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Give and get support around quitting

Bbm18
Member

How do I stick with it?

I was researching the effects of nicotine withdrawal and it seems that the symptoms are terrible. There is nothing on the page that says "and after all this suffering you'll feel great." It seems that since I quit I see more downsides to quitting than upsides?? Any advice on how to quiet the voice thats saying quitting isnt worth it.

8 Replies
TW517
Member

I was one of those who seemed to suffer every symptom/problem possible early in my quit.  Some real, and some imagined.  Honestly, my bad attitude prolonged it.  But it all does eventually go away, and I don't know anyone who is sorry they quit.  Life is soooo much better without cigarettes!

maryfreecig
Member

Here is the good news:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLbQfMmrISE  quitting smoking timeline

There is a lot of positive information about quitting--health and mind--try searching for benefits of quitting.

Stick with Ex and keep learning. Yes you can one day at a time.

elvan
Member

I think you are listening to the addiction.  I can tell you that I only wish I had quit SOONER because of all of the damage I did to my lungs by smoking.  It  is NOT worth it.  It DOES get better as you add more days of freedom.

Ellen

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TW517
Member

Actually, I think Bbm18 makes a good point.  If you are new to this site, you probably will notice a lot of posts about beating craves, loss of sleep, gastro problems, etc.  I just glanced at the Best of EX posts we have on our front page, and while helpful, most aren't exactly uplifting.  I wish we had a post there that had a list of the 100 great things that happen when you quit.  I was kind of disappointed that we didn't have more responses to this post the other week:

https://excommunity.becomeanex.org/thread/25105-what-do-you-look-forward-to

Would be nice if someone would put together a list of all these and ask for others to contribute their good experiences.  In the meantime Bbm18 , take a look at the post I linked here, and keep reading posts on this site.  Frequently, people will post blogs on their milestone dates (1 month, 3 months, 100 days, up to 10 years or more) just to say how much they enjoy their new life.

Thanks for posting this.  It's a great question.

avian3
Member

I never even tried to quit until I was 57 because I feared the withdrawals. Everything I read about quitting was how horrible I would feel. I always read it was worse than quitting heroin. I literally thought this was true, that I would actually have the shakes, sweats and seizures. I quit cold turkey and none of those things happened and sadly I put off quitting all those years because I believed that. 

There are no downsides to quitting but there are a lot of horrible downsides to smoking. You will be amazed at the upsides that you will gradually experience the longer you stay quit. The only reason I quit was I needed to save financially because of retirement. I never imagined all the many positive things that would come along with quitting besides saving money.

JACKIE1-25-15
Member

 

Any advice on how to quiet the voice thats saying quitting isnt worth it.

Congratulations on being smokefree for 60+ days.   I am not sure how long you smoked but more than likely longer than you have quit.  It does take time to get past the thoughts but with time it does happen.  To make it "easier".  I use to tell that voice to shut up!   I told that voice that no matter how many times I heard it I was not going to smoke no matter what.  I told that voice it was wasting its time to go somewhere else because I was not going to take a puff.   Words matter.  I never used the word "struggle or suffering".  I thought of quitting as a "challenge"  one that I believed that I could meet.  Self-talk is a major tool that you can use to quiet that voice.  It works. /blogs/JACKIE1-25-15-blog/2016/12/10/words-matter?sr=search&searchId=42be2a37-5226-4127-a894-59746c3...

SimplySheri
Member

Why look at all the negative?  Look at why you wanted to quit to begin with.  Because you don't want cancer or some other deadly illness?  Because you don't want your family to suffer from second hand smoke illnesses?  Because you want to save money?  You want more time to do the things you want to do?  Why are you quitting?

Focus on that.  Make your quit all about what you WANT rather than what you will be 'going through'.  I wanted my grandkids to cuddle with me instead of pulling away because I smelled like smoke.  I wanted to smell pretty.  All those silly little nonsense reasons kept my quit going.  Let your reasons for quitting be the reason to keep your quit going!!  And stop reading all the negatives and believing they will happen to you, too.  They might not.  My quit wasn't all that difficult.  It was challenging at times, but not difficult.  

indingrl
Member

Welcome - one day at a time❤

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