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Share your quitting journey

How my quit came about (ideas and perceptions for the new quitters)

JonesCarpeDiem
0 14 20

I had a friend was a minimal smoker who quit a year before me and who wanted his older brother to quit. His older brother always replied, "yeah but you weren't a real smoker"

My friend knew his brother would be influenced if I quit because I smoked a pack a day or more and was a real smoker for 40 years. He asked me if I would quit. I said no. I had never even thought about quitting. Before I left that day he pressed me again and asked me if I would at least consider it. I said I would.

Over the next 4 weeks I started telling myself to wait when I wanted to smoke and at the end of that time I had gone from 20 a day to 5 a day. I never worked myself up or denied myself once in those 4 weeks.

I never got any feelings one way or the other because I was just "considering" it.

Going from 20 a day to 5 a day gave me confidence. I had proven to myself I didn't need to smoke just because I had the urge to smoke or thought I needed to.

That Friday afternoon when I went to get a pack, I said to myself silently at the cig counter, "this is your last pack". I never went into that place again. The following Tuesday morning, I smoked my last one and went and got the patch.

I forgot to put on my patch the fourth day and I rode it out to see what it was like. After all, the patches were at home which was only 10 minutes away so why panic? The next week I forgot two days in a row to wear a patch, I knew I didn't need them anymore. I put one in my wallet and promised if I ever got an overpowering urge to smoke, I would put that patch on and wait an hour.

I guaranteed my success with that promise.

"You don't need to want to quit but you must be willing to quit and decide to quit."

14 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.