Hey guys,
IIRC, some of our members had asked me to share my quit story here. Haven't posted much in a while, so here we go. I see that many people are joining us here, which is great. Me? I had relapsed thrice before, only to realize that it was always a dumb move to go back after staying quit for about a couple of months.
Here is the funny thing about relapses: In a moment, it pushes you to play against your own team, against your will. Your mind would be still loyal to your team, but you would be actually playing for the opponent, and you feel so out of control.
When I started off with my quit, I wasn't much optimistic.
First thought: "Yet another pointless attempt to quit, after relapsing thrice, or maybe more - really? You know you're gonna relapse again, so why put yourself through all this again?" Somehow, I started off, but didn't promise myself much. I knew how to get past the first two months. The challenge was to keep the quit after that point.
I never took my quit seriously, for the first couple of months.
Two months: "Let's see how it goes, it's not like you're not gonna smoke forever, but keep goin', we'll see how long it lasts this time".
Three months: "Okay, three is good, but let's not start dancing alright? Not quite yet. Let's see how long this could go on for."
Four months: "This is not bad at all! It's been longer than I had expected, so ruining it at this point would be really unnecessary, in fact, that would be a dumb move. So why not just think about today and go with the flow?"
Five months: "Cigarettes? Used to doing just fine without them."
Six months: "What? Start smoking, and take all that crap all over again? I'll be damned."
There is no shortcut to quit smoking. You just don't smoke anymore. That's it. That pretty much takes care of everything. Life is better off without cigarettes. Quit, and never look back, and wait until you realize that this is one of the best decisions you have ever made in your entire life.