Post by Ann on Mar 12, 2009 8:06:45 GMT -5
IT'S ONLY AS DIFFICULT AS YOU MAKE IT
Quitting smoking is only as hard as you allow it to be. Believe me, I know. I must have quit over a thousand times during my 35 years of smoking. After all, I’m not stupid. I knew what smoking was doing to my lungs, to my life, but it was always too hard to quit. I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t take the pain, the stress, the anger, the lack of nicotine. It was just too d**n hard to quit smoking.
That is…..until I decided to quit….no matter what. I wasn’t sure how long I would stay q uit, but I knew I would not smoke for the next 3 weeks. I didn’t allow myself any slips or excuses. No ‘what if’s’ or ‘just one more’. I would not smoke, no matter what. Come hell or high water, I would not smoke.
Was it easy? No, it wasn’t, but at least I wasn’t tempting myself constantly, or arguing with myself every 2 minutes about whether or not I should smoke. I had committed myself to this quit. There would be no smoking, period, for the next 3 weeks. After that, I would evaluate my life without cigarettes and decide if I would resume smoking or continue my quit.
When my 3 weeks were up, I chose to continue my quit. It still wasn’t easy, but I knew it was possible for me to live without smoking. I had honestly doubted that before quitting. All my failures led me to believe I couldn’t do it, but that was because I let myself believe that.
I smoked 50 cigarettes a day for 35 years. I rarely went more that 15 minutes without smoking. My life revolved around the next cigarette. I went NOWHERE that I couldn’t smoke for more than one hour. The only exception was a flight to Hawaii. As soon as we were on the ground, I sucked down 2 or 3 cigarettes one after another til I became so dizzy I had to have help standing.
I allowed myself to believe I couldn’t quit. Once I decided I would not smoke no matter what, I quit and remain quit to this day. And today is 8 years and 5 months since my quit day.
Don’t allow yourself to be fooled into thinking you can’t quit. Each and every one of us can quit smoking. Learn what you can about addiction. Read and realize what smoking is doing to your body. Ask for help from the people here at the Q anytime you need it. Make the decision to quit smoking. Develop a plan, decide on some strategies of how you will get through cravings and stressful times. Find some people to guide you and support you. Then, smoke your last cigarette and quit. Don’t smoke again, no matter what.
You CAN do this.
found on Quitnet
Quitting smoking is only as hard as you allow it to be. Believe me, I know. I must have quit over a thousand times during my 35 years of smoking. After all, I’m not stupid. I knew what smoking was doing to my lungs, to my life, but it was always too hard to quit. I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t take the pain, the stress, the anger, the lack of nicotine. It was just too d**n hard to quit smoking.
That is…..until I decided to quit….no matter what. I wasn’t sure how long I would stay q uit, but I knew I would not smoke for the next 3 weeks. I didn’t allow myself any slips or excuses. No ‘what if’s’ or ‘just one more’. I would not smoke, no matter what. Come hell or high water, I would not smoke.
Was it easy? No, it wasn’t, but at least I wasn’t tempting myself constantly, or arguing with myself every 2 minutes about whether or not I should smoke. I had committed myself to this quit. There would be no smoking, period, for the next 3 weeks. After that, I would evaluate my life without cigarettes and decide if I would resume smoking or continue my quit.
When my 3 weeks were up, I chose to continue my quit. It still wasn’t easy, but I knew it was possible for me to live without smoking. I had honestly doubted that before quitting. All my failures led me to believe I couldn’t do it, but that was because I let myself believe that.
I smoked 50 cigarettes a day for 35 years. I rarely went more that 15 minutes without smoking. My life revolved around the next cigarette. I went NOWHERE that I couldn’t smoke for more than one hour. The only exception was a flight to Hawaii. As soon as we were on the ground, I sucked down 2 or 3 cigarettes one after another til I became so dizzy I had to have help standing.
I allowed myself to believe I couldn’t quit. Once I decided I would not smoke no matter what, I quit and remain quit to this day. And today is 8 years and 5 months since my quit day.
Don’t allow yourself to be fooled into thinking you can’t quit. Each and every one of us can quit smoking. Learn what you can about addiction. Read and realize what smoking is doing to your body. Ask for help from the people here at the Q anytime you need it. Make the decision to quit smoking. Develop a plan, decide on some strategies of how you will get through cravings and stressful times. Find some people to guide you and support you. Then, smoke your last cigarette and quit. Don’t smoke again, no matter what.
You CAN do this.
found on Quitnet