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Slipped but didn't fall

Posted in Staying quit
By Kenstar
schedule 6 Apr 2020

Hi, so I'm 67 days smoke free from my initial quit date however I had a small slip about 10 days ago. I had had a small bingle in my car the day before. I was feeling pleased with myself as I had sourced a new guard and headlight assembly from the wreckers for a good price and had the afternoon free to fix my car. I thought I would have a beer while I worked and it was going ok except I hit a few challenging nuts/ bolts etc and started feeling stressed. I don't work on cars much these days but did a bit when I was younger and the work was always punctuated with a smoke while you thought about a problem or whatever, I wasn't expecting to feel triggered as I was around 8 weeks quit and had been feeling reasonsbly comfortable so I was unprepared for the craving, my neighbour then turned up also with a beer and proceeded to light up. I got the f.... it's. and said "I'll have one of those", he looked a bit shocked as he knew I was quit but handed me a smoke which I lit and smoked about half. Just then my partner turned up after being away for a few days working, she works in health and had been stressed particularly with the pressure of the current pandemic and changes at work. I didn't want to stress her further or disappoint so I stubbed it out and went back to my NRT, which is gum and inhalers. I haven't smoked since and told her about it a few days later. On reflection I think the unexpected but very old. powerful and ingrained trigger