Wow oh wow Dale 4,000 days what an inspiration you have been to me and to everyone here, Big hugs and thanks for staying with all of us newbies. You Rock Dale. Thanks for all you do here. ANd why oh why are you not on the freedom list train ?
Most impressive, Dale! Super humongous congratulations on your ginormous milestone. And I think everyone on this site probably can credit you with giving out some information or support that really made a difference in their success as a quitter. So thank you for being here every day and helping each and every one of us reach our goals. You rock!
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.