Well, I started off for a while here telling people to give it 6 months, it gets better. After a year or so, you even out. Well, then the comments came of if it takes 6 months, why bother. If it was that easy to quit, we'd have serial quitters all over the place.
The first 30 days suck. You have the physical, the mental all at once. Your daily life collides with not doing one thing, smoking. Well, think about it, you performed that act at least 15 to 40 and sometimes more times per day without even thinking about it. I can't tell you how many times I reached for that pack of cigarettes and it wasn't even there.
In the beginning, they kept telling me it gets easier, hang on, you can do this. I've come to the conclusion now that it only got easier when I finally was able to make it easier. I was able to finally realize that this is a problem, an addiction, whatever you want to call it, that I need to control. I need to understand that the act of smoking will pop up from time to time, but only because it was part of my life for so many years. I associated it with so many things that I did day in and day out. It popped up over holidays, anniversaries, birthdays, any other thing that I celebrated during my years.
I have friends that smoke and some that don't. It's just something they do that I don't do any longer. It doesn't define me as a person. It doesn't give me stature in life. It simply is not part of who I am anymore. Don't just jump in the pond and think you can automatically swim without learning first. Arm yourself with knowledge. Go the groups that they have here and read some articles there. Go to some of the member's profiles and read their blogs from the beginning of their time here. You will see very many similarities. You will begin to see yourself in those pages. Now, imagine yourself swimming......
