Genecanuck

Congrats @notsmokinjo

Funny Christmas Song for all Ages!!! Santa - On the Throne Again

Junky thinking, make it stop., Quitnet Re-Post January 5, 2006 From jacquot on 1/5/2006 2:22:00 PM Dear Tom Brady: If I were there, I'd reach out and put my hand on your shoulder and say I was sorry you're experiencing junky thinking. It can be frustrating, agonizing and discouraging. But really, in the truest analysis: it's okay. In fact, it's natural and expected that your inner active addict is trying to reawaken active addiction. Perhaps the best news I have to offer is that the rationalizations, pleas, begging, etc.. of our inner active junkies can be, well, disregarded entirely as ravings of a mad man. You can think of it like a phone ringing: you don't have to answer it. And when you don't answer it, repeatedly, the damned phone stops ringing or rings far less. Craves are not commands. They are not moral imperatives. You do not have to yield to them. You can simply let them be. That's right. Let them be. Most importantly, these early days of your quit are the hardest and do not in anyway represent what it feels like to be quit for any length of time. There are days of absolute peace out there with the word "TOMBRADY" typed in all caps across the top of the day's agenda so that when you check it, it says Monday, TOMBRADY: peace. Tuesday, TOMBRADY: peace. You get the idea. Wait it out. It is SOOOO worth it. -J (1281)

Music Sounds Better With You

https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=gUXC_dhQHzY&si=NoyA6cm-xocNtzCI

Vampire

Welcome @Penguin. I look forward to following you and getting to know you better. You have an amazing 13 month quit.

Hi @Penguin. I had a serious life-threatening health scare that made me really hate cigarettes. But a strange thing happened to me over time. My aversion to smoking went away and I started romancing the smokes again. And I eventually relapsed. That is the insidious part of smoking. I learned that the stinking thinking in the brain that leads a person to pine for cigarettes needs to be uprooted. If not, there is always a risk that you can return to romancing cigarettes. The stinking thinking behind pining for cigarettes has to be challenged immediately. My biggest trigger is figuring out what to do when I am experiencing pressure or stress. I just must know deep in my bones that smoking will NEVER relieve any pressure or stress in the moment. If I smoke, I know I will IMMEDIATELY feel worse off. The pressure and stress will still be there with the added stress of craving cigarettes all over again. Yes, evil does lurk beneath that mistaken thought that smoking has anything to do with making us feel better. Back to not one puff ever!:) Thanks for sharing your insights @Penguin

Hello @Mike-318... Congratulations on quitting smoking and vaping. I think I understand your experience because I have also used lozenges and eventually became addicted to patches over time. I agree that remaining smoke free is your number 1 priority and if you feel that you need to remain on the patch to do that, that's better than smoking. BUT.... you are exactly where I landed after many years, becoming addicted to nicotine in the patches. I had many many lost quits. I would stop smoking for a period, then quit, then go back on the patch and then start smoking again and then..... REPEAT. NRT did help me to disrupt the habit-forming triggers that caused me to smoke. But once those life triggers where gone, all I had left was raw nicotine addiction, which I was feeding with NRT. And I decided that my true path toward wellbeing and freedom was to step down from the patches for good. My friend @jillar reminded me that I was delaying dealing with the normal withdrawals that everyone on this site had to experience when they stepped down from nicotine (smoking, vaping, or any NRT) So, I decided to treat Day one without the 7 MG patches, like I did my Day 1 of not smoking many years ago. I did start to feel better after three days and continued to feel better after a week. After a month, not wearing the patch started to feel normal. According to Infiniterecovery You are doing awesome @Mike-318. I recommend wearing the 7 MG patch for two weeks and set a quit patch date. You can do this the same way that you quit smoking. You will find that those craves your experiencing right now, WILL GO AWAY over time. Stick around here and you will find lots of support.

Thanks for being such a good inspiration @QuittingGirl.... I nomally drink wine or coolers. I had to have a plan in my head before I started drinking to remind myself that I was not going to smoke. I stayed in my smoke free apartment and read the news on my phone while my partner went outside to smoke. Essentially, distracting myself.

Congrats @Stewbum....

https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=gUXC_dhQHzY&si=NoyA6cm-xocNtzCI