What groups are helpful?

[Freedomcat]

Hi Exers....I'm new to this site and am planning my quit for December 27th. I'm trying to make a decision on groups to join and wo dering if anyone has a suggestion for active and helpful groups? Thanks!

[maryfreecig]

Stick with Ex--in general, blogging (what you did here) and reading. It's my understand that the groups within Ex are not as well attended or consistent as the main room here at Ex.

[maryfreecig]

PS Welcome to EX !!!

[AnnetteMM]

The way this site is set up now the groups are almost irrelevant. Just post what you want to your blog and we'll all see it.

[JACKIE1-25-15]

Review the groups that you find of interest to you.  like Exercising and Health‌, Cooking Quitters‌, Laughter is the Best Medicine‌, Newbie Quitters‌  and Best of EX   where there is loads of information and blogs for a new person. 

[Giulia]

One thing you can do is to go to those member's pages who's blogs and comments speak to (by clicking on their avatar) and check out THEIR bookmarks.

I'd recommend:  Relapse Prevention , Best of EX  (which you can get to from the Home page) to start off with.

And for encouragement:  https://excommunity.becomeanex.org/groups/positive-affirmations-and-support 

WELCOME A'BOARD!

[YoungAtHeart]

Welcome to our community!

You will get a wider audience if you post a blog (which is visible to the entire community).  If you really just want tips on certain subjects, you might review a list of the groups to see if what you want is covered. 

The important thing you can do right now is to educate yourself on what nicotine does to your body and mind. To that end, I highly recommend Allen Carr's “The Easy Way to Stop Smoking.” This is an easy and entertaining read. You can search for it online or at your local library. Here's a link to a video here on the site which describes nicotine addiction: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IpWMgPHn0Lo&feature=youtu.be.
 
 You should also read the posts here and perhaps go to the pages of folks who you think might be helpful. You might visit whyquit.com, quitsmoking.com and livewell.com for the good information contained there. @https://excommunity.becomeanex.org/groups/best-of-ex has lots of blogs written by members of this site with their experiences and guidance. You should also do the tracking and separation exercises recommended here on the site.
 
 After you have completed the recommended reading, it will be time to make an informed choice of the quit aid, if any, you will use. If you go that route, I personally recommend the aids that don't let the addict control the dose such as the available prescription drugs or the patch. If used properly, gum, lozenges and inhalers are fine, but they need to be used only as a last resort.  I have seen folks become addicted to them if they substitute them for every cigarette they used to smoke - just trading one addiction for another.  I do not recommend the e-cigarette for three reasons: 1) the vapor has been compared to the polluted air in Bejing on a bad day, 2) they just provide another nicotine delivery system while continuing the hand to mouth smoking motion, and 3) the batteries can spontaneously catch on fire. . But – any method that you think will work well for you will be best for you.
 
The idea is to change up your routines so the smoking associations are reduced.  Drink your coffee with your OTHER hand in a place different from when you smoked. Maybe switch to tea for a bit.  If you always had that first smoke with your coffee, try putting your tennies on right out of bed, going for a quick walk, then taking your shower and THEN your coffee! Rearrange the furniture in the areas you used to smoke so the view is different. Buy your gas at a different station. Take a different route to work. Take a quick walk at break time where the smokers AREN'T.
 
You need to distract yourself through any craves.  You can take a bite out of a lemon (yup - rind and all), put your head in the freezer and take a deep breath of cold air, do a few jumping jacks, go for a brisk walk or march in place, play a computer game.  Keep a cold bottle of water with you from which to sip. Don't let that smoking thought rattle around in your brain unchallenged. Sometimes you need to quit a minute or an hour at a time.  You will need to be disciplined in the early days to distract yourself when a crave hits.    Get busy!  Here is a link to a list of things to do instead of smoke if you need some fresh ideas:
 https://excommunity.becomeanex.org/blogs/Youngatheart.7.4.12-blog/2013/02/25/100-things-to-do-instea...

The conversation in your head in response to the "I want a cigarette" thought needs to be, "Well, since I have decided not to do that anymore, what shall I do instead for the three minutes this crave will last?"  Then DO it.  You will need to put some effort into this in the early days, but it gets easier and easier to do.
 
Stay close to us here and ask questions when you have them and for support when you need it. We will be with you every step of the way!

 Nancy

[CommunityAdmin]

YoungAtHeart wrote:

Welcome to our community!

You will get a wider audience if you post a blog (which is visible to the entire community).  If you really just want tips on certain subjects, you might review a list of the groups to see if what you want is covered. 

YoungAtHeart‌

One point of clarification since there seems to be some confusion. Nearly all groups are public so posting anything to any of them will list your post on the home page initially for all to see. If you post a discussion it will be shown on the home page every time someone comments. Blogs will only show up if they are one of the last 10 created blogs.

Freedomcat‌

The groups are mostly open so no "membership" is required to public ones. If there is a public (restricted) which doesn't allow you to post unless you're a member or private which doesn't allow viewing or posting unless you're a member then you would need to join.  You can Follow groups which will notify you when activity happens in a group or you can participate in discussions and then any time someone else replies you'll get a notification.

Using search is a great way to discover content on the site you think about or you can use the suggestions that others have made above.  It's really easy just to read something and then poke around a bit and soon you'll have naturally walked through reading to a completely new place on the site by way of all of the wonderful things people have written on the site.

Mark
EX Community Manager

[elvan]

I did not realize that about blogs, Mark, only the last ten...but discussions show on the home page every time someone comments?  Don't blogs also show up when someone comments?  Seems that they show up in my inbox once I have commented or if they are by someone I follow...

[CommunityAdmin]

elvan wrote:

I did not realize that about blogs, Mark, only the last ten...but discussions show on the home page every time someone comments?  Don't blogs also show up when someone comments?  Seems that they show up in my inbox once I have commented or if they are by someone I follow...

elvan‌

This is the home page. Blogs in the red box are added to the home page as they are created. As a new one is posted the older one below is pushed down. Until it is the 11 one at which point it disappears off the home page and doesn't return. You can click "More" at the end of the widget to see blogs from newest to oldest by last activity. Depending how quickly new content is posted, the content can disappear off the home page. When that happens only people who are participating in the blog, people following the blog author and people navigating around the site will likely discover it. They may also find it via searching if they search one of the matching words. Every Thursday (unless you changed the frequency) an email is sent out recommending content that may be useful to you based on the things you searched, participated in, popular content, people you follow and content you viewed since the last digest email. Blogs may also appear in there.

In the Yellow box is discussions and questions and most other content types. Discussions and questions reappear when you comment on them but status updates only show up when they're originally posted. For this reason, long-running topics will likely go on longer as a discussion/question than a blog for this reason as it give new people the ability to discover and participate in the ongoing discussion.

You can see all content types (except status updates) by going to https://excommunity.becomeanex.org/content/  and filter to newest created or latest activity, plus several more filter options. You can get to this view from the home page by clicking on the "Read the latest updates" box near the upper right.

Additionally, you can always go to the actual place the post is located whether it be in a person's personal blog, a social group or Conversations‌ and see content just in that area.   Looking in the yellow box you can see some recent activity in the January Quitters‌ group, Laughter is the Best Medicine‌ and Conversations‌. If you're part of a private group you would also see posts from those groups appear in the yellow box however people not members of those groups would not see that content appear there until they joined.

If you're participating in the content and you're following it, you will get an inbox and possibly also an email notification (dependent on your preference settings).

Hope that helps clarify.

Mark
EX Community Manager