There is a time in our quits when we reach what may be called a "let-down" period. Sort of like when the honeymoon phase is over: We have made a commitment to quit, and have managed to pull it off for
approximately one-month but suddenly the excitement of actually choosing to be a non-smoker begins to fade.
At that point, we Exers are considered to have entered into "No Man's Land," a time when many lose the
initiative to continue on, so give up and relapse (some for many years).
This challenging period of your quit is estimated to last from 30 days to 130 days (approximately).
Therefore, this blog post has been designed to help one another as we work our way through this difficult time.
For more on this topic, see this blog post by Ron Maxey (2002): https://excommunity.becomeanex.org/people/SuzyQ411/blog/2020/02/26/for-those-in-no-mans-land?sr=sear...
I, being a curious sort of gal, have been wondering what the term "No Man's Land" actually means. Although I
can't be sure what Ron was thinking when he originally wrote his piece, I did a google search on the term and
found one example which is a great explanation that also speaks of two opposing forces.
For we quitters, the two opposing forces are our desire to quit smoking VS the pull of the addiction (commonly
referred to on this site as the Nico-demon).
In the military, the term No Man's Land refers to the trenches ( front lines) of two opposing armies. What's
note-worthy about this view point is the description of the military No Man's Land: "When it rained 'no man's
land' got thick with mud," which made it difficult to cross over ( Sparticus educational).
For us Exer's in the No Man's Land of our quits, we have helpers to get us through the muck. We are
lucky as we, too, have each others' backs. There are others more than willing to help us cross over.
If you feel this blog post will be helpful for you as you move through this dangerous terrain in your quit,
please feel free to post so others can respond to your comments and actively become your supporters.
