Wow, so I haven't been on in so long that they archived my profile!
I saw that I had a new follower and thought I should check in. Here's an update, and a pep talk.
I quit smoking on November 7, 2010. I have not had a single puff since that day. All of my blog posts from that time are still here, though they seem to be dated to when they were archived in January (2017).
I don't really think about smoking anymore. Even with my husband still(!) smoking. I don't ~feel~ like a smoker, or a former smoker, or a smoker that doesn't smoke. It feels weird to remember that I ever did.
I remember being worried that I would always feel like a smoker that just isn't smoking. That it would be a monkey on my back forever. If anyone else is currently dealing with that worry; I hope reading this helps.
The biggest thing I did to quit and stay quit was make a decision. A simple one. No matter what happened, no matter what stressful thing popped up, I was never going to smoke again. Not One Puff Ever. I almost got N.O.P.E. tattooed on my finger as a reminder. Glad I didn't, but that was the level of commitment I had to my goal.
Over the next few years my mother died, and my husband got laid off (twice) and was out of work for 8 months. We slept on an inflatable mattress on my sisters living room floor for most of that time. I was miserable, depressed, and convinced that our lives were never going to improve. I still didn't smoke. Smoking wasn't going to make any of that better. It wouldn't even have made me feel better, I'd have been mad at myself for smoking.
Use the support of other quitters on this site. Use all the free tools and websites available on the internet. I don't know if people still link them here, but there was a website (whyquit.com) and a free ebook* that really helped me.. I only used this site for community. The cold turkey method those resources recommended is what worked for me.
Make your decision. Commit to it. Obsess over it. You can do it, no matter what!
*Was it Quit Smoking the Easy Way? I remember the title being something like that, but it was a free ebook.
