When Did You Have Confidence In Your Quit ?

[Sazerac]

I remember having some curiosity about whether I would stay quit.

More out of interest, really, rather than any real doubt.

 

For certain,  I did not relish repeating Hell week.  That will never happen again.  Ever.

 

I gained confidence at one week, two weeks and a big boost at one month, then two.

At Three Months I was fully realizing that I would never smoke again.

I might still have some struggles but, the die was cast.

 

When did you have confidence in your quit ?

 

 

Edited September 10, 2018 by Sazerac

[bakon]

Tomorrow

[Boo]

I went back and looked up an old post of mine, I wrote it about three-weeks in.  The realization that the quit was completely in my control finally started to sink in.  There was no need to look around every corner for nicotine monsters and cigarette boogymen.  They don't exist.  You either smoke or you don't.  I also stopped creating hypothetical scenarios and wondering if I could refrain from smoking.  What if this happens...What if that happens?  No external factors have any bearing on whether you smoke or not.  If you are having the best day of your life, a cigarette will not enhance the experience.  If you are having the worst day of your life, a cigarette will not alleviate your problems.  The cigarette offers nothing positive.

 

The day I recognized my addiction as my own creation that has as much or as little power as I give it and stripped the process down to bare essentials, it all started to make sense.  As soon as I stopped complicating quitting, it became simple.

[Doreensfree]

From day one...I knew there was no going back..

I started to feel proud of my quit very early on...going from struggling to walk..without pain..

To loving the new me..I could walk,dance..cycle..swim etc..pain free..

There's nothing like a good amputation scare to make you open your eyes...

I have a couple of war wounds left...I think God has left me them to remember .never take another puff..

[sharonsiff]

Took me around five months I think. I never knew from day one, thought I was just going through the motions of pervious attempts. Once I got to five I thought this will be my first Christmas, smoke free, and I knew it was going to be smoke free....and it was.

[Abby]

1 year

[Abby]

 A broad question . Everyone is different . Many factors could apply  . Quitting is not linear . "You are right where you are suppose to be , would have to be my response to others who feel they are not being confident soon enough . I did not make comparisons to others. 

[Sirius]

My quit was mixed up in other issues. 

 

I'd guess that I was mostly out of the woods by the 4th month.  

 

The physical craves were intense but passed after a few weeks. 

 

It's the mental habit monster that is so tied up with my behaviors and routines that played merry hell with my resolve.

 

I didn't so much as break the habit as slowly bury it in the casual sediments of passing days, weeks, and months.

[Evelyn]

When I realise that one, means a pack and that I'm probably ill due smoking and soda. I need to stick with it. NOPE. No matter what.No excuses.

[Sazerac]

 

 

I didn't so much as break the habit as slowly bury it in the casual sediments of passing days, weeks, and months.

 

this is a beautiful visual, Sirius.

[sgt.barney]

Day two.

 

Day one was The Great Unknown, but from the second day it was in the bag.

 

 

Easy Peasy

[doingitthistime]

Today, after a bumpy day yesterday I realized that I don't smoke because its what I want. Freedom from the nic demon and freedom to enjoy my life.

[Doreensfree]

Great thinking D...freedom is a wonderful place to be..a slave no more...x

[Boo]

Today, after a bumpy day yesterday I realized that I don't smoke because its what I want. Freedom from the nic demon and freedom to enjoy my life.

 

And that's how it's done.  Congratulations and enjoy your newfound freedom.

[Sazerac]

bump

[Giveintowin]

Nice post. 

 

After relapsing after a 1 year quit previously, I know to stay vigilant. 

 

i am confident that if I remember I could ruin my quit at any time with “just one”, I am unlikely to lose my quit. 

[garry mhudson]

About a month into the quit I really believed that I could make it this time. I agree with Boo that you have to stop complicating the quit. I was in the hospital for 9 days with pneumonia and told them that I did not want a patch. I had been telling myself for so long that if only I couldn't smoke for a few days I could make it. The hospital time gave me that and now it was put up or shut up time. Once I got home I took the half pack that was opened and 2 full packs and dumped them in a bucket of water and tossed ash trays in the trash. After 3 to 4 weeks I realized it wasn't all that hard. Craves and stressful but not what I had imagined. I do believe that I had complicated the simple act of stop smoking as an excuse to continue to smoke even though it was taking a hard toll on me.

[Rozuki]

From the very first minute after I flicked that last cigarette in the air into a snow bank in the Urgent Care parking lot (I announced "this is it, this is my last cigarette!!) and  got in co-workers truck to be transported to the hospital (I was having a stroke at the time!) and he was not waiting for an ambulance!!

 

Once I accepted the fact that I was fighting an addiction (oh, so hard for me to admit this!) and that I was an addict, I was determined not to blow my second chance.....I read everything I could about the nicotine addiction. Joining an online support forum cemented the quit! Also, I told everyone I knew that I had quit....I didn't keep it a secret like I did the first two times I quit. My life was on the line now.......and I am sure that my being quit for 14 months when I was told I now needed CABGx3 surgery (a triple bypass!) helped me survive!

 

I agree with others above...don't complicate the quit.....just do it....one day at a time....you will not regret it! 

[JB 883]

There was that nervous initial leap on oct 6th 2017, and honestly after three days i thought, "alright, I can do this". But still nerve racked.

When the three week battle never arrived, THAT is when true confidence set in.

 

But yeah that initial leap, oh yeah, the days or hours building up to it suuuuuuck.

[JimHannoonen]

The minute I put out my last cigarette, I knew I would never smoke again.

[Sslip]

Honestly, 8 months in I'm still not confident, but I'm doing it. It is getting easier with the passing of time, so one day soon will be the turning point. 

[Reciprocity]

Although I was firm in my commitment to myself never to smoke again right from the first, I think it was about 6 to 7 months in before I really knew I had turned the corner on this addiction and that I had faced pretty much every battle it could through at me. From that point forward I was somehow just more confident that I wouldn't waver in my commitment to quitting.

[c9jane29]

I don't want to sound cocky but I,too, knew the minute I put out my last cigarette. 

Then, again, around the 4 month mark, I told jillar that I'd see her on the lido deck 

 

 

[notsmokinjo]

So I kind of knew the day I played a game on the over there where you had to list famous people and I was stuck in a battle with another newbie (I was about 6 weeks in) using the initials AA... 3 things happened that day, 1. I realised I was about to invent famous people with the intials AA to make sure I won, 2. There was no way I was giving up my quit if the other person didn't give up theirs first the annoying pain in my backside, I mean who did they think they were .... LOL they know who they are and that they went on to become a great friend and not a mortal enemy to be beaten in every game.... so the seeds of a great friendship were sewn and.... 3. I think I can do this became a reality. (although until about the 3.5 month it was still, well shit their still here, can't quit today.... yes I am that mental).  [ No wait, because I know you will read this and I know you will know who you are... if you toss your quit I will probably just go ahead and toss mine too so now you can't toss yours because it's two quits you are responsible for .... joke joyce.... I know I am the only one responsible for my quit and I have my grown up hat on now so don't stress, you are officially off the hook]

 

Then about 5 months I started to realise I felt completely different about this quit than my big one... every little event that happened the last time I had a substantial quit I looked at it and said, hmmm is that a good reason to have a smoke... and I hadn't done that with this quit, not once, not at all.... I wasn't thinking about smoking all the time... mentally this quit was different.... 

 

But just after my 6 month anni when I put in my Lido Deck catering order with Reci it kinda became a done deal... doesn't mean I haven't had bad days, or close calls since because we all know I have... but the reality is I don't see myself ever smoking again and unlike last time I don't want to, I LIKE THE FREEDOM.

 

I know one puff is it for me... that's all it will take... so NOPE NOPE NOPE... there is still a niggle of self doubt,  but I think that will always be there even in 20 years because I know I do stupid shit, and I know i'm only 1 puff away.... so I need to have that little negative voice of doubt to keep me on the straight and narrow.

Edited September 12, 2018 by notsmokinjo

[Doreensfree]

I can still remember the day I watched the Tobacco War Documentaries....( front page if you havnt watched them )...

This changed my whole view of smoking....I knew from then on...I hated the whole scenario.....

No way..was these evil money grabbing ( bleep)....going to get another penny of me...I refused to be another number...