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Share your quitting journey

preparation

JonesCarpeDiem
1 4 13

I spent the month before I quit changing my smoking routine each day by telling myself to wait a little longer when I wanted to smoke.There were no hours or minutes spent thinking how long it was going to be before I could smoke again. I never got restless or focused on quitting because, when I wanted a smoke, I had one. No denial ever.

When that month ended, I was down from a pack a day to 5 a day.

I was ready and had no fear for I had proven to myself I didn't need to smoke just because I though of smoking.

I never thought too much about the ramifications of quitting beforehand.

It became a decision at the end of the month, not a wish, not a hope, a decision.

There was no fighting.

I had some despair in the first 100 days, but I realized that smoking wouldn't take the despair away.

People who go back to smoking stress themselves out and choose to smoke because they don't know any different.

If you will stop sabatoging yourself you can learn to be free.

4 Comments
About the Author
Hello, My name is Dale. I was quit 18 months before joining this site and had participated on another site during that time. I learned a lot there and brought it with me. I joined this site the first week of August 2008. I didn't pressure myself to quit. HOW I QUIT I didn't count, I didn't deny myself to get started. When I considered quitting (at a friends request to influence his brother to quit), I simply told myself to wait a little longer. No denial, nothing painful. After 4 weeks I was down to 5 cigarettes from a pack a day. The strength came from proving to myself, I didn't need to smoke because I normally would have smoked. Simple yes? I bought the patch. I forgot to put one on on the 4th day. I needed it the next day but the following week I forgot two days in a row I put one in my wallet with a promise to myself that I would slap it on and wait an hour rather than smoke. It rode in my wallet my first year.There's nothing keeping any of you from doing this. It doesn't cost a dime. This is about unlearning something you've done for a long time. The nicotine isn't the hard part. Disconnecting from the psychological pull, the memories and connected emotions is. :-) Time is the healer.