If I can anyone can

I was a pack a day smoker for about 5 years and in every possible way loved the addiction, Espeically the social aspect... So many people close to me asked why I did it and the only answer I could give was that I loved it. I had no intention of ever quitting smoking and more to the point had no idea how dependent I was to the addiction.

That all changed though. On the 9th August 2012 my younger brother tragically passed away and my whole world fell apart. Cigarettes definitley helped but what made it worse i feel sick with the flu. As any smoker knows any sickness lasts twice as long and hits twice as hard. Enough was enough.

I made the decision to quit on the 26th August 2012 and have been smoke free since. 5 more days and it will be 2 months. 

One thing that helped me, i think, in the beginning was detoxing. I started the lemon detox the day i stopped smoking and even though i was moody, i couldnt tell if i was hungry or wanted a cigarette. I also found by detoxing it was assisting with flushing out all the chemicals from cigarettes out of my body... For the first few days i was using the nicorrette lozenges but after 3 or 4 days i read an article that said after 21 days without nictoine, it would completely leave your body. After reading that i went cold turkey and to be honest for the first couple of weeks it wasnt hard to say No to cigarettes. 

My problem was the mental battle. I was in a pretty dark place, extremely moody, snappy and literally scared that I would be pushing everyone i love away. It was horrible but remembering that it would pass and was only temporary got me through it... I found telling myself i cant wait until a milestone i.e. 21 days (the time in which nicotine has left the body) or when people asked me how the quitting was going replying with i quit x number of days ago. The other hard thing I found was that people as much as they tried to, had no idea what i was going through, and i expected them to treat me differently throughout my quit process. The article that literally changed my mindset, attitude and saved me from smoking again was below: 

http://www.cracked.com/blog/5-life-lessons-you-only-learn-through-quitting-smoking/

"This is your fight, not theirs. And that will go for every struggle or bad mood or physical sickness you'll have to muddle through for the rest of your life. Because once that rough spot passes, there'll be another one behind it. Figure out how not to be a difficult person due to circumstances. Because pretty soon you'll figure out that there are always circumstances"

Its a long article but trust me this person voices everything you could ever be feeling and puts such a unique spin to it. I have been quit for 55 days now and am loving the fact that I have been able to beat the addiction. Sure i still want one but is it worth having to go through the mental battle again if was to ever be addicted again ... NO WAY