Seven months ago today, I began my journey as a nonsmoker, an EX smoker. There have been many ups and downs, many changes in my life, in my thinking; I have gotten support, advice, laughter, and so much love from the people on becomeanex.org. I have tried to send many people here when they asked me how I had quit. I am not sure if anyone has followed but it is THEIR loss. I remember reading people calling this their “forever” quit and thinking that I SO HOPED this would be MY forever quit. I can say now that I really think it will be. I will not tell you it has been easy, I have struggled just like lots of other people BUT, I have not taken that one puff, I have kept them away from my face. I have learned to live without the anesthesia of nicotine. I have had to FEEL things that I would have stuffed into smoking and it has been a real trip. I encourage anyone who is just coming here to be patient…with yourself, with your family, with your friends. I think it has been pretty difficult for some of my family members and friends because I was…shall we say, no “box of chocolates.” I was grumpy and angry and I cried over things I usually would not have cried over. I felt my moods swinging all over the place; this site told me how to deal with that, how to deal with the urges I would get out of nowhere. I found that all of those urges or craves went away no matter what I did, I did NOT have to smoke. YOU do not have to smoke. Wherever you are in your quit, take it one day at a time, sometimes one minute at a time. Don’t consider smoking to be an option, there is NO SUCH THING AS JUST ONE! Thank you for celebrating with me. Love, Ellen
