Help and Support
Hi, I have quit many times and seem to go really well then something triggers me off, a smell a drink stress... I get so cranky with myself that I cant sleep... I have read and reread Allan Carrs book and will stop for 3 weeks or so and then succumbe.. I know all the benefits to stop.....I gave up 25 years ago and started again in 2010. I have spent half that time off the smokes but cant get over the last hurdle! I really hate myself for this failure
The first thing you have to do is to sop hating yourself for relapsing. We are all human and if it was easy then every hard-core smoker in the world would have stopped. This is really hard and, those of us who know the experience, have to help each other.
My biggest tip right now is to make a really truthful list of why you want to stop smoking. It needs to have between 5-10 reasons and you need to keep it close to you. Then, set a realistic date (if you haven't already quit, then I would not choose the next week - horrible time to quit). I chose a quit date some months out and I am so glad I did. I was conscious of all those cigarettes I smoked and I knew, on the night of my last ciggie, that it was the last. Oh, how tempted I have been since. But, for me, the list of reasons and the lead-up to the quit date have really helped me to stay quit.
I don't know if I will succeed in the long term but I am hoping that I will and I am, right now, confident, I will.
The other best thing you can do is keep on checking in here - it is enormously helpful.