Please. For those of you like me who were here last year when the entire Becomeanex site had 500 members. Share what your year has been like. Let everyone know your successes, trial, failures and experiences so they know what to expect when they go through their first year.
Maybe next year we will have 60 new one-year quitters to share THEIR stories.
I know for myself, I resolved to learn about the mechanics and psychology of addiction. I also decided to become accountable to as many people as I could. I told EVERYONE I quit. I had wanted to quit forever and I kept waiting to get my ducks in a row. (It never happens). I tried saying I would quit on a certain date or time, but then I looked at all the cigarettes I had and thought that it would be a terrible waste to just throw them out. (Ya... it makes MUCH more sense to light them on fire I know.) Then I figured I would quit as soon as I ran out of cigarettes, but then I would panic with my last one and smoke it like it was leaving on the train in Casablanca. When it was gone, all I could do was think about it. Finally I decided to stop doing any such thing. I decided not to plan to quit, but to just quit. I woke up one morning and just didn't start. I walked around for quite a while with half a pack in my pocket and half a carton in my car. I just didn't take one out and light it. Each time I got a craving, I just didn't smoke "This" cigarette. I started blogging about what I had learned mostly because I wanted to become accountable to YOU people. I wouldn’t be able to pick one up after yelling from the rooftops that everyone can quit if they actually want to. Not making myself a hypocrite was one more force keeping me on my path to health.
Funny thing, after I quit for about a week, I tried putting my quit date on this websites tracking system but it wouldn't let me. It asked me questions about my life, stressors, medications, nicotine replacement plans etc and then told me I was not yet ready to quit. I found that funny as I had already done so.
