You are right! I first heard the term "happy quitter" for a period in my quit when I made the choice to be happy about it. And I know, and longer time elders can confirm that happy quitters have it all much easier than the rest of the quitters. But nobody but yourself can make you a happy quitter. It is about seeing the benefits (and there are a bunch of immediate benefits, as many as long term) at the forefront of your brain! There won't be much room on the brain left for the craves, for the feelings of "losing your best friend", for all the negatives that accompany the quit! And we all know there are no negatives in fact, apart for the uncomfortable short lived crave from time to time! Even these are losing power in front of our decision to remain free! We make the decision every moment of the day, every day!
For me, the key to beating a white knuckle quit is to just let smoking go - go through the stages of grief, accept that you are a non-smoker, and focus on the upsides of quitting. It sounds easy, and it really, truly is.
I promise you this, Doug, there is not a person on this site that loved smoking more than I did. I loved every single cigarette, even my last one, and yet I have had a happy quit. There is a part of me that will always miss smoking, and will miss my smoking life. Do you know what that makes me? HONEST. It makes me honest.
As much as I loved smoking, it had become a giant pain in the ass, and time was not on my side with regard to my health. I was smart enough to know I had to let it go. I chose to be happy about my decision, and I chose to celebrate myself for each of my victories.
It was hard - and when it really got hard, I turned to this site, and the people here never, ever let me down.
Choose to be happy, and when you can't, let us point out all the reasons that you should be.
