newbie here

[Woopsy]

Hi

I "quit" almost 4 months ago. I have been a pack a day smoker for 20 years. After 2 months I picked one up at a family wedding and have been smoking "here and there" ever since....... I am probably at about 10 smokes a week now. I'm so mad at myself for picking up that one :0(
My kids don't know I started again, I only smoke with friends, like when I stop at my local coffee hang out. I know I need to start over (quitting) but I guess I'm not there yet. Not easy~

[pooder]

Hi Amy!

Welcome! Congratulations on your four month quit. If you did it once, you can do again. I smoked for 41 years and now have been quit for two years. Hard...yes..Worth it... yes. I have to say that I knew from the start not to smoke that first one. I'm a very addictive person. If I smoked one I knew it would do me in. Thank God I never did drugs. Well, I guess cig. are a drug. Now you must throw those cig away again. Use a straw or chew gum. Stay focused and positive and you will succeed again. Go to the quitnet smoking site. It was very helpful to me, along with this site and my friends and family. If we can help over here, let us know. We are a good place to vent if need be.

Hugs to you,
Clara

[lilbit]

Hi Amy, you are right, it is not easy. I quit almost 4 years ago. Before that I had quit for a couple of years.... and then I had one at a friends house, and then I'd have another when I went to her house, pretty soon I was almost at her house every day...using her? probably, I felt awful, so I finally bought a pack and started again. I should have quit. So then a few years later I was trying to quit again, and I did it. There were certain steps I had to take to quit. I'll list them here, maybe when you are ready again, they will help.
1) fill up your car with gas and go grocery shopping the day before you are going to quit, that way you don't have any reason to stop anywhere where they sell cigarettes. Since you go to the coffee shop, I would also avoid that place for a couple of weeks. Tell them you are going on vacation or something, but stay away. This way, you are fine at home, and fine at work, and just so long as you don't stop anywhere, you'll be fine in the car.
2)smoke all your cigs the night before, so that you can start your day without them right there.
3)for me, I had to tell people not to ask me how quitting smoking was going. Just hearing the word cigarette, or smoking made me want one, and I was fine until they brought it up... now I wanted one. The bad thing is those stupid target market commercials. I'll be sitting here (to this day) and one of those will come on and I'll want a cigarette. they should ban those commercials. The tobacco companies must be laughing all the way to the bank. Sometimes I'll just "hear" the commercial from another room and wonder why the heck I want a cigarette, then realize that a stupid target market commercial is on. Getting off soap box ;)
4)take deap inhaling breaths when you feel stressed. Cigarettes do not relax you, it is the deep inhaling breaths you take while smoking that relax you, soooo, get rid of the smokes, but keep the great relaxation exercises, the long deep breaths, only they will be fresh air now.

I am so glad I quit, I still miss it, probably always will, but am glad I quit. When I was smoking, because I didn't want anyone to know I'd started again, I would avoid social situations where I could not smoke, I'd avoid family get togethers because I knew it would kill me to go the 6 hours without a smoke, and just thinking about it would get me agitated. Or I'd only visit for an hour or so, so that I could get away and have a smoke. I felt trapped, I felt like the cigarettes, or more likely the next cigarette had the power over me. and it did. I think about all the time I missed doing stuff, all tied to cigarettes. Sorry this is so long, I guess I just have to tell my story every now and then, so that I don't pick up that one cigarette. Because if I did, it would all be over graemlins/ugh.gif Good luck to you, when you are ready. :D

[ October 27, 2003, 08:58 PM: Message edited by: lilbit ]