cancel
Showing results for 
Show  only  | Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

Share your quitting journey

The long and winding road

JonesCarpeDiem
0 3 4

Did you have a magic day when you knew smoking was finished?
So many of us think quitting will never end when we begin. It does end, but, you have to let it happen.
I had my moment on day 126. I was driving to a job I had not been to since I had quit smoking. There was a straight away going up a long winding  road. It was the place I always lit up so I could have a last smoke before I pulled into that job. I reached for the pack that was always beside me going up that hill. The pack wasn't there and it made me laugh. I didn't think of going and buying a pack. I didn't long to be smoking.        I laughed because I knew it was over. My 40 years of friendship was done. That ghost pack was my messenger.
You can look for your moment but you won't know when it's coming, I didn't.
So, don't stress over it. Just give it the time it takes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWpRY0flS2U

3 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.