I came to EX because I wanted to quit smoking. Not for just a while. FOREVER. I wasn't sure I was ready. I wasn't sure I had what it would take... I wasn't even sure I WANTED to quit. Because being a smoker was part of my identity; my life revolved around when I could smoke, where I could smoke, how many cigarettes I had left, where I could buy another pack...(I KNOW this sounds familiar to many of you!)
But I came to EX and I opened my mind... I listened (even to the things I didn't want to hear...)
I recognized that many of the people here had already achieved the exact thing that I wanted to achieve: happily living a life without nicotine.
So I read what they told me to read. I read Allen Carr's book. I did the Tracking and the Delaying exercises. I went to the other sites that were recommended. I was scared and not sure, but I DID all the things that all these successful EXers had to tell me... And I set a date. A Quit Date. A day that I would do whatever it took to start living my life without being a slave to my nicotine addiction.
I was a STUDENT and I learned how I could stop being a nicotine addict. It wasn't easy. But I spent a LOT of time here on EX and got to know people and accepted the support and friendship they were so happy to give to me.
It was like a lightbulb went on in my head on the day that I GOT it. Poof!
I understood COMMITMENT instead of "trying", "attempting", "hoping".
I understood taking PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY instead of wishing for "luck", and blaming "stress", "weakness" or "being around smokers".
I understood seeing quitting as FREEDOM instead of seeing it as "sacrifice", "giving up", "suffering through" or "losing" something.
I understood that the feeling of so-called "enjoyment" and "need" was no more than my physical addiction calling out to me...and that I didn't have to listen to it!
When I quit, it wasn't "EASY". Sorry, Allen Carr, it wasn't. But I had a whole new way of thinking about it and that made it EASIER.
I've been here for a while now. I have about three years of freedom from nicotine. I still can't belive it's been that long when I see it in writing. But I have more than that. I have the knowledge, the understanding, the thinking, the confidence and the TOOLS to know that I will never ever smoke again.
And I have all that because I LISTENED to the people here and I FOLLOWED their advice.
To all the new folks who have just joined us here: Whether you stumbled in here by accident while browsing or if you researched carefully in order to find a great stop-smoking site...it doesn't matter.
Because your addiction to nicotine is no stronger nor harder to beat than our addiction was. You CAN quit. If we could do it, so can YOU.
Leave all your assumptions at the door. Be a student here on EX. You won't ever regret it. We promise
