jillar

jillar Quit Date: May 29, 2016 Posted May 18, 2018 By the color of his salt and pepper hair I would have guessed him to be in his mid 50’s I would not say he was overweight , but a few walks in the park would not be the worst way he could spend a little bit more of his time. The biggest impression he really made on me was how , unimpressionable he was . If ever there was a John Q. Citizen this would be him. Everything about this man was average, from his shoes on his feet to that look of bewilderment on his face. Normally I keep to myself, Im not one to go around offering free advice. But I must say, he looked so lost- not that I had any answers. But perhaps I had the right questions or at the very least I had time to listen. I placed the butt of my fishing pole on the walk and set the drag to loose. Then testing it with a tug , to make sure I would not loose my rig , if I were to get a bite. I walked down the bridge a few paces to where “john” sat on the rail. I was not even yet close enough to offer my hand and introduce my self , when that old familiar smell of stale smoke and tobacco hit me in the face like a brick.. “wow - this one is ripe” I thought to myself. “ hows it going” I asked as I stepped in closer. “fine” he answered in a nonchalant way That’s , good I said nodding my head in affirmation.. “ you ?” he asked. “I’d be better if they were biting”. “ I imagine so” he said as he jumped down from his perch “ you from the other side ? “ he asked. “sure am” I boasted with some pride “been over here for past two years now” I love it I added , I could never imagine it being any different. “ yeah” he said in a smug tone “ I hear life is perfect over there , it never rains And life is roses all the time” Hog wash on that I said. “ we all got ass crap days” no matter what side of the river you live on Really ? he questioned ,, “sure” I said. What about money he asked “ I hear tell everyone over there makes more money” “ Oh my goodness , who have you been talking too ?” “ no one in particular , A guy just hears things you-know” “ Well I can assure you non of us make more money then we did before crossing over. Now we just have better opportunity’s to save some of it, or spend it on things we once wernt able to, things that make us truly happy” “huh” he said looking over my shoulder off onto the other side; trying to get a peek as to what life might like be living on the other side “your scared of crossing?” I asked. He then turned his head back and looked down the river, then he looked left; back in the direction he came from, then he looked down to his feet and in a small voice “ yes” he sighed Slowly he lifted his head and said “ Im scared if I cross and don’t make I will have to go back home a failure” “ Im scared if I make it I could loose some of my friends, or even loose myself, and who I am” “Hmm , I see , these are great concerns” I said I understand your dilemma. For a few miniutes we both stood there in silence looking down the river. He nervously kept his hands in motion as if he washing them in some imaginary sink. After thinking a min or two I said to him “ you know, if you don’t cross over to the other side your guaranteed to fail yourself “ but more importantly. I added “there is a secret to making it on the other side that the ones who never cross over can ever learn” “really ?” he asked “what is the secret can you tell me?” I smiled and put my hand onto his shoulder , looking him in the eye and said “ No one that has ever truly wanted to make it on the other side has failed. Its only the ones who question there decision and wrestle with the though of going back “ that ever fail . You see I explained , “when you cross over you can not live on both sides of the river” Then off in the distant we both heard a great noise, the sound of fireworks and celebration, “whats that” he asked” “oh that.” I said is Just some one that crossed over some time ago , having an anniversary party. “wow” he said , “ that sounds nice, I think I would like that” “yes… yes, you would” I assured him. “ there is so much in this world , you have been deprived living back there in the darkness” He smiled and said to me “ I think I’ll try” I smiled back to him and said “ leave “try” here on the bridge , or throw it in the river. The the path to freedom can not be walked with hope , each step has to be planted with confidence , leaving no room for doubt” Link to original post: https://www.quittrain.com/topic/10414-the-bridge-repost-by-jwg/

Love you @Doreensfree, Happy Birthday!!!

For you @DenaliBlues For our sweet @Doreensfree

I agree with @Doreensfree, he doesn't even realize his clothes stink of stale smoke because he can't smell it. I was shocked when my sense is smell came back after I quit smoking. I just remember thinking and even asked my niece and nephew if I smelled that bad when I smoked.

Hi @maryb, our site offers probably the most well rounded support for beating our addiction to nicotine there is. We offer discussions like you mentioned but more importantly we offer you the tools to freedom through education and support from people all over the world in all phases of quitting. We even have a video forum if that's more your thing. I would start in our vape forum so you can educate yourself on the dangers of vaping. Welcome aboard the train

Congratulations @Christian99 on 23 years quit! And thank you for sticking around and paying it forward all these years. I hope you're doing well and do something special for yourself today

@Cbdave, you should be able to post a song from YouTube directly in the reply box by copying it from there and pasteing it . I just did with my galaxy smartphone. As far as pics, that's a little more frustrating but what I do is click on the image I want, right click and go to open image in New tab, click on the browser address bar at the top of the page and copy that address. Come here open Other Media on the bottom right of the reply box and click on insert image from url and paste the address you copied. Hope this helps

About Me This is my third quit site, and I was saddened by the loss of my first two. I was extremely active for about 12 years on the first one, and then it radically changed in ways that made me uncomfortable. So I left. The second one simply disappeared into cyberspace after I was on it for a couple of years. I'm happy to be here, but I'm a bit reluctant to invest as much as I did with those previous sites. Briefly, I've been quit since late 2001, and I was able to quit by pairing smoking cessation with other significant changes in nutrition and exercise. It was not easy at all (an understatement to be sure), but I persisted; interestingly and surprisingly (especially given how miserable I was for so long), I haven't had a single craving or even passing thought of smoking a cigarette since sometime in 2003. Not one. And I've had a fairly eventful couple of decades since then. Regarding some of those "events," seven years after I quit (at age 40 and in excellent physical condition), I suffered a major (so-called "widowmaker") heart attack and cardiac arrest outside of a hospital setting, and it was pretty miraculous that I: a) survived; and b) survived without any cognitive impairments. Indeed, the cardiologist who saved my life characterized my survival and recovery as a "once-in-a-career outcome." I'll note, too, that my 42 year old brother died a terrible death from lung cancer and his wife committed suicide on the very same day that I had my heart attack and cardiac arrest. (They died as I was in a coma in the hospital.) So I guess you could say that was a pretty crappy day for my family. My recovery from the heart attack was challenging and frustrating, but I very explicitly used the lessons of my quit as I tried to take one day at a time in regaining my strength and stamina and maximizing the efficiency of my remaining healthy heart muscle. I now run regularly and even participate in road races. I'm really proud that I've run 5 half-marathons, 2 ten milers, ten 15Ks and dozens of 10Ks and 5Ks since my widowmaker. (And although I'm pretty slow, I've never stopped or walked in any of those races.). *****Unfortunately, in mid-2022 I began to experience significant hip pain; after attempting some non-invasive therapies, in late 2022 I had major hip surgery in an attempt to save my hip. The easier option would have been a total hip replacement (and I still may ultimately need that), but given my age (54) and the fact that a prosethetic hip would dramatically reduce my ability to run, we decided to pursue a more complicated surgery involving bone grafts. It's a long and challenging recovery (about six months), but once again I'm trying to use the lessons of my quit to help me through***** *****That December surgery was not successful. Thus, in June 2023 I had a total hip replacement, which has effectively ended my running career. I'm disappointed, to be sure, and still in the very early stages of recovery and in a lot of pain. But it had to be done. It's been a really challenging year (the hip pain initially developed in October, so I've been in pain and unable to walk for eight months now), but my smoke-free life remains something of which I am enormously proud.****** ******Terrible development....Over the last several months, been having increasing pain in the artificial hip (which was replaced 11 months ago), and the surgeon is concerned that I've developed an infection in the hip, a rare but devastating outcome. Getting some testing done this week and next that should confirm things either way, but if it is, indeed, infected, I'm looking at multiple major surgeries and a 9-12 month recovery. As worrying is the fact that a certain percentage of people in my situation actually never clear the infection, leading to amputation or death. It sucks balls.****** By profession, I'm a college teacher, and I love my work. The training for it was interminably long and extremely stressful (and not at all unrelated to the health catastrophe at age 40), but it's an absolute privilege to work with students as they strengthen academic skills and refine professional goals. While I certainly wish I could grown less painfully, there is no question in my mind that I'm a better, more humane educator as a result of the challenges I experienced with quitting in 2001-2 and with my health crisis in 2008. Interesting fact about me: I've never had a smartphone (and have never sent/received a text), and I expect that I never will. I made the decision to remain phone free after they began to become pretty ubiquitous on the campus at which I work (I dunno...maybe 2008?), and I saw the majority of people--students and faculty alike--hunched over their phones and not experiencing life itself. It just looked so sad to me, and I recognized that I'd probably do the same if I had such a device; thus, I decided to resist and reject them altogether. I do have an old school flip phone in my car for emergencies, but that's it.

Great post @SecondChanceSailor, and congratulations on 4 years quit!

jillar Quit Date: May 29, 2016 Posted January 18, 2021 Imagine if we were characters in a video game and cigarettes are our opponents. The object of the game is to be the sole survivor, the winner of the grand prize- A LIFE TIME FREE FROM DAMAGE! Like a lot of video games you get three lives, in our game they're called relapses. Each relapse causes your character to become weaker and weaker from the effects of smoking and your opponent seems to be winning. So you fight a little harder but still not hard enough and you use another of your relapses. Now you're down to your last life, you've used all your relapses and should you fail this time its game over. That's how all of us should think about smoking. None of us know who among us will get a smoking related illness and some of us already have one or more. And some of us paid the ultimate price with our lives.... Link to original post: https://www.quittrain.com/topic/15037-game-over/

@Penguin, it is! When I bought my home years ago I decided no smoking inside and boy am I glad I did. My garage though was covered in nicotine residue. Yuck! My parents house in Florida was horrible. They both smoked in the enclosed air conditioned house and the nicotine was everywhere. Even through the ducts! We actually had to throw most of their stuff away because no one at the estate sale wanted nicotine soaked stuff and there was just too much for us to try to clean before the sale. Even the house saold for a reduced price because of it..............

@Penguin, there's no rule against it and if they're smoking related you can post right on the main board. All others should be posted either in Social or Off the Record.

Yes @Penguin,these were instructions for our quit train tickers but they stopped working after the last update. I left the instructions up just in the hopes we would get them back once the code is updated so thank you for posting the tickerfactory directions

Congratulations on 7 years free @notsmokinjo, I hope you stick around for a while because we miss you when you're gone! Have a great day my friend

Congratulations on 13 months quit @Penguin!

Welcome aboard @Penguin, congratulations on your awesome quit, and thanks for wanting to support others choosing to take their life back I'm in California and our smoking laws are probably the strictest in America. There's no smoking literally everywhere including parks and open spaces, pretty much anywhere people congregate. I'd start with a petition. You can also write your representative, id start at the county level, and share your concerns. Good luck and keep us posted

Fluffyyellowduck Quit Date: 27/12/2020 Posted December 15, 2020 I keep around a lot of index cards because I have ADHD and I forget things. I'm very flippity and kind of all over the place, so I keep them in my pocket to help me get through the day and remember what I need to do. I'm using 1-2 of these index cards to write down a plan for when something comes up because things will always come up. I was wondering if you guys could help me come up with ideas that I might not have thought of. This is all I have so far. Instead of smoking I will ... Boredom Python course Crochet Cleaning Sudoku Solitaire Sadness ????????I have nothing????????? Anger Workout Pray/Read Bible Vent Write Oral Cravings Carrots/Celery Drink lemon water Brush teeth Cup of black tea If I'm invited or offered... Remember NOPE Journal Feeling Anxious Breathing exercises Stretches After a Meal Brush teeth Reward After Hard Work ....? Link to original post: https://www.quittrain.com/topic/14848-instead-of-smoking-i-will-need-help/

@QuittingGirl, I used my JAC a.k.a. jillars air cigarette and it still did the trick I will tell you though that I kept having my couple beers a day but not in the garage where I also smoked. I stayed inside with my JAC at the ready

Happy year and a half @QuittingGirl, you've come so far from where you started, you should be super proud of yourself

@Eeyore, its so good to hear from you! I hope you're doing well and stay around a while. We have a really good Post a Song thread that's only missing some eeyore picks

Congratulations @Genecanuck, you're doing great and thank you for all your support and comraderie

Congratulations @joe on your awesome quit! I hope you celebrate today

Sazerac Quit Date: October 23, 2013, A Good Day to be Free. Posted March 4, 2020 It's not just secondhand smoke that is dangerous. Thirdhand smoke can be, too by Sandee LaMotte, CNN Wed March 4, 2020 You can tell the dude sitting next to you in the movie theater is a smoker or vaper; you can smell it on his clothes. But since he's not lighting up and puffing smoke your way, it's OK, right? Not at all. A new study out of Yale University says thirdhand smoke -- the tobacco contaminants that adhere to walls, bedding, carpet and other surfaces until a room smells like an ashtray -- can actually cling to a smoker's body and clothes as well. Despite new regulations, FDA still fails to protect youth from e-cigarette epidemic, American Lung Association says Those potentially toxic chemicals, including nicotine, can then be released into environments where smoking has never occurred, like your movie theater, according to the study. Even more disturbing: The study found those chemical exposure levels could be the equivalent of between one and 10 cigarettes by the end of the movie. "People are substantial carriers of thirdhand smoke contaminants to other environments," said study author Drew Gentner, an associate professor of chemical and environmental engineering at Yale. The study, published Wednesday in the journal Science Advances, may be the first to show that people can transmit nicotine and other potentially toxic chemicals via their clothing after smoking, he said. More than 6 million US middle and high schoolers used tobacco products in 2019, report says "That was the unique part of this study," Gentner continued. "We were surprised by the wide array of hazardous volatile organic compounds that were off-gassing from the audience -- including some that are known to be known carcinogens in people, such as benzene and formaldehyde." What is 'thirdhand smoke'? Thirdhand "smoke" isn't actually smoke at all. It's the residue of nicotine and other chemicals in tobacco, some of which are toxic, that remain long after active smoking is over. Some of these chemicals stick to surfaces, and others attach to dust particles. Still others often penetrate deep into wallboard, drapes and upholstery. As the compounds linger, they may react with oxidants or other particles in the room's atmosphere. The chemical reactions can create potentially harmful byproducts that can become airborne. Science has known about this type of environmental pollution for years, sparking the creation of smoking and non-smoking rooms at hotels, restaurants and the like. But thirdhand smoke has also been found in environments which were not known to be contaminated by smokers, which led researchers to ask how that could happen. To find out, Gentner and some of his PhD students set up an experiment in a movie theater that had not allowed smoking for more than 15 years. They supplied fresh air into the theater, making sure that no smoking or other contaminants entered the space. Sophisticated equipment measured airborne particles before and after moviegoers arrived. Right away, they saw a huge spike in levels of hazardous chemicals. As people came into the theater, the concentrations went up, and then decreased over time, Gentner said. "But they didn't completely disappear after the audience left," he added. "In many cases, the persistent contamination was observable the following day in the unoccupied theater." The testing continued over a four-day period across different movie genres. Perhaps not surprisingly, levels of nicotine and other chemicals were lower in the G-rated movies geared toward kids. "Despite cases where we had audiences of over 200 people for some of the G-rated movies, he pollutants were much larger for R-rated films, even with smaller audiences," Gentner said. Those movies would likely draw older audiences that might be more likely to smoke." Dangerous exposure? Despite declines in smoking in some developed nations, there are still over a billion smokers worldwide, according to the World Health Organization. Smokers may be at greater risk of depression and schizophrenia, study finds "That billion smokers contribute to about 880,000 deaths from secondhand smoke," said Dr. Jagat Narula, a cardiologist at Mount Sinai Morningside in New York City who researches the health impact of smoking. I call it a form of murder." Learning about the Yale study's findings on the level of off-gassing from human bodies and clothing was not surprising, said Narula, who was not involved in the study. "But it is disturbing," he said. "Numerous reports have shown that there is no safe level of exposure to secondhand smoke. 1 in 3 teens breathe secondhand e-cigarette vapors, new research says "If future research replicates these findings on thirdhand smoke, it means that smokers could potentially still do harm even if the act of smoking took place in a different space." And it's not just smoking tobacco cigarettes. In America, vaping is growing in popularity, enticing younger and younger age groups. The study wasn't set up to study vaping, Gentner said, and researchers didn't find any of the compounds known to come from vaping emissions other than nicotine. Still, he said, levels of nicotine were high. Therefore, it's possible that vapers could also be the source of some of the nicotine found by the analysis. "Nicotine from e-cigarettes could have also been transported by people and off-gassed in the theater, or this could be occurring in other places where people enter after vaping," Gentner said. Clarity will come with additional research, Narula said. In the meantime, "the concentration of toxic organic compounds off-gassed by smokers cannot be seen as insignificant." "If the findings hold true, the implication is that essentially we are going to need to make everything smoke-free," Narula said. "And the only way that you will be able to do that is nothing short of banning smoking everywhere." Link to original post: https://www.quittrain.com/topic/13622-third-hand-smoke/

Congratulations @sgt.barney!

Hi @DFINALJ, good to see you back and still on your awesome quit!