Kate18

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Yes, the first few weeks are tough ones. It sounds as though you have a lot going on, and that you have great support! I did the first few weeks several times over a few years, and I can definitely support the plan to only do it ONCE, and get right on to week four, then five, and keep on going. Stay firm with your commitment (so much more easily said than done, I realize), and imagine how great you will feel as those weeks add up. I've been watching Benjamin Hardy on YouTube lately. He is an organizational psychologist with his PhD. He's written and co-written several books. He speaks about imagining what your future self is asking you (me, everyone) to do. Imagine your future-self, the person you will be on the day of hitting the lido deck, your one-year celebration of being smoke free. What does that self say to you to encourage you? I've been doing this exercise, imagining my Kate-self in March 2024 - what is that future-self asking me to do today? It's caused me to be a fair amount more productive and get to the gym with less resistance. Good luck, and congratulations on your progress!

Love it! Congratulations on seven years of clean-breathing! May you have good health and many other blessings in life.

NOPE Wow, so much money saved.

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A decade of FREEDOM. It has such a nice ring to it. Congratulations!

Impressive! Congratulations!

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Belated congratulations, Darcy. It's exciting to watch those days and weeks add up on your ticker. So happy for you.

Belated congratulations on your first year smoke free! May there be many more to come!

Congratulations! You "old timers" are an inspiration to those of us following along behind.

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Wow, I appreciate knowing this. Thanks for posting it. If I become ill down the road, I'll have something to consider. Glad you're better.

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Interesting about Covid causing phantosomia. I wonder if I've had Covid, after all. I've heard the long-Covid is rough. It's so unpredictable, or seems to be. I know people who have had Covid two and even three times. I work as a grocery store cashier a mile from a major medical center. Sick people all around me on a daily basis. More than half the staff have had it--some twice. Somehow, I've escaped, or maybe was not symptomatic enough to notice. There is a substance I've been taking since ~ 2015, N-acetylcysteine (NAC). It's an anti-inflammatory that is used in hospitals for liver inflammation and by people with asthma or other lung inflammatory processes. I don't know if that has anything to do with it, or not. It's now one of the treatments for Covid. It's an inexpensive generic, over the counter in the US. I've taken it for bipolar depression (wasn't very effective), and as a stroke-preventative (it has anti-clotting effect). Smoking reportedly causes inflammation. I've thought that, while I was smoking, maybe NAC helped reduce some of cigarettes' harm. "NAC (N-acetyl-L-cysteine) helps prevent viruses and bacteria from adhering to the lining of the lungs. Data show that NAC reduces excess airway mucus, lowers inflammation, supports pulmonary function, and inhibits infectious colonization. Scientifically reviewed by: Dr. Gary Gonzalez, MD, in May 2022."

This has occasionally driven me nuts. Especially when it first started happening. It started a few months ago. Is anyone else having this? I smell cigarette smoke sometimes, when there is nothing there. It has happened at work. It has happened in my apartment and car. It has happened when I was shopping in a store. It has even happened while walking in the park with my dog, Sofia. At first, I'd think that someone was near me or had walked by me and that person was a smoker. It's happened often enough and in such a variety of locations and situations, that I think I'm imagining it. I Googled it, and apparently it is called phantosmia. I have tinnitus, so I hear something that isn't there. I supposed it's logical to think that I could be smelling something that isn't there, too. If I'm going to smell something that isn't there, why couldn't it be a pine forest on a hot summer day (childhood memory), instead of my old, dirty, smelly habit? One of life's mysteries. I'm going to work on that pine tree scent. I had summer weeks in the Sawtooth Mountains at a cabin when I was a child. I remember the scent. I long for the scent. I'm going to work on having that scent, instead of cigarette smoke.

Thanks so much for even noticing, Jillar. No problem. I had to think back...how long has it been? I don't know why, but 3 years seems about 10 years more significant than 2 years. I wonder why that is. I am thinking, "how cool will it be when I've been quit 10 years?" Thanks for starting the thread, Jillar. Have a super weekend coming up.

Thanks, all. And it's three....3.... years. I quit just before Covid hit our shores in February 2020. Soooo funny. I quit because I was sure that I would die of lung congestion if I got Covid. All around me, people are catching it (and, thank God, getting over it), and I haven't even had it yet. Got the initial vaccines, but I know too many people who are vaccinated and get it, even twice. Watch...tomorrow, I'll catch it. 3 years and counting