Enough Already

My quit day is Friday too. I am cutting down to quit. I can't face a quit date. So I have a quit day. Every week I acheive more peace of mind by refraining from smoking. I can sense my willpower marginaly stronger on a weekly basis. I get jealous of the detirmination of some of you. Smoking is adding to a bout of depression I am going through. The quitline want to give me an award for persistance. I quit for 35 hours this week. I must get ready for my quit day. Oh and last week I made a packet of smokes last all week. I got fed up with them actually and I wet the last one and a half.

Why wait till Friday? What's wrong with Tuesday? You could always start early and then you would be ready for Friday! Once you start every day just gets better and if it doesn't you can always fight your demons with the support of those on this site. Either way, I wish you we'll.

Wow! Thanks for the support already. Only joined this site a few hours ago. I can relate to your situation penelopejane. Anxiety and I are very familiar companions and I have been working towards overcoming this illness for a few years now. At this point in time, smoking is creating a whole lot of anxiety in me and am so over waking up every morning with fear of what damage it has already caused and will continue to cause if I don't stop smoking. So after also zillions of attempts to stop I am feeling very determined that this attempt will be the final one and I will succeed. I just know the grass is going to be so much greener on the otherside. Goodluck for Friday. It will help knowing that someone else is going through it with me. I've been mentally preparing myself for this and will be trying to retain some sense of weird sense of humor during the hard times. Meditation, walking, water, gardening, visualising myself as a non smoker and sheer determination. Best of luck to you as well shasha.

Best of luck to you. It seems to me that you are collecting the right tools to have at your disposal - meditation, determination, walking and new habits. It is both easier and harder than you can imagine but the combination of determination, wanting to get through to the other side and the support on this site is what will make the difference. Keep on checking in - especially when you feel rotten. Sometimes you get to read a post about someone who was, one year ago, just like you (nervous, scared and afraid about what will happen) and who has stopped smoking for a year or more. The best thing that they say is that they do not even think about it. By coming here, I am reminded about what is possible.

Good luck for friday remember be strong. I stopped smoking for 2 mths and then started again and now i regret it. I was feeling so good and now i have been sick ever since i started smoking again. It makes it so much harder when your partner smokes to. so i have had my last smoke today and just have to stay strong☺

Hi Spring has Sprung, good on you for making the decision to stop. I too smoked for over 30 years and stopped 2 months after being diagnosed with emphysema at 48!!! I had tried and have bad anxiety! It's been just over a month and I have good and bad days the cravings have reduced a little. I used some cystine oral strips from a company called quit4good and they were amazing I didn't have any side effects, strong cravings or withdrawal! They aren't real nicotine! I also still use an e cig (no nicotine). I also had trouble with nrt's that's why I looked up other products to help. The hardest part really is only for the First few days, but knowing you have copd will give you the drive to stay off those treacherous things! It will take some adjusting but we will feel like non smokers soon enough! Good luck on your journey, keep us posted😀

Hi All. have just downloaded a pdf from Steve Polansky on cognitive quitting. Has some really good information and tools to use. Makes a lot of sense and seems to be a really gentle approach to combating smoking urges. Thanks for all the messages and support so far. I really do send everybody on this journey the best of luck and support. Will be spending the next few days preparing my mind for this positive change to come.

Hi Spring Has Sprung, thanks for the tip about the Polansky site. It is not only a really good site with some good, sensible tips and ideas - it has also occupied the first hour and a half of me being home from work which is always the hardest. I am putting his 'Hour Timer' into my tool-box.

You just log on here every day if you need to because it is a really supportive environment and full of people who know exactly how you feel - as opposed to the rest of the world!

That Steve Polansky site is great,thanks for the tip.Its as I thought,I smoke very much on my emotions,once I got past the 3 day withdrawal I still have the mental/emotional dependence.Its good to know what we are dealing with!