I want to thank everyone here for their insight and tips and tricks on how to fight this battle with smoking and how to remain smokefree. I am proud to announce that I am still smokefree and fighting this battle with less of a deathgrip than I once had.
I will tell those of you beginning this journey, there will come a time when you finally stop thinking about smoking, wanting that cigarette constantly. There will come a time where you find yourself saying I'm so glad I don't do that anymore and mean it. Just the other day I decided to treat myself to lunch and was sitting at a drive-thru and this woman in front of me was smoking. The cigarette smoke was wafting out her window. The only two thoughts that came to my head was “oh, somebody must be smoking” and “boy, I'm so glad I don't do that anymore.” Now, a year ago, I'd be gripping the steering wheel thinking, I've got to have one; boy, I could really go for one; why do they have to be smoking in front of me, blah, blah, blah.
I'm very glad that I took the time to figure out when I lit up, what the reason was for it, what I thought it was replacing. I never knew what anxiety was and how to deal with it until I quit. I realized my triggers, my smouldering points. I knew if I wanted this to stick, I needed to think of ways to overcome this anxiety or manage it somehow. Even now at 500 days, sometimes especially during the times when I'm so tired and I need to get work done, I think about it would be just so much easier to just buy a pack and keep going. Just throw in the towel, give up and just go back to what I've always done. I was never tired when I smoked. I have insomnia at times. And I remember back when I used to chain smoke at least 2 to 2 ½ packs in one day just to keep going, gotta get the work cranked out.
They have just increased the price of cigarettes again in some states range from $1 to $2 a pack more. I remember a long time ago when a pack was only 50 cents. Don't let the vapers fool you into thinking that's the way to quit, that it's the cheaper alternative. Remember that it's the nicotine you're addicted to, you crave, you want. The cigarette companies just like to throw in all those wonderful chemicals to the mix, as do the e-juice companies. Here's a good article to read: http://www.lung.org/stop-smoking/smoking-facts/e-cigarettes-and-lung-health.html?referrer=https://ww.... Be sure to go to a trusted site or a known and established organization when researching things. The internet can be a tricky place with lots and lots of articles of what I call fluff. Simply articles to boost sales of their products.
So in conclusion, to all of you that have helped me along the way, thank you. For those of you that are just starting, don't give up. Go to some of the oldtimers on here that have a few years under their belt, heck even go to my profile, click on content and sort by date created; oldest first. Read some of their earlier blogs, when they first started this journey. You will find many similarities to what you are going through and what they have went through. There's certain stages that you go through during the course of about a year. We all go through them at different times. Eventually you do plateau off and reach the smooth sailing. There's a few bumps in the road, but those bumps are just life. Life does continue to throw you some curve balls. Just remember smoking never solved any problems and is never going to make problems go away. The only thing that can do it is YOU. Believe in yourself, trust yourself, love yourself. Quitting and maintaining your quit is doable. ... Blessings, my friends
