Hello all,
I hope all is well with you and that you’re finding peace on the journey to freedom. I’ve had setback after setback and you know what? It doesn’t even matter simply because I’m moving forward no matter how much life wants to throw at me. I did receive and have confirmed a diagnosis of PTSD. To be honest, it was a blessing to me because it validated the fact that my family was wrong when they said I should be over all of this.
But, being a fighter, I went to a therapist and will begin active treatment for PTSD next week. I’m really looking forward to this and am hoping that it’ll be the answer for me, or at least something that calms the mind just a little.
The dedication that I used to stay smoke free is becoming a really useful tool in my life as I fight a new kind of war. Just like when I quit smoking, I’m again a neophyte in a world that is simply different and just like when I quit smoking, I have to learn to navigate it. The main difference is that this time, I couldn’t prepare for what happened. But I also learned when I quit smoking that we cannot change the past and that looking to the future is really the best medicine as I create that new future.
So even though times are hard for me right now, I’ve managed to keep my head above water as I learn to tread that water and find my new future. Change is always hard. I learned that all those years ago when I quit smoking and also as I’ve always said, every bit of learning that we choose to do in order to quit successfully are tools that we can carry with us for the rest of our lives.
So even when you tear down what was once normal in order to create a new and better normal, you’re creating tools to help you forever. I’m now living proof of that. Not that I wouldn’t have learned it again had I not learned it before but because I’d already learned these skills and how to put them into practice in the everyday world that has saved me so much!
Never believe that you can’t change, because you can and that change is like the opening of the brightest flower you’ll ever see because one thing is certain. Freedom from addiction is the number one thing that can change our lives for the better. Sure it can be hard, but that’s no reason to find yourself stuck in that past life of smoking. Every fight that you make to find change and every tool that you use to get there are what will make this struggle worth it. Not just now but for the rest of your lives!
ONWARD TO FREEDOM!!!
Chuck
