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Share your quitting journey

What got you started?

JonesCarpeDiem
Member
0 11 13
‎06-03-2014 08:44 AM

I was rehearsing 14 hours at a time with a performing group and competing weekly for one of 30 spots with 150 people for actual scheduled performances.

I was going to high school full time and driving 100 miles each way 4 times a week to these rehearsals.

Some of the group members smoked on the steps during short rehearsal breaks and I joined in.

After the initial coughing and sputtering I liked the kick from the nicotine.

I quit smoking 40 years later.

There was no glamour associated with smoking for me. The nicotine got me hooked and kept me coming back.

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11 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.