To start off, I will introduce myself as some background info. I am a 29 year old male living in Michigan. I have a wife and a 3 year old little boy. As a young child I was diagnosed with ADD and later in life I was diagnosed with ADHD. I was on medications for this throughout my entire teens and then stopped when I finished high school because it caused a lot of eating issues and turn me into a robot which hurt my social life as an introvert.
I started smoking when I was 12 with some friends thinking it was cool and that is when I developed the addiction. It was easier to quit when I was younger because I couldn't actually buy them and getting into trouble with the law forced me to stay home on probation in my mid teens. As soon as I turned 18 I went to smoking and was a full time smoker for 10+ years.
In stating all of this, it is now apparent that cigs have been apart of my life for quite sometime and I engraved it into my daily routine which has made quitting extremely challenging for me. I can't tell you how many times I have attempted to quit and failed. I've tried cold turkey, patches and Chantix. My longest quit was exactly one year while on Chantix and I replaced cigs with running.
And then ... vaping got big and I decided to go to that as a safer alternative since I missed the novelty of smoking. That has actually made quitting even harder for me. I know that I have the right mindset and continually want to quit for my health, to save money from the $7 per day pack of cigs (which I smoke a pack or more a day).
Last night, I was on my deck at my wife and I's new house we just moved into and my son approached me while smoking. I had to be stern with him to stay away from me while smoking my cigarette and he just looked at me confused. I said "Buddy you cannot be next to daddy when he is smoking. I don't want you to get sick, I said." That was when a red flag was raised for me. I felt horrible that I was exposing him to this crap and that I would be setting a bad example for him on day to struggle with this addiction the same way I did. Just writing this brings tears to my eyes thinking about him and this addiction.
I really want to quit smoking but i struggle so much with the routine and the habit of smoking. I would love to hear some tips from people who have quit and struggled as much as I have. I always think to myself, "I see so many people live their lives normally without cigs ... how do they do it?"
I was supposed to quit last night but this morning I was awoken to an intense craving and bought a pack and smoke 1 cig. When I got to work I put my nicotine patch on and I am calling this my quit day and hopefully this will be the last time. Now I am here typing this message out to random strangers on the internet in hope to build a strong sense of community with people who struggled and/or are struggling with this right now.
My name is Brandon and today I officially quit smoking. Please HELP!
