Jonny5

No Triggers strike because like everyone of us before you, You are going through the process of rewriting the brains autocues. You ain't weak, you are doing great :-)

You know better this time, You are doing great, don't let your past undermine your faith in yourself. You have got this in the bag, simply don't smoke and your quit will remain.

this brings me to another question I once asked about smoking for £1m. let me ask you another way, would you pay £1m to be a non smoker for life, and to not die a horrible smoking related death, following years on an oxygen tank, crippled and a shadow of your former self? most of us ain't got £1m so lets say £100k, that's something that you could aim at that is more real world large money, but over time achievable and feasible.

It was upsetting, but it wasn't hard regarding not smoking, cigarettes only entered my mind when I laughed to myself acknowledging that a few years back I would have smoked at a time like this. It is completely possible to no longer see smoking as something that you want to do. when that time comes, the quit is a non event, it needs no maintenance or work, it is just what it is, You don't smoke. don't get me wrong, smoking will undo your quit still, but you don't guard against relapse if that makes sense? You just are quit :-)

very good answer :-) I had a baptism of fire on the family death front in January, 3 reletives, my Grandmother and Wifes Auntie included, all dead in three seperate events in less than 6 hours, granted the news filtered through during a single day, not 6 hours, but even so, that was quite a shitty day!

I loved your story, thanks for sharing with us, I'ts nice to get to know people a little better. I just wanted to pose the above statement back to you. reading it back to yourself, do you really still believe it would be hard to resist? you know that you are not getting anything from smoking so what's to resist? it's like saying I'm gonna find it extremely hard to resist doing something completely pointless and without reward. I think you have this nailed more than you realise :-)

You've nothing to apologise for :-) We surprise ourselves sometimes with what we can handle don't we :-)

I'm sorry you lost your Mom :-(

You have taken a big leap by being honest with yourselves, the next step to take is to work through the logic of those remaining reasons, You can do it privately, or with help from any of us, but ultimately it would benefit your quit mindset and in turn your long term chances of success if you could get passed these stumbling blocks. some might think that the chances of these events happening are rare and unlikely to happen anyway, and therefore are not too important? Any reason to smoke highlights that the belief isn't there yet. that is what this exercise is designed to show up. work on your belief system and remove those doorways to relapse, they have claimed too many quitters already.

Hint : The answer is "Under no circumstance" If you can't honestly answer that question with a resounding " I will never Smoke again, no matter the circumstance" then you still need to work on your quit mindset. only when there are no doors remaining will you be completely comfortable in your quit.

We are also our own best friend. We choose which one to be :-)

Wonderful Babs :-)

You only fail when you decide to stop quitting. You already know what to do Juan.

I'm 39, started smoking at 18. Quit at 37 I smoked 40 a day :-(

Great post Rez

Beth, my dear Beth. I can't begin to tell you how happy I am to see you here :-) make yourself at home, you are amongst friends :-)

You look so commanding on that mountain Sarge, but this is a non prophet organisation lol :-)

If you could, you already would be. There are some who can really genuinely take it or leave it. I read once that 90% of nicotine users become addicted. the others don't persue a smoking career so to speak, or smoke occasionally with no withdrawals. That is not you. You are a nicotine addict, that is why you are reading this, and that is why you can't just have the occasional smoke. we are all or nothing, The law of addiction states that reintroduction of the addictive substance to the addict will reawaken the addiction and start the withdrawal process over again. it can not be any other way for us.

only smokers smoke. which one are you?

I would suggest that although Rugby Training would be a distraction, that is all it would be, a distraction from wanting to smoke. distractions do not work for the long term Juan. the only thing that works is deciding that you don't want to smoke anymore.

I'm glad that you are ok. I may be asleep later but I'm sure many of your friends in the States and nearer time zones will be around to listen. take care and be safe.

Juan my friend, You still believe in the cigarette, and that it offers you something. Until this belief changes, you will continuously return to smoking to receive that "something" The hardest thing is acknowledging that you have been wrong about your addiction, once you believe us instead of your inner junkie you will find greater success. Anyway enough of what you already know, How are you feeling? You mentioned a fight? I hope that you are ok my friend. when you want to talk about quitting again, let us know

You are very welcome :-)

Brilliant photo :-)

You're welcome :-)