Genecanuck

Thank you @DenaliBlues OUR LIE: If I quit, I'll just start back again. I always do. THE TRUTH: The truth is that you do not have to relapse. We relapse because we rewrite the Law of Addiction, we forget why we quit, or we invent lies and stupid excuses, such as those that fill this page. Your next quit can be your last but you need to learn how to care for your recovery, while always applying the only rule that you'll ever need to obey - to NEVER TAKE ANOTHER PUFF!

Hi @Breath-of-Power... find a stratagey that works for you and just go for it. You know you want to quit more than you want to smoke or you would not be coming to this site.

Give Peace A Chance John Lennon Yoko Ono

Not one puff or nicotine patch ever!

Hi @Breath-of-Power.... I hear you and can't walk in your skin. I know how difficult it is to live with a smoking partner. BUT... this quit belongs to US and not any significant other or twin brother :):) I had to stop using my partner as an excuse to smoke. How are you doing?

Head Over Heels: Tears For Fears

@jillar .... thanks so much for re-sharing your personal story. Very powerful. I hope your daughter is on the mend and has found freedom from her addiction. Yes @DenaliBlues .... I also believe that I have scorched my brain chemistry by force feeding it nicotine for so many years. I have been experiencing that deeply disorienting feeling from time to time. Need to let the healing process take the time that is needed to re-wire those pathways to allow normal pain-pleasure gratification in the brain to work again. Many thanks to both of you for putting things in perspective.

Good morning @Breath-of-Power.... One bug a boo I have is that I sometimes overthink things. And the quitting process is much like that. You will hear and read lots of sage advice about how to quit and how do deal with the challenges of the quitting processs. You have to start somewhere and the best approach is to pick a date, stop and then then take it one minute, one hour, one morning and one day at a time. Put smoking in your rear view mirror a bit at a time and continue to read and post here. And take what you need from all the advice you hear and read, and leave the rest. But don't let various perpesptives that dont work for you offer an excuse for you to keep smoking. That is still junkie thinking. Remember that your addicted brain will always find reasons to keep smoking. Thats junkie thinking. You can do this @Breath-of-Power Kind Regards, Gene

Not one puff or Nicotone Patch ever!

Thank you @QuittingGirl.... Hugs

@MLMR

Iguanas

It's another Friday..... its time for all of us special window lickers to pat ourselves on the back for another smoke free week. So who is a Certified Window Licker this week?

How Do You Hold on When the Going Gets Tough?, Quitnet Re-Post, October 28, 2004 From BaldGuy66 on 10/28/2004 1:17:30 PM Posted by BaldGuy66 on 3/16/2004 That InnerJunkie™ tries to wear us down. It doesn`t last forever, but sometimes you need to concentrate that strength that you`ve already shown, and boil it down, put it to work at one instant in time, the instant when you just can`t take anymore: and don`t give up. Imagine time as a conveyor belt, a long conveyor belt that stretches to infinity in two directions. You`re standing alongside it, and every few minutes, a cigarette goes by on the belt. You always have the option of reaching for one, when it goes by. You can only reach so far in either direction. There will only be one cigarette in reach at any given moment. Its pull is most powerful when it is right there beside you. THAT is the moment that you need the most strength -- just for that moment, when it would be so easy. Then it`s going off into the distance, and it`ll be a little while before the next one comes along. Then you choose again. Each time you choose rightly, you get a little bit stronger. It gets a little bit easier to choose rightly the next time. After a while, you`ve gotten so good at this, you don`t even have to fight anymore, for the most part. You just watch it go by. You know it`s there. But you know you have the strength to leave it there on the conveyor belt. Sometimes, once in a while, you might have to call on your friends to stand on the other side of the conveyor belt and remind you why you don`t want to take that cigarette off and smoke it. And that`s okay. We`re allowed to ask for help. Eventually, you won`t even notice the darn thing. You`ll trip over it once in a while, or you`ll see someone else walking (or running) up to take a cig off the belt, but you`ll know you don`t have to, and you don`t want to have to keep going back, watching the clock, making sure you`re ready for that next fix to come down the line. Anyway, that`s how you get through. Making the right choice at the exact moment you need most to make it. And I`ve rambled. I knew there was one in there somewhere. *** BG 435 days, 1 minute and 59 seconds smoke free. 5220 cigarettes not smoked. $1,670.40 and 1 month, 9 days, 21 hours of my life saved. My quit date: 8/20/2003 1:15:00 PM

Congrats @Hope2Nope.... your awesome 8 year quit is inspiring for all of us newbies. I am grateful that you are sticking around to offer others supprt.

Thanks @QuittingGirl... I have just had so many failed quits that I know I can't take things for granted.

Stompin' Tom Connors Sudbury Saturday Night

Not one puff or nicotine patch ever!

The Half-Percent Club, Quitnet Re-post, May 22, 2004 This is a good read. I'm sure that it is as true today as it was back in 2004 that a very small percentage of smokers actually join the elite quitting club and keep their quits. Are you going be part of the half percent club? Keep our quit. Gene Repost - the half-percent club (my doctoral ramble) From melder7777 on 5/22/2004 8:49:23 AM every so often I renew my membership in this club feel free to join (the dues are outlined below) maureen chosing life for 649 days! (and regretting not a one) From kevindontsmoke on 11/19/2002 11:50:48 AM according to statistics published in June of 2002 by the American lung association (see "TRENDS IN TOBACCO USE" at http://www.lungusa.org/data/): * over 46,500,000 (that's 46 and a half million) Americans smoke. of those, 70% (or 32,550,000) say they want to quit. of those, 34% (or 11,067,000) attempt to quit each year. of those, 2.5% (or 276,675) succeed. that's about one-half of one percent of the total number of american smokers. the half-percent club. * (since i don't have similar statistics for any other country, i'm going to assume that the percentages are about the same everywhere; people are people, wherever they live, and nicotine is nicotine, no matter who's addicted to it...) -------- now, some people might look at those numbers and get discouraged. they might think, "only a half of a percent make it? what chance do i have of succeeding with odds like that?" - what they don't realize is that statistics say *nothing* about individuals. and every member of this exclusive club is an individual. and every individual has the power of choice. -------- the half-percent club has no officers; no president, no secretary, no treasurer. it has no meetings; it has no meeting hall. it doesn't march in parades, organize food, clothing or fund drives, hold garage sales, or have bingo on wednesdays. but it does have dues, and if you want to be a member, you have to pay your dues. it doesn't matter who you know, doesn't matter what you know, doesn't matter if you're from the right family, doesn't matter if you went to the right school, doesn't matter if you're from the right side of the tracks, doesn't matter if you're a man or a woman, doesn't matter what color your skin is, doesn't matter what religion you follow (or even if you follow any at all), doesn't matter what your politics are. all that matters is that you pay your dues. because the half-percent club isn't like other clubs: nobody nominates you for membership; you nominate yourself. nobody votes on whether you can become a member; your vote is the only one that counts. you elect yourself. by paying your dues. you pay your dues by waking up every morning, looking your addiction in the eye, and choosing not to feed it today. you pay your dues by going to bed every night patting yourself on the back for having stuck by that choice today. you pay your dues by choosing not to feed your addiction whenever you're hungry, angry, lonely, or tired. you pay your dues by choosing not to feed your addiction whenever you feel sorry for yourself. you pay your dues by choosing not to feed your addiction whenever you're under pressure. you pay your dues by choosing not to feed your addiction whenever you get a crave. you pay your dues by choosing not to feed your addiction. no matter what. you pay your dues by choosing life. because as long as you choose life, you're a card-carrying, paid-in-full member. and as long as you keep choosing life, nobody can vote you out. in fact, once you've paid your dues, the only way to lose your membership is to take it away from yourself. by choosing to feed your addiction. by choosing death. -------- this morning, for the 366th morning in a row, i woke up, looked my addiction in the eye, and chose not to feed it today. this morning, for the 366th morning in a row, i wrote in my quit journal: "I am a nicotine addict. I cannot afford to feed that addiction. Not even one time. - so - Today, I choose LIFE! Today, I choose HEALTH! Today, I choose STRENGTH! Today, I choose SELF-CONTROL! Today, I choose FREEDOM! Today, I choose NOT to SMOKE!" thomas jefferson said, "the price of freedom is eternal vigilance"; writing these affirmations in my quit journal every morning is one way that i practice eternal vigilance against my mortal enemy. it reminds me, every day, that i'm an addict, and that my only power over that addiction is my repeated choice not to feed it. i know, from previous experience, that it only takes one feeding to bring that addiction back in full force, and this reminds me, every morning, that i can't afford to give it that one feeding. so far, this has helped keep me free for a full year; i'd strongly suggest that you find a way to practice eternal vigilance that works for you. today starts my second year of freedom from smoking; my second year of membership in the half-percent club. i invite you to join me. by choosing life. today, and every day. kevin - grateful to be in my second year of freedom!!!

Hi @DenaliBlues ... i love this.... reframing smoking craving as memories or nostalgia. Many thanks.

Thank you @Doreensfree,... so sorry to hear that your hubby did not make it... but happy that you made a life saving choice... hugs... everytime I hear my hubby cough at night, I think about how smoking is killing him.

Thank you @jillar

Fish