzzling on this, but some things I am beginning to understand: I believe that smoking diminished my ability to experience pleasure. My brain became trained on one thing: getting a nicotine fix. Other experiences faded into grey, and my ability to feel joy receded... as if my nicotine receptors had cannibalized everything else. There is some science to support this theory, though researchers are still trying to understand exactly how long-term nicotine exposure disrupts production/uptake of dopamine and other neurotransmitters associated with pleasure and contentment. Smoking undermined my sense of self-efficacy. Being in thrall to nicotine (or any other addiction) is degrading and dehumanizing. That affected me more profoundly than I realized. I used nicotine to try and suppress negative emotions, like sadness and anger and grief. Such feelings (and their underlying issues) weren't cured by smoking, of course. Smoking just blunted them. Rather than addressing the root causes of my distress, I was pretending to "soothe" myself while feeding myself poison and ducking my own feelings. Naturally, this kind of self-betrayal was another negative force on my mental health. For me, stopping smoking did not automatically resolve these issues. I did not experience the quitting euphoria that some other people describe. And there's still a lot to untangle about why I smoked in the first place and what my baseline mental health is. Like you, Angeleek, I started smoking really young. I was hooked by age 13, so I don't really know what I'm like without nicotine. For people who got hooked when our brains were still developing, are the effects different? I don't know. But I certainly DO know that the psychological damage that smoking caused was real, and that quitting is the only way to heal the parts of me that were injured by it. Whatever else is present on my internal obstacle course, quitting will simplify it. And since I quit, repair is happening. My progress is slow and herky-jerky, but I am starting to cope better with my feelings, beginning to see glimmers of light and joy breaking through. Quitting will make every other good thing possible.

The very best of luck to you, toc! I’m a newbie and trying my best to ride this train! The brain/psychological part of this whole thing is what gets me the most, how we have to fight our own brain for what’s right. I don’t want to be a slave to this piece of paper and leaves. I saw first hand what it did to my amazing daddy, my uncle….I want to break the chain. Sure the thoughts come of “wouldn’t it be nice” but I breathe and breathe until I blow ‘em down - one hr, min, or sec at a time. Ok who’s making me talk like this? Lol I sound like a non smoker