Share your quitting journey
Here is what worked for me. (This is what I did to avoid anxiety over quitting and eliminate any and all negative thinking before I quit.)
a friend asked me if I would quit to influence his older brother to stop. I said I would consider it.
During the next 4 weeks all I did was every time I wanted to smoke, I simply told myself to "wait a little longer." I never counted how much I was smoking. I never denied myself. I simply told myself to wait a little longer. This minimized focusing on quitting smoking and allowed it to happen naturally.
After 4 weeks I had gone from a pack a day to a pack every 4 days. At that point I had proven I didn't need to smoke just because I thought of smoking.
I bought my last pack at the counter on a Friday and quit the next Tuesday. I saved one cigarette for the morning of my quit so I wouldn't feel deprived, smoked it and went and got a box of patches a couple hours later.
I forgot to wear one the 4th day and rode it out to see how I would do. I did fine but the next morning I felt like I needed the nicotine so I continued on the patch. (I was listening to my body not my addict)
By the end of the second week I forgot two days in a row, so I just stopped the patch. I put one in my wallet and promised myself I would put one on and wait an hour rather than smoke. (Once again, I was listening to my body. I knew the patch wasn't what was keeping me from smoking, I was.)
By telling myself to wait but not denying myself, I never got anxious about quitting. I didn't even set a date until 4 days before I stopped completely.
Quitting can be a decision and not the torture we've heard about our whole lives if you don't amp yourself up and agonize over it before you get started.
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