My non-smoking days are numbered: 11 days and counting
53"If you keep talking, I will wrap my hands around your neck and choke the b.s. out of you." So ends day 4 of my non-smoking campaign. No, I'm not a violent person but there's something about ending an addiction cold turkey that really tests a person's patience.
I wrote Dying to smoke: A smoker's last puff as a way of not only reaching out to others who wanted to end their addictions, but also so that I could keep pushing myself away from mine. Every day I find myself telling someone just how many days I've gone smoke free. I say this not to brag, but to push myself to make one more day smoke free. Ever since I've stopped, I've noticed a lot of differences both mental and physical. I've got more energy now and it actually feels good to inhale deeply without any wheezing sounds. I feel a little more aggressive now, but I'm also managing to use my aggression to change parts of my life in a positive way.
Here's the truth that most people won't say about quitting an addiction...the addiction doesn't go away just because you want to quit. Your desire to stop is only the beginning because I still have to talk myself out of smoking at least once a day. From the opening sentence, people manage to piss me off, I still want to smoke after I eat, and long car rides make me think about lighting up, but I fight the craving. Ending an addiction is like dealing with a loved one's death. The thought and memory of them shakes your emotion so many times even after their funeral and the strangest things remind you of them, but eventually you get past the pain even though the memory is still there. Now, I carry an empty box of black and milds in my pocket which is the last pack I smoked. Day 11 for me is coming to a close and the memory of my bad habit is definitely hanging over my head, but soon, I'll throw away this empty box as my smoking years become a distant memory.
Sincerely written by an ex-hardcore smoker
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Thank you and I've been smoke free for about two months I believe. I'm happy to admit that I am especially considering I've written so much about stopping. lol
talented_ink, congrats! I know it sounds very cliche but hang in there! It WILL get easier. I quit for the upteemth time 2.5 years ago and hardly ever even think about it anymore. And, I LOVED smoking.
People kept telling me it would get easier over time, and it truly does.
Sometimes, just counting each day can help you get through it...
Seems like the desire for smoking started lifted after about two months.
I've only managed a 2 month quit so far
hmmm....cut myself short and I'm not sure how. Anyway, only quit 2 months ever, with many 1 or 2 day attempts. That 2 months proved something to me though, that I can *do* it, and I really believe I'll do it again one of these days. I spend 20 plus years believing quitting would be the hardest thing I ever did. Granted, it didn't last, that time, but while I was in my "quit" it wasn't that hard. It's all in the belief. If you made it 4 days, you are technically over the physical part. It's the mental part that is hard--if you let it be. You can do it! I will too, some day :-)
to Ann Smith - Thank you for the support and you're right...it is just getting easier day by day. Congratulations to your 2 and a half years of smoking freedom.
to dineane - 2 months is 2 months that you've gone without. Read my other two hubs on my quit smoking campaign. If you've gone that long, you can go another day without smoking.
we were typing at the same time :-) Thanks TI. I *should* have kept the quit, and I'm embarrassed to say that it was the weight gain that invaded my good brain vibes. Now I'm kind of waiting until I either learn to exercise or get old enough not to care if I'm fat.
Day 17 smoke free for me. We can do it! We will do it! Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah. I've never had this much energy this late at night. Yeah, yeah, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
to dineane - The only way to truly quit is because you want to. I will say that if you quit, you will be blessed with superpowers. You will smell things so much more and so much easier than you can now. You will be able to run farther than you can now without gasping for air and you will be able to take long, deep breaths with no wheezing sounds. Check Dottie1's comment...you'll also have more energy than you'll know what to do with.
I believe you! In my short 2 months I experienced all of those things! (well, maybe not the running.) I'm just currently too stupid to place a higher priority on my weight than all that other wonderful stuff. Believe me, I haven't given up. I just know it's a matter of getting my head in the right place (again). I really take great pride in those 2 months, and absolutely plan to capitalize on the knowledge that *I can do it* to *do it again*.
When you start your next campaign, please write a hub in your first week. You'll find it does a lot to help you to quit.
Rock on, seriously. I chewed tobacco for 17 years (don't go, "ewww" I grew up on a cattle ranch, they used to make horses step on our heads if we didn't chew like the rest of the cowboys). Man that was hard to quit. I so hear you on the car and stuff. I couldn't get in the car or the shower without jonesing for a dip. God, going to a movie was like being boiled in hot tar without one. So many little moments that spawn the urge. But you can get past it. You'll never be totally free though. You'll always have the urge sometimes just pop up. It just gets easier to say, "no."
But I will say, 12 years after quitting, the day the announce the cure for cancer is the day I go by a fresh can. lol
Stay strong, the upsides are way better than the down for quitting... so long as that cancer thing looms.
talented ink,
Keep at it. I admire your will power.
sschilke
to Shadesbreath - Ewww! There, I said it! I understand the addiction though...been there, done that and I still have the stupid t-shirt hanging in my closet. Just between you and me, I do have a team of researchers locked away in my basement working on that whole cure for cancer thing.
to Sschilke - Thank you very much. Like everyone else has said, it ain't easy, but getting any good thing usually isn't an easy road, but the reward is in the end and my reward has been a nicem deep breath.
Good luck to you. I know for a fact that the patches cut the cravings way, way down. For someone as determined as you, they would probably be a big help.
3 weeks for me talented ink. Being tested but hangin in there. Got to do it this time. Way to hard as I get older. Chantix is helping me.
Lifebydesign says:
17 months ago
Congratulations talented_ink!! Have you still quit? Well-done!