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Share your quitting journey

Break the connection - and thank you!

Strudel
Member
1 8 23
   Thank you to all of my friends here for helping me to celebrate 800 days smoke free!! And - trust me - it is a celebration!! It is now and I think it will forever be very hard to even believe - after 40 years of addiction! 
  
   I recently had another one of my "What ifs......" happen. (in order to judge my commitment before I started my quit, I asked myself "what if" this or that happened - would i smoke? The last "what if" was when my 11 year old Golden Retriever (one of the dogs in my avatar) died ten months ago. I still miss her! 
  
   I truly believe that as long as we THINK that smoking will solve a problem, relieve stress, calm us down, or help in any other way - we are in danger of smoking again. We must break that connection in our brain! I decided that from the very start - I learned it by reading lots of blogs here, Allen Carr's book and Quitsmokingonline.com. I only THOUGHT smoking was giving me something. By really working to understand that - I feel I was prepared for things to come along that might threaten some quits. For me, I haven't even considered smoking when bad things have happened. 
  
   That was proven once again about 3 weeks ago when my beloved cat, Scooter, had to be put to sleep. (Some may be able to see him in the background on my page - big orange cat in the snow.)  He was 19 and suddenly collapsed. We tried to medicate him to see if he would bounce back - but after 48 hours, I knew it was time. It broke my heart and still takes my breath away.....he was such a huge part of my life. I miss him so much - but smoking never crossed my mind when he got sick, when I had to make that oh so hard decision, when I took him back to the vet, and then all of these sad days since. Once you can live like that - knowing that smoking will make no difference AT ALL - you know you are free! 
  
   Thank you again! I am okay - I had to wait a while to write about Scooter.....but, I know I will be okay. I will always be okay....without cigarettes! 
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About the Author
I live in Greensboro, North Carolina. I have 2 cats - Monet and Holly. I retired from teaching special education in 2004 and then taught part-time until 2013. I quit smoking on June 12, 2010 after smoking for 40 years! I am amazed daily - still - by the glory of freedom!