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Share your quitting journey

We Know

SimplySheri
Member
3 3 106

~~Surely, in the light of history, it is more intelligent to hope rather than to fear, to try rather than not to try.  For one thing we know beyond all doubt:  Nothing has ever been achieved by the person who says, "It can't be done."~~  Unknown

Truthfully, everyone in the world knows how to quit smoking.  Just don't smoke, right?  That's the only way to quit.  It's simple.  It's effective.  It works every time.

So why?  Why aren't more people quitting? Why do people come here and say "I don't know what to do!"  Why are there relapses and serial quitters and tears and struggles and frustration and fears?

Because life can be hard.  It's messy.  It's emotional.  It changes.  And humans?  Well, humans don't like messy.  Humans don't like hard.  Humans don't like change.

So we get addicted to things and substances and events that allow us to forget the pain....to avoid the messiness....to hide from our emotions.  And it works. It works so well that we grow our addiction with an ease that makes addiction appear normal. 

Backwards when you think about it, but it is what it is.  So we hide, we avoid, we forget.  And we like our addiction.  We tell ourselves that it 'relaxes' us....it is our 'best friend'.....it 'makes it ok for a little while'.

And when we are told that we are killing ourselves, we try to quit.  And by 'try', we dabble at it.  We stop for a while.  We buy patches and gum and lozenges.  But nothing works!!  We then cry and whine and wait for a miracle.  We want someone to fix it by telling us how to do it without struggles or uncomfortable feelings or stress-filled days.

Life is short, my friends.  Truly.  In a moment, your whole life can change.  That diagnosis that says you don't have much time.  That illness that never gets better.  That life changing moment that can't be avoided, forgotten, or hidden.  It's there.

Then you wish for one more chance to make things different.  One more day to change.  You want it all back to do over.

And it comes back to this.  Quitting only means you can't smoke.  That's all.  You're not being asked to make the world a better place and you're not being asked to cure cancers and you're not being asked to fly to the moon.  Just don't smoke.  The battle isn't in not smoking...it's in living.  How do you live with stress?  How do you live with anger?  How do you live without addiction? 

Those things....the living things....are what you need to focus on, not the smoking.  What are you going to do when you feel like screaming?  What things in life make you feel better?  What are your talents, your passions, your skills?  Find them and fill your life with them.  As for smoking?  Just don't.

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