I started out this blog talking about my headache but then I realized that is really not related to EX. What IS related to EX is our never ending debate about how to best help people who come to this site hoping to quit smoking. Sometimes, we think it is best to be tender and kind and caring and other times, we feel a need to be somewhat stern. I am not saying mean or rude but realistic. Realistically, we cannot quit for you, we can support you and try very hard to lead you in the right direction. Please understand that when you fall, we are kind of like parents and we are saddened, we WANT you to succeed. No one wants to beat you into submission, we want you to understand how important it is to quit. I am suffering from pretty advanced COPD and I did not have to get to this place. Had I quit years ago, I might not have any COPD at all but that’s not what I did. I smoked for every excuse there is, I was sad, I was angry, I was stressed out, I was in constant pain. Have any of those things changed? No, the fact is, they are just as ever present as they were when I quit but I now know that the smoking didn’t help them, it didn’t do anything GOOD for me anymore than it is doing anything GOOD for you. I remember saying, OUT LOUD, that I would quit smoking if I could just get my pain under control, I also remember saying OUT LOUD, that I would quit smoking but I cannot gain any weight because the additional weight on my joints would be so painful that I would not be able to stand it. Yeah, I believed that, I believed all of the lies that my addicted mind came up with. No more, no more smoking and no more lies, no more excuses. I don’t want to smoke, I don’t need to smoke, I never needed to smoke and, in reality, I never wanted to smoke either. I had to teach myself to smoke, I hated the taste, I hated the smell but I thought it made me look cool, a little less like the goody two shoes I really was. I worked hard at it, I really did. I have never, for one minute, regretted quitting. I have had some tough times and some really strong craves but my promise to myself not to believe the lies has held strong. I know that smoking cannot do anything for me, I know what smoking already has done TO me. I came here, I did the reading, I came to the site every morning and every night, I still do most of the time. I tried to coddle people who slipped because I was afraid they would leave the site and never come back, I was afraid that they would be turned off because they were so fragile. I don’t think I did anyone any favors by coddling them, the reality of quitting is that it is serious business. You are going to have ups and downs, you would have them if you were smoking too, it’s just that when you quit, you are convinced that the downs are much harder to recover from. Exercise, drink water, do something for yourself that isn’t killing you. Don’t make the people who love you watch you slowly kill yourself. If you do slip, get up, get back to the business of quitting. Don’t let big tobacco win, don’t let nicotine win, it’s time for all of US to win.
Be a WINNER, another day WON!
