There are a LOT of brand new EXers on the site recently. To all of them, welcome! And congratulations on making the smartest decision you have ever made for yourself!
Before I came to EX, I thought I knew everything I needed to know about smoking, nicotine, addiction and quitting. But I quickly realized how little I understood about what it would take to quit smoking FOREVER.
Here is a blog I posted a while back. Please take it to heart. As they say, the program works if you work the program...
I came to this site because I wanted to quit smoking. I recognized that many of the people here had already done the thing that I wanted to do. So I read what they told me to read. I did the tracking exercises. I went to the other sites that were recommended. I was a STUDENT and I learned how I could stop being a nicotine addict.
It was like a lightbulb went off the day that I GOT it.
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.
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.
No, I'm not an Elder. I'm not an EXpert. I only have a few months under my belt. But I have more than that. I have the knowledge, the understanding, the thinking, the confidence 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. Thank you, EXers!!! You have literally saved my life.
