No way jose

[Latoya]

I will not ever even take a drag....Nope

[BAT]

Let me join you ... NOPE

[Reciprocity]

Is there room for me too? I'm tired of being a slave to cigarettes!

[Latoya]

Yes let's be free together!!!!

[Latoya]

7 hours ago, babs609 said:

Let those withdrawals remind you that it is a result of the poison leaving your body.......what a beautiful thing.  Thankfully they don't last and you immediately start feeling the benefits of quitting once you stop putting all those thousands of chemicals in your body.  Welcome to the forum!

 

On 9/21/2017 at 2:00 PM, KT1973 said:

Hi. My name is K, and I'm 44 years old.

I'd like to introduce myself, and tell you a little about my story.

I hope I will be welcome here.

 

I first tried smoking before my 15th birthday, and by the time I was 16, I was already smoking a pack a day.

By the time I reached my 30s, I was up to two packs a day.

A few times throughout the years, I quit for a while, once for as long as several years, but I always went back to it. I just missed smoking so much.

In 2013, I was about to turn 40, and still smoking 2 packs a day. My family was begging me to quit, so I decided to try e-cigs. I liked vaping, and quickly replaced smoking regular cigarettes with the e-cigs.

I've now been vaping for almost 4 1/2 years, and I need to quit. I need to quit smoking completely. I need to give up the e-cigs, because all I did was replace one addiction  with another.

My 20 year old daughter recently was in tears, begging me to quit the e-cigs, and be totally free of nicotine, and smoking.

I promised her I would.

 

My quit date is tomorrow, and I'm scared.

How will I fill the void that quitting the e-cigs will cause?

The e-cigs, and regular cigarettes before that, have been my only friend for a long long time.

I need some support, so I'm reaching out, hoping that I will be welcome here.

Early tomorrow morning when I wake up, I hope I can come here, instead of reaching for my e-cig.

 

I look forward to getting to know you all.

 

On 1/6/2015 at 8:50 AM, Chrysalis said:

Subtitle: The Romance Is Dead!

 

 

This is the time of year when many people quit smoking. Most especially, people who quit before but relapsed are trying again. I think that is wonderful (that they're coming back, not that they relapsed).

 

Reading their posts has made me realize that in very many cases, people relapse because they are still romancing the cigarette. That means that they still WANT to smoke even though they know that smoking does nothing good for them. They still remember those quietly satisfying evenings on the deck smoking. They remember that a-a-a-h-h-h! of satisfaction with the first long draw on a cigarette. And they want that again. And so even if they are weeks or months into a quit-- even though the PHYSICAL addiction is long gone-- they essentially choose to go back to smoking because of the pull of these romantic fantasies about how good smoking was.

 

Well, I was the poster child for romancing the cigarette. Throughout this quit and all my previous quits (of which there were several) I always wanted to smoke. I didn't smoke-- I controlled myself-- but I wanted to smoke. All the time. Almost every day. It seemed to me that after 4 or 5 months quit, almost everybody on the board was way done with smoking and happy about it. I still missed it. And that was frustrating because my rational brain KNEW that the "pleasure" of smoking was vastly over rated and mostly imaginary. I KNEW that I was romancing the cigarette and I really did not want to go back to smoking. But the seductive thoughts were there. Maybe not every day, but often enough to be very annoying.

 

I'm here to tell you that today, more than 9 months after my quit, I realize that I am not desiring a cigarette hardly ever! This is a first for me. And this death of the romance is not just a matter of time-- I quit smoking before for periods of up to a year and still suffered from romancing.

 

I think that the difference this time is that I educated myself about Nicodemon's lies. It's as though my rational brain has told my junkie brain over and over and over again "No, smoking is NOT pleasurable! And such small, brief pleasure as you feel when you smoke comes at way too great a cost! Forget it!" and finally, FINALLY junkie brain is quieting down. What a relief!

 

Now I do admit that during these "romancing episodes" that I'm talking about-- those days when I really, really wanted a cigarette-- I had to remind myself over and over again about why I quit smoking in the first place and remind myself over and over again that I wanted to quit more than I wanted to smoke. I had to FIGHT to keep my quit many, many times over the months. The urge to smoke wasn't constant, but it was frequent. Sometimes it was quite miserable.

 

I'm still jealous of people who seemed to have it easier than I did. I often thought that I was a "special snowflake" and I had it harder than other quitters-- few people admitted that they still wanted to smoke many months after a quit. But whether I had it worse than anyone else or not, I hung in there, reminded myself about why I quit, and that I was DETERMINED not to smoke.

 

Now, at last, I can look back over the last few weeks and realize that the romance is dead. I finally, finally am at the point where I do think about smoking once in a while but it's like a vague thought that is easily dismissed, not a serious desire. I have heard others describe this "vague thought" phenomenon many months after a quit and I finally understand what they are talking about.

 

 

So I guess I am writing this to say that if you are many weeks or months into a quit and you still want a cigarette, you are not alone. What you are experiencing is real. It does happen to some people (like me, for example). You are romancing the cigarette and you have to use your rational brain, your smoking education, and your strong desire to quit to fight the urge. And eventually, sooner or later, you will turn around one day and realize that the romance is dead. You really don't have to fight to keep your quit anymore-- you just have to remain vigilant and committed.

 

Hang in there, folks!  You can DO this!

 

I needed to hear that thanks

[Doreensfree]

Together...we are strong !!!!!..NOPE !!!!......