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Maki
Member
5 13 138

Well I'm what might be called a "NEW N OLD" quitster .
I am new to Ex but have a relatively long quit going on 9 years . That's 8 years , full term March 30 th 2020 .

When I first came to the Ex I didn't know how I would be accepted here having a long quit .
My quit was solid . I could have moved on and all would have been good .

So why was I here ?
I believe something drew me here .

When I came here  I didn't know what I should do or what I shouldn't do .... what I should share ....what I shouldn't share ...or even where to go to post .

I was as nervous as my first day quit .

All you were strangers . 
When the Q closed I wasn't going to return to a quit site at all but still I had such a passion inside to tell others that quitting could be done .

So I searched yet again for a website to call home .
This one had come up as an option listed by friends on the other site but I didn't qualify  being from out of country . 

But ... wait until you hear this .... cause you know what you guys kinda got stuck with me .
I signed up a couple years ago to this site before the rules were changed . 
I'd completely forgotten that I had , and I never participated .  I never even visited past the point of signing up .  Confession
But you know what's really weird , strange and unusual ?

I still remembered my password .

Weird because you know we are suppose to make passwords weird right lol so I do and I usually don't remember things from one day to the next lol . So how could that be that I remembered that ?

I believe it was meant to be ?

And why ? I think this is the reason .

COPD .

I was diagnosed with copd and denied i had it a good many years and kept it my little secret . What I didn't confess couldn't hurt me .... wrong . It catches up . 

As years past ,  I got a little worse.

It wasn't just asthma anymore  ;  it was asthma and copd .

Mild COPD was now moderate COPD and asthma . PFTS we're now a must and not a choice . 

COPD made me feel bad . 
I was embarrassed because COPD was something I did to myself . Asthma is more acceptable .
I was ashamed because I knew what smoking could cause .
I was alone in a new world of disease . Alone to me , not to the world but one that I couldn't hide from anymore .

It included obvious breathlessness to others but the kind only I could understand and knew because I witnessed my father with the same .... and Imdodnt understand then the reality of it all . 

No doctor , no personal friend , no family member , no memory of my father's could help me with that feeling of a new and lost world I was now in until I found the Ex .

It led me to a man I hadn't met before and I read his blogs about COPD .

He was full of knowledge and I could tell had a passion to help others learn more about COPD . I soaked it up . Because of a man named Thomas ( cannot tag ) and his blog posts ... a fellow quitster,  yet a complete stranger thanks to him I'm not so scared of COPD anymore . So Thomas .... thank you . 

Continuing with your posts IMO is important , but up to you of course .

You are valuable to this community and beyond .
Your blogs were important to me and I'm sure important to many more to come so please keep sharing your testimony and your story . There is another page, another chapter ...perhaps even a book .

All any of us have today is this moment in time .

Covid has taught us all a lot too .  

Thank you Ex .. I appreciate you all . 

Celebrating 9 years , ( my best quit ever ) surpassing a previous 8 years .. June 30 2020 .  

I. M. Grateful . I. M . Thankful 

Maki 

13 Comments
About the Author
Smoker of 28 years . COPD recipient . My biggest help to quit was reading other successful quitters testimony as well as other quitters who would not give up and kept coming back determined to win . Also , some really hard work and helping others . I’ll have a thirteen years quit June 30 , 2024 . Biggest lesson learned : I learned that the “Just one” lesson is the key to everyone’s quit . Having “ none” not one puff , is the easy way to quit smoking . Post for help if it gets hard and before you have to own up to giving your quit away because if you do your quit can be saved . After the fact starts day one all over .I can’t tell you enough how worth it that is . Quit tools : Made use of my strengths and improved upon my weaknesses . Quit benefits , more time with my family , better quality of life , better self image . How I kept the quit : one day at a time , one step at a time . I told myself like a broken record : “ Don’t smoke ; Do something different “ then literally went and did something different other than smoking “ . Quitting is not complicated .It is really simply one word ( not one puff ever ) or nope , however , it will be the process of self discovery in this journey as you figure out things for yourself that can complicate things . How long will that be ? Well we are all different and we come from different backgrounds and smoked for different reasons so no one can really tell you when it will get easier for you only that it will . Be patient with yourself . Who cares how long it takes anyway because we all came to quit forever . This quit is for life , your life , so embrace it , welcome it , it’s the best thing you will ever do for yourself . The money you save get a bucket list of little rewards and big ones and do them . Change the things you can . Life is worth living . This gets easier , oh my gosh , so much much easier . Give it a season , give it two and you’ll never want to let go of your quit I promise you that . It’s wonderful , absolutely wonderful to be free . Quitting btw was the hardest thing I’ve ever done just like everyone here . I shed buckets of tears for weeks , yelled into a pillow , stuck my head into a cold bucket of water and paced aimlessly in head fog . Was it worth it , every bit of it ! Biggest improvement : , my health , the relationship with my family ( all non smokers thank goodness ) and finances . When I started 2011. I was walking three blocks with the use of inhalers for copd . Latest accomplishment : still on the inhalers no further advancement of copd . June 1 2023. Did my first 10 k . Next goal is my second 10k by the end of 2024 . I’m 68 years years young and I’m an Ex smoker . I was able to take three trips ( out of country ) with my family because I quit smoking . Time I never would have had had I not quit . Money from quitting paid for them . I want to say you are in control , take your power back from cigarettes from vaping or any addiction you might have . Life awaits you , don’t let it pass you by . Make the decision to stop and one day that light will shine upon you and make you a whole new you . Thank you to Quitnet members and Ex members for the support and encouragement to quit and stay quit . That along with my desire never to smoke again has given me a life long successful quit . No turning back , ever .