So what all keeps you from lighting up again?

[JB 883]

We often get craves. the longer since our last cancer stick though, the weaker the craves.

Sometimes i think "Yeah i could just drive to the store 1/2 a mile away and buy a pack, it would not be a big deal."

 

But then I think of the steps it would take to re-enter the smoking world. In no particular order -

 

Going and buying them. Waste some more cash.

Knowing I would just have to go through "quitting" again. Screw that.

Probably getting sick.

Smelling horrid. I like to look good and smelling like someone puked in an ashtray doesn't compliment my style well.

 

But then there is the REAL fun part...

People saying annoying crap like, "I thought you quit... You know that will kill you...

 

Then another fun part -

When trying to quit again, no one taking it seriously. Like "Oh yeah, she is "quitting" smoking again. Let's see how long this one lasts".

Things like dropping a bad habit or getting married - you have exactly ONE opportunity to do it and people take you serious. After that it is like a broken record.

 

I will admit here that i have "quit" many times in the past. Usually for a good four hours. But I never told anyone I was trying to quit until last October.

 

So TLDR -

I stay quit because i do not feel like hearing anyone be smart ass about it if I smoked again.

 

 

[Sslip]

At the moment it seems quite simple. It boils down to mentally it is healthier for me. Strangely for someone who has smoked for all of my adult life, I picture the non smoking version of me as who I am meant to be. It's stupid it has taken 35 years of smoking for my actions to catch up. 

 

I'm not close to being out of the woods yet and there's battles ahead, particularly as oddly the physical cost of smoking has never been a motivation. 

 

So really it's because I don't like some of my behaviour in the grip of my addiction to nicotine. 

Edited May 18, 2018 by Sslip

[notsmokinjo]

Hmm... Everyday I post nope... I publicly declare to all my peers that today I will honor the nope. Then I make sure to like everyone else's nope... So they have all seen me (like to get in early) and I know they have seen me and cos I like their nopes they know I have seen them and well I'm real prideful, so if I break my very loud and very public nope I would feel a shitload of shame... So what's stopping me, saving face.

Also... My staunch as mates who are constantly giving me reality checks (which we know is a fluid construct for me) and my mates who give me bits of them every day... And the challenge, I like to win so as soon as I turned it into a game and there was a battle I had to be victorious in against a demon I've been in it to win. 

[Cbdave]

Enough said

[Doreensfree]

What keeps me from lighting up...

Living with the devastation smoking causes every day....being a full time carer for your partner with emphysema is no easy fete...

Even to putting your coat on and walking out of the house is a drama...you have to make sure that person is going to be OK..while your gone...

The little things most folks don't think about..have to be arranged ....

If that wasn't enough to stop me..my feet and me ...were nearly parted...

Thank you cigarettes...

[Cbdave]

Gday

hey sorry couldn't wait to use that pic!

Seriously... I won $200 on a poker machine in 2001. It's not getting my money so I have not played a machine since, so it can't get it back! I'm a winner! I've tilted the odds in my favour. 

Same with smoking. I havn't smoked for 2 1/2 years. I deserved every one of those days of freedom. They are mine. YES MINE.

I treasure each and every one off those days of that 2 1/2 years and I get to keep them.  

I Got to pay for each of those 40 years of smoking too!

Im not going back. I'm not giving up those precious days. 

chris

 

Edited May 18, 2018 by Cbdave
Don't ya love spell check

[lml]

I want to be free from being a slave to the addiction.

 

I want to breathe better and give my lungs a chance to  heal as much as possible ( I am so sorry my dear lungs)

 

I want to give my heart a chance to heal as much as possible (I am so sorry my dear heart)

 

I want to give the rest of my body that I am beginning to learn was hurt by my smoking a chance to heal as much as possible (I am sorry my body)

 

My daughter and I take a great vacation together every year. This next one, I want to  fully enjoy every moment of  it with her, without thinking of where I can have the next smoke. 

 

Great question / post jetblack. Just thinking about it and bringing it to the forefront of my mind brings back my resolve. At this point in my quit, it is so important that while there may be a thought sometimes that festers in my brain that I  "want" to smoke , there are things that I want much, much more which I won't be able to do if I cave to the just one cig/puff thought. 

Edited May 18, 2018 by lml

[Cbdave]

G'day ImI

Yes you'll get that and more.

It does get better.... and you get to call the shots, not the nicotine. 

Chris

 

 

[lml]

Quote

Yes you'll get that and more.

 

In addition to the words of experience, hope and encouragement, this journey is kind enough to give me wonderful moments and glimpses of what it is like. Thank you people and thank you universe. 

 

[Doreensfree]

My daughter and I take a great vacation together every year. This next one, I want to  fully enjoy every moment of  it with her, without thinking of where I can have the next smoke. 

 

I can so relate to this..

I get to spend more time with my daughter...who I only see once a year....have good girly times ...they are such fun,without the smoke breaks ...

[Sazerac]

Ego;   I will not let myself down.  This is completely out of the question.

 

Education;   I know too much and still learning about the perils nicotine addiction.

 

Memory;  I refuse to go through detox again.

 

 

 

 

[Reciprocity]

3 hours ago, Cbdave said:

Enough said

 

Yeah .... no shit eh?

[Martian5]

I hate doing stupid!!!!

[Wee fluffy me]

I gave up for my granddaughter, whom I hardly see and when I did I spent too much precious time out in the garden with coffee and fag in hand and realised my catchphrase was granny will help in a minute I'm just havin a wee coffee and a puff.. 

 

So I only really quit for the week she was down then I got to thinking about my wee granny and how she quit in her 70's and stayed off them and how she always said to me" you need to quit"..

She would be so proud of me and even though she's not here anymore I can't disappoint her now, I've come to far..

 

Then there's my NOPE it has been my rock, I don't care what anybody says, it's not just a word, it's so much more it's a promise to me and to my fellow nopers and each days nope adds another wee bit onto that rock of mine apon which I stand with my quit and makes it stronger and stronger and for me it works  

Edited May 18, 2018 by Wee fluffy me

[Sslip]

^^^ Love this Fluffy, one of the best reasons in the world

[JB 883]

Grand daughter, not losing one's feet, ego...

 

Good reasons, typical.

 

And cbDave - if someone asked keith richards what keeps him from smoking, he would say -

"nothing".

 

I have made up my mind - Keith Richards is rough looking enough, i do not want ANY ONE of you relapsing. Look what is happening to him!

 

 

 

 

[JimHannoonen]

I don't light up because I don't smoke.

 

Simple as that, really.

[Cristóbal]

I do not smoke any more - or even think I may want to smoke any more - because of two things:

 

 

1. Freedom !!!!

 

 

 

2. Not knowing what horrible future may wait for me if I had continued to smoke.

 

 

 

 

Cristóbal

Edited May 22, 2018 by Cristóbal

[babs609]

the same thing that stops me from putting my mouth over my tailpipe and inhaling......because that's pretty much what we used to do....

 

That craving for a smoke really is awful and the freedom from it is still exciting to me when I am in a situation where I couldn't smoke if I wanted to....and thank GOD I don't want to.

 

Life is awesome as a non smoker!

[Giveintowin]

What keeps me from lighting up is that it starts the whole drama again. I have one then soon I want another one. If I don't let myself have another one I pine and tantrum (internally). Then my mind starts to fight with itself about why one is ok, just have one. Then I think about diseases. The diseases I already have and then the one's that are on their way if I smoke. Then I think of dying early or a nursing home.

 

If I don't smoke it stops. the drama in my head stops once I get through the early phase of the quit.