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My First Time, No Slip, Quit. (And How I Did It)

JonesCarpeDiem
1 7 38
Listen To Your Body, Get A Hold In Your Mind Just Why You Smoke
Then You Can Win And Do It The Easy Way!

I started smoking when I was 17. I was traveling 100+ miles each way three times a week to rehearse with a famous group in Los Angeles. The competition was very high and it was very stressful rehearsing 14 hours at a time. The rewards were worth it, I did 8 Ed Sullivan Shows, Red Skelton, Johnny Carson, etc. Elvis asked me to sing with him in his show, I could go on and on.. Anyway the "in crowd" of the group were all smokers and would go out on the porch and smoke on our breaks. That's when it started for me.

I traveled and sang and played professionally for many more years, smoking all the time. When I finally stopped 2 years ago, I had smoked for 40 years.

Now the How !

My best friends brother was a heavy smoker. He doesn't smoke nearly as much now and I hope it is partially from my example. Anyway my best friend had quit a year before. He was a closet smoker. Maybe 4 a day.

He said, I think you should quit smoking and that maybe if I quit , his brother would quit. I said I would consider it. So over the next month I just let the concept of stopping roll around in my mind. The final two weeks before I quit, I started considering waiting when I wanted a smoke. I learned I had some control and pretty soon I was down to 2/3 pack a day then 1/2 pack. The friday before I finally quit, the Tuesday, Jan 2,
I went to the corner store and bought a pack and I said, this is my last pack. It was. I saved one cigarette for the morning of my quit.

I smoked it at 7:15am and I decided to go get the patch and try that as a security blanket. So I did.

Yes, I was a little frazzled because I had not yet learned how to get out of the want one syndrome.
The 4th day, I forgot to put on a patch. I could have freaked out and rushed back home to get one but, instead, I just thought, I am going to see what this is all about and not let it get the better of me. To get through that day without the patch made a light come on. I knew I could do it.

The next day, I was jittery and decided to use a patch.
But see, I was listening to my body from day one. Testing the waters. Seeing when I would have normally smoked, I began to smile each time I had a craving because I realized I was gaining control.

I used 10 patches over the first 14 days. The days I didn’t need one, I didn’t put one on.
I gained control in those two weeks. Then, I just stopped using the patch.

So yes, I used an NRT to give myself some control over what I was feeling and as a security blanket those first two weeks. It enabled me to get a handle on the true drive of the smoking addiction, MEMORIES.

We smoke when a child is born, a parent dies, when were happy, when were sad.
There is a feeling behind every cigarette you ever smoked. Its all rolling around up inside our brains. This is what we have to see to quit. Why we keep smoking.

So I was on another quit smoking site for my first year. Met a lot of friends. Watched people come and go. Succeed and fail. I saw it all, everything. I learned, I talked, there was a lot of compassion for one another to kick this beast in the ash.

I heard about the Nicodemon. (This is all a lot of rubbish) your quit is between you and yourself. It’s your decision.

Anyway, the site had stages and feelings during the first 100 days of a quit.
Hell Week
Heck Week
No Mans Land

What I learned for me was that after 16 weeks, I was not thinking of smoking on a daily basis anymore. I knew I was past it, DONE. I would reach for a ghost pack on the front seat but I really didn’t want to smoke, it was just a MEMORY!

I Hope This Helps Some New Quitter Attain Freedom.
7 Comments
About the Author
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.