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Never too late to say it - one year is an amazing achievement. Congratulations and welcome aboard!

I can't believe I got mentioned! I'm gonna run right out and buy 50 copies.

You do realize that the odds of that happening are simply... remote?

Congrats shark!

This was really great to read. Chrys, you are conquering everything!

Sorry, but I don't agree with this advice at all. I was nervous as hell when I quit, and pretty pessimistic about my chances. That was more than three years ago. Having observed many quits besides my own, the only thing I'm sure of is that there is no "one way", and what works for one person won't work for everyone. If I'd taken the advice above, I might still be smoking. Quit. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

I've been quit more than three years, and I just had one of those dreams the other night. I think they happen for a few different reasons, but often they are your subconscious mind stiffening your resolve by letting you experience how horrible you would feel if you smoked. You quit when you were sick with bronchitis - I think a number of people quit when they're sick, because they feel like hell anyway and smoking makes it worse, and somehow the nicotine rush is less appealing when you're already coughing and dizzy and nauseous. But now you're starting to feel better, and you're not so focussed on your health and mortality, and smoking may feel more appealing again. You're in a danger zone, and your sleep mind is warning you. Listen to your dream. You've wanted to quit for a long time, and now you did and you already have a running start - keep running! This is totally doable, and everyone on this forum has done it. Remember how awful that dream made you feel, and then how thankful you were when you got to wake up. Not everyone gets that chance.

My clown is off to you, sir.

Day 3! Day 3! Day 3!

As much as it pains me to say this - and it does - Sarge is right. Not because of his trivialization of the incident with your father (though why you chose to call him the moment you woke up on the day of your quit after many years of dysfunction is a good question), but because you're giving up on a forum where one person said something you didn't like, while everyone else was a peach. I mean, you could just block him or whatever. Or go "old school" and use the ignore button in your mind. In one day, you managed to encounter a family crisis that cost you your quit before it even started, and then a jerk so intolerable you're leaving the forum you (almost) quit on. Hey, I'm not saying your Dad's not a jerk. I'm not even saying Sarge isn't a jerk. But I am saying the only person who has anything to do with you quitting is you. I bet there's not one person here who doesn't remember a time when someone else "made them smoke", and I bet not one of us isn't ashamed at how we manipulated ourselves to continue our addiction. Which is how we know what it looks like. Anyway I'm sure this made you mad too, and I'm sorry (really!). But on or off this board, I don't think you'll ever quit until you recognize this behaviour and deal with it. The fact is that you're far more likely to succeed with a support group (here or somewhere else) than on your own, and allowing some assclown like Dad or me or Sarge (sorry Sarge) to be a reason not to quit, and continue killing yourself, is just stupid and embarrassing. Think about it.

phht... Jimmy says great things about everybody.... oh wait maybe that's a good thing.. Welcome quita!

I remember you. If you can keep this quit, you'll find yourself dealing with stress a whole lot better - weird but true. Hey, prove me wrong!

Good Lord, no! I mean, yes, you should embrace the suck when you quit smoking, but that's because it's TEMPORARY. The same way that when you fall asleep on your arm, you should accept the pins and needles that comes with waking it up again - because the sooner the pain starts, the sooner it will stop again. But seriously, no one who's quitting should believe that they're being asked to embrace a lifetime of unrelenting suck! How awful. You must embrace limited suck, so that you might surpass the limit, and emerge suck-free into a new and better existence. If your relationships, family, or life in general require you to submit to an eternity of unrelenting suck, you need to take that left turn at Albuquerque.

In the short run you just bite the damn bullet. Depersonalize and observe. Those aren't really *your* feelings, and they won't last forever. You're killing the lizard junkie part of your brain, and it will hiss at you. In the long run, quitting will make you less anxious and stressed than you ever were as a smoker. Hard to believe right now, but profoundly true.

Exactly this. Trigger exposures like this are a little bit like inoculations - shooting smallpox right into your arm is bad news, but a tiny little manageable bit trains your resistance muscles. So you will take your medicine. Watch her, when she smokes, and really remember. The building twitchy anticipation as she struggles with her next junkie deadline, until she surrenders. How she looks at her cigarette as it burns down toward the filter, growing more disgusting and toxic, and she debates whether it's worth one more drag before she comes back and starts the countdown over again. The way she smells when she comes inside, the constant coughing and throat-clearing she tries to suppress. Observe how she is forced to repeatedly poison herself, just to get back to "normal" for a few more minutes - the same normal that nonsmokers take for granted all the time. Will she watch you, also, as she smokes outside? What does her expression say? Does she wish she could quit, and stay inside with you? Or does she hope you will break down, and come smoke outside with her, because she doesn't think she can ever do it? Babs is right. It's sad. Just like it was sad when we did it to ourselves, only we couldn't see it clearly then, the smoke got in our eyes. But Evelyn, that isn't you anymore. So look again. You'll see.

Black Betty. I vote for that.

Things got a whole lot worse after my post. I blame you.

Watching now - tied 1 apiece, currently trailing 2-1 in the second. It's good old-timey hockey!

Tonight, the Habs are a damn happy hockey team.

Come back in a week. :read: Is there any way we can get Babs in this thread, just for the cheap rhymes? To go with some ducks, who cheer for Canucks. (I also rhyme with "pucks". And one other word bakon thought of, that I cannot remember for the life of me...)

I'm mortified that I missed this. A year is such a huge accomplishment, and deserves recognition. So instead of slinking away and hiding my malfeasance, I'm bumping this thread. Belated congratulations, Jess! **I am such an idiot today! :wacko2: Still a big deal, still congrats.

I adore Elton John, at least up until "the Lion King". Anyway, here's an understated version of a classic I just came across. I think it represents what I like best about him.

Thanks everyone. It's good to know that seeing longer quits around is helpful to some people. I remember feeling that way myself, and it's why I'm here. Nancy, I don't know how you manage to find appropriate images for every situation, but that celebratory duck made me quackle. I thought about this later, and it's exactly right. You should look forward to it, and you WILL welcome it when it comes. I remember when I first quit, every morning when I stepped into the shower (and not out to the deck for a smoke) I would say to myself in wonder "I don't smoke anymore!". I couldn't stop thinking about it. And I never thought I would. I'm happy that it's become boring, there are so many better things in life to be excited about. This is exactly where I wanted to be.

Two things have been made clear: You have done something wonderful. You have struggled, and persevered, and conquered a stupid and powerful addiction that was trying to kill you. You are to be congratulated and admired. Jackie and RunFree know exactly nothing about cats. I can't really fix #2 in a reasonable amount of time, so let me just say congratulations, and welcome to the lido deck (even though I don't know why it's called that). As a personal tribute to your triumph - even in spite of being a quit train train wreck - I leave you with one of my all-time favourite tunes. I don't know who chose the video, but I think you'll like it.

An auspicious date! One month is a huge milestone, and you made it look easy. Very impressive.