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:(

^^ Totally agree. I hope nothing I said suggested otherwise. Please keep a high profile!

Sad too, & thinking about you.

Oh man ChRiSpY, I'm really sorry.

The Train might appear to be a monolithic organization with a unanimous perspective on how to quit, but in reality we're just a collection of individuals with at least one thing in common, trying to help others walking in our footsteps. As a result, you're going to get some very different sorts of advice and ideas depending on who you talk to, and it's up to you to decide who's worth listening to and who isn't. So from my experience, a sudden constant thirst for ice cold water is "normal" - I lived at the water cooler for weeks, and I've seen other people say similar things. Does Sarge agree? He doesn't say. Sarge didn't eat breakfast and still doesn't - same with me. On the other hand, he stayed thin as a rail while I gained a bleepton of weight, despite not changing my eating habits, so I'm a big believer in metabolic impacts for SOME people, and if Sgt wants to argue that with me I'm all ears (although that argument will involve things like gut flora and fecal transplants, and thus not be to everyone's taste). Finally, Sarge is all about the "Easy Peasy" school of quitting, which I take to mean that it's really not that hard and if you think it is it's all in your head. I haven't read Allan Carr, but I think it's sort of the same idea. I've never decided whether he believes this is literally true for everyone and only babies say otherwise, or if it's a form of tough love where you just keep repeating it over and over until you brainwash yourself. Either way, I don't agree and it wasn't my experience - quitting was hard and I yelled at things and got very very depressed. But I still quit. And this is where we agree. Whether or not quitting screws with your blood sugar or makes you eat breakfast or sends you into a depression or anything else, choosing to smoke is still a choice. None of those things will MAKE you smoke. They might make your quitting experience more difficult, and thus give your junkie lizard brain "reasons" to smoke again, but it's still your choice. So while I certainly wouldn't have put things the way Sarge did - that's usually a given - in the end he's right about the outcome. If you don't like what he said or how he said it, ignore him. But here's my question: are you really going to throw in the towel and walk away from an entire forum, just because one person said something that made you feel bad? It's your decision of course, but that doesn't sound totally rational to me. It sounds a little bit what a junkie lizard death tantrum might start out like... later, when you're alone in your house reflecting on how poorly you were treated and how badly it made you feel, you might decide that this was a really big deal and indulge yourself in some self-pity, and then maybe you'll start to think that it was so awful that it's pretty much ruined this quit attempt, so you may as well get some cigarettes and try and relax and get your head together, and think about quitting again fresh on another forum with less awful people, tomorrow. Or next week... Anyway, sorry for the wall of text, I talk too much. I just wanted to get this down in writing while you're hopefully still reading, to give you something to think about. I went through similar things in my early days, and in fact I did quit the board I was on for a while - but it wasn't personal, and I stayed quit. In the end my advice is always the same: do what works for you, whatever you gotta do, so long as you don't smoke.

That's what I call a good day.

Welcome back from me too. Looking forward to seeing you become "old HAT" at staying quit. :P <_<

What's to understand? You're quitting smoking, your junkie lizard brain is in full panic making up stupid, desperate excuses and you're in the throes of the addiction/withdrawal cycle. Of course it's hard! Here's a suggestion: can you mentally "step back" from yourself, observe your actions and emotions from a distance as a disinterested party, perhaps seeing the pathos and even humour in your predicament? I know that's hard too, but it worked for me. Today will be over soon enough one way or another. The only question is what you do in the meantime.

Oh please don't let this be my new nickname... :help:

The moment you stop smoking is the moment you stop being stupid, so thankfully you and I have put that nonsense behind us. I hear ya about the conflicting advice... the truth is, I got drunk every night of the first week of my quit (as far as I remember) and I STILL have that last unsmoked cigarette somewhere in a back closet, moldering away. But it's also true that I developed something of a drinking habit which was probably not the most healthy. And I live overtop a 24hour 7-11, so removing temptation was never possible anyway. I guess my point is just to do what works for you, and sometimes it's a trick to figure out. I think you're doing it though, and that's great to see.

Damn straight! You don't get outta hell without kicking the devil's ass. Way to go.

Don't worry about it, just ride the wave. You rock!

Sorry, may as well call it what it is. Anyway, I very much agree with Rez, booze is not your friend right now. Then again, neither are cigarettes, so can I please suggest that you get those out of your house ASAP?!?! This is not a game, unless it's a game of "chicken", and that's a stupid game anyway (sez the Duck). If he's waiting to sell them then make sure he hides them somewhere you can't find them. You absolutely can do this, even if it's hard, but why not stack the odds in your favour?

Nope, you know you can do it. I mean it. If you only "think" you can, then maybe you think you can't, and then maybe you won't. Like I said, this is a big deal. You KNOW you can do this. If you don't know, don't go. If you go and think you might cave, bail. I am not the boss of you. I'm just telling you how it is, as I see it. Really great to see you're still on the train!

Welcome from me too, sounds like you're off to a great start! Never apologize for rambling, it's like Comrade S says - the more you read and post here, and watch things like Joel Spitzer videos here (sorry I meant HERE, but the other link is good reading too), the better. Knowledge is power, and that's never more true than when quitting. Also, drink lotsa water and acidic fruit juices if you can stomach them, it cleans out the nicotine quicker and helps stabilize plunging blood sugars. Hope to see you around lots!

I read it! I'm dry this month (I didn't know it was a "thing" in January, I just did it), and this was a great read. Congratulations on your monster quit.

Nyet nyet cigarette!! Way to go, Comrade.

Hey laura, it's great to see you back! I notice from one of your last threads that your quit seemed to get derailed by external negative events, and the thought that you could make things better (or feel better) by smoking. Clearly it did not. Now that you're closing out Hell Week (congrats!) and in a good frame of mind, I'd like to suggest you reflect on that false premise and perhaps jot down a few thoughts to yourself, in case things happen again in the future. Which they will. Chrispy ended that thread saying exactly what I'm trying to say - have a look!

I never knew Chinook jargon was still spoken in Alaska - this makes me very happy. :)

Sweet.

Great work Wendy! Congratulations.

The one time Petra says something nice about me and I miss it! :angry: Ridley, how's it going? *edit: And now the system won't let me "like" her comment!! What, too unHumbleB??

Belated congratulations on your two awesome years!! You, BAT, are the man.

Ah, the "social smoker", it's the Holy Grail of the nicotine addict. Well, almost. The thing is, it DOES exist, it's just extremely rare. Everyone who starts smoking begins as a "social smoker", but most of us graduate to addiction, and once you're addicted there's no going back. I like to think of this as a bent straw - if you've ever bent a drinking straw, you can pull it out of the juice box and straighten it out so that it looks good as new, but the fault is still there, and if you try and shove it back in again it will most likely bend again in the same spot. That's us. Maybe your friends really are statistical outliers who are genetically unlikely to develop an addiction. Then again, maybe they're liars, both to you and to themselves, I know I was. All you really need to know is that this isn't you, you aren't like that and you never will be. You only get to not be addicted once. This understanding is why accepting the notion that you are in fact an addict is so important - not to be melodramatic, but to put your situation in the correct perspective. Yup. I remember being this person too, to my eternal shame.

You are absolutely not making too big a deal out of this - this is a huge deal! I actually think it's a potential trap to understate it, and this opens the way for your junkie lizard brain to start screwing with you. I mean, if it's not really that big a deal, then what the hell maybe you can just have one or two and then jump right back on the train and quit again. Nuh-uh. There's great advice above, so I'll just add this: if you need to bail, bail. Do what you gotta do, and don't apologize. By the way I'm really glad to read about you ditching the ecigs too, you're doing great!